Things to do in Rome

• Vatican Museums hold one of the world's largest art collections across a chain of papal galleries, corridors and courtyards that ends at the Sistine Chapel.
• Sistine Chapel closes the Vatican Museums route with Michelangelo's ceiling frescoes and his Last Judgment behind the altar, painted decades apart for two different popes.
• St. Peter's Basilica is the largest church in the world, its nave leading to Bernini's bronze baldachin and Michelangelo's Pieta, free to enter with a security check at the door.
• Castel Sant'Angelo began as Hadrian's mausoleum before becoming a papal fortress, linked to the Vatican by the raised Passetto corridor popes once used to flee.
• Galleria Borghese packs Bernini sculptures and Caravaggio canvases into Cardinal Scipione Borghese's villa, with entry limited to timed two hour slots booked well ahead.
• Piazza del Popolo opens onto an Egyptian obelisk and twin Baroque churches, with Caravaggio paintings inside Santa Maria del Popolo on its northern corner.
• Capitoline Museums occupy Michelangelo's Piazza del Campidoglio atop the smallest of Rome's seven hills, holding the bronze she-wolf that nursed Romulus and Remus.
• Papal Basilica of Saint Mary Major is the largest of Rome's Marian churches, its fifth century mosaics among the oldest surviving in the city.
• Piazza Venezia centres on the white marble Vittoriano monument to Italian unification, with a rooftop terrace reached by lift for views over the ancient city.
• Trastevere keeps a medieval street plan across the river, its ivy-covered facades, small squares and trattorias built around the mosaic-fronted Santa Maria in Trastevere.

Rome layers three thousand years of history into a single walkable centre, where ancient temples share a street with Renaissance palaces and Baroque fountains. The city ruled an empire that spanned the Mediterranean, then became the seat of the Catholic Church, and both identities still shape its skyline side by side, from the Colosseum to the dome of St. Peter's.

Neighbourhoods to know

The centro storico around the Pantheon and Piazza Navona holds the densest concentration of sights and stays lively into the evening. Trastevere, across the Tiber, keeps a medieval street plan, ivy-covered facades and a strong restaurant scene. Monti, behind the Roman Forum, mixes vintage shops with quiet piazzas, while the Vatican side of the river forms its own self-contained district around St. Peter's Square.

When to go and for how long

April to June and September to October bring mild weather and shorter queues than the peak of summer, when temperatures regularly pass 35 degrees. Four to five full days allow time for the historic centre, ancient Rome and a half day at the Vatican Museums; three days cover only the essentials at a rushed pace.

Getting around

The historic centre rewards walking, with most major sights within a couple of kilometres of each other. Three metro lines, A, B and C, run out from the centre but cross it only at a few points, since further tunnelling regularly turns up archaeological finds. Buses and trams fill the gaps, and taxis or rideshares cover the distance to the Vatican or Trastevere quickly outside rush hour.