Rome in 8 Days: Walking 100 km Through a History Textbook

My birthday is on 29 October (yes, yes, I know, a Scorpio, the horror). I’m trying to make it a tradition to travel somewhere around that date. Where? I don’t want anything hard or stiff and formal. Something new, but also somewhat familiar. Naples and Venice already feel like a walk in the park to me. They’re two cities in one country that are somehow the same and have nothing in common at all. Let’s make it three cities and see whether Italy keeps that character. Hold on, Rome, we’re coming. (You probably know the joke. If you don’t, it’s here :D)

Quick facts

Day 1: Arrival

Ryanair’s prices have crept up. They said so themselves in mid-2022, when the airline’s boss announced that the era of cheap tickets was over. That’s the bad news. The good news is that if you buy three or four weeks ahead, tickets were still around €15. Add luggage and seat selection (Priority), and you land at roughly €40 per person each way. Those are 2022 figures, so expect them to have moved since.

Our flight was a late one, landing at 21:15 at Aeroporto di Roma Ciampino – G. B. Pastine. Rome has two convenient airports. One is Ciampino (CIA), the other is Aeroporto di Fiumicino (FCO). My personal observation, at least for flights from Sofia, is that Ryanair mostly flies into CIA and Wizz Air mostly into FCO, but that’s a tendency, not a rule.

A big bonus: every now and then Booking.com runs promotions with an airport-to-hotel transfer included. We hit one, and it was very cool, like in a film. A driver holding a sign with my name on it would be waiting for us. Cool, but sadly every other passenger had exactly the same kind of driver waiting 😀 Still, it’s nice not to have to think about transport the moment you land.

Otherwise, taxis from the airports run on fixed fares. In 2022 it was €30 from CIA and €40 from FCO. In 2026 the flat rate into the centre (anywhere inside the Aurelian Walls) is €40 from Ciampino and €55 from Fiumicino, luggage included. Use the official white taxis with the Roma Capitale emblem. Through Booking.com, the private transfer was valued at €60. It’s a slightly shinier car, but in our case it was a gift. Public transport to Termini, the central station, costs somewhere between €3 and €6 depending on the route.

Back to the arranged transfer, because it really is great. You land, and a person is standing there with a sign bearing your name. Honestly, your heart melts. Then you notice another 30 drivers holding another 30 signs with every name imaginable, including one that just says “Joro” (about the most Bulgarian name there is), and the melting stops 😀 Still, it’s a sweet touch, and it seems a transfer is fairly standard in these deals, so keep an eye out for one and insist on it. In my case I even had a dispute with Booking, but they turned out to be quite precise and sorted it out within an hour.

Based on Naples and the experience gained there, this time the hotel was chosen a little more carefully. Now, it is a hotel, and the location is good and convenient, BUT! The photos are real, but unfortunately they were taken five to ten years ago, before thousands of tourists had passed through and worn the place down. You look at the picture and it’s shiny, interesting, pleasant, even slightly luxurious. You arrive in person and it’s the same place, just a bit neglected. Not dirty, just worn out. Still, I’m counting it as a win, since I was already half expecting this trick from the Italians. Through carelessness we missed the fact that the terrace wasn’t ours, which is a shame, but everything else (price, location, buffet breakfast) was excellent.

A short evening walk to get a feel for the place. I’d more or less checked restaurant and shop prices online beforehand, but it was time to see things in person. Unpleasant surprise. We’re roughly in the centre of Rome, yet there are no proper 24-hour shops. In fact, there are no shops open even until 21:30 or 22:00. Everything had closed around 20:00. Around Termini station there are a few working shops selling alcohol and cigarettes (tabacchi), but they’re absurdly expensive. A small bottle of water: €2.

Just for fun, to the station and back plus a little loop: 9,400 steps, 6–7 kilometres.

Day 2: Getting the Lay of the Land; Scouting the Colosseum and the Pantheon; Portico d’Ottavia

Up, and a hearty breakfast. We need to resolve last night’s shop drama and figure out what food and water will look like for the next few days. Let’s see whether this CONAD CITY is open. It is. Rebirth. The prices are… extremely favourable. A 500 ml bottle of mineral water for €0.18. Fruit and vegetables cheaper than in Bulgaria. The same goes for meat, alcohol, biscuits, sweets and so on. There’s also a hot counter with visibly tasty, fresh food from the early morning. Right, so a healthy and cheap food option exists. (These were 2022 supermarket prices; they’ll have risen since, but supermarkets remain the budget move.)

We’d glanced online at the Colosseum and had an idea it would be a madhouse, but that’s about it. There are lots of ways to buy tickets online, but let’s walk over and see how things stand on the ground. Maybe we’ll get lucky and tick off the main attraction on day one. Twenty-odd minutes on foot and we start getting close. The architecture, the streets, the people are already different. Interesting restored cars of extremely old models start popping up too.

