2 Days in Rome

By Robert Heaney
Published: July 18, 2024
Dome of St. Peter's Basilica over the Rome skyline

One of Europe’s most popular city break destinations, the eternal city of Rome houses some of the continent’s most sought-after sights and attractions. As such, it can often seem overwhelming to try to fit everything in if you find yourself with only a short amount of time to explore it all.

Fret not, though, as we’ve put together this brief guide to some of the city’s most lauded attractions to help you decide how best to spend your time. With this guide, we’ve gathered a selection of popular attractions that you should easily be able to cover with 2 days in Rome, alongside average visit times to help you draw up your ideal itinerary.

Top Attractions

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Colosseum

Renowned UNESCO World Heritage Site and considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Colosseum is easily one of the most globally-recognized icons. Once the site of many battles, re-enactments and theater performances in ancient Rome, this impressive venue serves as the world’s largest standing amphitheater.

Average Visit: 1 hour

Pantheon

Another iconic UNESCO site, the Pantheon stands remarkably intact as both a former Roman temple and later Catholic church. Although famous for its pillared entrance and domed interior, the site’s main draw is the open oculus in the ceiling, permitting all natural light and weather into the vast space below. Visit on a rainy day for a true spectacle!

Average Visit: 20 minutes

Trevi Fountain

If you come across any front-page photos of Rome, chances are many of them include this iconic fountain. Built upon one of Rome’s oldest water sources, at the end of the Aqua Virgo Aqueduct, the elegant sculpture work of this fountain has undergone various transformations and reconstructions over the years to become the popular tourist hotspot we know today. As the local legend says, throw in a coin if you hope to return to Rome, or two if you hope to find love.

Average Visit: 10 minutes

Spanish Steps

Alongside the Trevi fountain, this famous stairway joining Piazza di Spagna to Piazza Trinità dei Monti is most popularly photographed with the emblematic Trinita dei Monti Church looming at the top and the quirky Fontana della Barcaccia at the foot. Built between 1723 and 1726, the site now stands as one of the most popular photo ops in Rome, making it a particularly busy destination the later into the day you choose to visit.

Average Visit: 10 minutes

Roman Ruins

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Roman Forum & Palatine Hill

Atop the most central of Rome’s seven hills sit the oldest ruins in the city. Considered the cradle of all Roman civilization, Palatine Hill is replete with ancient history, with an added flair of mystique given its fabled reputation as the site of the Lupercal cave of ancient Roman myth.

Once the center of many important social, political and religious activities in Rome, the Roman Forum was originally the site of a number of impressive and important administrative buildings. Located at the foot of Palatine Hill, visitors can stroll among the remaining ruins and columns, now mere whispers of their former glory in an era long since passed.

Average Visit: 2 – 4 hours

Pyramid of Cestius

Though somewhat of a lesser known monument, the Pyramid of Cestius is nevertheless very much worth a visit if you can fit it into your route. Resting place to the once priest and magistrate Gaius Cestius and his family from the 1st century BC, the understated site is a prime example of Egyptian influence in ancient Rome ahead of the Empire’s conquest of Egypt.

Average Visit: 30 minutes

Rome Catacombs

Certainly not quite so mainstream as many of Rome’s most popular attractions, the Rome Catacombs are worth a visit for those with a penchant for the macabre. Over sixty subterranean passages stretch out for miles beneath the busy city streets, lined with the many skeletal remains of those who once walked them long ago. Though somewhat unsettling, these tunnels offer a unique insight into a more hidden side to the eternal city’s ancient history.

Average Visit: 1 hour

Vatican City

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St. Peter’s Square

Think of the Vatican as a whole, and it’s likely that the first image in your mind is the impressive vista of its vast courtyard. Named after the apostle St. Peter, believed by Catholics to have been the very first Pope, the square stands as a stunning example of Italian Baroque architecture and serves as the site of several annual religious events.

Average Visit: 20 minutes

Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel

Founded during the early Sixteenth Century by Pope Julius II, the Vatican Museums are home to one of the world’s greatest collections of art and historical artifacts. Comprising roughly four miles of exhibits housing everything from Egyptian mummies to Old Masters paintings, the museum’s impressively lavish halls intersect with the Apostolic Palace, the official residence to the Pope himself.

