Top 10 Things You Must See & Do During Your Stay In Rome

Your stay in Rome is all about your state of mind. Making every hour count means letting the timeless grandeur and beauty of the place seep into your blood. So, keep your eyes open for the little things that aren’t on any list, the nooks and nuances of this ancient city, which remind me that after 10 years of living here my time in Rome has been but a blink in the city’s eye.Even if it doesn’t ever really change, Rome always has the power to surprise.

1. Hang Out in the Pantheon –

The Pantheon in Rome is, In a city that is simply replete with important historic buildings and monuments, the Pantheon still manages to stand out. Because while the Forum requires a spectacular imagination and even the Colosseum is a shell of its former self, the Pantheon looks today – inside and out – much the way it has for nearly 2,000 years. Those marble floors you’re walking on? Yeah, people have been walking on them for two thousand years. The building’s been in constant use for two thousand years. Sun (or rain, depending on when you visit) has been streaming through the oculus for. If book history leaves you yawning, give real-life history a try.

2. Walk Through History in the Roman Forum –

The Roman Forum was ancient Rome’s showpiece centre, a grandiose district of marble-clad temples, proud basilicas and vibrant public spaces. Today, its impressive but badly labelled ruins give some hint of this but you’ll still have to use your imagination to picture it as it once was.

3. Circle the Colosseum, Inside & Out –

Rome’s most famous monument, it’s the largest remaining Roman-era amphitheatre anywhere, and although the inside was used as something of a rock quarry for later building projects, it’s still a fascinating look back at one very important (though gruesome) aspect of life in the ancient capital.

4. Get a Tour of Vatican City –

Vatican City is technically its own independent city-state, a good guide will also help you understand the context of what you’re seeing as well. And whether or not you’re Catholic, a visit to St. Peter’s Basilica is made infinitely more interesting when you know what it is you’re looking at.

5. Stroll the Trastevere Streets –

The cobbled streets are mostly car-free, the restaurants and cafes serve up some of the cheapest eats you’ll find in Rome (and it’s good, too), the shops aren’t hawking the usual tourist crap, and the piazza in front of the Santa Maria in Trastevere church (which is beautiful) is as charming and delightful as you’d find in any Tuscan hill town. After nightfall, the Trastevere becomes the place to be for young locals and travelers alike, so it loses its “retreat” quality after dark, but it then becomes interesting for many other reasons.

6. Check Out the Cappuchin Crypt –

The Cappuchin Crypt, It’s not big, so it’s a quick visit, but seeing several small chapels decorated (if one can use so mundane a word for this) with the bones of more than 4,000 Cappuchin monks definitely falls into the “creepy” category for some people.

7. Eat Something Typically Roman –

One of the most popular cheeses in Roman cooking is pecorino, and one of the favorite dishes of my many Rome-loving friends is cacio e pepe – a simple pasta dish with lots of pecorino romano and black pepper. Order yourself a plate of Jewish-style carciofi, or artichokes, which are deep-fried. But as Italian cooking is all about seasonal ingredients, you can only get carciofi in the spring when they’re fresh. Other common Roman pasta dishes, which you may be familiar with from restaurants outside Italy but should try in the place where they come from, are bucatiniall’amatriciana (a tomato sauce cooked with onion and a fatty pork called guanciale) and spaghetti allacarbonara (the sauce is made from egg yolks, pecorino romano, and pancetta).

8. Do Some People-Watching at the Trevi Fountain –

It gets pretty amusing, actually – especially when the designated photographer or videographer goofs up and the whole process has to be repeated, this opportunity to slurp down some gelato that you bring your cone or cup from elsewhere, as the gelaterie around the fountain are overpriced and not as good as you can find in other nearby neighborhoods.

9. Visit Another Church in Rome –

Many of the churches in Rome house works of art by masters, artists whose names you know, and there’s often no fee to get in, so it’s a bargain traveler’s dream, too.  At the very least, poke your head inside any church you see that looks even vaguely interesting – you might end up finding what is, to you, a hidden Roman treasure. And that’s one of the best things that can happen when you travel.

10. Browse the Campo deiFiori Markets –

Every Italian city has an outdoor market where you can buy foodstuffs, and cities the size of Rome have several. But the one that’s worth your time to visit is the market at Campo deiFiori. It’s not far from the famous Piazza Navona, and while the name means “field of flowers” it’s been the setting for a daily morning food market since the mid-1800s. Far from being just a tourist attraction, the market at Campo deiFiori – like nearly all Italian food markets – is where locals come to stock their kitchens.

– Pratiksha Trivedi