Wow. It’s HUGE. Two blocks out, strangers in vests reading something like “tourist service staff” start to pounce. In short: “Do you have a ticket? If not, buy one from us.” Fine, but there’s a catch. A ticket bought from one of these representatives is for a group with a guide included. That’s not bad in itself, but there’s an endless amount of information online. We dodge all the dozens of obstacles (tourist service staff, and there are many of them, truly many). At least 20 different people will approach you offering tickets. At the time the prices were around €35–40. Honestly, that isn’t terrible, and some people may prefer it. We prefer to wander at our own pace and read whatever interests us. We reach the ticket offices, passing, of course, every influencer photo spot along the way.

Here’s how entry worked, and it still works much the same way in 2026:

The ticket price is €16, and this is the fine print. You don’t enter just the Colosseum. You enter the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill. You can’t simply buy a ticket on the spot, what?! Tickets are sold through the official website. And buying online costs a €2 fee, what?! Wait a minute. How does that work? If it’s online, no live humans are involved, so shouldn’t it be cheaper? Huh. We’re guests here, so we won’t lecture them. So the official ticket comes to €18. In 2026 that’s still exactly the price: €16 plus the €2 booking fee.

This is where the concept of “skip the line” comes in, and it’s pretty much useless. The idea is this: an official ticket isn’t really a ticket. It’s a paid reservation for a date and entry time. You have to go through the ticket office, where there’s absolutely nobody, since no tickets are being sold there, and turn your reservation into a ticket. If you buy a skip-the-line product from one of the reseller sites, you’re genuinely buying a ticket and you skip the process of redeeming the reservation. That process takes a minute, because the ticket office is empty and nobody is buying standard tickets anyway. My general advice is to buy your ticket at least a day ahead. You may manage on the spot, but if there happens to be some event… just buy tickets at least a day in advance.

Update for 2026: official slots are released 30 days before the visit date, and morning slots in high season go quickly, so a day ahead may no longer cut it. Plan earlier.

Knowing all this, we bought tickets online from a reseller and carried on with the walk. Not an advert, but Headout had the best terms at that moment. I’ll explain further down.

Yep, I’m looking through the photos now. And this is where the title of the article came from: Rome, living inside a history textbook.

Don’t get me wrong. I write for pleasure. I like writing, getting my thoughts out and giving practical pointers. I don’t want to rush through things. Unfortunately, I don’t know how to write up the rest of this day. Within a few thousand steps I walked past and saw many centuries of history. Every building, fountain, road and statue has a history, a history, a history. Every one of these hundreds of buildings and squares deserves an article longer than this entire one. We can’t afford that. So instead I’ll list a few names of what’s visible in the photos.

• Circo Massimo (info). It’s a park, and at its start there’s a sort of VR “museum”. When we went you paid around €12 and got VR goggles with a virtual reconstruction of the circus.
• Campagna Amica Market, a market with products from local producers.
• Campidoglio, which is, so to speak, the city’s main town hall. The interesting part is that the square was designed by Michelangelo.
• Basilica di Santa Maria in Ara coeli (Diocese of Rome). History, history, history. Scale, scale, scale. There are great views once you climb the steps, and there are plenty of those.
• Altare della Patria. Right. This is the monument to Victor Emmanuel II. More on it on the last day. There’s a museum, there are views, and there’s a lift up to one of the highest viewpoints in Rome.
• Fontana di Trevi. This probably needs no introduction. It’s one of Rome’s best-known landmarks and shows up on every website as a top attraction. An inhuman number of people are there around the clock.
• Galleria Alberto Sordi. Super cool. A sort of mall and art gallery in one. It’s open, you walk in and look around, and there are shops and decent coffee. And more than one or two great caricatures (the Superman Pope in the photos above :D).
• Fontana in Piazza Colonna.
• Pantheon. One of the headline sights, like the Trevi Fountain. More on it the next day.
• Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi in Piazza Navona. There are two more fountains like it in the same square.
• Campo de’ Fiori, a lovely square with a market of local producers.
• Portico d’Ottavia, the remains of ancient buildings: a market, a library, temples.

Just like that, in a few hours: bam, 12 landmarks, and not minor ones either. You walk less than a kilometre and there’s something interesting and significant. The scale of Rome is starting to sink in.

The day ended at 25,300 steps, or 15–16 kilometres.

Day 3: Parco del Colle Oppio, the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill, the Pantheon, the Spanish Steps

My legs are no longer just sore, they’re… honestly, I don’t know what they are. But then comes breeeakfaaast, which fixes the mood 😀

Sore or not, there’s walking to be done. On foot towards the Colosseum again, but by a different route. People and streets, a town like any town, as the Bulgarian singer Mimi Ivanova would put it. Except that there are a lot of people, the town is Rome, the streets are different and the buildings are something else entirely.

