3 Days in Rome: Your Ultimate First-Timer’s Guide

Rome can be a daunting city to explore with its rich history. People will tell you that you can see everything in 3 days, but they’re wrong. Seeing is one thing, but savoring the history is another. Rome was the last city in our summer Italian vacation and it felt like the perfect recap for our travel. It had the food, the history, and the flexibility to choose your adventure. We spent 3 days in Rome and honestly could have spent some more time. I’m glad we didn’t try to cram everything in though. Here’s our itinerary for the perfect 3 days in Rome.

Pre-Visit Activity Reservation

Rome is a busy city so it’s in your best interest to figure out which sites you want to see so you can make the necessary reservations.

• For us, visiting the Colosseum was a must. We recommend signing up for a tour guide as you’ll get more details of its history and significance. It helps you appreciate how the buildings are standing after two thousand years! There are several tiers of Colosseum tours you can get with the hardest to get being the full underground tour. Underground access tickets are on sale on the official website every morning at 8:45 AM local time. You can access the website ~15 min ahead of time to get into the virtual queue to buy tickets if you’re lucky. You can try to purchase tour guides available on Viator or GetYourGuide with access to this if you’re unable to secure tickets through the official website. Your ticket will grant you access to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill as well.
• St. Peter’s Basilica and Vatican City: Entry is free but will require you to line up for entry. You can make a ticket reservation online but will have to pay a fee. This includes a digital audio guide during your visit. If you’re looking to see the Vatican City, we highly recommend you make a reservation online to save some time. If you manage to wake up early to get in line, it shouldn’t be too long. We stopped by here during the middle of the day and were told it would take over an hour to get in! When you’re on a limited time, you want to maximize your time as much as possible.

Day 1 – Arriving in Rome

Depending on your travel, you’ll spend part of your first day getting into Rome. We opted for a Taxi to get us to our VRBO stay as it’s a fixed rate to get to central Rome (within the Aurelian Walls) is €55.00. We were staying in Trastevere and this was worth the convenience as no metro would take us here with our luggage.

Tip: Taxi rates are fixed and they must accept credit cards. Before you get into the car, verify their card machine is working. If the taxi driver tries to tell you only cash, find another taxi. We made the mistake of asking if the card machine was working after we got in the car. It was a very uncomfortable ride as the taxi driver tried to stop at multiple ATMs to encourage us to get cash. You can find a list of the predetermined rates here.

After arriving at your stay, we recommend spending the rest of the day getting settled and acquainted with Rome. We did this by walking around Trastevere in the evening and having an early dinner. We knew the next few days would be busy, so we wanted to get ample rest.

Day 2 – Food Tour & Colosseum Visit

I booked an afternoon Colosseum tour to give Reid and me time to explore more of Rome in the morning. We started our day with a food tour in Testaccio, a neighborhood that felt more local than your touristy area such as Trastevere. I chose this tour due to its great reviews and did not regret it. We enjoyed our time with Giuseppe who shared with us the history of the places we went to and about Testaccio overall. It was refreshing to see another area of Rome that wasn’t inundated with tourists and captured more of a local touch. Highly recommend this food tour if you’re in Rome. This was a bit of a splurge, but for 3 hours with such a knowledgeable guide, it was worth it.

We ended our tour at a gelato shop and quickly walked over to the Roman Forum to start our guided tour. I wasn’t successful in securing the underground arena tour so I opted for a tour guide instead. We spent ~2.5 hours between the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and the Colosseum. Unfortunately, our ticket didn’t include the underground arena tour, but it was still an informational guide. Our guide had a small book to show us the reconstructed images of the Roman Forum vs. what was left. It helped illustrate how incredible the Roman Forum was back in its day. This guided tour was another splurge for us, but the tour guide’s knowledge and the express entrance tickets made up for it.

Afterward, you could walk north toward the Trevi Fountain to see the Monument to Victor Emmanuel II, Piazza Navona, Pantheon, etc. If you’re visiting in 2025, you may see these landmarks under construction due to the Rome Jubilee 2025. When we visited, both the Monument to Victor Emmanuel II and Piazza Navona had a lot of areas closed off due to restoration work. We found out the Trevi Fountain underwent restoration work a few weeks after we visited. If you’re adamant about seeing these landmarks, it may be best to visit towards the end of 2025 or 2026. Part of traveling is flexibility so don’t be too bummed if you’re unable to see some of these famous landmarks!

