2 Days in Rome

Start here at opening, before the heat and the lines. One standard ticket (around 18 euros, about $20) reserves a Colosseum time slot and also covers the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, valid 24 hours with one entry to each, so buy it online days ahead: it sells out from spring through autumn. Take the earliest slot you can and head up to the tiers for the view down into the arena.

Already on your Colosseum ticket, so walk straight over rather than doubling back. This is the ruined civic heart of the ancient city, where Rome governed itself for a thousand years. Climb the Palatine Hill at the far end for the emperors' palaces and the classic look back down over the whole Forum, then exit toward the Capitoline.

Michelangelo laid out this square on the Capitoline Hill, and it is free to stand in. Climb the gentle Cordonata ramp, then slip around the right of the Palazzo Senatorio for a quiet terrace that looks straight back over the Forum you just walked. From here it is a ten-minute walk down into the historic center for lunch.

Lunch in the historic center. Campo de' Fiori holds a produce-and-everything market every morning except Sunday, and the streets around it are lined with pizza-by-the-cut counters and small trattorias. Graze a slice of pizza bianca and some fruit from the stalls rather than sitting down on the square itself, where the markup is steep. Keep your bag zipped in the crowd.

The best-preserved building of ancient Rome, a temple from around 125 AD with the largest unreinforced concrete dome ever built and an open oculus to the sky. Entry is 7 euros as of July 2026 (about $8, free for under-18s), up from the old 5-euro fee, so book a timed slot online to skip the queue. Step inside and look straight up at the coffered dome.

Free, and the grandest baroque fountain in the city, a wall of tritons and rearing sea horses that fills a tiny piazza. It is busiest at midday, so late afternoon is a better time to squeeze in before dinner. Toss a coin over your left shoulder with your right hand if you want the tradition; the day's take goes to charity.

A free, car-free baroque square shaped like the ancient stadium it was built over, with Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers at its center facing Borromini's rippling church front. It is at its best in the early evening, when the light softens and the street artists are out. Do not eat at the tables right on the square; walk toward the Ghetto for dinner instead.

Book the first weekday slot online, well ahead: entry is 20 euros plus a 5-euro online reservation fee (about $27 all in), and the one ticket also covers the Sistine Chapel at the very end of the route. There is no separate Sistine ticket. Walk with purpose toward the Raphael Rooms and the Chapel; photos are banned inside the Sistine, so just look up. A signed exit door by the Chapel shortcuts you straight to St Peter's.

Free to enter, and the largest church in the world. The security line is short first thing and long by mid-morning, so coming straight from the Museums shortcut helps. Dress for it: shoulders and knees must be covered or you are turned away at the door. Inside, Michelangelo's Pieta is behind glass just to the right of the entrance. Avoid Wednesday morning, when the papal audience closes the square.

A late lunch on the walk down from the Vatican. This tiny standing counter sells pizza al taglio, pizza by the cut sold by weight, cut with scissors and priced by how much you take. Point at two or three squares, eat them on the step outside, and you have had one of the best cheap meals in the city. It closes between lunch and dinner, so come before mid-afternoon.

Built as the emperor Hadrian's mausoleum, later a papal fortress with a secret escape corridor to the Vatican, and now a museum you spiral up through to a rooftop terrace (about 18 euros, roughly $19). The terrace is a top-three city view. Cross the Tiber afterward over Bernini's angel-lined Ponte Sant'Angelo, then follow the river down toward Trastevere.

Cross into Trastevere, the medieval quarter of ivy-hung lanes and cobbles on the west bank, and start in its main square. This free church is one of the oldest in Rome, and its 12th-century gold mosaics glow when the low evening light hits them. The piazza in front, with its fountain and church steps, is where the neighborhood gathers before dinner.

Dinner, and the best evening in the city to close a two-day trip. Trastevere's lanes are full of trattorias serving the Roman classics: cacio e pepe, carbonara, saltimbocca, and fried starters like suppli. Walk a few streets back from the busy squares to escape the tourist menus and find where locals eat, then let the night drift. A menu-listed bread or service charge is legal in Rome, but the old per-head coperto is not, so check the bill. Keep your bag in front in the crowded lanes.