Parco del Colle Oppio

We reach Parco del Colle Oppio. The interesting thing here is the Domus Aurea, a complex built in the first century AD by Emperor Nero. It was never finished, and today it works as a museum and exhibition space. When we went, entry was €20 with plenty of conditions about when you can visit. Another time. The park itself fits Mimi Ivanova’s formula perfectly: benches and trees, a park like any park 😀

Tickets for the Colosseum, the Palatine and the Forum

So we arrive, now fully briefed on the Colosseum situation. In the end, at the time, the best deal was buying through Headout (a “best deal” of €1–2 below the other resellers). Their markup, combined with a cash-back bonus that you can use for other sights too, was the lowest. It worked out to paying €1–2 per ticket for “Skip the Line”. So for €22, with a €2 bonus as an in-app voucher, you get a ticket for all three sites. Sadly, skipping the line is, in practice, completely useless. You don’t have to redeem the ticket, as mentioned above, but with your skip-the-line ticket you still queue like every other mortal at the security checkpoints, where your bags go through X-ray scanners just like at airports.

Reseller prices have climbed since 2022, and in 2026 they typically sit well above the official €18. If the official site still has slots for your date, it’s the cheaper option. Resellers are mostly worth it when official tickets are sold out.

Headout also gives you a smartphone app with a map, written information and audio. It’s not bad. The audio is a bit monotonous, but it can effectively replace a live guide.

Now comes the time for choices and decisions. As we’ve established, “the Colosseum” is really three things: the Palatine Hill, the Roman Forum and the amphitheatre itself. Tickets for the Colosseum come with a specific entry time, for example 11:10, 12:10, 13:10 and so on. My explanation is that there are waaay too many people, and they’ve decided an hour on average is enough for a visit. In 2026 the standard ticket officially gives you 75 minutes inside the Colosseum. Try to go as early as possible. Around noon you literally can’t get past the crowds.

The ticket is valid for 24 hours across all three sites. The Palatine and the Forum take about three hours to see properly, with a few short breaks. They’re quite big. They share one entry, meaning you go into either one and get access to both. If you leave, though, you can’t go back in. The trick is to plan around your Colosseum slot so you have enough time and aren’t rushed (which is exactly what I did to myself :D). In my opinion the better plan is to visit the Colosseum as early as possible, around 9–10, and then explore the other two at your own pace.

For the more hardcore visitor, there’s also the Full Experience ticket (officially €24 in 2026), which adds the arena floor and the underground plus a set of extra sites in the Forum. It sells out within minutes of release.

The Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum

As I mentioned, these two are big. They form a giant park laid out on a hill (the Palatine) and a square of sorts (the Roman Forum). I don’t think there’s a right order for seeing them. You enter through one of several clearly marked gates. They check your ticket, and you don’t need it printed; a screenshot on your phone is fine. There are scanners like the ones at airports, where you put your bag through. A silly story: they made me put my phone in the tray and it fell on the ground. It was really unpleasant, and the staff more or less laughed and shrugged. Anyway, the irritation passed, but it had already spoiled my mood for the visit.

So, the hill and the Forum. History, history, history…

In theory, the Palatine is considered the “core” of the Roman Empire. Today there are remains of palaces, houses and temples. It’s laid out as a park, with signs and explanations everywhere in Italian and English. If you’re using Headout’s app, it will suggest where and how to go. I won’t lie, I didn’t find it endlessly interesting, but it makes for a very pleasant walk. For a relaxed visit (reading the info, listening to the audio, taking photos, resting, finding a toilet), you’ll need closer to two hours. There are also a few open “buildings” set up as galleries or tiny museums. On the other hand, you’re on a hill, it’s high up, and there are lovely views, panoramas and photo spots, especially towards the Colosseum. Without overpromising, I think you can get better shots from here than from the spots in front of the Colosseum that you’ll see all over Instagram. From the hill you go back down towards the Forum. Suuuper sweet pigeons will pester you, and they’re great. They deserve their own spot in the article.

Besides the super cool pigeons, here’s a little gallery.

Heading down to the Forum (the square), the terrain becomes much flatter and easier to walk. Impressively huge monuments and structures stand out. Honestly, how did they even build these? In theory, they’re the remains of the main government buildings and a market. In practice, it’s about an hour’s walk, a lot of photography and a much more obvious museum feel. Again, pleasant panoramas. People, lots of them, everywhere. Guided talks, lots of them, everywhere, in every language. Interesting, pleasant, relaxing.

The Colosseum

Let’s get to the point. The star of the show. The Colosseum in Rome. History, history, history, scale, scale, scale. It’s big, it’s old, and the whole world has heard of it or seen it in one form or another. While we’re on the subject, some sites sell a ticket for €5–6 more that also gives access to the arena. But! Only with an organised group, so in practice it’s more like €20 extra. It’s called the “Colosseo Full Experience”, and it also gets you into an extra fenced area in the Forum.

