Two Weeks in Rome

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Day 1
Arrive and get settled; check on neighborhood food stores, coffee bars, laundries, and rosticcerie.

Day 2
Morning: Start at the Colosseum and Arch of Constantine. Walk from there through the Forum to the Campdoglio. This is an entire half-day, at least. Lunch in the immediately adjacent Jewish Quarter at a place like Giggetto. Afternoon: tour the ghetto itself, perhaps with a tour of the Synagogue.

Day 3
Start again at the same place as yesterday: the Colosseum, but today in the other direction. In the morning, visit San Clemente, then walk along Via Santi Quattro to the church of the same name, being sure to ring the bell for the nun to open the little chapel with the frescos, also trying to see the delightful cloister. Then continue walking on Via Santi Quattro up to the Basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano where you should see the theatrical facade, the immense interior, and another charming cloister. Lunch at a simple trattoria like the Osteria Da Angelino in Via Machiavelli. After lunch, the Domus Aurea with coffee/ice cream at the little kiosk in the park.

Day 4
Boat or train to Ostia Antica. Evening at one of the restaurants on the Tiber. Or, perhaps, at Ostia Lido for fish.

Day 5
Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, Sant’Ivo, Santa Maria della Pace. This is one of Rome’s most delightful. Give it the whole day.

Day 6
A full day’s walk, starting at the Piazza Bocca della Verita’, visiting, first the delightful churches of Santa Maria in Cosmedin and San Giorgio in Velabro. Then, past the Circus Maximus up to the rose garden to Santa Sabina, our favorite church in Rome. There is a beautiful park adjacent with good views over the city and St. Peter’s. Bring a picnic. Look through the keyhole in the Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta. (Try your best to get to see the cloister at Santa Sabina, not always open. You might also try your luck at getting into the grounds of the Order of Malta, now open more or less regularly on Saturday mornings.) Late lunch at Perilli. Finally, the Protestant Cemetery, the most beautiful cemetery in the world.

Day 7
Trastevere, especially the part around Santa Cecilia and the Piazza dei Mercanti.

Day 8
Explore the area called suburra, oldest in Rome, now generally called Monti, which centers on Via Madonna dei Monti and includes such charming streets as Via degli Zingari. Also San Pietro in Vincoli, Santa Maria Maggiore, and especially the Byzantine chapel in Santa Prassede. Lunch or dinner at Tempio di Mecenate or Trattoria Monti or, if you’re splurging, at Agata e Romeo.

Day 9
Excursion by bus: Tivoli and Hadrian's Villa. This is an all-day trip.

Day 10
Again, start at the Colosseum. Walk up Via Claudia to the churches of Santo Stefano Rotondo and Santa Maria in Domnica. Then through the Parco Celimontana (where on summer evenings there are excellent jazz concerts) to the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo and San Gregorio Magno (headquarters of Mother Teresa’s order of nuns in Rome). This will bring you to the Circus Maximus, and from there you should spend the rest of the day on the Palatine Hill.

Day 11
An unusual, untouristy excursion: the Villa Torlonia on Via Nomentana, a gorgeous park where you’ll find the Museo della Casina delle Civette, a delightful Art Nouveau building housing a little museum of Art Nouveau and Art Deco glass. From here continue on by bus up the Via Nomentana to the Sant'Agnese/Santa Costanza catacombs.

Day 12
Finally (how could we dare to skip it?) the Vatican. Our honest advice is to make it no more than a half-day in the afternoon. 12-2 in the basilica itself, leave an additional hour at the beginning if you want to torture yourself climbing up the cupola. 2-230 snack. 300-500 the Vatican Museum, proceeding rapidly to the Sistine Chapel, then back to see some stuff on the way out.

Day 13
Choose an unusual small museum to visit, plus a park. Among our favorites: the Museo Mario Praz; the Museo Hendrik Cristian Andersen; the Schwarz Collection in the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Villa Borghese; the Farnesina near the Orto Botanico; the Museo Barracco, when it finally reopens, a wonderful place; or the Centro Montemartini, ancient sculpture displayed in a restored factory full of big industrial machinery. Among the parks, obviously there is the Villa Borghese, but we absolutely love the Orto Botanico and the Protestant Cemetery, too.

Day 14
A final day meandering through a favorite neighborhood.

Day 15
Ciao!

And what we’ve left out!!!! The Galleria Borghese. The Caravaggios in San Luigi dei Francesi, Santa Maria del Popolo, and Sant’Agostino. The Palazzo Spada. All the big museums: what a scandal! – but Rome is not a museum city in our opinion. The Baroque Excess of Santa Maria della Vittoria and the Bernini within.