Two places in Rome have to be booked ahead, the Colosseum and the Vatican Museums; the squares, the fountains and most churches you simply walk into. Prices moved this year: the Pantheon rose from 5 to 7 euros and Castel Sant'Angelo to 18 euros on 1 July, and since February non-residents pay to approach the Trevi Fountain.
1Colosseum
Photo: Görkem Özdemir / Pexels, Pexels License
The arena opened in AD 80 and held tens of thousands of spectators. Its outer wall survives only on the north side, because an earthquake in 1349 brought the southern half down and later builders took the stone.
Time
1 h 30 min to 2 h 30 min inside
Setting
Both
Best time
The first slot of the morning
Getting there
Metro B Colosseo
Tip: Buy only on the park's own site: tickets are issued in the holder's name and an ID is checked at the gate, so a reseller's voucher adds a fee and a queue. The arena floor and the underground passages cost more and mainly show the machinery, which matters if you like engineering. For everyone else the upper tier, with its terrace, gives the better view.
From 25 October to 28 February the Colosseum opens at 8.30 am and the park closes at 4.30 pm, with the last entry at 3.30 pm; days are longer from spring. Standard ticket €18, valid for 24 hours, including the Forum and the Palatine. With the arena floor or the underground: €24. EU citizens from 18 to 25 pay €2.
The centre of the Republic and then of the empire: temples, law courts and the Senate house. The eight columns of the Temple of Saturn and the arch of Septimius Severus make the easiest landmarks in a field of broken stone.
Time
1 h 30 min to 3 h with the Palatine
Setting
Outdoor
Best time
Early, before the stones heat up
Getting there
Metro B Colosseo, then walk
Tip: Come in from the Colosseum side and walk downhill, from the Arch of Titus toward the Capitoline end, so that you move with the day's slope and not against the groups. There is almost no shade and the paths are uneven. The Palatine, where the emperors built their houses, is the quietest part and looks back over the whole Forum.
The Forum and the Palatine open at 9 am. A ticket for them alone costs €18, the same as the standard Colosseum ticket that includes both. On the first Sunday of the month entry to the park is free, but the tickets are handed out at the ticket offices, so expect a wait.
Hadrian's temple of about AD 125 has been a church since 609, which is why it survived. The dome is 43.3 metres across and as high as it is wide, and the oculus at its top is the only window.
Time
30 min inside
Setting
Indoor
Best time
The first hour after opening
Getting there
On foot from Largo di Torre Argentina; no metro station is close
Tip: Look up first. A disc of sunlight from the oculus slides around the wall during the day, and you can tell the time from where it falls. This is a church in use, so shoulders and knees must be covered and mass can close a part of the floor.
Open daily from 9 am to 7 pm, last entry 6.30 pm. Admission is €7, €2 for ages 18 to 25 and free under 18. Tickets are sold at the door and on the Italian museums portal; there is no skip-the-line option.
Nicola Salvi's baroque fountain, finished in 1762, fills the end wall of a palace on a square barely big enough to hold it, and its water arrives through an aqueduct begun in 19 BC.
Time
15 to 30 min at the basin
Setting
Outdoor
Best time
Before nine or after ten at night
Getting there
Metro A Barberini, ten minutes on foot
Tip: The coin custom is to stand with your back to the water and throw one over your left shoulder with your right hand. The money is collected for charity. After the evening crowd leaves, the square is lit and calm, but it is also where pickpockets work, so keep your phone in a zipped pocket.
Non-residents pay €2 to go down to the basin from 9 am, or from 11 am on Mondays and Fridays, until 10 pm. Outside those hours the barriers are open and access is free.
Michelangelo's dome rises 136 metres above the tomb of the apostle, and Bernini's colonnades curve around the square in front like two open arms. Inside, the scale is hard to take in until you spot a person standing beside a pillar.
Time
1 to 2 h without the dome
Setting
Both
Best time
Right after opening
Getting there
Metro A Ottaviano, ten minutes on foot
Tip: The security check at the edge of the square decides your wait, and it moves faster in the early morning and late afternoon. Shoulders and knees must be covered or you will be turned back. The dome is booked by time slot on the official site and includes the basilica, with a walk inside the dome's ring before the outer terrace.
The basilica is open from 7 am to 7 pm from 26 October to 28 March and until 8 pm in summer. The dome is open from 7.30 am to 5 pm in winter.
Papal collections that run from Egyptian mummies and Greek marbles to Raphael's rooms and end, by design, in the Sistine Chapel, where Michelangelo's ceiling and the Last Judgement cover the walls. The route is one-way, long and rarely empty.