We’ve already covered skip-the-line above. Entry is similar to the Forum and Palatine: you go through a checkpoint, the scanner, your backpack, and you’re in. At first, without a group, it’s a bit confusing, but you quickly get your bearings by tagging along with any of the dozens of organised tours. You follow the herd and it’s easy. Once inside, it’s straightforward. At the time there was only one way to go around. It’s been turned into a fairly linear maze, a bit like IKEA. You start walking and there’s only one route you can take.

With no crowds, an hour would genuinely be enough. Because it’s packed, you’ll need more like 90 minutes, since you end up standing and waiting on the stairs to let people pass (keep the 75-minute limit of the current standard ticket in mind). There’s a souvenir shop, but it’s brutally expensive. Almost everything it sells can be bought for much more reasonable prices from vendors within a few hundred metres of the Colosseum. Your access is more or less limited to two levels, and you move between them on very steep, slippery stairs. Take extra care. Honestly, it’s interesting, but the Forum and the Palatine have a lot more to see and explore. A few photos so you can judge for yourself.

The Pantheon

After the headline Roman experience, the Colosseum, we set off towards the Pantheon. Something interesting pops up on the way. I’ve seen all kinds of street art, but this was new to me and very cool: techno music played on plumbing pipes. The guy pulls it off well.

From the Colosseum to the Pantheon is about a twenty-minute walk, or roughly 2 kilometres. You’ll very likely pass through Piazza Venezia, which is spacious and welcoming. There are plenty of different street musicians and performers doing all sorts of wacky things.

The Pantheon itself stands on a wide square called Piazza della Rotonda. In 2022, entry was free on weekdays, while on weekends you needed a reservation with a guided talk for around €20–25, depending on the site. That has changed. Since July 2023 the Pantheon has charged an entrance fee: €5 at first, and €7 from 1 July 2026. Entry is still free for under-18s and for everyone on the first Sunday of the month, and the Roma Pass doesn’t cover it.

The Pantheon is yet another brutal, enormous and impressive Roman building. A temple, many centuries of history. People and guided tours everywhere. Audio guides were €8 back then, or free from the internet.

Right, I know nothing about religion, so I won’t say much. But around the entrance to the Pantheon you immediately notice people eating something more interesting. Facing the entrance, on the right, there’s a café that serves this gem:

It’s called maritozzo con la panna, a maritozzo with cream. As far as I understood, the name comes from the Italian for “husband”. It’s something like… like… well, it’s soft, maybe something like doughnut dough? It has an enviable amount of cream, butter and, if you want, honey. There are various flavours, sweet and savoury, but the classic is butter and cream. At this particular place it was around €5, but it’s a whole lunch. It’s super light to eat, yet very filling because of the buttery bread. I highly recommend trying it, even if you’re not big on sweets. By rough maths, the whole pleasure is around 250 grams at about 300 kcal per 100 grams, so roughly 750 calories.

Refuelled, we walk on to:

The Spanish Steps

The Spanish Steps are… surprise… steps. They have their own history. On one hand, they were needed to connect two points with a 29-metre difference in height. On the other, they’re considered one of the widest staircases in Europe. In practice: you climb, enjoy the view and keep walking. They connect Piazza di Spagna with a Renaissance church. Next to the church is Villa Medici, where a ticket (around €10–12 when we went) gets you into a gallery. On the square there’s a metro station and a huge McDonald’s, very handy for a rest, with sockets for charging your phone 😀

A bit more wandering on foot on the way back to the hotel. A few curiosities along the way.

My legs now have very peculiar feelings. Blisters are appearing in places where you’d never suspect a blister could appear 😀

The day ended at 25,500 steps, or 15–16 kilometres.

Day 4: Villa Borghese, the Trevi Fountain, a Church or Two, Trastevere

I can’t believe how happy I was about the light rain, which was a good enough excuse to stay in the hotel a bit longer and rest. My legs and the new blisters rejoiced 😀 Noon came and the weather cleared up. Onward! “We are soldiers, we march ahead,” as the old Bulgarian children’s song goes. Something simpler today, and close to transport, just in case.

Villa Borghese Park and Gallery

A pleasant park for a walk, with a gallery and a zoo inside it. You can go around it in an hour. It’s very clean, with benches, statues and fountains. I noticed there’s transport inside the park itself, with stops for electric carts that shuttle up and down. I didn’t figure out how you pay for or use them. At the same time, maybe because of the weather, the park was completely empty. You could count the people on the fingers of two hands.

The zoo (Bioparco) wasn’t open, otherwise it would have been interesting to see. The price I noted back then was €7, which sounded very reasonable, but check the current price before you go.

Unlike the zoo, tickets for the Galleria Borghese were quoted at €22 per adult through the resellers we looked at. In 2026 the official price is €16 plus a mandatory €2 reservation fee. There are no tickets at the door, visits are in fixed two-hour slots, and dates sell out, so book ahead.

