One Week in Rome: A Seven-Day Itinerary

Seven days in Rome is the first travel format in which the city stops being a list of monuments and starts to look like a place where people live. In the first three days you do the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon and the Vatican Museums, and those are three days already told elsewhere on this site, with the hours and the costs: anyone with only three days finds everything in the three-day itinerary for Rome, anyone with two in the weekend in Rome. The lines that follow start from there and cover the rest: days four through seven, which are the ones when Rome really opens up. On the fourth day you leave the walls and walk the Appia Antica among the catacombs. On the fifth you take a train and arrive at Ostia Antica, which is an entire Roman city and almost empty. On the sixth you choose between Tivoli and the Castelli Romani. On the seventh you go back into Rome but through the wrong side, that of the neighborhoods: Testaccio, the Garbatella, the Coppedè, the EUR. In between you slip in the museums that always get left out of three days, from Palazzo Massimo alle Terme to the Centrale Montemartini. And there is the logistics of a real week, which is different from that of a weekend: transit passes, laundry, where it makes sense to sleep for seven nights and how to keep a rhythm that does not make you hate the city by the fifth day.

How This Week Is Built and Why

The principle is simple: the first three days are centripetal, the last four are centrifugal. In the first three you stay within an area of about three kilometers by three, between the Colosseum, the Vatican and Piazza del Popolo, and you walk a great deal on stone. From the fourth day on you take transportation and go out: onto the Appia, to Ostia, to Tivoli, and even when you stay in the city you move to neighborhoods that three-day tourism never touches. This change of pace is not a whim: it is the only way not to repeat the same day seven times and not to leave Rome with the impression of having seen only its shop window.

Why the First Three Days Are Already Written Elsewhere

Repeating here the detail of the Colosseum, the Palatine and the Sistine Chapel would add nothing: that work was done in a much more painstaking way in the three-day itinerary, which contains the ticket costs, the best time slots, the days to avoid and the precise sequence of visits. Here the first three days appear only in summary form, with the two or three warnings that change when the days are seven instead of three. The real body of these pages is days four through seven, and the chapter on weekly logistics, which in a weekend is simply not needed.

The Rule of the Fourth Day

There is a precise point at which the tourist in Rome stops enjoying the city, and it is more or less halfway through the fourth day: 20 kilometers walked, three long lines and too many marbles to tell apart anymore. The countermeasure is not to rest, which in Rome is frustrating, but to change the type of day. The Appia Antica works for this, because it is a walk under the pines with a few descents underground and not a row of rooms. Ostia works for the same reason, horizontal archaeology and no crowds.

How Much You Really Walk in Seven Days

A week built like this means walking roughly between 60 and 80 kilometers in total, with very different days: the historic center days are around 12 or 14 kilometers, the Ostia day around seven or eight but all on irregular paving stones, the Appia day between six and 10 depending on how far you push toward Villa dei Quintili, the neighborhoods day around eight if you use the metro for transfers. Shoes matter more than anything else, and the ancient paving, that of the Appia and of Ostia, is uneven in a serious way: anyone with ankle problems has to know it beforehand, not find out at the third kilometer.

What This Week Does Not Try to Do

It does not try to exhaust Rome, because that is not possible. Whole strands are left out: the catacombs of Via Salaria such as those of Priscilla, the science museums, the minor historic villas, and the longer trips toward Cerveteri, Tarquinia, Viterbo or Sperlonga. Seven days are enough to have a mental map of the city and to have seen three faces of it: the ancient, the Baroque and that of the working-class 1900s.

The First Three Days, in Brief

The first three days of this week coincide with the three-day itinerary already published on this site, where every stop has real hours, prices and times. Here only the skeleton is given, because they serve as a base and not as the main content. Anyone with seven days can, however, afford something that anyone with three cannot: dilute. The same stops, spread out more calmly and with a few additions, comfortably fill the first three days without the constant rush that a short itinerary imposes.

Day 1: Ancient Rome

The first day is that of the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and the Palatine, with the afternoon on the Capitoline Hill and in the Capitoline Museums. With seven days available you can add without strain the Museum of the Imperial Forums in Trajan’s Markets, which always gets skipped in three days, or the Domus Aurea, which can be visited only with an escort and by reservation and therefore has to be fitted in ahead of time. In the evening you finish in Monti or go down toward the Circus Maximus.

