3 Days in Rome: The Perfect 3-Day Itinerary (2026)

Book the 8.30am slot at the Colosseum on ticketing.colosseo.it as soon as sales open, 30 days ahead. The standard €18 ticket covers the first and second tiers, plus one entry to the Roman Forum and Palatine within 24 hours. Tickets are named, so bring the passport or ID you booked with, and keep bags under 30x40x15cm.

Allow 75 to 90 minutes. The standard ticket doesn't include the arena floor or the underground; those need a different ticket, and our Colosseum tickets guide explains each one.

Outside, the Arch of Constantine stands beside the exit. It's free to look at from the square. Then walk up the Via Sacra to the Arch of Titus entrance to the Forum and Palatine, which opens at 9am.

Climb the Palatine Hill first, while you still have the legs for it. This is where the emperors built their palaces, and the terraces at the top look straight down over the Forum. There's little shade and the paving is rough, so wear proper shoes and carry water.

Walk down into the Roman Forum and along the Via Sacra past the temples and the Senate house. The Roman Forum and Palatine guide has a stop-by-stop route. Give the two together two to three hours.

Leave by the Via del Tulliano passage at the Capitoline end and climb to Michelangelo's Piazza del Campidoglio, which is free. In winter the last admission to the Forum is 3.30pm, so don't plan to come back in later.

Back up the Cordonata steps, the Capitoline Museums fill the two palaces on Piazza del Campidoglio. Inside are the Capitoline Wolf and the original bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius. Take the underground passage to the Tabularium, whose arches look down the whole length of the Forum you've just walked.

It's €16.50 for non-residents while the Angeli exhibition runs (to 10 January 2027), €15 when no exhibition is on, and open daily until 7.30pm. Allow 90 minutes. Too tired for another museum? Skip it and enjoy the piazza and its view for free.

Walk down past the Bocca della Verità to the Circus Maximus, the long grass track where chariots raced under the emperors' palaces. It's free and open, so just walk a stretch of it.

Climb the Clivo di Rocca Savella to the Orange Garden on the Aventine. From the balustrade the city spreads below, with St Peter's dome on the skyline across the river. It's free; time it for sunset, about 5pm in early November and 4.40pm in December. In summer the sun sets after 8.30pm, so come here after dinner instead.

A few doors along, line up at the Aventine Keyhole in the gate of the Knights of Malta. Through it, St Peter's dome sits framed at the end of a garden path. It's free, on the street, and a queue can form at any hour.

Book the 8am entry to the Vatican Museums on tickets.museivaticani.va, the only official online seller: €25, against €20 at the door after a long ticket queue. Take Metro line A to Ottaviano or Cipro and be at the entrance on Viale Vaticano by 7.45am.

Head through the Gallery of Maps and the Raphael Rooms to the Sistine Chapel, where silence is asked for and photos aren't allowed. Allow three to three and a half hours. Cover shoulders and knees, or you can be turned away.

Walk down to St Peter's Square and join the security queue under the colonnade for St Peter's Basilica. Entry is free and it's open until 7pm in winter. Michelangelo's Pietà is just inside on the right; Bernini's bronze canopy rises over the high altar. On Wednesday mornings the pope's general audience fills the square when he's in Rome, one more reason the basilica comes after lunch.

To climb the dome, book it on the basilica's site: €17 by the stairs or €22 with the lift, which still leaves a final climb on foot. The dome closes at 5pm in winter. Allow two hours with the climb, 90 minutes without.

Walk down Via della Conciliazione to Castel Sant'Angelo, built as Hadrian's tomb and later turned into a fortress for the popes. It's €18 and open Tuesday to Sunday until 7.30pm (last entry 6.30pm), so it's the right sight for the end of the day. Go straight up to the terrace under the bronze angel; in November it's there that you'll catch the sunset.

It's closed on Mondays, which is why this day shouldn't be a Monday. The exception, in 2026, is the first Monday of the month, when it opens 2pm-8pm on a €5 ticket sold on site.

Start at the Spanish Steps at about 9am, before the crowds. Take the Metro to Spagna (line A) and walk up to Trinità dei Monti for the view down Via dei Condotti. Sitting on the steps is banned and carries a €250 fine, so keep moving. The Spanish Steps guide covers what's around the piazza.

Walk south through the lanes to the Trevi Fountain. Since February 2026 the area by the basin costs €2; the view from the piazza is free. The paid area opens at 9am Tuesday to Thursday and at weekends, but not until 11.30am on Mondays and Fridays, so on those days enjoy it from the piazza. Details are in the Trevi Fountain guide.

Ten minutes west is the Pantheon, a Roman temple still roofed by its original concrete dome. It's €7 since July 2026, and half an hour is enough. Buy a timed ticket on the Musei Italiani portal rather than at the desk; there's no skip-the-line entry, so expect a short queue to get in. On Sundays ticket sales are suspended from 9.30am for the 10.30am Mass, right when you'd arrive, which is another reason to keep this day off a Sunday.

Piazza Navona keeps the long oval of Domitian's stadium. Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers stands in the middle and Borromini's Sant'Agnese in Agone faces it (open from 9am, closed Mondays). The Piazza Navona guide covers the rest of the square.

Cross Corso Vittorio Emanuele to Campo de' Fiori while the morning market is still up (Monday to Saturday). The hooded statue in the middle is Giordano Bruno, burned for heresy on this square in 1600.

Cross the Tiber on Ponte Sisto into Trastevere and walk to the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, one of the oldest churches in Rome. Look up at the gold mosaics in the apse. It's a working parish church, free, with no published visiting hours, so step out if a service is on. The Trastevere guide has more to see in the neighbourhood.

Climb Via Garibaldi to San Pietro in Montorio and the Tempietto del Bramante, a small round temple in the courtyard that set the pattern for High Renaissance architecture. It's free and open Tuesday to Sunday 10am-6pm; it's closed on Mondays.

A little higher, the Fontanone (the Fontana dell'Acqua Paola) was built in the early 1600s as the showpiece end of the restored Acqua Paola aqueduct. Turn round at the railing opposite for the first big view of the centre.

Carry on along the Passeggiata del Gianicolo to the Gianicolo terrace below the Garibaldi monument, the widest free view in Rome. Every dome of the centro storico is spread out below. Sunset is about 4.50pm in mid-November and 4.40pm in December; in June it's after 8.45pm, so in summer spend the afternoon in Trastevere's lanes and climb up before dinner.