Fontana di Trevi

Not that we hadn’t already passed it five times, by day and after dark, but this seems like the right place for it. People, people, people. Constantly, everywhere. No chance of a normal photo. The fountain is fairly close to the Pantheon, a 5–10-minute walk down a street full of shops and cafés. I can’t say anything bad about it. It really is beautiful and big. But the stream of people lining up and staring at it is genuinely startling, and I can’t quite describe it. It’s like a cult: hundreds of people standing and gazing at it, as if in a trance, for ages.

News for 2026: since February the fountain is still free to see from the square, but getting down to the basin itself, the classic coin-tossing spot, costs €2 for non-residents between 9:00 and 22:00. Outside those hours, access is free, though still crowded.

I’ll leave you with one of my own shots, with a minimal number of people in it.

Churches

During the day, walking towards Trastevere (more on it below), we came across open churches. In the Chiesa di Sant’Ignazio di Loyola I noticed the following. Entry to the church is free. Inside, there are coin boxes everywhere for €1–2. You drop in a coin or two and the lights come on so you can see. In this particular church there was an interesting large mirror right in the middle of the nave. Pay a euro and the ceiling lights up. In the mirror you see the painted ceiling, and it’s an impressive sight.

Trastevere

Trastevere is a Rome neighbourhood best suited to eating. Most businesses there are food-related. There’s a large square with the Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere. It’s colourful, you can walk around it in an hour, and there are pleasant cafés.

All-You-Can-Eat à la Carte Dinner

One of our meals out was a knockout and deserves its own section. I don’t want this to be an ad, but it’s genuinely worth it, so I’ll share it. The people behind Dar Bottarolo run a chain of restaurants that are very strongly Italian. Not a word of English, and the place is packed with locals. One of my favourite things abroad is seeing the purest form of how local people actually live. This restaurant is the perfect place to watch Italians drink, eat, sing, dance, shout and everything in between.

You absolutely have to book through their reservation form.

The deal was extremely good: €19 per person back then. You can order unlimited food and wine from the menu. They offer to put together a menu for you, or you can pick your dishes yourself from the start. Everything is extremely tasty and a welcome change from the pizza and pasta you find everywhere. The wine isn’t bad either. Expect the price to have gone up since 2022.

This was supposed to be a lighter day, but from 13:00 to 22:00 it turned into another serious walk.

The day ended at 21,730 steps, or 13–14 kilometres.

Day 5: A Papal Audience and the Vatican

We’re in Rome. It’s well known that the Pope holds audiences. We’re not religious, but it’s still an event, and attending is free. There’s no fixed day for when he comes out. At one time it was every Wednesday at 09:00. Now you need to check his actual schedule, which is published by the Vatican. We’d checked it in advance so it would fall on the same day as the Vatican Museums.

Day five of walking, and to borrow a Bulgarian pop-folk lyric, the legs are simply gone. Time for public transport. Google Maps is more than helpful. A single ticket costs around a euro and a half, and suddenly we have public transport tickets. It’s really handy to stay near one of Rome’s two main stations. You get anywhere in no time. I can’t resist: the bus drove over a cobbled road. If I didn’t know better, I’d say a certain prominent Sofia mayor did a few years’ specialisation in Rome and then came home to apply his newfound cobblestone expertise to our capital 😀

The Audience

So, you’ve made it to the Vatican. It’s a bit odd, a city-state. Honestly, at first I saw it as a swollen castle with a slightly larger courtyard 😀 Later it turned out that’s not quite the case. There are several entrances, so look for the signs, because Google Maps lies. Checkpoints again, X-ray scanners again, just like at airports.

The square. To be fair, the weather was nice and the crowds weren’t endless. The audience goes like this: someone steps up and addresses the Pope for 4–5 minutes in a given language; the Pope replies in Italian; someone else steps up and repeats the same in another language, gets the same reply, and so on through several languages. Some people were very enthusiastic, others less so. I don’t understand this and don’t want to give opinions. I’ll just say that the Pope’s replies strongly reminded me of the answers of someone with a brutal hangover 😀 For me, as a non-religious person, the more interesting part was the square with the fountain that you’ve seen in more than one or two Hollywood films.

The Vatican Museums

Half an hour with the Pope, a short walk around the Vatican, and our entry time is approaching. The tickets were from Headout again, to use the cash-back bonus. The entry situation has similarities with the Colosseum: a timed entry window again, skip-the-line again, working on the principle of not having to redeem a reservation. Entry with an escort and faster passage came to under €30 back then. Headout gives clear instructions and asks you to come to a point about 300 metres from the Vatican entrance. From there they gather you up and walk you to the entrance, hand you the tickets and briefly explain where to start. At the entrance you can join a group for €5–20, and you can also rent an audio guide.

For 2026: the official full-price ticket is €20 at the door, or €25 when booked online through the official site with its €5 booking fee. The on-the-day queue can be long, which is exactly why the timed tickets exist.

