We visited Rome in July 2023 during a heatwave – not recommended! With heatwaves becoming a common occurrence, if you can avoid high summer I definitely would. If not, ensure you stay well hydrated by refilling your bottle at the numerous water fountains dotted around the city and try to get out early.
Day One: Check-in and go for a walk.
We arrived in Rome on the train from Pompeii mid-afternoon. Our accommodation was near the train station, so we checked in, had a quick shower and headed out for a walk. I know it may sound sacrilegious but after being in Italy for over a week we fancied something other than Italian to eat. We decided to keep the evening simple by going to Wagamama which we know the kids like and was open all day – the kids were tired; we wanted an early night and waiting till 7pm for restaurants to open wasn’t an option. There’s a Wagamama upstairs in Termini train station, known as Terrazza Termini, and I think it’s the best Ramen I’ve ever eaten in. Terrazza Termini has lots of other eating options, such as Five Guys and Paul, and is quieter than the food options on the station concourse, which is a hive of activity for most of the day.
After this we headed back to our hotel and watched Terminator in Italian – the rock star life of a parent! We knew we needed our energy for an epic day of sightseeing the next day…
Day Two: Vatican and Walking Tour
Day Two Morning: Vatican, Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica
The Vatican is a must see for all ages: you can feel the history seep up from the pavements on this hallowed ground. As a bit of a history nerd, I wanted to see as much of the collection as possible. As a mum, I wanted to ensure the kids found the experience enjoyable. After much deliberation and research, I settled on a 2-hour guided tour that started at 8.30am. I know this might be early for some, but we are predominantly a family of larks so are usually up and raring to go by 6.30am! And there are a number of benefits to starting early:
- Up to 19,000 people can visit the Vatican a day – getting started early means you can avoid at least some of these crowds during your visit.
- There is no air-conditioning in the Vatican, so in the summer the only cool time to visit is in the morning.
- You will finish just in time to indulge and recharge over a long lunch – perfecto.
Being a part of a tour group is not something we usually buy into. However, if you want to fully appreciate the history, architecture and collections within the Vatican and Sistine Chapel I would recommend a guided tour. The site is huge, very busy and potentially overwhelming on a hot summer’s day. Having a friendly face to direct your attention to significant pieces is very welcome. We had headsets so we could hear our tour guide – this is standard practice, and we found the headsets very useful. Another bonus of joining a tour group is that they get access to the site before general entry starts at 9am.
I was concerned that 2 hours wouldn’t be long enough to fully appreciate the Vatican; I was right. You would need at least a full day to experience the full collection. However, 2 hours was the perfect amount of time to see the highlights of the collection and maintain the kids’ attention.
Once we’d finished our 2-hour tour of the Vatican ending in the Sistine Chapel, we regrouped and our tour guide took us into St. Peter’s Basilica via the short cut that can only be used by tour groups. This means you do not have to queue to get into St. Peter’s Basilica. This alone is one of the best reasons to take a tour if you are short on time: by the time we went into St. Peter’s at 10.30 am the queue was already over an hour long. Entrance to St. Peter’s Basilica is free, but you must pass through security to gain entrance and this can cause long queues to form. St. Peter’s Basilica is stunning and should not be missed. You should allow at least an hour for St. Peter’s but if you want to buy tickets for the ticketed sections you should allow longer. This blog offers advice a visit in detail: https://www.romewise.com/st-peters-basilica-rome.html.
Don’t want to join a tour but want to minimise time queueing? If you want to visit independently you could try to get to St. Peter’s Basilica for opening at 7am. Afterwards, you can go and buy tickets for the Vatican for the same day at the counter. You can pre-book directly, but you will still have to queue to collect the actual ticket. I researched extensively to see if there was a way to visit the Vatican and Basilica independently without having to stand in long queues; the consensus was it’s difficult in high season. You can risk the suggestion above, but we decided to bite the bullet and take a tour. However, this does come at a cost.
Booking Tickets for the Vatican
You can try and book directly on the Vatican website here: https://tickets.museivaticani.va/home. Tickets sell out early so book ahead.
