The light comes off the walls, not the sky
Rome throws its own light back at you: ochre plaster and travertine keep the glare going into the evening, while the shade in a narrow street runs cold. Drinking fountains run all day on the street corners, and Romans fill a bottle from them without breaking stride. Nothing about you will surprise the city; it has watched strangers arrive with the same expression for centuries.
The €18 ticket, and the man in plastic armour
The full ticket for the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine is €18, valid 24 hours, and the archaeological park sells it at ticketing.colosseo.it itself. Anything sold on the pavement as "skip the line" is that ticket with a guide bolted on and a bigger number. In April 2025 the competition authority fined the park's former ticket operator and six tour companies nearly €20 million over how base-price tickets reached the public. The men in plastic armour have no posted price either, and the city's Regolamento di Polizia Urbana has covered centurions and line-skippers since 13 June 2019.
Then dinner on Piazza Navona, or the terraces round the Pantheon. A menu with photographs, or a man outside translating it, tells you what you're buying: the table, not the kitchen. I eat where the tablecloth is paper and the menu is one page in one language.
Box 15 at Testaccio, with a Roman warehouse underneath
Mercato di Testaccio is where the neighbourhood buys dinner: about 100 stalls, Monday to Saturday, 07:00 to 15:30 at the time of writing. Under the floor lie the remains of a Roman horreum, a warehouse, amphorae still where they were found.
I go between nine and one, while the fish and vegetables still look worth it. At Mordi e Vai, box 15, order the allesso di scottona: boiled beef and green sauce pushed into a roll until the bread gives up, around €6 at the time of writing, closed Sundays. Bring small notes. Testaccio's ZTL is night-only: I'd happily drive here for lunch.
In Lazio the coperto is not legal
Read the bill before you pay. Lazio's rules on food and drink service ban a separate coperto, the cover charge; a servizio percentage is legal, and so is bread, provided the prices can be read before you order. That is regional law 21/2006, article 16, and consumer groups still report coperto lines on Roman bills at the time of writing.
If one turns up, point at it and ask for it to come off. Better still, read the price list at the door first.
Colosseum by metro, St Peter's by keyhole
The Colosseum. Titus opened it with games that ran for 100 days. From Laurentina it's one ride on Metro B, so I start here.
The Pantheon. Officially a basilica, Santa Maria ad Martyres. The ticket has gone up to €7; I'd still pay it.
The Trevi Fountain. Getting close to the water costs €2 between 09:00 and 22:00, and Roman residents don't pay. Outside those hours, at the time of writing, nobody does.
The Aventine keyhole. Look through the gate of the Knights of Malta: St Peter's dome sits framed at the end of the garden. Piranesi designed the square in 1765, his only building, and it's my favourite view of that dome.
Castel Sant'Angelo and the Passetto. A raised corridor runs 800 metres from the Vatican to the castle. During the Sack of Rome, Clement VII fled along it under a dark cloak, so his white robes wouldn't mark him out.
Piazza Pia. Traffic runs in a tunnel now, leaving 7,000 m² of pedestrian square between the castle and Via della Conciliazione, walkable on the way to St Peter's.
The Gianicolo cannon. It fires at noon daily. The tradition began at Castel Sant'Angelo in 1847 and moved up the hill later, so arrive early.
The Vatican Museums are free on the last Sunday of the month, 09:00–14:00. So is half of Rome's queue; I'd take another day.
No cream in the carbonara, please
Start with the Roman pastas: carbonara, cacio e pepe and amatriciana.
Carciofi alla giudia are whole artichokes fried until they open like a flower. Nonna Betta in the old Ghetto serves them, along with Roman-Jewish carbonara. Closed Tuesdays.
Trapizzino is a pocket of pizza dough filled with Roman stews; the first shop is still at Via Giovanni Branca 88, my choice for lunch on the move.
In Trastevere, Da Enzo al 29 takes no reservations; the queue comes with the meal. Near Campo de' Fiori, Roscioli is a deli with a kitchen and a serious carbonara.
A Madonna on a police boat
21 April is Rome's birthday, the Natale di Roma, counted from 753 BC; in 2027 it turns 2,780. Free events, closed roads.
In July, Trastevere holds the Festa de' Noantri, "the festival of us lot". In 2026 the Madonna's statue came up the Tiber on a police boat, the one police escort nobody complains about.
The Rome Film Fest at the Auditorium Parco della Musica closes on 25 October 2026. The Rome Marathon closes central roads on 14 March 2027: park at a metro terminus.
What's on
| When | What |
|---|---|
| Last Sunday of each month | Vatican Museums free, 09:00–14:00 (last entry 12:30). Next: 27 Sep, 25 Oct, 29 Nov, 27 Dec 2026 |
| October · ends 25 Oct 2026 | Rome Film Fest (Festa del Cinema), 21st edition, Auditorium Parco della Musica |
| 14 Mar 2027 | Run Rome The Marathon: road closures across the centre |
| 21 Apr 2027 | Natale di Roma, the city's 2,780th birthday |
| July 2027 | Festa de' Noantri in Trastevere: the Madonna's statue arrives along the Tiber, then a procession (2026 edition ran 13–27 July) |