The Shortlist: Curated Guides for Intentional Travelers

A Pocket Guide to Rome: Beyond the Icons

Posted on by ScottAllenWilson
A Pocket Guide to Rome: Beyond the Icons
28
Jul

I’ve been to Rome thirty-six times. I know that sounds like a lot, and honestly it surprises me too when I say it out loud. But Rome is one of those cities that keeps pulling you back- and every single time, without fail, I find something I hadn’t noticed before.

Most people experience Rome in a very specific sequence. The Colosseum, the Vatican, the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona. And those things are genuinely extraordinary- I’m not going to pretend otherwise. But what I want to share in this post is everything else. The version of Rome that doesn’t make the highlight reel but that, once you’ve found it, is the reason you keep coming back.

This is for the repeat traveller who has already done the big list. It’s also for the first-timer who wants to add some depth beyond the obvious. And if you’re a local who wants a reason to get out of your comfort zone on a Tuesday afternoon- this is for you too.

As always, this guide is a starting point, not the final word. If something is missing that you think deserves a spot, or if you see something that feels like it needs to be updated – leave a comment or reach out directly. I’d genuinely love to hear it.

A Pocket Guide to Rome: Beyond the Icons
A Pocket Guide to Rome: Beyond the Icons

Welcome to Rome

CHAPTERS – I’ve sorted everything below into chapters, and sub-chapters. Click on any chapter name, or sub-chapter link to jump directly to more details about it inside this post.

CITY HIGHLIGHTS

  • Galleria Sciarra: An overlooked Art Nouveau courtyard that most people walk straight past
  • Vicus Caprarius: A forgotten underground city right below the Trevi district. Website: https://www.vicuscaprarius.com/en/ 
  • Domus Aurea: Nero’s buried Golden House, with archaeologists still digging
  • Piè di Marmo: A giant marble foot sitting in an alley near the Pantheon
  • Porta Alchemica: An alchemist’s magic door in the middle of a Roman park

NEIGHBORHOODS

  • Testaccio : Working-class Rome, home of Roman cuisine, a hill made entirely of broken pots
  • Garbatella : The garden suburb that most visitors never find
  • EUR : Mussolini’s unfinished world’s fair, frozen in marble
  • Pigneto: Pasolini’s neighborhood, good aperitivo, more edge than most
  • Prati : Elegant, local, right across the river from the Vatican
  • Ostiense : Industrial bones, street art, the Gazometro
  • Monti : Rome’s village in the middle of the city

CHURCHES YOU’VE PROBABLY MISSED

ART & GALLERIES

  • Galleria Borghese: Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne. One of those rooms you don’t leave quickly.
  • Centrale Montemartini: Ancient sculptures inside a power plant. Far more memorable than its low profile suggests.
  • Palazzo Doria Pamphilj: A private palace gallery still run by the family, with Velázquez’s portrait of Innocent X
  • Palazzo Altemps: Classical sculpture in a beautiful Renaissance palace, very quiet
  • Galleria Colonna: One of Rome’s finest private collections, limited open days
  • Villa Farnesina: Raphael’s loggia, the Tiber just outside, and a great story about tableware
  • MAXXI: Zaha Hadid’s contemporary art museum in the north of the city

BARS, BEER & WINE

  • Bir & Fud: Same team as above, across the street, with actual food
  • Open Baladin: The largest craft beer selection in the city
  • Freni e Frizioni: Trastevere aperitivo institution, good spritz, spills onto the street

FOOD

  • Mercato Testaccio: The real food market. Supplì, carciofi alla giudia, everything.
  • Supplizio: If you’re near Campo de’ Fiori, this is the one to know
  • Roscioli: Part deli, part wine bar, part restaurant. One of the best carbonaras in Rome.
  • Er Buchetto: A porchetta hatch near Termini that’s been there for over a century
  • Trapizzino: A Roman invention- pizza bianca pocket filled with braised Roman classics
  • Alfredo e Ada: Five tables, family-run, near Campo de’ Fiori. The kind of place you’re glad someone told you about.
  • Tonnarello: Classic Roman trattoria, Trastevere, always full for a reason
  • Fatamorgana: Artisanal gelato with unusual flavor combinations
  • Pizzarium – Bonci: Pizza al taglio by the man who reinvented Roman pizza

PARKS & GREEN AREAS

  • Gianicolo: One of the best panoramic views in Rome, and a cannon that fires at noon every day

DAY TRIPS WORTH MAKING

There’s a version of the city that sits right next to all the famous stuff- sometimes literally a two-minute walk away- and that most people walk straight past. These are some of those places.