You enter the Vatican Museums. Grab a free map right at the first climb and try to navigate with it, or you’ll miss things. In summary: the Vatican is a huge palace, and I mean truly huge, which today is divided into many museums (at least ten). You start off gently. There was an Egyptian exhibition at the time, and it was quite interesting. I’m standing there thinking: “Well, what’s this now? Aren’t they supposed to be so great? Don’t they have their own stuff, that they’re showing other cultures? Do they really have so little history of their own?!” Walking into the second hall, I switch gears instantly. A strange feeling hits you straight away. Grandomania. One word, short, precise, clear. Grandomania. It’s hard to explain. I don’t think photos or video can convey it, but still, here’s a short video of one of dozens of similar, endless corridors.

If there were one or two corridors like that, fine, but there’s no end to them. Every corridor is like this. Halls, galleries and exhibitions of one famous name after another. I don’t think I can describe things one by one. You follow your map and keep going. The statues, paintings and other objects have catalogue numbers. One of the highest numbers I saw was 72,000. So there are at least 72,000 objects: statues, paintings, vases, furniture, carpets, ornaments and who knows what else. G R A N D O M A N I A. By my reckoning, the visit takes more like three hours if you don’t want to miss anything. Really, this isn’t something to write about, it’s something to see. Whatever anyone says… all sorts of master craftsmen worked for the Vatican for quite a few centuries. You don’t just look at it, you experience it.

Here’s my experience, documented:

Once you exit the whole endless maze, you end up in a courtyard. Somehow, not very conspicuously, there’s one more museum, which to me felt almost like a secret one: the museum of the Pope’s vehicles. From the courtyard at the end of the museums, you can see a ramp in the distance. Follow it and you’ll find yourself in this museum. Grandomania again. I’ve never seen carriages like these, or whatever they’re called. Honestly… unique.

In the courtyard after the museum exit, while you’re still on Vatican territory, there’s a decent café with quite civilised prices: €1–2 for anything from an espresso to an americano or cappuccino. During the break I tried to tame some pigeons. It didn’t work, but they got a snack and I got footage. A fair deal 😀

On the way back, near the Vatican, we stumbled on another rather authentic Roman place: Scialla. Again, I’ll allow myself a bit of a recommendation, because it’s genuinely pleasant and tasty. Pizzas were €5–7 and wine or Aperol €3 in 2022.

On the way to the bus stop I snapped Castel Sant’Angelo too. Tickets were quoted at €17.50 per person back then; in 2026 the official ticket is around €16. After a quick look, though, it’s like a micro version of the Vatican Museums. Honestly, not worth it if you’ve just done the Vatican.

The funny thing about the Vatican was that at first it was an incredible shock, the sheer volume and grandeur of all that art. At some point, though, there’s so much of it that you start taking it as the most normal thing in the world, and it stops making any impression at all.

The rounds around and inside the Vatican swallowed pretty much all the daylight.

The day ended at 19,300 steps, or 11–12 kilometres.

Day 6: Tivoli – Villa d’Este and the Sanctuary of Hercules Victor

Rome is interesting, and it’s not as if there’s nothing left to see. We’ll 100% come back someday. But let’s see something nearby too. Map, landmarks, and look: Tivoli, about 30 kilometres away. Villa d’Este is supposedly interesting. That’s a goal. Fountains, apparently. Views, apparently. The perfect goal. In my mind, Tivoli is something like what Borovets is to Sofia: a “villa zone” for the wealthy of old, now turned into a tourist destination. Over the years, several different popes and kings stayed there.

From Rome, and especially from Termini station, there are at least two ways to get to Tivoli: by train, or by metro with a change to a bus. Both options are comparable in price and in travel time. In my case the timings worked out so that we went there by metro and bus and came back by train. Use Google Maps to see which works better for you on the day. The trip takes about an hour whichever route you choose, and it cost around €3–4 per person each way in total.

Tivoli

An hour by metro and bus and we’re in Tivoli. I should mention that the change from the metro at the last stop is on the outskirts of Rome. The scenery very suddenly starts to look like Naples.

Tivoli itself is very pleasant. It sits a little higher up, and there are nice panoramas towards Rome. For reference, Rome is close to sea level. The centre is small and you can walk around it in about an hour. It’s clean and prices are normal. There’s a park with swings, views, fountains, and far fewer crowds than in Rome. The park has “opening hours” and is locked at night. In general I understand that, but not here: the park is tiny, two minutes from one end to the other. It’s more of a garden. Anyway. We arrive at:

Villa d’Este

The villa is basically an entire palace with a very generous garden. In 2022 entry was €10, and for €12 you also got a ticket to the Sanctuary of Hercules Victor. The sanctuary ticket on its own was €6, so in the bundle it came to just €2. No room for hesitation. In 2026 the prices are higher: around €15 for the villa and €20 for the combined villa and sanctuary ticket. There’s also the new VILLÆ Pass for €30, which covers Villa d’Este, Villa Adriana and the sanctuary within 72 hours. Entry is free on the first Sunday of the month.