Day 3 – Rome Wanderings

If we had another day in Rome, I would have spent a few hours in the Vatican City to see all of its offerings including St. Peter’s Basilica. But I wanted to have one full day wandering around Rome with no real itinerary to give Reid and me a chance to immerse ourselves in Rome.

It’s always important to start the day with a full stomach, especially if you’re walking around a lot. We opted for brunch at Barnum Roma which reminded me so much of home. Towards the end of our trip, I was missing what felt like an American Brunch and this place hit the spot. Everything was so fresh and their coffee was to die for. The line can get long so try to get here early if you’re looking to eat here.

If you’ve seen the Netflix show Chef’s Table: Pizza, you know they featured Gabriele Bonchi for his Roman-style pizza with unusual toppings. This was a must-visit pizza place for us, Bonci Pizzarium. It was a little far for us, especially since we weren’t near any metros. However, this allowed us to visit the Vatican City on our way here.

The Vatican City is hard to miss with its magnificent structures and heavily armed police officers. Entrance to St. Peter’s Basilica is free, but the entrance line was extremely long during lunchtime. We were told it would be over an hour-long wait to enter and to try again tomorrow morning if we wanted to enter. Instead, we walked around the Vatican City and took some photos to share with my mom. I thought the Palermo Cathedral was breathtaking, but St. Peter’s Basilica gives this a run for its money. I’m going to have to see this place the next time I’m in Rome.

Bonci Pizzarium will have a long line so don’t come too hungry or else you may get hangry. Once you arrive, make sure you take a number as the ladies upfront will be calling numbers to serve. The toppings here were definitely on the unique side… a little too unique. We got about ~$50 worth of pizza and maybe finished half of it. This was on the pricier side and not worth it in our opinion. We were disappointed since this was out of our way and had hyped it up in our minds. The pizza dough itself was good, but toppings were questionable. Perhaps we picked the wrong toppings but still a good experience. If you’re on a budget though, you can get better pizza elsewhere for a fraction of what we paid for here. Fortunately, Bonci Pizzarium is next to a metro and it was easy to get to Trevi Fountain for more exploring.

As we stayed in Trastevere, we opted for Tonnarello Scala for dinner as it was around the corner from where we were staying. The food here was so good! Definitely get here early if you can since it can get super busy. There are 2 locations for this restaurant. Trastevere is a bustling place so you can’t go wrong if you pick a different restaurant.

Rome Restaurant Recommendations

We stopped at a handful of places to try during our stay here, but here are some of the notable spots we went to.

• Tonnarello Scala: Lovely restaurant in Trastevere that has 2 locations! Get here early or else you may be waiting for a while. The staff were so friendly and the food was amazing. I still think about the Carbonara to this day!
• Mimi e Coco Trast: Another restaurant in Trastevere that had a homey feel to it. It’s a small restaurant so the wait can be long. Well worth the wait!
• Gelateria Pasquino: Gelato in Italy will be amazing, but the ingredients here are so fresh we came back for seconds!
• Barnum Roma: Fantastic brunch spot with wonderful coffee. Get here early if you’re looking to eat here as this place is small and the wait can be long.
• Tiramisú Merisù: I love Tiramisu and wanted something else besides gelato for dessert one night and came across this place. They serve a variety of tiramisu flavors and you could see them assemble it in front of your eyes!
• Da Teo a Testaccio: The pizza here was amazing, especially the porchetta. So soft and perfectly flavored. This was included in the food tour guide, but I didn’t realize we were going there until we were in front of the food stall. You won’t regret making a stop here.

Important Travel Tips

• Taxi Stands: Our flight out of Rome was at 7 am and we were trying to figure out the best way to secure a taxi since we were staying in Trastevere. Our VRBO host offered to call a car for us, but it would have been an additional €10 on top of the €55 to get to the airport. If you’re staying in or near Trastevere or somewhere that isn’t easily accessible by taxis, you should go to a taxi stand. Taxis are running 24/7 and they’ll make their rounds around these stands to pick up passengers. We went to Stazione Taxi Gioachino Belli and found a taxi within 5 minutes!
• Rome has water fountains throughout the city. You don’t have to pay for water! Bring your bottled water with you and you can easily refill at any water fountain. This was such a refreshing change for us having been in Sicily.