The Aventine Keyhole Walk up to the Piazza Cavalieri di Malta on the Aventine Hill, put one eye up to the keyhole in the big green door, and look through. What you’ll see is Michelangelo’s dome of St. Peter’s perfectly framed at the end of a long tunnel of manicured hedges- floating there, impossibly close, like something out of a dream. What makes it even more surreal is that you’re looking from Italy, through the extraterritorial property of the Sovereign Order of Malta, toward Vatican City. Italy, the Order of Malta, and Vatican City, lined up in one glance through a keyhole. It takes about ten seconds to look through the keyhole. The walk up the Aventine is the occasion. The Giardino degli Aranci is right around the corner. Free and always open.

Galleria Sciarra Most people walk straight past this one. Galleria Sciarra is a covered courtyard just off Via Marco Minghetti, near the Trevi area, and inside the walls are covered floor to ceiling in elaborate Art Nouveau frescoes- figures, garlands, allegories, all of it ornate and completely unexpected. It’s free to walk into, it’s almost always empty, and it’s one of those places in Rome where you feel like you’ve actually found something.

Quartiere Coppedè If you want something genuinely unlike anything else in Rome, Quartiere Coppedè in the Trieste neighborhood is it. The architect Gino Coppedè built this small cluster of buildings in the early 20th century as what can only be described as an architectural fantasy- there are towers, arches, spider webs in iron, gargoyles, mosaics, and decorative details that belong in a fairy tale rather than a European capital. The centerpiece is the Piazza Mincio with its Fountain of the Frogs. Nobody is entirely sure what the whole thing is meant to mean, which is part of what makes it worth going. Far fewer visitors make it out here, the streets around it are quiet, and it photographs beautifully.

Vicus Caprarius A few minutes walk from the Trevi Fountain, right underneath the Trevi district, there’s an entirely different Rome. Vicus Caprarius is an underground archaeological site- a sort of forgotten city of water discovered during archaeological work between 1999 and 2001, during the renovation of a former cinema on the site. You descend into ancient cisterns and streets with original Roman architecture still visible, and it’s genuinely eerie in the best way. Small, quiet, and about as far from the Trevi crowds as you can get while still being about 100 meters (328 feet) away.

Domus Aurea Nero’s Golden House is one of those Rome experiences that people who’ve done it always describe with the same slightly disbelieving tone. The site is mostly underground, across from the Colosseum, and it’s an active archaeological dig- you go in with a guide and walk through rooms that are still being excavated and researched. It’s usually open Friday to Sunday, and because it’s an active site with strict climate controls, ticketing is far more limited than you’d expect. Book well ahead, especially in high season. The experience is nothing like a regular museum and completely worth the effort.

The Roman Forum Viewpoint The first time I found it, getting there meant walking all the way around the Roman Forum, past Circus Maximus, and then continuing up a long hill that didn’t really give me much along the way. There isn’t some steady stream of beautiful distractions pulling you forward. That’s part of why I like it. Then you get to the top and find yourself at a low wall overlooking the Forum with the ruins laid out below you toward the Colosseum. It’s quiet, a little strange, and completely worth the effort. I shared the coordinates with a friend years ago because it felt like one of those tips you pass on once you’ve found it yourself. Coordinates: 41.8924077, 12.4836619.

Piè di Marmo Piè di Marmo – a giant ancient marble foot sitting on a pedestal in a small alley near the Pantheon, fragment of an enormous statue that nobody has identified. It’s the kind of thing that’s very Rome- extraordinary object, unremarkable location, no fanfare.

Torre Argentina Torre Argentina – the spot where Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, now home to dozens of cats cared for by a volunteer sanctuary. You can look down into the ruins from street level for free.

Pyramid of Cestius + Non-Catholic Cemetery Pyramid of Cestius + Non-Catholic Cemetery – Rome has a proper ancient pyramid and most first-time visitors are genuinely shocked by it. Behind it is one of the more beautiful and quiet places in the city: the non-Catholic cemetery where Keats and Shelley are buried. Also has cats.

