Rome

The Colosseum is the largest amphitheater ever built by the Roman Empire and one of the most visited monuments on the planet. Built between 72 and 80 AD under emperors Vespasian and Titus, it could hold up to 80,000 spectators who came to watch gladiator fights, wild animal hunts, and staged naval battles made possible by an ingenious flooding system. Beneath the arena lies the hypogeum, an underground network of corridors and cages now open to visitors, revealing the complex logistics of ancient spectacles. A UNESCO World Heritage site, it remains one of the best-preserved monuments of antiquity despite medieval stone-robbing. Allow 1.5 to 2 hours for a full visit (arena, hypogeum, and top floor), ideally early morning at opening to beat the heat and the crowds that build up quickly by late morning.

Metro line B, Colosseo station - direct exit facing the monument.

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The Roman Forum was, for nearly a thousand years, the nerve center of public, political, religious, and commercial life in ancient Rome - the Via Sacra running through it saw military triumphs and imperial processions pass by. The site holds the remains of the Curia where the Senate met, the Temple of Saturn with eight columns still dominating the landscape, the vertigo-inducing vaults of the Basilica of Maxentius, and the Arch of Titus commemorating the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. The combined ticket with the Colosseum and Palatine Hill, where emperors once lived and from which the word 'palace' derives, lets you extend the visit with one of the best views over the Forum and the Circus Maximus. Allow 2 to 3 hours to explore the full archaeological site, ideally in the late afternoon for the golden light on the columns.

Metro line B, Colosseo station - entrance on Via dei Fori Imperiali, next to the Colosseum.

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Trastevere, literally 'beyond the Tiber', remained for centuries the working-class neighborhood of craftsmen and boatmen, before becoming one of Rome's most sought-after corners for its preserved village atmosphere. Its cobbled lanes lined with ochre facades and ivy converge on Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere, dominated by its 3rd-century basilica adorned with some of Rome's oldest Byzantine mosaics. On Sunday mornings, the Porta Portese market, one of Europe's largest flea markets, livens up the riverbanks. In the evening, family-run trattorias serving recipes unchanged for generations dish out real Roman cooking, while street musicians and locals linger on terraces late into the night - the liveliest, least touristy atmosphere in the historic center.

Tram 8 from Largo di Torre Argentina, Belli stop - or 15 min walk from the historic center.

Guided tour Trastevere

The Sistine Chapel, built for Pope Sixtus IV between 1477 and 1483, houses the ceiling painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512 on the orders of Pope Julius II - nine scenes from Genesis, including the world-famous Creation of Adam, where the fingers of God and Adam almost touch. Twenty-four years later, the artist returned to paint the immense Last Judgment fresco on the altar wall. It remains, to this day, the site of the conclave where cardinals elect the pope. The final room on the Vatican Museums route, it draws millions of visitors each year in a relative silence enforced by staff. Arrive at opening (8am) or book an exclusive evening tour to take in this masterpiece in peace, away from the midday crush. The Vatican Museums are closed on Sundays, except the last Sunday of the month (free entry, very crowded).

Metro line A, Ottaviano-San Pietro station - 10 min walk to the Vatican Museums entrance.

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Castel Sant'Angelo was originally built as a mausoleum for Emperor Hadrian and his family, completed in 139 AD, before being converted in the Middle Ages into a defensive fortress for the popes, linked to the Vatican by a fortified 800-meter secret passage, the Passetto di Borgo, used in an emergency by Pope Clement VII during the Sack of Rome in 1527. Its current name comes from a vision of the Archangel Michael sheathing his sword, said to have appeared in 590 AD to signal the end of a plague epidemic, commemorated by the bronze statue crowning the building. Now a national museum, it spreads over seven levels of lavishly decorated Renaissance rooms, former papal prisons, and a rooftop terrace, made famous by Puccini's opera Tosca, offering one of the finest panoramic views over Rome and St Peter's dome. The Sant'Angelo Bridge, lined with ten angel statues carved by Bernini's workshop, is its most spectacular approach.