Tucked away within the halls of the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel houses perhaps the world’s best-known Catholic works of art. Though impressive enough in its vaulted, Renaissance-style architecture, the true jewels of the chapel’s crown are the renowned frescoes adorning the chapel’s ceiling, painted over the course of five years by the legendary Italian artist, Michelangelo.

Average Visit: 2 – 3 hours

St. Peter’s Basilica

Among the many outstanding churches and religious sites spread throughout Rome, none quite match up to the glory of St. Peter’s Basilica. Consecrated in 1626 after 120 years of construction, the basilica’s cavernous interior houses three of Italy’s most lauded masterpieces – Michelangelo’s Pietà sculpture, his imposing dome, and Bernini’s baldachin standing over the high altar, itself placed atop St. Peter’s grave.

Average Visit: 2 – 3 hours

Getting Around

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To make the most of your two days in Rome, you’ll want to be able to fit as much as possible into your itinerary. Although most of the city’s top sights and venues are easily accessible on foot and within relative walking distance of one another, you may find yourself looking for quicker and more convenient means of getting around.

Fortunately, Rome has a fairly extensive transport system covering much of the city. The fastest options are naturally the metro and tram services, but with only a small few serviced lines running through the city center, they aren’t always of much use to most tourists. Buses, on the other hand, operate a much more convenient alternative, with over 350 lines servicing over 8,000 stops throughout the city center and wider suburbs.

However, most public transport in Rome tends to get rather busy at the best of times, let alone over the weekend. For somewhat of a more convenient, comfortable and entertaining means of getting around, a Big Bus Rome tour runs a main route passing by most of the capital’s top attractions, along with a hop-on, hop-off policy and optional audio commentary in several major languages

Robert Heaney
Go City Travel Expert

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Ruined temples at Largo di Torre Argentina square in Rome
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Quirky Things to do in Rome

