Last updated: September 2026
Rome spreads across seven hills near the Tiber River in central Italy, a city where a functioning subway line runs beside ruins over two thousand years old and where the modern capital of a nation coexists with the independent Vatican City enclave inside its borders. Layers of history sit visibly on top of one another here: ancient Roman forums, medieval churches, Renaissance palaces, and Baroque fountains often occupy the same city block.
The historic center, walkable and largely car-restricted, holds the major ancient sites around the Colosseum and Forum, the Baroque piazzas of the centro storico, and the Vatican across the river. Trastevere and Testaccio, both south of the center, offer a more residential, food-focused version of the city with narrower streets and fewer tour groups.
Rome suits travelers who want serious historical depth alongside excellent, unpretentious food; it rewards slow walking over rushed sightseeing, and even a week barely covers the ancient, Christian, and Renaissance layers on offer.
Quick facts
- Population
- About 2.75 million in the comune; over 4 million in the metropolitan area
- Region
- Lazio
- Country
- Italy
- Founded
- Traditionally 753 BC
- Elevation
- 21 metres, about 69 feet
- Nickname
- The Eternal City; Caput Mundi
- Setting
- Seven hills along the Tiber River, central Italy
- Nearby cities
- Naples, Florence
- Best known for
- Ancient ruins, the Vatican, Roman cuisine, Renaissance and Baroque art
Things to Do
The Colosseum and Roman Forum
The empire's largest amphitheater and the political and commercial heart of ancient Rome, best visited early in the day and combined with a single ticket.
View in NearbylyThe Pantheon
A former Roman temple with an unreinforced concrete dome nearly 2,000 years old, its oculus still open to the sky.
View in NearbylyVatican Museums and Sistine Chapel
Miles of papal art collections culminating in Michelangelo's ceiling and altar wall, best booked well in advance to skip long lines.
View in NearbylyTrevi Fountain
The largest Baroque fountain in the city, best seen very early morning or late at night to avoid the daytime crowds throwing coins.
View in NearbylyPiazza Navona
A Baroque square built over the footprint of an ancient stadium, anchored by Bernini's Four Rivers Fountain.
View in NearbylyVilla Borghese Gallery
A compact, superb collection of Bernini sculpture and Caravaggio paintings inside a 17th-century cardinal's villa; timed entry required.
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Eat Local
Testaccio Market
A covered municipal market and the best place to try Roman street food and produce away from tourist-priced restaurants.
View in NearbylyRoscioli
A deli and restaurant near Campo de' Fiori known for cacio e pepe and a serious cured-meat and cheese counter.
View in NearbylyDa Enzo al 29
A small, always-busy Trastevere trattoria serving classic Roman pastas like carbonara and amatriciana.
View in NearbylyTrapizzino
A Roman invention combining pizza dough with braised-meat fillings, originating in Testaccio and now with several city locations.
View in NearbylyGiolitti
A gelato shop near the Pantheon operating since 1900, still one of the city's most traditional stops for gelato.
View in NearbylyChecchino dal 1887
A sixth-generation family restaurant opposite the old Testaccio slaughterhouse, built on quinto quarto cooking — the offal cuts butchers were paid in. The source of half the Roman classics served elsewhere.
View in NearbylyPerilli
A Testaccio trattoria open since 1911, four generations in, still serving carbonara mixed at the table.
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Shopping & Markets
Porta Portese
Rome's largest flea market, held Sunday mornings in Trastevere, selling everything from antiques to secondhand clothing.
View in NearbylyVia del Governo Vecchio
A cobblestone street near Piazza Navona lined with vintage clothing shops and small independent boutiques.
View in NearbylyCampo de' Fiori
A market square since the fifteenth century. Real produce vendors trade early; by late morning most of the stalls are aimed at visitors.
View in NearbylyAlmost Corner Bookshop
A tiny English-language bookshop in Trastevere, run by the same bookseller for decades and packed floor to ceiling.
View in NearbylyMercato di Testaccio
A hundred stalls in a modern building with an excavated Roman warehouse preserved underneath it. A working rione market, not a food hall.
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Hidden Gems
Aventine Keyhole
A door on the Aventine Hill through which St. Peter's dome appears perfectly framed at the end of a garden pathway.
View in NearbylyCentrale Montemartini
A former power station repurposed to display classical sculpture among preserved industrial machinery, far less crowded than the main museums.
View in NearbylyQuartiere Coppedè
A small, eccentric early-20th-century architectural district mixing Art Nouveau, Baroque, and Gothic elements, rarely visited by tourists.
View in NearbylyBasilica di San Clemente
A church built atop a 4th-century basilica, itself built atop a 1st-century Roman house and Mithraic temple, all open to descend through.
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Nature & Outdoors
Villa Borghese Gardens
Rome's central park, with a boating lake, a small zoo, and views over the city from the Pincian terrace.
View in NearbylyVilla Doria Pamphilj
The city's largest landscaped park, popular with local joggers and far less touristed than Villa Borghese.
View in NearbylyAppian Way Regional Park
The ancient Roman road out of the city, lined with pine trees and Roman tombs, with sections still walkable or cyclable.
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A little history
According to legend, Rome was founded in 753 BC by Romulus, but archaeological evidence shows settlement on the Palatine Hill from at least the 10th century BC. The city grew from a monarchy into a republic around 509 BC and eventually into the capital of an empire that at its height stretched from Britain to the Middle East, leaving behind the Forum, the Colosseum, and the Pantheon, still one of the best-preserved buildings from antiquity.
After the Western Roman Empire's fall in the 5th century, Rome's population shrank dramatically, and the city's fortunes became tied to the papacy, which rebuilt it as a center of Christianity over the following centuries. The Renaissance and Baroque periods, from the 15th through 17th centuries, filled the city with the churches, palaces, and fountains — including St. Peter's Basilica and the works of Bernini and Borromini — that define much of its current appearance.
Rome became the capital of a unified Italy in 1871 after Italian troops breached the Aurelian Walls at Porta Pia, ending centuries of papal temporal rule over the city, though the Vatican retained sovereignty over its own small enclave after the 1929 Lateran Treaty.
If you only have a day in Rome
Early morning
Campo de' Fiori market
Before nine, while the produce vendors are still the point of it.
Morning
Basilica di San Clemente
A church over a fourth-century basilica over a Roman house and a Mithraic temple. You descend through all of it.
Lunch
Testaccio
The market or one of the old trattorie around it, twenty minutes south of the centre.
Afternoon
The Aventine Hill
The Orange Garden, Santa Sabina and the keyhole with St Peter's framed in it. All free, all quiet, all uphill from Circo Massimo.
Evening
Trastevere
Across the river for dinner, once the day trippers have gone.
Good to know
- The Colosseum requires a timed-entry reservation, released about a month ahead on the official site. Third-party resellers charge several times the face price.
- Campo de' Fiori is a genuine market before nine and a souvenir stall after eleven.
- Testaccio and the Aventine are a short metro ride from the centre and carry a fraction of the crowds.
- Many trattorie close between lunch and dinner and take Sunday evening or Monday off entirely.
Explore more of Rome
This guide highlights some of the places that help define Rome. There is plenty more around it — restaurants, hidden gems, history, events, shopping and outdoor places — waiting in the live explorer, sorted by distance from wherever you are.
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