The 10 Best Day Trips From Rome (2026)

Ostia Antica was ancient Rome's port at the mouth of the Tiber, and its ruined town is big enough to walk for hours: paved streets, apartment blocks, baths, a theatre and shops. It's quieter than the Forum and gives a better sense of how ordinary Romans lived. It's also the cheapest and easiest day trip from Rome.

Getting there: the Metromare train (formerly the Roma-Lido line, now run by Cotral) from Porta San Paolo station, next to Piramide on Metro Line B, to Ostia Antica. A €1.50 BIT ticket covers it. Price: €18, valid eight days for all the park's sites; €2 for EU citizens aged 18-25. Open: Tuesday to Sunday from 8.30am; until the end of February it closes at 4.30pm, with last entry at 3.30pm. Closed Mondays.

Worth it as a day trip? Yes, and it only needs half a day. Go in the morning, take water, and wear shoes for uneven Roman paving.

Villa d'Este in Tivoli is a Renaissance villa built for a cardinal, with terraced gardens of fountains all the way down the hill: the Avenue of the Hundred Fountains, the Organ Fountain, whose water organ plays every two hours from 10.30am, and pools and cascades fed by the river Aniene. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site with Hadrian's Villa below the town.

Getting there: regional trains from Roma Tiburtina to Tivoli take 50 minutes to 1 hour 10 and cost €3 (some leave from Termini but take longer). The villa is in the town centre on Piazza Trento. Price: €15, €2 reduced; free on the first Sunday of the month. Open: daily, Mondays from 2pm; in November and December, entry 8.30am-4pm and exit by 5pm.

Worth it as a day trip? Yes, it's the best garden day out from Rome. After heavy rain the fountains can be switched off, so it's a fine-weather trip.

Hadrian's Villa (Villa Adriana) was the emperor Hadrian's country palace, built between AD 118 and 138 below Tivoli and spread over at least 120 hectares: palaces, baths, pools, pavilions and gardens. The long pool of the Canopus, lined with statues, is the photo everyone wants. It's far more spread out than Villa d'Este, so give it two to three hours.

Getting there: Cotral buses from Ponte Mammolo (Metro Line B) stop at Via Tiburtina (Villa Adriana), a walk from the entrance on Largo Marguerite Yourcenar. Price: €15; free on the first Sunday of the month. Open: daily; in November and December, entry 8.30am-3.30pm and exit by 5pm.

Worth it as a day trip? Yes, and you can combine it with Villa d'Este in one day, but from November to January do Hadrian's Villa first: its last entry is 3.30pm.

Cerveteri was one of the great Etruscan cities, and its Banditaccia necropolis is a city of the dead: streets of round, grass-topped tombs, some of which you can walk down into to see the rooms carved like houses. It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site together with Tarquinia, and much quieter than anything in Rome.

Getting there: Cotral buses from the Cornelia terminus (Metro Line A) to Cerveteri. The railway station called Ladispoli-Cerveteri (€3, about 45 minutes from Termini) is on the coast at Ladispoli, not in Cerveteri, so the bus is simpler. Price: €13 for the necropolis and the town's museum (valid 30 days), or €21 for all four sites in Cerveteri and Tarquinia; under-18s free. Open: Tuesday to Sunday; until 27 March 2027, 9am-5pm with last entry at 4pm. Closed Mondays.

Worth it as a day trip? Yes, if you like archaeology and have a morning to spare; it's a half day out. Check the weather: the necropolis can close in a bad-weather alert.

Tarquinia has the most famous painted tombs of the Etruscans: underground chambers in the Monterozzi necropolis decorated with banquets, dancers, musicians and games. The National Archaeological Museum in the town holds the finds, including the terracotta winged horses.

Getting there: regional trains from Roma Termini, €5.60; the direct ones take about 1 hour 15 to 1 hour 20 minutes, but on some departures part of the trip is a replacement bus and it takes nearly two hours. Price: €13 for the necropolis and museum (valid 30 days), or €21 with Cerveteri; under-18s free. Open: Tuesday to Sunday; the necropolis until 27 March 2027, 9am-5pm with last entry at 4pm, and the museum 9am-7.30pm. Closed Mondays. The Tomba Pallottino is temporarily closed.

Worth it as a day trip? Yes, for anyone keen on the Etruscans; the painted tombs are unique. Doing Cerveteri and Tarquinia on the same day without a car is too much.

Orvieto sits on a cliff of volcanic rock above the railway, and its cathedral has one of the most dazzling facades in Italy, all gold mosaic and carved marble. Inside, the San Brizio Chapel has Luca Signorelli's frescoes of the end of the world. The rest of the town is good for an unhurried lunch and a wander.

Getting there: trains from Roma Termini take 1 hour 17 minutes (Intercity, €13.90) to about 2 hours (regional, €10.10). From the station, take the funicular up the rock, then walk about 15 minutes along Corso Cavour to the cathedral. Price: €8 for the cathedral, its museum and underground, with audio guide, or €11 with the Etruscan museum. Open: November to February 9.30am-5pm; on Sundays and holy days only 10am-11am and 1pm-4.30pm.

Worth it as a day trip? Yes, one of the best: easy, cheap, and a complete change from Rome. Avoid Sunday mornings, when visiting hours are only 10am to 11am.

Assisi is the hill town of St Francis, and his basilica, two churches stacked one on top of the other above his tomb, is covered in frescoes by Giotto, Cimabue and others. Entry is free for individual visitors, with no ticket.

Getting there: regional trains from Roma Termini, €14.45, take about 2 hours on the fastest direct train and up to 2 hours 45. Assisi station is on the plain at Santa Maria degli Angeli, 3 km below the town; buses from the station forecourt run every 30 minutes and take about 10 minutes to the basilica.

Worth it as a day trip? Only just: it's four and a half to six hours on the train, there and back, for a day there. It works if Assisi matters to you; otherwise Orvieto gives you a hill town for half the travel.

Florence is the most tempting long trip: the Frecciarossa reaches Santa Maria Novella in about 1 hour 36 minutes, with fares from €19.90 on a mid-November weekday when booked ahead (the slow regional route takes four and a half hours). From the station you can walk to the Duomo, which is free to enter; climbing Brunelleschi's dome (463 steps, no lift) is only on the Brunelleschi Pass, with a timed slot and ID.

The Uffizi: €25 bought on the day, €29 bought in advance, €2 reduced, or €16 if you go in from 4pm; tickets are in your name and it's closed on Mondays. The rest of the day: the Ponte Vecchio and the streets between the Duomo and the river.

Worth it as a day trip? As a taste, yes, but you'll choose between the Uffizi and a proper walk around; Florence deserves a night or two of its own.

Pompeii is the Roman town buried by Vesuvius in AD 79, and the scale is what surprises people: whole streets of houses, shops, bars, bath houses and an amphitheatre. Plan your route on the park's map, because you can't see it all in one visit.

Getting there: a Frecciarossa from Roma Termini to Napoli Centrale takes about 1 hour 10 minutes, from €18.90 on a mid-November weekday. From Naples, Trenitalia regional trains to Pompei take 42 to 53 minutes for €3.50, and the park's Pompei Link train-plus-bus service links Pompei station to the site; or take the Circumvesuviana Naples-Sorrento line to Pompei Villa dei Misteri, by the Porta Marina entrance. Price: €20 for the ancient city only (Pompeii Express), €25 with the suburban villas, including the Villa of the Mysteries (Pompeii+); €2 for EU citizens aged 18-24. Tickets are in your name, and there's a daily cap of 20,000 visitors. Open: until 15 March, 9am-5pm, last entry 3.30pm.

Worth it as a day trip? Yes, if you leave Rome by 8am. It's about two and a half hours each way door to door, which leaves four to five hours at the site, enough for the highlights. In winter, the 3.30pm last entry is the limit to plan around.

The Amalfi Coast is the trip everyone asks about and the one that least suits a day from Rome. The easiest way without a car is a Frecciarossa to Salerno (about 1 hour 35 minutes on the direct trains, from €29.90 on a mid-November weekday), then a Travelmar ferry from Piazza della Concordia to Amalfi (€12, 35 minutes, or an hour when it stops at Cetara and Maiori) or Positano (€17).

The winter timetable (16 November 2026 to 28 February 2027): ferries leave Salerno for Amalfi at 9am, 9.40am, 11.10am and 2.10pm, and come back at 10.35am, 1pm, 2.15pm and 4.30pm. Leave Rome at 7.30am, take the 9.40am ferry, and you're in Amalfi by about 10.40am; the 4.30pm ferry gets you back to Salerno around 5.30pm, and a Frecciarossa at 5.53pm reaches Termini at 7.55pm (from €20.90). That's about six and a half hours of travel, with connections, for under six hours on the coast.

Worth it as a day trip? Honestly, no, unless it's your only chance. It works, and the ferry in is beautiful, but stay at least one night on the coast or in Salerno if you can. A coach tour from Rome saves the changes but not the hours.