Baths of Caracalla Baths of Caracalla – colossal in scale, close to the Colosseum, and one of the most undervisited major sites in Rome. Genuinely impressive. Rarely crowded.

Capitoline Museums Capitoline Museums – not exactly overlooked, but most people who visit don’t make it to the Tabularium at the far end, which has the best views of the Roman Forum you’ll find anywhere. There’s also a rooftop café with great views of the centro storico and the Theater of Marcellus- small, usually quiet, good for a break.

Museum of the Holy Souls in Purgatory Museum of the Holy Souls in Purgatory – a tiny, genuinely strange museum attached to a church near the Tiber that houses objects supposedly singed by the hands of souls in purgatory reaching out from beyond. It’s free, it takes about ten minutes, and you’ll be thinking about it for the rest of the day.

Porta Alchemica Porta Alchemica – an alchemist’s “magic door” in Piazza Vittorio, covered in esoteric symbols, built by an eccentric Marquis in the 17th century. No one knows exactly what it was for.

Testaccio is where a lot of the things that make Rome feel like Rome actually happen. The neighborhood built its identity around the old slaughterhouse- the ex-Mattatoio- which ran until 1975, and that history is directly connected to why this is considered the birthplace of classic Roman cuisine. The offal dishes, the nose-to-tail cooking, the stuff that tourists tend to skip- it all comes from here. The other defining feature of Testaccio is Monte Testaccio, which looks like a natural hill but is actually a mound made up of roughly 50 million broken ancient amphorae- mostly olive oil containers, many imported from Roman Spain. Once emptied, they were smashed and stacked. Over centuries, the pile became a hill. The bars and clubs carved into its base are some of the more atmospheric spots in the city at night. There’s a whole evening to be built around this neighborhood alone- market in the morning, lunch at Flavio, drinks somewhere along the base of the hill. Metro Line B to Piramide.

Garbatella is one of those places that even people who’ve been to Rome multiple times have never heard of, and it’s genuinely one of my favorites. It’s about 5 km (3.1 miles) from the historic center, and was designed in the 1920s as a kind of Garden City- low-rise housing blocks facing communal courtyards and internal gardens, closer in atmosphere to a village than a capital. The architecture is distinctive in a way that nothing else in Rome is, the streets are quiet, and the whole neighborhood has a lived-in warmth that’s very hard to find in the more visited parts of the city. Centrale Montemartini is also right here, so there are two very good reasons to make the trip. Metro Line B to Garbatella.

EUR stands for Esposizione Universale Roma. Mussolini planned it as the site for a 1942 World’s Fair to celebrate twenty years of fascism- construction started in 1938, the war intervened, and the exhibition never happened. What was built before everything stopped is still there: wide axial roads, white marble, and a very specific kind of silence. The centerpiece is the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana– locally called the Colosseo Quadrato, or Square Colosseum- six rows of nine arches, symmetrical on every face, currently the headquarters of Fendi. It’s been described as walking through a de Chirico painting, and that description is accurate. Completely unlike any other part of Rome, and almost entirely tourist-free. Metro Line B to EUR Palasport or EUR Fermi.

Pigneto is the neighborhood most associated with Pier Paolo Pasolini- he filmed parts of Accattone here in 1961 and the area has been carrying that association ever since. It’s an alternative, slightly rough-edged area east of the center with a strong aperitivo scene, good street food, and a crowd that’s mostly young and local. Gentrification has made inroads but it still has more character than most of the inner neighborhoods. Go for early evening, stay later than you planned.

Prati is the neighborhood directly across the Tiber from the Vatican and one of the nicest places in Rome to feel like a regular person rather than a tourist. Elegant 19th-century streets, good restaurants, independent shops, a local crowd. Via Cola di Rienzo is the main commercial street and worth a wander. If you’re going to the Vatican, add a couple of hours in Prati before or after- it’s one of those combinations that works really well.

Ostiense is the industrial district that connects Testaccio and Garbatella, and it’s been slowly transforming into one of the better spots in Rome for nightlife, aperitivo bars, and street art without losing its rough industrial character. The Gazometro– a massive decommissioned gas holder- dominates the skyline here and has become one of the more distinctive visual landmarks in the city. The area around it at night is worth exploring.

