15 Do's and Dont's When Visiting Rome
As we’ve mentioned in other posts before, Rome can be an expensive travel destination. There are some major attractions to visit such as the Colosseum, and palatine hill! But don’t get stung by expensive meals, long queues and miss your chance to save some pennies! Check out our do's and don'ts for visiting Rome.
Visiting Attractions
Do
When travelling to Rome you couldn't not visit the Roman Colosseum. Buy your tickets for the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill at the roman forum. You can buy a ticket which lasts for a few days for all 3 attractions, and no need to stand in the humongous queue at the Colosseum for a ticket, which seemed to be the largest.
Don't
Don't go in the morning. Years ago, it was always said ‘go in the morning to avoid queues’. We found the complete opposite in Rome and generally now everyone goes in a morning. The queues were gigantic and even a tour guide selling queue jumps there couldn’t believe the length of them either. However, when we went back in the afternoon we walked straight in and didn’t queue at all
Do
Take ID! When travelling to Rome, there was often discounts for either being under 25, from a country apart of the EU or both! For the ticket we got for all 3 main attractions we managed to get half-price and only paid about 14 euros to visit all 3 for both of us.
Don't
Try and visit all the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill all in one day. When you buy a ticket, it spans across a few days. It is nice to take your time as there are lots of things look at. In the forum and the hill, we walked around it for hours, it was also very hot. We had been walking around 10 miles a day for 2 weeks previous and we didn't want to miss anything.
Do
Do visit the Trevi Fountain. It was so much larger than we had imagined compared to pictures you've seen many times. You couldn't miss it when travelling to Rome and cool to go throw a coin in! The trevi fountain collects about 3000 euro a day which is all donated to charity which is pretty cool.
Don't
The Trevi fountain can be very very busy. Ed and I went during the day and had to push to the front, however, once we were at the front it wasn’t as crowded; most people were further back trying to get their photos instead of just enjoying the fountain.
After, we enjoyed an ice cream sitting on some steps way further back which was nice. However, if wanting to spend more time at the Trevi Fountain it is best to go in the evening. There are much fewer people around then.
Eating in Rome
Don't
Don't eat every single meal out when travelling to Rome. We have the ethos of being able to save money where we can and not spending a fortune while travelling the world. The perfect way to save money is to not to eat every meal out. We have options and ways to save money when travelling in our How to Travel Europe on a Budget
Do
Eat lots of ice cream!!! How can you go to Italy, especially Rome, and not eat lots of ice cream? In Rome, we didn’t find ice cream very expensive, but it is so readily available. Ice cream is amazing at the best of times (pretty much Ed's favourite food) and in Italy, how can you resist!
Don't
Eat near big attractions. Although it could be nice and romantic when travelling to Rome, we can never justify paying for an extortionate meal near an attraction. The food may not even be that good. We always use the beloved TripAdvisor to check out the quality of food first if going to eat with a view.
There are multiple restaurants around the Colosseum and the Pantheon, however we find places try to squish as many people in as possible and rush them out, which is not what you want to do. So best advice, check first!
History of Ice Cream
The history of ice cream is confusing and no one really knows its origin! There are ice-cream -like foods back in 550BC in Persia but others claim Roman Emperor Nero had ice collected from the maintains to produce the first sorbet style dessert!
Ice and snow were ancient ingredients in japanese, chinese greek and roman cuisines thousands of years ago but the ice cream is an absolute staple dessert today
Transport in Rome
Do
Visit Florence for the day! Unfortunately, due to tight schedules and being utterly exhausted while travelling in Europe, and never having a break (recommend rest days if travelling for longer!) we weren’t able to do this.
Florence was only 1h 20m train ride from the centre of Rome. If using an Interrail ticket it is included however a reservation is required. If not, a ticket could cost only £37! Florence is an amazing picturesque city and will be returning sometime as we both love Italy and Jess has been three times already, whoops 😊
Do
Use the metro system! Rome is a very large city, larger than we expected and although you could walk around Rome you would get tired awfully quickly and miss lots of attractions due to space between them.
Luckily the Colosseum is just down the road from Roman Forum and Palatine hill however other attractions such as the Trevi Fountain, the Vatican are worth a metro journey, particularly if you only have a few short days in Rome it is much easier to see everything!
Where to Stay When Travelling to Rome
Don't
Don't stay miles away. Rome isn’t cheap. That is pretty well known, how about checking out my post on Amazing Free Things To Do in Rome. However, when booking accommodation, we booked further away for cost. It was £80 a night and included breakfast.
The downside, was that we needed to catch a metro and a bus to get there, and although this wasn’t too bad, after a long day of exploring Rome it was tedious to spend over an hour back to the Hotel. We would suggest trying to book somewhere closer!
By booking further away we spent more on travelling into the city, therefore by staying slightly closer, the more expensive hotel or Airbnb could balance out in cost.
Do
Book an Airbnb. Airbnbs are amazing. Homey, often great communication between yourself and the host, usually great locations and not too expensive either! And starting at around £70 a night for a whole apartment, where can you go wrong?
Never stayed in an Airbnb before?
Visiting the Vatican
Don't
Don't buy stuff from the street sellers. Rome is full of them! On the way to the Vatican on every single street corner or trying to cross the road someone was asking if we wanted to buy something!
By the time I got to the Vatican, I was so annoyed and frustrated that I just wasn’t polite to them anymore because it was ridiculous.
We do not consider ourselves rude people and we are always polite. But we were also so sick of feeling harassed. We understand people just want to make a living but there were so many people.
Many are also try to sell water, which in hot weather, can be very tempting. However, some people don’t realise that you can fill your water bottle up for free with clean water at multiple points throughout the city.
Do
Take something to cover up in the Vatican. Before visiting Rome we heard lots about making sure you were covered up to go into Vatican City. We took trousers with us (ed only had jeans) and jumpers to make sure our shoulders and knees would be covered.
All the street sellers seemed to have the same idea, selling scarfs to keep people’s shoulders covered and if you don't want to buy something then take something with you.
When we got to the Vatican, Ed’s shorts just reached past his knees and these were ok. I put on a loose cardigan and that was ok too. I also was wearing shorts which were just above my knee but these were ok.
On the day we went to the Vatican the Pope came out and did a blessing, I included this in the free things to can do while travelling in Rome. Due to the Pope giving the blessing there were lots of people around which made us think they weren't perusing the covered knees very much.
However, we went back the day after and they were fine then too. Although we would suggest either wearing something appropriate or taking something with you to be sure!
Rome is an amazing city to visit but can be easy to spend lots of money buying multiple tickets, no discounts, and expensive meals. If that’s ok with you then that is great.
However, we prefer to explore most of Rome in the time we have, and luckily Ed and I managed to explore a lot of Rome in only 3 days! Rome is an amazing Italian city with all of its history and culture and a must-visit destination for everyone