Rome is an absolute treat for sightseers, with attractions including the Colosseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain reading like the world’s most essential bucket list. In a city as old as Rome though, you need only scratch the surface to discover a hidden universe that’s teeming with weird and wonderful things to see and do, from secret fairytale neighborhoods to ancient relics. Heck, there’s even a McDonald’s with a section of 2,500-year-old city wall inside. We’ve put together a selection of offbeat ideas to help you dodge the tourist traps and experience the Eternal City at its most eccentric. Read on for our favorite quirky things to do in Rome... Step Into a Fairytale Tiny Quartiere Coppedè, with its peaceful gardens, huge ornate fountains and colorful gargoyle-and-fresco-festooned facades, is barely known to Rome locals, let alone the visiting tourist masses. Take a stroll through its hushed streets and piazzas to experience a fairytale mishmash of fantastical architectural styles, from Ancient Greek to Art Nouveau, and pretty much everything in between: gothic, medieval, mannerist and more. Expect Florentine towers, Baroque Roman palazzi and Moorish arches, as you wander, as if in a dream, through this fascinating enclave of the Trieste neighborhood. Look out for the Spider Palace, Fountain of Frogs, and the massive iron chandelier hanging beneath the archway at the entrance on Via Tagliamento. An Audience with the Pope You don’t have to be religious to attend the pontiff’s weekly benedictions and prayers at St Peter’s Square or the Vatican’s Nervi Auditorium. Just rock up with an open mind and let papa's calming tones wash over you. Tickets are free, or you can buy a combi pass that also gets you a tour of St Peter’s Basilica. Proceedings normally kick off around 9.30am on Wednesdays, assuming the pope is in town. We recommend arriving early to bag the best seats in the house. Dead Interesting If it’s crypts full of skulls and churches toting ancient relics you want, well, you’ve come to the right place. Treat yourself to a tour of the crypts at Santa Maria della Concezione, where the mortal remains of some 4,000 Capuchin friars decorate the walls, like some sort of ultra-macabre episode of Dream Home Makeover. Steel yourself for the bizarre crypt of pelvises and try not to be startled when you spot the skeleton on the ceiling clutching a scythe (made of bone, of course). If your hunger for dead things still isn't satisfied try San Silvestro in Capite, where a skull on display purports to be the decapitated head of John The Baptist. Meanwhile over at the Basilica di Santa Maria, young lovers can pay homage to the garlanded remains of their patron saint, Valentine. Quirky Basilica Views Of all the Instagrammable snaps of St Peter's Basilica available from various vantage points around Rome, the Aventine keyhole is perhaps the quirkiest. Here, curious tourists joining the queue to peer through this otherwise unremarkable keyhole are rewarded with a perfectly framed image of the Basilica flanked by the Villa dei Cavalieri’s garden hedges. Over on Via Niccolò Piccolomini, an optical illusion par excellence reveals itself as you stroll from the far end of the leafy avenue towards St Peter’s. Initially massive in appearance, the basilica’s distinctive dome seems to decrease in size the closer you get. Utterly baffling and even more dramatic when experienced at speed. From a Vespa sidecar, for example. Fries With That? Hungry for some history with your Big Mac? Make for the McDonald’s on the basement floor of Rome’s Termini train station, where you can view part of the Servian Wall that encircled the city as a defense against invading Gauls and Carthaginians in the 4th Century BC. It’s a pretty incongruous sight inside this otherwise identikit McDonald’s restaurant and fairly out there in terms of unusual things to do in Rome. There’s another, larger section of the wall to check out just outside the station. Visit a Circular Church With somewhere in the region of a thousand churches across Rome, you can be sure there are a quirky few among the more traditional styles. Take Santo Stefano Rotundo, Rome’s first circular church, which dates from the 5th Century. Cruciform from the outside, it's inside that things get really interesting, with a large circular central space replete with spiraling columns, and some amazing frescoes by 16th-century artists Niccolò Circignani and Antonio Tempesta depicting – in gruesome detail – the grisly demise of 34 martyrs. The Mouth of Truth Looking precisely like a character from the classic 80s movie Labyrinth, the Bocca della Verità – or Mouth of Truth – is a huge marble mask that lurks within the portico of Rome’s medieval Basilica of Saint Mary in Cosmedin. Legend has it that pilgrims brave enough to place their hand inside the mask’s mouth will lose their fingers if they’ve been telling lies. You can test this for yourself, if you happen to be feeling particularly brave and/or virtuous. A Cacophony of Cats Amid the ancient ruins of the Theatre of Pompey and several Roman Republican temples, roam hundreds of homeless cats, protected here within the environs of the Largo di Torre Argentina square. You’ll spot them wandering among the ruins, peering out from behind columns and ancient stone walls. Some of the healthier and bolder cats have even been known to interact with the tourists here. A purr-fect afternoon out for cat lovers, in other words. Dinner and all that Jazz If you came here in search of quirky things to do in Rome, Tramjazz is unlikely to disappoint, for it is truly the jazz, dinner and sightseeing extravaganza you never knew you needed in your life. Until now. Your adventure begins when you board the Stanga 1947, a vintage tram that rolls gently through the streets of Rome while you enjoy a candlelit three-course dinner punctuated by bursts of live music from the in-house (or should that be in-tram) jazz band. This unique experience takes in various major attractions, with stops at the Colosseum and Villa Borghese for all your selfie-taking requirements. We defy even jazz haters not to love this one! Save on quirky things to do in Rome Save on admission to Rome attractions with Go City. Check out @GoCity on Instagram and Facebook for the latest top tips and attraction info.
Stuart Bak
Stuart Bak
Saint Peter's Basilica and Ponte Sant Angelo by night
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Rome in December

