On this page you can find details on how to travel to Rome – when to go, what are the prices, etc. Technical details, but super important when you travel around!

When to go and for how long? 

Rome is swamped with tourists. I guess it will be the case regardless of the moment of the year you go there. In my personal opinion the best moments to go are “shoulders” seasons: spring or autumn. Not as many people as in the summer and temperature is already high enough to enjoy the city. I was at the end of April and it was already quite hot – between 25 and 30 degrees every day. I think in the summer it is too hot and overcrowded and in the winter you won’t enjoy weather so much. Therefore, April / May was the best choice for me.

Regarding time you need to visit Rome – as I wrote above, you can even spend a month there. For me 2,5 days was super intensive, but I managed to see almost everything. But to make it less “ultimate travelling” I would rather recommend to stay around 4 days.

How to travel around?

Getting to Rome is probably easiest by a plane. There are two airports around Rome, but most of the popular airlines fly to Fiumicino airport. Getting from there to the city heavily depends on the hour you will arrive. During the day the best option is Leonardo Express which will bring you to Termini station (price is 14 EUR). It departs every 30 minutes, journey takes 30 minutes and you don’t need to book tickets upfront.

If you are coming in the evening (after 23:30) then you have only three options: private welcome pickup, Uber or taxi. Surprisingly enough, Uber is the most expensive one, so I would rather skip it. Welcome pickup sounds like good solution, but its price will be the same as Taxi. Therefore, I think this last option is the most convenient one. Price for taxi from airport is constant if you are going to Rome Centre (within Aurelius Walls) and it’s equal to 48 EUR. However, this is only applicable for taxis registered in Rome. If you are going to take taxi that is registered in Fiumicino then the price is equal to 60 EUR, so it’s good to make sure that on the car’s door you will see information that is taxi from Rome (it’s quite easy to spot). And of course be careful with the illegal taxis – don’t trust them and use taxis only from official stand. Also be aware of people trying to take you out of the waiting line for taxi – most probably they will take you to the one of the illegal taxis.

Once in Rome, you have several options for travelling around. I think the best one is just walking – places are not so far from each other and you can see the city on the way. Good alternative is metro (it is not so widespread in the centre) and sometimes buses, but you have to be aware that with this second option you will not be much faster than when you just walk somewhere. There is one ticket for all transportation means and it allows you to travel for 100 minutes in any public transport. You can buy them in any stall with newspapers or machines in metro. Don’t forget to validate it! And of course be careful for pickpocketing – Rome is a big city with many tourists and public transport is natural place for thieves.

What to take for photography? 

As you will walk a lot – try to be light. For me prime lens Fuji 14mm f/2.8 was perfect for most of the day and it was very easy to walk with camera in my hand. In many places I was using also 10-24mm f/4.0 – due to very wide angle and optic stabilisation, this lens was perfect for architecture and all interior shots (especially in museums). Sometimes I was missing something around 50mm or even more telephoto as all the landscape opportunities were quite far from the city centre and wide angle shots were very “empty”.

Accommodation in Rome is quite expensive due to many tourists. Therefore, you should just accept that price / quality ratio won’t be the best one in this city. At the same time I think that there is no need to book anything special as anyway most of the time you will be out of the hotel visiting the city.

For the first night I booked normal hostel as I needed place with 24 hours open reception and for the next two days I booked room in apartment Merulana Rome City B&B (via booking.com). Out of these two I preferred the second one as it had nice location and it was 50% cheaper. It was just room in the flat that was changed to the accommodation, but for me it was more than enough. The only downside was shared bathroom, but I didn’t have bigger problem with that. Owner was also very helpful there!

As I said above – Rome is quite expensive city for accommodation (you can easily calculate more than 50 EUR per night for single room), but other things are relatively cheap. Eating in restaurant depends on the choice you make, but in a very good local restaurant I paid around 11 EUR for a very good one course meal. Ice creams are around 3-4 EUR and bus ticket is 1,5 EUR. Coffee is usually between 1 EUR and 2 EUR.

Tickets to museums and sites are not so expensive but bearing in mind how many of them you are going to visit, it can add up to quite some amount. Main spots:

• Colosseum, Forum Romanum and Palatine hill – 14 EUR
• Saint Peter’s Basilic – entrance is for free, but if you want to go to the dome then it’s 10 EUR
• Borghese museum – 14 EUR
• Sant’Angelo Castel – 14 EUR
• Vatican museum – 17 EUR
• Capitolini museum – 11,5 EUR