Discover Rome

Rome is a city built on the only natural crossing of the Tiber in this stretch of the river, and three thousand years of continuous building stand on that one decision. Seven hills above a ford became an imperial capital of around a million people, shrank to some thirty thousand living among ruins and vineyards after the Gothic War, and was rebuilt by the popes and then by the Kingdom of Italy on top of all of it. The layering is not a backdrop here; it is the city.

The shape is compact and legible: the ancient centre east of a bend in the river, the Baroque city of squares and fountains inside it, Trastevere across the water, and the Vatican — a sovereign state with its own rules — on the far bank. Around all of it lies one of the largest areas of green space of any European capital. You move between those worlds on foot and by metro, book the ticketed sites by timed slot, and keep the free half of the city for the middle of the day.

How many days does Rome need? Three is the shortest trip that does not feel like triage: one for the ancient centre, one for the Vatican, and one for whichever Rome you actually came for — Baroque squares, the churches, Trastevere and the river, or the Appian Way and the aqueducts. Two days means choosing between the Colosseum and the Vatican Museums rather than seeing both properly.

Do I need to book ahead? For the major ticketed sites, yes, and increasingly for a specific entry time rather than just a day. Book direct with the official ticketing rather than through a reseller, and buy the timed slot as early as you can — the constraint at the busiest sites is the slot, not the ticket.

What does a ticket cost? Deliberately not answered here. Roman admission prices, and the rules about who gets in free, change from year to year and differ between the state sites, the civic museums and the Vatican, which is a separate country with its own pricing. Any figure quoted on a third-party page — including this one — is a figure that may already be wrong. Check the site's own ticketing page for the dates you are travelling.

Is the Vatican part of Rome? Geographically yes, legally no. St Peter's Basilica, the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel are in a sovereign state inside the city, with its own opening hours, dress code, security and ticketing, and none of that is coordinated with the Italian state sites. Plan it as a separate day with separate rules.

When is it least crowded? Not in summer, and not around a Holy Year. Rome has drawn pilgrims in numbers since Boniface VIII called the first Jubilee in 1300, and a Jubilee year still changes the arithmetic of every queue in the city. Otherwise the shoulder months, and the first hour after opening at any site that admits people by timed slot.

Is the tap water drinkable? Yes, and drinking it is a Roman habit rather than a tolerated one. The city has had public fountains continuously for more than two thousand years — Frontinus counted 591 public basins in the year 98 — and the small cast-iron street fountains called nasoni run cold and free. Carry a bottle and refill it.

Can I swim in the Tiber, or walk along it? Walk, in places. The river is confined between the high stone embankments begun in 1876, which ended the floods that used to put two metres of water across the Campus Martius and simultaneously cut the city off from its own river. There are riverside paths below the lungoteveri in stretches, but the Tiber is not a swimming river and is not treated as one.