The villa is impressive. Yet another grandomaniac thing around Rome. The fountains. That’s the thing. I like my photos from here more than the ones from the Colosseum or the Vatican. There are many fountains and they’re huge. According to the figures I found at the time, the garden covers 30,000 square metres, with 50 fountains, 255 waterfalls, 250 jets, 100 basins and 60 springs. On top of that, it’s half a botanical garden, with over 45,000 plants. Simply wow!

Of course, the interior doesn’t fall short of the Vatican’s art and corridors in any way. Unfortunately, supervision is weaker, and names, doodles and all kinds of rude drawings have been scratched into the murals everywhere. You can zoom in on the gallery photos and you’ll spot which ones show it. It’s beautiful and it’s big. It feels different from the Vatican because of the garden. The visit takes around an hour and a half. It’s clearly well looked after, and small repairs were going on everywhere. A few fountains weren’t working, but they weren’t among the biggest, so we’ll forgive them. From the garden you can also see the sanctuary we’re heading to next.

Santuario di Ercole Vincitore

Until that day we’d neither heard of nor seen this place. Promotions, however, are a powerful driving and motivating force. This is the Sanctuary of Hercules Victor, one of the largest religious complexes of Republican-era Rome. It’s about 20 minutes on foot from the villa, but with a big change in elevation. It’s yet another very large, massive structure with a gigantic… courtyard? Complete with a theatre. You can see it in an hour. There’s also a museum section. We’re still up high, and there are good photo spots and views. You can tell it was restored recently. There were practically no visitors. Villa d’Este was busier, but nowhere near the central Roman sights. Here, people, staff included, could be counted on the fingers of one hand.

Also worth mentioning in Tivoli is the Parco Villa Gregoriana, which was clearly closed when we were there. Still, if you’re wondering how to kill about 40 minutes, you can walk to a viewpoint there and see a bigger waterfall. If you’ve already been to Villa d’Este, though, there’s really no point. Back home in an hour on the little train, which takes a long, winding route but is a very pleasant ride.

The day ended at 17,400 steps, or 10–11 kilometres.

Day 7: The Pyramid, a Street Art Street, the Aventine Slopes and the Bust of Petko Voyvoda

The second-to-last day. Of the big sights, only Castel Sant’Angelo is left, but the Vatican and Villa d’Este are more than enough, even too much. Time for something more local, more tucked away and less famous. A quick search turns up the less famous:

Piramide di Caio Cestio

The pyramid has a specific visiting schedule, with organised groups only. When we checked, a group of up to 20 people paid €130 in total, which works out to €6.50 per person, provided the group fills up. Visits were only on the third and fourth weekends of the month. It’s tricky to get into, so check the current arrangements. It might still be worth a look, because the area around the pyramid is known as a refuge for Rome’s stray cats.

A Street Art Street

This was actually the main goal of the day. We like easy-going, colourful art. The pyramid was a bonus because it’s on the way. According to Google Maps, 5–10 minutes from the pyramid there’s a painted street. You can feel that it’s a bit further from the centre, and it starts to get quite dirty and unwelcoming for tourists. It isn’t exactly one painted street, either. There are several, and there are some good finds. I’ll leave you the photos to judge.

Salita delle pendici dell’Aventino

The other goal for the day is the bust of Petko Voyvoda. On the way, though, there’s the option of cutting through a park on the Aventine Hill. It’s a pleasant spot with a gentle climb and lots of beautiful panoramas over the whole of Rome. Things become civilised and clean again. A little park, benches, beauty.

On the way down, through Trastevere, there’s a small market, and at the market, murals of Simpsons scenes.

Next to the market, and worth a mention, Food Factory offered a three-course menu for €10 when we were there. Worth it.

The Bust of Petko Voyvoda

Another half hour of walking and you reach the park on the Janiculum Hill, next to the Botanical Garden of Rome. Along the main avenue stand dozens of busts of Garibaldi’s fighters. And in one very special, very tucked-away spot, yet somehow standing out, is the bust of Petko Voyvoda, the Bulgarian revolutionary who fought alongside Garibaldi. After a week in a foreign country, it’s nice to be reminded of your own history. The park is up high, and there are more great panoramas over central Rome.

And a few more photos from between the day’s various stops:

The day ended at 20,800 steps, or 12–13 kilometres.

Day 8: One Last Wander and Home

91.8 kilometres on foot so far, according to my smartwatch. That’s an average of about 13 kilometres a day, and 8 more to reach the round 100. No way around it, we’re making it 100. “I walked 100 kilometres in Rome” sounds far better than “I walked 91.8 kilometres in Rome”. Sure, I could exaggerate a little, but I’d know it wasn’t true 😀 The flight is at 17:00, and getting to the airport takes an hour. What’s left to see is the panoramic terrace by the museum on our now well-known Piazza Venezia: the Terrazza delle Quadrighe.