After hours of research on the internet I booked using Get Your Guide. I booked a tour called ‘Rome: Vatican, Sistine Chapel Tour and Skip-the Line Basilica’ with City Lights Tours. Just to clarify: this type of ticket takes you via the shortcut from the Sistine Chapel into St. Peter’s avoiding the queue but does not include a tour of the Basilica; the tour guide will leave you at the entrance to enjoy the Basilica independently. I suggest you download the Get Your Guide app so you have access to your digital tickets and details of the meeting location to hand. For 2 children, aged 8 and 10, and 2 adults it cost 218 euros. If we were visiting Rome in a quieter, cooler season I would risk just rocking up and queuing for tickets and entry.
This blog was really useful for planning our Vatican trip: https://www.romewise.com/visiting-the-vatican.html
TOP TIPS FOR THE VATICAN:
Wear clothes that cover knees and shoulders.
Bring water in clear plastic bottles.
Avoid Wednesdays when there is a Papal audience – unless you want to see the Pope, that is.
Book ahead in high season and ensure your tour includes the Basilica so you can avoid the queue.
Day Two Afternoon: Walking City Tour
Vatican City – Castel Sant’Angelo – Piazza Navona – Pantheon – Trevi Fountain – Spanish Steps
Once you leave St. Peter’s make sure you take a moment to fully appreciate St. Peter’s Square. My son started to feel unwell so my husband whisked him back to the hotel for a sleep; my girl and me hit the city 😊.
Navigating your way around the city: you can use this suggested route which uses historical, pedestrianised streets as much as possible or use google maps to guide you from one site to the next.
Timings: We left St. Peter’s Square at 11.45 and arrived at the Spanish Steps at 3pm. We didn’t rush and stopped for a slice of pizza, a bit of shopping and ice-cream, and I had a 10-year-old with me, so you should be able to do the same walking tour in two and a half hours should you want to. If you visit the Pantheon or other sites along the way and stop for a lazy lunch this itinerary could potentially take a full day.
The route: On leaving St. Paul’s head straight across St. Peter’s Square and walk down Via della Conciliazione. As you walk down this grand and busy street you can visit the Museo Leonardo Da Vinci on the right-hand side of the street. Walk all the way down the street (just keep going straight) and you will reach Castel Sant’Angelo, a castle and museum you can visit should you wish to. Cross Ponte Sant’Angelo built by Emperor Hadrian. Cross the road to walk up Via del Banco di Santo Spirito and take the first left onto Via dei Coronari. This is a beautiful old street lined with restaurants and shops, the perfect place to refuel. Follow Via dei Coronari all the way to Piazza Navona. Built on the site of an ancient stadium, the square is most famous for the Fountain of the Four Rivers. There are lots of restaurants around the square where you can pause and soak up the history.
When you’re ready head to the south of the piazza and turn left to head east towards the Pantheon. There’s a warren of streets in this old part of Rome, but essentially if you head due east from Piazza Navona, you will find the Pantheon. Follow Via dei Canestrari, cross Corso del Rinascimento onto Via Sediari which you walk on until you have to turn left onto Via del Teatro Valle, turn left at Piazza di Sant Eustachio and left again onto Via di Sant Eustachio. Turn right at the top and you should be able to see the Pantheon. You now need to pay to enter this iconic temple. You can book in advance or try to buy tickets at the door. By the time we arrived at midday the queue was long, and it was baking hot, so we took the obligatory photo and continued exploring.
From the Fontano del Pantheon, face the Pantheon and head left up Via dei Pastini. Again, the streets leading to the Trevi Fountain are filled with shops, restaurants and history. The narrow streets here mean it can feel quite busy, so keep your little people close. Follow Via dei Pastini to Piazza di Pietra, then pick up Via di Pietra. Cross Via del Corso onto Via delle Muratte and follow this to the Trevi Fountain – just follow the crowds if you’re unsure. Do take some time to enjoy the Trevi Fountain. If like us, you arrive mid-afternoon on a baking hot day, it can all feel a little overwhelming at first – it will be busy. But if you take a moment to find a seat and relax, you’ll notice the ebb and flow of humanity and you will get brief moments of calm and serenity.
When you have soaked up the beauty of the Trevi Fountain, walk to the right of the fountain and head north on Via della Stamperia, cross Via del Tritone and take Via del Nazareno (look for the McDonalds) to the end of the street where you will pick up Via di Sant’Andrea delle Fratte. Keep heading north, the street turns into Via di Propoganda which leads to Piazza di Spagna and the iconic Spanish Steps. And of course – you must walk up the steps.