Renowned home to the seat of the Roman Catholic Church, few destinations match up to the genuine traditional festivity of Rome in December. Alongside its usual selection of historical wonders and culinary delights, the Italian capital truly comes to life throughout the holiday season, its streets adorned with all manner of Christmas décor and brimming with a jovial atmosphere. Visiting Rome in December Average Temperature: 39 - 59°F • Average Rainfall: 9 days/mth • Average Sunshine: 3 hours/day As is the case for many European destinations throughout the festive period, Rome in December sees a slight uptick in tourism rates from its usual low-season numbers. While its largely evergreen attractions mean that Rome is never truly quiet, you can certainly expect busier streets and slightly more crowded venues than in November or January. Temperatures in December tend to vary significantly, ranging from mild and comfortable to only a little above freezing. Though you’re likely to get a good few sunshine hours on most days, there’s also a good chance of at least a day of rain each week. If you’re looking to explore some of Rome’s many open-air attractions, prepare to wrap up warm if need be and be sure to pack an umbrella! Things to do in December There are arguably few places better for observing the holiday season than the beating heart of Roman Catholicism. Both Rome and the Vatican pour their souls into honoring the festive period, with impressive Christmas displays housed on St. Peter’s Square and Piazza San Pietro alongside expertly-crafted nativity scenes at 100 Prespi and the Church of Saints Cosma and Damiano. Nothing reflects the festive period in Europe quite like a Christmas market, replete with all manner of charming gifts and winter treats. Though still a relatively novel concept in Italy, many of the country’s best mercatini di natale take place in Milan, Florence and Bolzano in the north, making for a great festive day trip from the capital. There’s also a smattering of delightful markets throughout Rome itself, the most notable of which can be found on Piazza Navona. If you find yourself in Rome over Christmas itself, you could be in for a real treat. Catholic churches around the world honor Christmas Eve by holding mass at midnight, and St. Peter’s Basilica is no exception; only this time, the Pope delivers mass himself. Reach out ahead of time, and there’s a chance you might be granted one of a small few free tickets to this very special midnight mass. While you’d have to be extremely lucky to see Rome in the snow, that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the seasonal chill. For a limited time throughout the festive period, the Auditorium Parco della Musica and the Ice Space Village offer excellent ice-skating rinks for those with the right balance or determination to enjoy, both of which open early in December. Events in December Feast of the Immaculate Conception Should you happen to be exploring Rome on 8 December to find the streets buzzing with processions and lined with locals in prayer, you’re witnessing the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Held to honor the conception of the Virgin Mary, this festival marks the beginning of the holiday season in Italy. The festival is marked by a couple of key events, the most important being the Pope’s Angelus Prayer on St. Peter’s Square, followed by his procession from the Vatican to the Piazza di Spagna. Another key tradition is the inauguration of St. Peter’s Square, during which many locals and visitors alike gather to see the unveiling of the Vatican’s annual nativity scene and Christmas tree.. Note that the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, or Immacolata, is a public holiday throughout Italy and is of great importance to many Romans. As such, many museums, attractions and services are likely to be closed for the day, including the Vatican Museums. However, most major stores and supermarkets in the center will remain open, along with a handful of restaurants, cafés and bars. Hanukkah Although Rome is known for being a predominantly Catholic city, it’s also home to a very substantial Jewish population. So substantial, in fact, that Piazza Barberini hosts an impressive annual event to honor the celebration. A 20-foot tall menorah is erected in the square, drawing in huge crowds as one of its candles are lit every evening of the festival. Whether you’re religious or not, this daily event is a great way to join in on some seasonal festivity. The lighting of the candles typically takes place at 4 PM on the Sabbath and the final day, and at 6 PM every other evening. Each evening is usually also accompanied by a night of partying and dancing, making for a truly joyful way to spend a winter’s evening in Rome. New Year’s Eve Though Christmas may be little more than a recent memory by this point, the festivities are still far from over. On the contrary, just about all of Rome veritably ignites with New Year’s Eve celebrations, making it one of the very best places in Europe to party away the twilight hours of the year. Many Italians traditionally spend the evening at home or among friends over cenone, or ‘a really big dinner’. Also known as the Festa di San Silvestro, many restaurants throughout Rome offer the meal as a set menu, often consisting in some degree of spiced sausages and lentils. These set menus will often come at a fixed price and may be accompanied by Prosecco and traditional cakes such as panettone or pandoro. One of the main epicenters of New Year’s Eve celebrations is along the Via dei Fori Imperiali, linking the Colosseum to the Piazza Venezia. Commencing with a late-evening concert, thousands of largely tipsy revelers flock to the area to attempt a collective harmony of Auld Lang Syne as a stupendous display of crackling fireworks bathes the Colosseum in a rainbow-strobing glow.
Robert Heaney
Tourists at the Colosseum
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Everything you need to know about Go City’s Rome passes

Skip the queues, see the classics and still have money left over for gelato – here’s how to do Rome the easy way.

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