Monti is arguably the closest thing Rome has to a proper neighborhood village in the center of the city. Narrow streets, independent shops, good aperitivo, and a local crowd that’s held its ground despite the neighborhood’s popularity. It sits right between the Colosseum and the historic center. Easy to add an evening here to almost any Roman itinerary. One of my favorite spots to slow down is Piazza della Madonna dei Monti– a small, genuinely local piazza that doesn’t try to be anything other than what it is. People sit on the fountain steps, locals pass through, and the pace drops in a way that’s easy to appreciate after a morning of heavy history.

Rome apparently has over 900 churches. Here are the ones I think deserve to be on your list if you’ve already covered the obvious ones.

San Luigi dei Francesi is the French national church in Rome, tucked between the Pantheon and Piazza Navona, and it contains three Caravaggio paintings. Free to see. They’re in the Contarelli Chapel at the left of the nave: The Calling of Saint Matthew, The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew, and The Inspiration of Saint Matthew. Apparently the first major commission of Caravaggio’s career, and what made his reputation in Rome. The Calling of Saint Matthew is the one people stand in front of for a long time- the light entering the dark room, the figures at the table, the question of who exactly Jesus is pointing at. It just holds you. And you walk in off the street for nothing.

San Pietro in Vincoli looks completely unremarkable from outside. You go in for Michelangelo’s Moses, the centerpiece of what was apparently meant to be a tomb for Pope Julius II- a project Michelangelo worked on intermittently for over forty years. The Moses is seated, tablets under his arm, with an expression that sits somewhere between fury and exhaustion. It’s one of those sculptures where you genuinely cannot believe it’s stone. The scale of it inside that modest church space is a real shock. Near the Colosseum, free entry.

Santo Stefano Rotondo is one of the earliest round churches in the Christian world, and the interior is enormous and hushed in a way that’s very different from the baroque grandeur most people associate with Rome. The walls are lined with 16th-century frescoes depicting the martyrdom of early Christian saints in graphic detail. Charles Dickens visited and called them “ugly, horrible, nightmarish.” I’ve also seen it described as the most beautiful church in Rome. Both reactions are completely understandable. Almost never crowded.

Sant’Ignazio di Loyola is about a five-minute walk from the Pantheon and contains one of the best optical illusions in Rome- which is saying something. The ceiling fresco depicts a vast architectural space opening up above the nave, and it looks completely real until you find the small disc on the floor that marks the only spot from which the illusion works. Stand on it, look up, and it’s astonishing. Move two steps and it collapses. There’s also a fake dome in the transept- a flat trompe l’oeil that passes as three-dimensional. Worth stopping for even if you’ve already reached your church limit for the day.

Santi Quattro Coronati is a fortified medieval basilica on the Caelian Hill, between the Colosseum and San Giovanni in Laterano. Still run by an order of nuns. The atmosphere inside feels genuinely medieval in a way that’s unusual even for Rome. The draw is the cloister- small, serene, with a central fountain, and a quiet that’s very hard to find anywhere else in the city. You ring a bell to enter. Small donation. Almost nobody goes.

Santa Maria del Popolo two Caravaggios in the Cerasi Chapel (Conversion of Saint Paul and Crucifixion of Saint Peter), plus Raphael’s Chigi Chapel. Often significantly less crowded than it should be given what’s inside.

Santa Maria sopra Minerva Rome’s only Gothic church, with a Michelangelo statue of Christ the Redeemer inside and Bernini’s elephant carrying a small Egyptian obelisk right outside. Two minutes from the Pantheon, almost always quiet inside.

Santa Cecilia in Trastevere built on the traditional site of the home where Saint Cecilia was martyred. The Stefano Maderno sculpture of Cecilia as she was found in her tomb is one of the most moving things in Rome. Byzantine mosaics in the apse. Most people in Trastevere walk past it.

Sant’Ivo alla Sapienza Borromini’s spiral lantern dome from the 17th century, in the courtyard of the old university. The exterior alone is worth going to see. Limited opening hours- typically Sunday mornings.

Galleria Borghese If I had to choose one statue in Italy that I never get tired of seeing, Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne would be at or very close to the top. I’ve stood in front of it multiple times now, and every time I end up doing the same thing- slowly walking around it, trying to understand how he got that much movement and delicacy out of marble. What stays with me is the exact moment Bernini chose to carve. Daphne is still herself, but not for long. Apollo is reaching for her, but she’s already becoming something else. Her fingers branch out. Bark starts climbing her body. Her feet are taking root. The marble really does look soft in parts- the hair, the fabric, the transition from skin to bark. All of it feels impossible. The Borghese itself also helps because it doesn’t feel endless. You get your timed entry, you have a clear window, and you move through rooms where the art still has space around it. You’re not trying to digest an entire universe in one visit. Book in advance- visitor numbers are tightly controlled, and you should not count on walk-up availability.