Me and my girl had a blast and visited these iconic sites in one afternoon. Exhausted and slightly overdosed on history and architecture, we took the Metro back to our hotel.
For dinner, we decided to stay close to the hotel and again try for an early night to prepare us for another big day of sightseeing. We ate at Mercato Centrale, an artisan food market at Rome Termini. The concept is similar to a Time Out market, there are stalls serving a range of farm to kitchen, artisan produce for a range of budgets and tastes and in the centre is a bar. The best thing about eating here as a family is everyone can eat what they fancy as you can order from any stall. I took the opportunity to try the local delicacy of deep-fried artichokes whilst the kids tucked into some juicy steak, and the husband had sushi. This pick and mix concept is an excellent choice for families and again it’s open all day so no need to wait till 7pm for dinner. Mercato Centrale is tucked away at the back of Rome Termini and feels very separate from the train station itself – well worth a visit.
Day Three: Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Roman Forum and a Late Lunch
Day Three Morning: Colosseum, Palatine Hill, Roman Forum
The Colosseum is iconic and an absolute must see when in Rome. I had wanted to book tickets that allowed access to all the areas of the Colosseum but due to our budget and ticket scarcity I booked a standard ticket – I’m so glad I did! Standard access allows you to walk around the upper floor of the Colosseum and peer down to the Arena floor. This is the best vantage point. We booked tickets for 9am entry – I would highly recommend you do the same if visiting in summer with children. We met the guide at 8.45 who escorted us into the Colosseum and gave us just after an hour to explore – which was ample time to view the areas of the site we could access, listen to the bits of the audio guide we thought were useful and do the obligatory trip to the gift shop.
Once we re-grouped the guide walked us up to the entrance of the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill which share the same entrance. Here the guide left us. This site is HUGE and on reflection we would have benefitted from a guide here – having someone identify the highlights for you in a child friendly way would have helped us engage fully with what was under our feet. We walked up the Palatine Hill to view the Roman Forum, which is an extensive ruin to explore. By this time, it was 11am, 40 degrees and very busy, so after a short sweaty wander we admitted defeat and retreated back to our hotel for some respite from the heat. This site is a must for lovers of history, but I think we were asking too much from the kids to be able to fully engage with the historical importance of the site. There are kid friendly tours available which get great reviews should you wish to try them. In lower temperatures, I think you could happily wander around the site without a guide. In the summer, I would really recommend a guide because the site is vast, fully exposed to the sun and not well signposted. A guide will allow you to maximise your time within the site before you bake.
Booking Tickets
Your coliseum ticket also provides access to Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum for 24 hours. I tried to book tickets directly on the website, but it was impossible – there is a new system being introduced which might make this easier for you. A limited number of tickets get released for pre-booking 30 days in advance every day, but booking these is difficult as they sell out immediately and the site is very glitchy. After much fretting and hours wasted on the Parco Colosseo website, I decided to follow the advice I’d read online and book a tour.
There are a bewildering array of ticket types on offer but the main things to look for is if you are paying for a guide or not. If not, take a tour that offers a downloadable audio guide and download it using your hotel Wi-Fi before you arrive. Also, the standard ticket does not provide access to the arena floor or the underground area, if you really want to see these areas make sure you book the right ticket. Whilst we were quite happy seeing the coliseum without a guide, we felt that the Forum did require a guide. Next time we will take a guide and not visit in July.
Day Three Afternoon: Pasta and Pizza
Rome is famous for its pasta and we were keen to sample some. Both our kids are larks, which meant dining in the evening was difficult as restaurants opened as our kids were ready to go to sleep. So a late lunch is always our preference. There are so many options to choose from and I’d made a mental note of all the recommendations from Stanley Tucci’s TV show: Searching for Italy. However, lots of places were either closed at lunch time or fully booked so we went with a guide’s recommendation: Da Francesco. The food was good, but it wasn’t really the grand epicurean feast I had hoped for in Rome. But I see this as another reason to return in a different season.
After this late lunch we wandered through the streets and bought a few souvenirs. There were still lots of sites left to see but our time was up in the eternal city. I wish I had booked to stay another day as I do think 3 days is a bit tight however it is enough time to see the highlights. We thought Rome was epic – we hope you do too!