The terrace sits on a central building that I can’t quite figure out. On Google Maps there are ten different names stacked on top of it. Altare della Patria seems to be the one: the Altar of the Fatherland. What matters is that on top of it are the big monuments with the chariots, which you can see from almost everywhere in Rome and which have appeared in more than one or two photos above. It’s extremely close to the Michelangelo-designed square we mentioned earlier. It’s huge, with lots of tourists, and there’s a museum section. When we were there, €12 got you a lift to the very top, up to the monuments, where you can see practically all of Rome. There was also a cheaper option to walk up for €5. Check the current prices, as they will have changed.

Getting to the terrace itself, where the lift is, was free. You reach it after a short climb up some steps, and there’s a café with quite normal prices (coffee for €2). On the terrace, visibly friendly seagulls (my favourite pals) tease and play with people. They’re clearly begging for food. They’re very sweet and not scared at all. I honestly don’t know how one of them didn’t peck my phone right out of my hand 😀

And here’s what the terrace itself looks like:

We’re halfway to the day’s step target. After the square, it’s time to check the map, which quickly shows the gaps we’d missed. Right, we’re heading north. Oh, Villa Torlonia park. A good goal. “We are soldiers, we march ahead.” About half an hour’s walk and we reach the park. There’s a museum, which was €9 to enter at the time.

The end is in sight. It’s 14:00, time to head back. All good things come to an end. Trenitalia had an extremely tempting offer: under €3 from Termini to Ciampino with one change. I rode a double-decker train. It looked very interesting, but it’s actually the same as a single-decker 😀 The train stops, there are “transfer to airport” arrows everywhere, and you can’t go wrong. About an hour in total and the airport comes into view. Trenitalia did a perfect job, unlike Ryanair, whose flight was delayed by two hours with no clearly announced reason. But that’s another story for another time 🙂

The day ended at 16,700 steps, or 9–10 kilometres.

Budget

The budget here is very flexible. Here’s a rough example breakdown of what to expect. These are our 2022 figures, with notes where things have clearly moved.

Accommodation: around €40–50 per person per night for a mid-range hotel in a good location. Rome hotel prices have risen since, so budget more.

Flights: around €40 per person each way, so about €80 per person return.

Tickets for the main sights, the Vatican and the Colosseum: around €50 through resellers back then. At 2026 official prices, it’s €25 for the Vatican Museums (online) plus €18 for the Colosseum, Forum and Palatine, so €43. Add a villa, museum, gallery or castle or two and that’s another €30–50, for a total of roughly €80–100. Don’t forget the Pantheon (€7) and, if you want to get up close, the Trevi basin (€2).

Public transport within Rome: around €10–20.

So for 7 nights, around €450–500 covered the basics for us: travel, accommodation with breakfast, and entry tickets. Expect a higher figure today.

Restaurants or supermarket food: here there’s no limit. Anything from €5 a day to €500 a meal.

Not bad, right? Back then it worked out to around €60 a day, practically the price of a trip inside Bulgaria. How could anyone not love Italy?

Difficulty

As for difficulty, it’s not hard. Rome is fairly flat, there aren’t many serious climbs, and where there are, there’s always an alternative in the form of some kind of public transport. As long as you have a smartphone, almost any navigation app can help with transport, sights and destinations. Rome is a European capital, and tourism is no small niche there. They’ve invested in it, and the places, the experiences and the people are welcoming.

Good to Know

McDonald’s is your friend. This seems to hold for all of Italy. Convenient toilets, cheap, decent and, most importantly, LONG coffee. Pleasant interiors, usually with nice outdoor seating or terraces. Given the long distances you’ll be walking, it’s good to have a place to rest.

A power bank. Even if you try, you simply can’t stop taking photos. Everything is photo-worthy. The battery of a high-end Samsung lasted only until 14:00, and I’m speaking from personal experience 😀 Over 2,000 photos in 8 days will drain even the toughest phones.

Plan ahead more than we did. Several sights that were walk-in or loosely organised in 2022 now have timed slots, booking fees or brand-new charges, the Pantheon and the Trevi Fountain being the obvious examples.

Conclusion

100.4 kilometres. One hundred kilometres and 400 metres. That’s how far we walked in one week in Rome. Is that good? Of course someone will say it’s nothing, but… it’s something. 156,137 steps. My conclusion is that there are two ways to see Rome:

1. Go for three days and see the most famous things: the Pantheon; the Colosseum with the Roman Forum and the Palatine Hill; the Vatican; and one of the castles.

2. Go for maaany months and tour every possible museum, gallery, theatre and so on, and even then it’s not clear you’ll see everything.

The one-week option is good. Definitely good, especially for a first time in Rome. It gives you enough time for the main, unmissable sights, and it also leaves room to get a feel for the place and plan the next visit in a few years’ time.

There’s also a video from the trip on the Bronicable YouTube channel.

Gallery

Everything in one place: