7 days in Rome

A week — time to cover everything essential plus start discovering Rome's depth.

Days 1–2: The two anchors

Day 1: Colosseum, Forum, Palatine — evening in Monti. Day 2: Vatican Museums, St Peter's, Castel Sant'Angelo — evening in Prati.

Days 3–4: The historic center and museums

Day 3: Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Jewish Ghetto lunch, Campo de' Fiori. Day 4: Galleria Borghese (pre-booked), Villa Borghese gardens, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain at dusk.

Days 5–6: Depth

Day 5: Capitoline Museums, San Clemente basilica, Baths of Caracalla, Testaccio for dinner. Day 6: Trastevere morning walk, Villa Farnesina, Gianicolo at sunset — aperitivo in Trastevere.

Day 7: Slow and exploratory

Morning at a favourite neighbourhood. San Luigi dei Francesi Caravaggios (two minutes from Navona, free). Afternoon: Piazza del Popolo and Pincian Hill terrace. Final dinner — book ahead at somewhere you've been meaning to try all week.

Building in a genuine rest day

Across seven days, a single day with no fixed sightseeing plan — used for laundry, a slow neighbourhood re-visit, or simply recovering from six days of walking — consistently improves how the whole trip feels in retrospect, even though it can seem counterintuitive to 'waste' a day of a week-long trip.

Revisiting rather than always adding new

With a week available, deliberately returning to a favourite spot from earlier in the trip rather than only chasing new sights produces a different, often more satisfying kind of familiarity with the city than a constant stream of first-time visits.