Time
3 to 5 h
Setting
Indoor
Best time
The first slot of the day
Getting there
Metro A Ottaviano or Cipro, ten minutes on foot
Tip: Pay the extra €5 to book a time online; the line outside the walls in season is the dull part of Rome that you can skip. Walk through the first galleries without stopping and reach the Sistine Chapel while the crowd is still thin. Photography is banned in the chapel, and the guards ask for silence with a loud shush.
Open Monday to Saturday from 8 am to 8 pm, last entry 6 pm. On the last Sunday of the month the museums are free from 9 am to 2 pm and very crowded; other Sundays they are closed. Ticket €20 at the door, plus €5 for booking online.
The square follows the outline of Domitian's stadium, which is why it is so long and narrow. Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers stands at its centre, and the facade of Borromini's Sant'Agnese rises behind it.
Time
30 min to 1 h
Setting
Outdoor
Best time
Late evening, when the street sellers have gone
Getting there
Five minutes on foot from the Pantheon; no metro
Tip: The cafés on the square charge for the view, so have your coffee at a bar in a side street and then come back to sit on the rim of a fountain. From December to Epiphany a Christmas market fills the square and the crowd with it.
A baroque staircase, finished in 1725, climbs from Piazza di Spagna to the French church of Trinità dei Monti, with the boat-shaped Barcaccia fountain at the foot.
Time
30 to 45 min
Setting
Outdoor
Best time
Sunset, from the top
Getting there
Metro A Spagna
Tip: Climb early, because by mid-morning the wide stairs fill with people photographing one another. From the terrace at the top you see across the rooftops to the dome of St Peter's, which is the real reward. The streets behind the square, led by Via dei Condotti, hold the luxury shops.
Hadrian had it built around AD 139 as a family tomb. Popes later made it a fortress and prison, linked to the Vatican by the covered corridor of the Passetto di Borgo, and the bronze angel on top gave it its name.
Time
1 h 30 min to 2 h inside
Setting
Both
Best time
Late afternoon, then the bridge at dusk
Getting there
On foot from St Peter's, ten minutes down Via della Conciliazione
Tip: Go up to the roof terrace under the angel for a view that takes in the whole city and the dome of St Peter's. When you leave, walk out onto the Ponte Sant'Angelo, where angels designed by Bernini line the parapet, and stay until the floodlights come on.
Open from 9 am to 7.30 pm from Tuesday to Sunday, last entry 6.30 pm; closed on Mondays. Full price €18 since 1 July 2026, €2 for EU citizens aged 18 to 25, free on the first Sunday of the month.
About eighty hectares of landscaped park north of the Spanish Steps, begun by Cardinal Scipione Borghese in the 17th century. A small lake with the Temple of Aesculapius on an island is its prettiest corner.
Time
1 h 30 min to 3 h
Setting
Outdoor
Best time
The golden hour from the Pincio
Getting there
Metro A Flaminio or Spagna, then walk up
Tip: Enter by the ramp from Piazza del Popolo, take in the view from the Pincio terrace and then follow the paths to the lake, where you can hire a rowing boat. The Galleria Borghese inside the park, with Bernini's sculptures and Caravaggio's paintings, admits visitors only at booked times, so reserve it days ahead; the park itself is free.
Photo: emphedocle From Agrigento / Pexels, Pexels License
The white marble monument to King Victor Emmanuel II, inaugurated in 1911, towers over Piazza Venezia and holds the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Romans have long called it the wedding cake or the typewriter, and not kindly.
Time
30 min to 1 h
Setting
Both
Best time
In the evening, when it is floodlit
Getting there
Piazza Venezia, a fifteen-minute walk from the Colosseum
Tip: Few people love the building, but the steps give a fine view down the Via dei Fori Imperiali, and a lift runs to the roof terrace for a look over the Forum and the domes of the centre. Hours and fares for the lift change by season, so check the official page before you go.
The name means across the Tiber, and for centuries this was a district of sailors and craftsmen. Its lanes keep the medieval pattern, and Santa Maria in Trastevere, one of the oldest churches of Rome dedicated to Mary, has a golden mosaic facade.
Time
2 to 3 h
Setting
Outdoor
Best time
From about seven in the evening
Getting there
Tram 8 from Largo di Torre Argentina
Tip: The loudest bars cluster near Piazza Trilussa, so walk a couple of streets inland toward Via della Lungaretta for quieter tables. Behind the district the Janiculum hill rises in a fifteen-minute climb and gives the best sunset view over the domes of the centre.