Centrale Montemartini is an early 20th-century power plant in Ostiense that now houses a significant overflow collection of ancient Roman sculptures from the Capitoline Museums. Marble gods and classical busts placed in front of enormous industrial turbines and diesel engines. The combination is one of the most visually interesting museum setups I’ve been in anywhere- the kind of place that sounds unlikely on paper and lands completely in person. Never very crowded. It’s part of the Capitoline Museums system and is usually included in the Roma Pass circuit. Metro Line B to Garbatella. Open Tuesday to Sunday.

Palazzo Doria Pamphilj is on Via del Corso- one of the busiest streets in central Rome- and yet the gallery inside is consistently quiet. It’s still owned and run by the Pamphilj family, which gives the experience a different feeling from a state museum. You’re walking through rooms that were actually lived in. The collection has over 400 paintings, including Velázquez’s portrait of Pope Innocent X, which a lot of art critics apparently consider one of the finest portraits ever made. The pope saw it and reportedly said “troppo vero”- too true- which tells you everything about what Velázquez managed to catch. The gallery also has Caravaggio, Bernini, Raphael, and Titian, all in a setting that still feels like a private home. Somehow still one of the quieter art experiences in Rome.

Galleria Spada + Borromini’s Corridor near Campo de’ Fiori has a solid Baroque collection- Guido Reni, Titian, Artemisia Gentileschi- but the real reason to go is Borromini’s perspective corridor in the courtyard. It looks like a roughly 37-meter (121-foot) colonnade ending in a life-size statue of a warrior. It’s actually 8 meters (26 feet) long and the statue is 60 centimeters (24 inches) tall. The floor rises, the ceiling drops, and the columns shrink incrementally- all calibrated from exactly one viewpoint. The combined entry ticket is €6. One of the better deals in Rome.

Palazzo Massimo alle Terme right by Termini station and almost always quiet. The Livia frescoes on the upper floor- ancient Roman garden paintings recovered from a villa and displayed in reconstructed rooms- are extraordinary. One of those places that feels far more rewarding than its location next to a train station would suggest.

Palazzo Barberini national gallery of ancient art with Caravaggio’s Judith Beheading Holofernes, Raphael’s La Fornarina, and Holbein’s portrait of Henry VIII. Less visited than it should be.

Palazzo Altemps classical sculpture in a beautiful Renaissance palace near Piazza Navona. Part of the Museo Nazionale Romano network. Very quiet.

Galleria Colonna another private family collection, considered by many to be the finest in Rome. Open limited days and hours, worth planning around.

MAXXI Zaha Hadid’s contemporary art museum in the Flaminio neighborhood, north of the center. The building itself is worth the trip.

Villa Farnesina a short walk across the Tiber, and I think it doesn’t always get the attention it deserves, maybe because Rome has too many things competing for your time. The loggia decorated by Raphael is genuinely stunning, and the building doesn’t feel like a place that’s been worn smooth by too many visitors. The story I always think about involves Agostino Chigi, who commissioned it- he supposedly hosted Pope Julius II for a banquet and had the silver and gold tableware thrown into the Tiber after each course as a show of impossible wealth, only to have it all quietly recovered later by nets hidden in the water. Whether every detail is airtight I can’t say. But it feels completely at home in Rome, which is probably why it sticks.

Villa Giulia / Museo Etrusco one of the largest Etruscan collections in the world, in Villa Borghese. Consistently undervisited and excellent.

 

Ma Che Siete Venuti a Fà The name translates roughly as “What the hell did you come here for?” on Via Benedetta in Trastevere has been open since 2001 and is widely credited as one of the pioneering bars of Italian craft beer culture. It’s tiny, there’s barely anywhere to sit, they don’t serve food, and the chalkboard lists around 16 rotating taps of Italian and international craft beers. It keeps getting mentioned because it’s genuinely good. If you care about beer at all, it belongs on the list.

Bir & Fud is directly across the street from Macchè, same ownership, same quality of beer, slightly more space, and with an actual food menu- wood-fired pizza and good Roman street food. It’s a full evening rather than just a drink. Both bars together make for one of the better setups in Trastevere.

