ROME · ITALY
Ancient stones, Baroque fountains, the Eternal City.
The Colosseum and the Forum, the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel, the catacombs under the old roads, and a long lunch in between. Every great Roman site, and the best way to see each one.
Only in Rome
Three things you can only do in Rome.
Ruins, churches and old tunnels turn up across Italy. The arena the gladiators fought on, Michelangelo’s ceiling, and the catacombs under the Appian Way only happen here.
Two thousand years on
The Colosseum, from the arena floor
Walk out onto the reconstructed arena floor where the gladiators fought, then down through the Forum and up the Palatine, the hill the emperors ran the empire from. No other city lets you stand in the middle of the ancient world and look up at the tiers.
- 1 Colosseum, Roman Forum & Palatine Guided Tour
- 2 Rome: Colosseum, Palatine Hill and Roman Forum Guided Tour
- 3 Rome: Colosseum & Forum with Audio Guide App -Optional Arena
Inside the Vatican
Michelangelo, straight up
The Sistine Chapel ceiling, St Peter’s Basilica and miles of the Vatican Museums sit inside the smallest country on earth. Nine hundred years of popes filled it with the greatest collection of art ever assembled, and the ceiling alone is worth the queue.
- 1 Rome: Vatican, Sistine Chapel & St. Peter’s Basilica Tour
- 2 Rome: Pasta & Tiramisu Class with Fine Wine by the Vatican
- 3 Rome: Vatican Pass, Top Attractions and Free Transport
The city beneath
Down into the catacombs
Under the Appian Way run miles of tufa tunnels where the early Christians buried their dead, and beneath the churches sit crypts lined with bones. The layer of Rome you reach by going down, cool and quiet while the city roars overhead.
- 1 Rome: Crypts and Catacombs Underground Tour with Transfers
- 2 Rome: Catacombs and Capuchin Crypt Guided Tour with Transfer
- 3 Rome: Appian Way, Catacombs, & Roman Aqueducts E-bike Tour
Where everyone starts
Start where Rome started.
If you lock in one thing before you fly, make it this. The Colosseum, the Forum and the Palatine in a single morning, the ground the whole empire grew from.
The classics
Rome's Most Popular Tours & Tickets
The Colosseum, the Vatican, the Borghese and the catacombs. The sites every first trip to Rome is built around.
Where to begin
The days a Roman trip is built around.
Ancient Rome, the Vatican, the city underground, the galleries and a Roman kitchen. The corners of the city most trips are planned around, and the best of each.
The big picture
Rome comes in layers.
Most of what you have heard of belongs to one of three Romes, stacked on the same streets. Here is how they divide, and where to start with each.
The city beneath
The Rome under Rome.
Centuries of rebuilding left an older city buried below the streets. Out on the Appian Way the catacombs run for miles, early-Christian galleries cut into soft tufa; under the churches sit crypts stacked with bones, and beside the Colosseum, Nero’s buried palace still keeps its frescoes. Go down a stairway and two thousand years drop away.
Explore the catacombs and crypts →The oldest road
Cycle the Appian Way.
The Via Appia ran south out of Rome from 312 BC, and you can still ride its original basalt stones. By bike or e-bike you roll past Roman tombs and the broken arches of the aqueducts, the catacombs underfoot and the Alban Hills ahead. The quietest, greenest way to leave the ancient city behind.
See the Appian Way rides →A country inside the city
The smallest country, the greatest art.
Vatican City fits inside a wall you can walk in twenty minutes, and holds the Sistine Chapel ceiling, St Peter’s Basilica and a museum so long the map measures it in kilometres. Go early, go with skip-the-line, and give the Raphael Rooms the time the tour groups never do.
Browse Vatican tours →Bernini’s villa
Marble that looks like it breathes.
In a cardinal’s villa above the city park, Bernini turned stone into fingertips pressing into a thigh and Daphne sprouting leaves mid-flight. Add Caravaggio’s darkest canvases and a handful of Raphaels and Titians, with entry capped to a few hundred at a time, so you book a slot and never fight a crowd.
- 1 Rome: Borghese Gallery and Gardens Guided Small-Group Tour
- 2 Rome: Borghese Gallery Guided Tour with Skip-the-Line Entry
- 3 Rome: Borghese Gallery Skip-the-Line Tickets with Audioguide
The Roman table
Dinner is the other monument.
Rome eats late and eats well. Roll tonnarelli and cacio e pepe by hand in a kitchen off a cobbled lane, pull pizza from a wood oven, then sit down to eat what you made with a glass of Frascati from the hills. The one Roman ruin you are meant to take apart with your hands.
See all 14 cooking classes →By landmark
Pick a piece of Rome.
The Colosseum for the arena. The Vatican for the Sistine. Borghese for Bernini. The catacombs for the city underground. The squares for the fountains, and Castel Sant’Angelo for the long view down the Tiber.
By experience
Or pick how to see it.
Skip-the-line if your days are short. On foot if you want the detail. By e-bike or golf cart to cover ground. A cooking class, a wine tasting, or the city lit up after dark.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time in Rome? A long weekend that takes in the empire, the Vatican and the Baroque city without rushing it.
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