Metro line A, Lepanto station - 10 min walk along the Tiber.

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Piazza Navona follows the exact elongated shape of the ancient Stadium of Domitian (1st century), whose stands once held 30,000 spectators for athletic competitions - the stadium's remains are still visible underground and open to the public. Bernini carved his Fountain of the Four Rivers here (1651), representing the Nile, Ganges, Danube, and Rio de la Plata, standing opposite the church of Sant'Agnese in Agone by his great rival Borromini - a rivalry still brought up on guided tours today. Two other baroque fountains, the Moor and Neptune, complete the ensemble. Street artists, portrait painters, and historic cafes fill the square day and night, and its Christmas market, with toy and torrone stalls, is considered the finest in Rome.

Bus from Largo di Torre Argentina, or 15 min walk from the Pantheon - no nearby metro.

Piazza Navona audio guide

The Pantheon, rebuilt around 125 AD by Emperor Hadrian on the foundations of an older temple, is the best-preserved ancient building in Rome - an engineering feat unmatched for over 1,300 years. Its unreinforced concrete dome, still the largest self-supporting concrete dome in the world today, rises 43 meters high with an identical diameter, forming a perfect sphere inscribed within the interior space. The central oculus, 9 meters across and the building's only light source, lets in sun and rain alike, drained away by a discreet floor system. Converted into a church in the 7th century - which explains its remarkable preservation - it holds the tombs of Raphael and Italy's first two kings. Entry is paid (EUR7, free for under-18s): buy your ticket in advance on the official website.

Metro line A, Barberini station - 12 min walk, or bus from Largo di Torre Argentina.

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The Trevi Fountain, completed in 1762 by Nicola Salvi after thirty years of work, marks the endpoint of the Aqua Virgo, a 20km ancient aqueduct built in 19 BC and still in service today. Its monumental 26-meter-wide facade features Neptune on a chariot drawn by sea horses, carved from travertine. Tradition, popularized by the film La Dolce Vita, holds that tossing a coin backward over your left shoulder guarantees a return to Rome - about EUR3,000 is collected each day and donated to charity. Also immortalized in Roman Holiday, it's spectacular at any hour but absolutely magical at night, once the underwater lights take over and the daytime crowds thin out.

Metro line A, Barberini station - 10 min walk through the city center's lanes.

Rome audio guide

Piazza di Spagna takes its name from the Spanish embassy that has stood there since the 17th century, while its monumental 135-step staircase, funded by a French diplomat and completed in 1725, links the square to the French church of Trinita dei Monti. Immortalized in the film Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn, it remains one of the capital's most photographed spots, even though sitting on the steps is now banned and fined. At its foot, the Barcaccia Fountain ('the old boat'), by Pietro Bernini with the help of his famous son Gian Lorenzo, precedes Via dei Condotti, Italy's luxury shopping street lined with historic high-fashion boutiques. English poet John Keats lived and died in the pink house to the right of the steps, now a museum.

Metro line A, Spagna station - direct exit at the foot of the steps.

Historic center guided tour

Villa Borghese, laid out in the 17th century by Cardinal Scipione Borghese as a pleasure residence, is today Rome's third-largest urban park and its most-visited green lung. Its 80 hectares of Italian-style gardens, shaded avenues, and a small lake with rowboats for rent also house a zoo, a botanical garden, and several museums. The Borghese Gallery, housed in the cardinal's original Casina, holds one of the finest private collections of baroque art in the world: Bernini's stunningly dynamic sculptures (Apollo and Daphne, The Rape of Proserpina) and major Caravaggio canvases. Entries are capped at 360 people per two-hour slot - booking, mandatory, should be done several days ahead in high season.

Metro line A, Spagna station - 10 min walk up through the Pincio gardens.

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