Open Baladin near Campo de’ Fiori is where you go if you want range. Over 100 bottled beers, dozens of taps, the full breadth of what Italian craft brewing looks like right now. More of a destination than a neighborhood bar, but if you want to do a proper deep dive into Italian craft beer in one sitting, this is the place.

Freni e Frizioni Trastevere aperitivo institution, good spritz, crowds that spill out onto the street. Classic early evening stop.

Like what you’re seeing so far? Click here to see the full Rome collection.

Mercato Testaccio is the best food market in Rome and one of the best I’ve been to in Italy. A covered market with produce stalls, cheese and salumi counters, butchers, and street food windows. The supplì are excellent- crispy, heavy with ragù, properly molten in the center. The carciofi alla giudia stall has a queue for good reason. Go before noon, go hungry. Open Monday to Saturday, mornings.

Supplì Roma is where I always send people for supplì. Roman supplì are fried rice croquettes- crispy outside, filled with mozzarella and ragù, properly molten when you bite into them. Eat them standing up outside. There’s a location in Trastevere that I keep coming back to, and it’s the kind of place that doesn’t need to be anything more than exactly what it is. If you’re near Campo de’ Fiori instead, Supplizio is worth knowing about.

Flavio al Velavevodetto is in Testaccio, built directly into the side of Monte Testaccio- the dining room is partly carved out of the hill of ancient broken amphorae. The cacio e pepe is one of the best versions I’ve had in Rome, and the setting is completely unlike anywhere else. Book ahead.

Checchino dal 1887 has been in Testaccio since 1887, directly across from the old slaughterhouse, and built its reputation on the fifth quarter- the offal and interior cuts that the slaughterhouse workers received as payment. This is where you eat coda alla vaccinara, rigatoni con pajata, trippa alla romana. If you want to understand where Roman cucina povera actually comes from, you come here. Not for everyone, but if you’re curious- this is the place.

Roscioli near Campo de’ Fiori is part deli, part wine bar, part restaurant. The counter at the front is stacked with an exceptional range of Italian and European cheese and salumi. The carbonara is frequently cited in serious food writing as one of the best versions in Rome. Small, book ahead.

Er Buchetto near Termini has apparently been serving porchetta sandwiches from the same hole-in-the-wall for over a century. It’s a hatch in a wall, essentially. But people who know about it talk about it the way Romans talk about things they actually care about- quietly, specifically, and with no interest in it becoming more well-known. Porchetta on fresh bread. That’s it.

Trapizzino is a Roman invention- a triangular pocket of pizza bianca dough filled with traditional Roman braised dishes. Pollo alla cacciatora, coda alla vaccinara, lingua in salsa verde. Invented here in Testaccio, now a small chain with a few Rome locations. Order two.

Forno Campo de’ Fiori has been baking on Campo de’ Fiori for decades. The pizza bianca- flat, olive oil, sea salt, still warm from the oven- is the reason to come. Arrive early. The best of what they make goes fast.

Pasticceria Boccione a 200-year-old Jewish bakery in the Ghetto, cash only, sells out every day. The crostata di ricotta e visciole is the one to try.

Alfredo e Ada small, simple, family-run place near Campo de’ Fiori. About five tables inside. Good food, no performance, prices that make sense. The kind of place you’re glad someone told you about.

Tonnarello classic Roman food, great cacio e pepe, and now very much on the tourist radar. The atmosphere is still fun, but go in with eyes open about the crowds.

Pizzarium – Bonci pizza al taglio by the man who has probably done more to modernize Roman pizza than anyone else. Near the Vatican.

Gelateria La Romana is my favorite gelato in Italy. Not just in Rome- in Italy. Several locations across Rome. Get the cone with chocolate piped into the bottom before the scoops go on. I’ve been telling people this for years.

Gelateria dei Gracchi is one of Rome’s finest gelato spots, in Prati. Since 1999, founded by a string instrument maker- which is the kind of detail that is very Rome. Natural ingredients, flavors that actually taste like what they’re supposed to be.

Fatamorgana does artisanal gelato with unusual flavor combinations- think cardamom, basil, or gorgonzola and walnut. Several locations around the city. The options change with the season, which is reason enough to go back.

Parco degli Acquedotti is one of those places I keep recommending and that people always come back surprised by. It’s a 240-hectare public park southeast of the center, and the remains of several ancient Roman aqueducts run straight through it- some of the arches rising close to 28 meters (92 feet) tall. The arches are massive once you’re close. They stretch away from you in long perspective lines across open countryside, and in the late afternoon the light hits them from the side in a way that makes the whole place feel cinematic. Far fewer people make it out here than you’d expect. Bring a picnic. Stay longer than you planned. Metro Line A to Giulio Agricola. Free, always open.

Giardino degli Aranci is right next to the Aventine Keyhole and looks out over the Tiber bend, the rooftops of Trastevere, and the dome of St. Peter’s in the distance. Best in the late afternoon when the light is coming in from the side and the orange trees are lit up properly. Romans know it but it almost never makes tourist maps. Free, always open.

Villa Doria Pamphilj is Rome’s largest landscaped public park- about 180 hectares in the Monteverde and Gianicolo area, built for the same Pamphilj family whose gallery is on Via del Corso. Now entirely public. Sunday mornings here are what Sunday mornings should be- cyclists, families with dogs, people sitting in the sun doing nothing. One of the nicest few hours you can spend in Rome without spending anything. Bus from Trastevere or walk up through the Gianicolo.

Via Appia Antica is one of those things that sounds like a historical attraction and turns out to be one of the best walks in Rome. Ancient paving stones, collapsed tombs, fragments of statuary, catacombs, open countryside stretching toward the Castelli Romani hills. Sunday is the best day to go- the road closes to cars and you have it largely to yourself. Rent a bike if you can; the cobblestones are harder on foot than they look. The catacombs of San Callisto and San Sebastiano are along this route. Bus 118 from Circo Massimo. Park entry free; catacombs separate ticket.

Orto Botanico di Roma a calm, largely overlooked botanical garden in Trastevere with about 3,000 plant species. A good escape from the neighborhood’s busier streets.

Gianicolo the Janiculum Hill has one of the best panoramic views of Rome and a cannon that fires at noon every day, a tradition that started on December 1, 1847. Worth knowing about if you’re already in Trastevere.

Ostia Antica is one of my favorite places in the entire region. It’s a fully excavated ancient Roman port city about 30-35 minutes from Rome by train, and it rarely feels as crowded as the major sites inside the city do. What I like about it is that it feels legible. You can actually move through an ancient city and understand how life was arranged- streets, taverns, baths with mosaic floors still intact, staircases, the theater. It all comes together in a way that’s easy to imagine. If you have a full spare day, I’d take the train to Ostia Antica without much hesitation. Train from Piramide station. Get off at Ostia Antica stop.

Tivoli is worth it too, but it depends more on how much time you have. Villa d’Este and Hadrian’s Villa both deserve real time, not a rushed half-visit squeezed into an already full trip. If someone asked me which to prioritize between the two, I’d say Hadrian’s Villa over the gardens. And if they asked me whether to do Ostia Antica or Tivoli first, I’d say Ostia Antica- then Tivoli if they had more days. About an hour from Rome, depending on whether you go by train or bus. Villa d’Este is easier by train into Tivoli; Hadrian’s Villa usually takes a little more planning.

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Rome, The Eternal City – My newest collection of framed art
July 20, 2022

If you haven’t been to Rome, I hope I’ll be able to take you there, even for a moment. If you’ve been there before, I [...]

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Colosseum Rome
Three Views of the Colosseum: One Monument, Many Selves
May 15, 2025

I remember the first time I saw the Colosseum. I had already been living in Florence for a while, quietly dodging the guilt of not [...]

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Thirty-six visits in, and I’m still finding new things. That’s the honest truth about Rome- no guide covers it, including this one. What I’ve tried to do here is point you toward a version of the city that takes a little more effort but pays back in a way that the obvious list, much as I love it, can’t quite manage after the first few times.

If you press your eye to that keyhole on the Aventine, or find yourself in the silence of the Santi Quattro Coronati cloister, or eat a porchetta sandwich at a hatch in a wall near Termini at lunchtime- those are the moments that stay with you. That’s the Rome I keep coming back for.

If something is missing, I’d genuinely love to know. Leave a comment below.

ScottAllenWilson

Travel Photographer & Content Creator based in Italy. Creating beautiful art, aiming to inspire cultural enrichment and deep conversations.

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