Day 2: The Baroque Historic Center

The second day is entirely on foot: Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Campo de’ Fiori, Trevi Fountain, Piazza di Spagna. Anyone with seven days can slip in the excavations of the Stadium of Domitian under Piazza Navona, the Museo di Roma at Palazzo Braschi or the Galleria Spada with Borromini’s perspective, all things that never fit into a short itinerary. The Ghetto, with the Synagogue and the Jewish Museum, is the natural extension of the afternoon.

Day 3: The Vatican

The third day is that of the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel, followed by St. Peter’s Basilica and, in the afternoon, Castel Sant'Angelo. With a week ahead of you it is best to split it: museums in the morning, lunch in Prati, and then either Castel Sant’Angelo or the Villa Farnesina in Trastevere, which is one of the most beautiful and least crowded things in Rome. In the evening you stay across the river, between Santa Maria in Trastevere and the Tiber Island.

The Three Reservations That Hold the Whole Week Together

Three tickets have to be bought before leaving, because they cannot be found on the spot on busy days: the Colosseum with Forum and Palatine, the Vatican Museums and the Galleria Borghese. The last deserves an extra line: buying the ticket in advance is mandatory, entry is in two-hour shifts and the official website indicates 10 shifts spread between 9 and 19, with a maximum of 180 people per shift. It is not advice, it is how the museum works: anyone who shows up at the gate without a reservation does not get in. With seven days available the Borghese can be moved to any day of the week, which makes it much easier to find a free shift than for someone who has to fit it into a weekend.

Day 4: The Appia Antica and the Catacombs

On the fourth day you leave the Aurelian Walls and walk on Via Appia, where the combined ticket of the Appia Antica Archaeological Park costs 12 euros, is valid for seven days from first access and includes Villa dei Quintili with Santa Maria Nova, the Mausoleum of Cecilia Metella with the Capo di Bove Complex, the Antiquarium of Lucrezia Romana, the Tombs of Via Latina and the Villa of Sette Bassi, always by prior reservation. It is the day when Rome is best recognized: a paved consular road, the pines, the tombs on both sides and under your feet dozens of kilometers of Christian galleries.

Where You Start and How You Get There

The classic entry point is Porta San Sebastiano, the most monumental gate of the Aurelian Walls, which houses the Museum of the Walls and lets you walk along a stretch of the sentry walkway. From there Via Appia really begins. Anyone who wants to skip the first stretch, which is narrow and busy with traffic, can use transportation: for the Mausoleum of Cecilia Metella the Park’s website indicates metro line A to Arco di Travertino and then bus 660, or from the historic center bus 118 with the San Gregorio stop, which is a circular line between the center and Villa dei Quintili. For Villa of the Quintilii the official directions are metro A to Colli Albani and then bus 663 or 664, or the same 118 from the Celio Vibenna stop to Appia Squillace.

The Catacombs: Which One to Choose

Three visitable complexes open onto the Appia, and doing more than one in the same day is wasted time because they are similar in structure. The Catacombs of San Callisto are the most extensive and contain the Crypt of the Popes. The official website indicates opening from 9 to 12 and from 14 to 17, closed every Wednesday, full ticket 10 euros and reduced 7 euros for children between 7 and 16 years old, with free entry up to age 6. The visit is possible only in groups of at least two people accompanied by a guide of the complex, leaves every 30 minutes and lasts about 40 minutes. Online reservation is required. The complex is owned by the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See and custody is entrusted to the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archaeology, while the welcome of visitors has been in the hands of the Salesians since 1930.

The Catacombs of San Sebastiano, at Via Appia Antica 136, are open Tuesday through Sunday from 9:15 to 17:15 with last entry at 16:45 and closed on Monday, with a prolonged annual closure in the period between December 7 and 27. Here too you enter only with a guided visit of about 40 minutes. The ticket price does not appear on the information sheet consulted and should be checked on the complex’s official website or by phone before showing up. Above the galleries is the Basilica of San Sebastiano fuori le mura, one of the seven pilgrimage churches of Rome, which can be visited free of charge.

The Catacombs of Domitilla, at Via delle Sette Chiese 282, are the largest in extent and the only ones with a semi-underground basilica within the visiting circuit. The hours indicated are from 9 to 12 and from 14 to 17, closed on Tuesday. Here too the ticket price does not appear to be published on the source consulted and should be asked about directly. The fact that San Callisto closes on Wednesday, San Sebastiano on Monday and Domitilla on Tuesday is the reason a week in Rome makes this day much easier than a weekend: whichever day you choose, at least two of the three are open. Anyone who wants an overall picture of the phenomenon can read the general page on the catacombs of Rome.

Cecilia Metella, Villa dei Quintili and the 2026 Construction Site

The Mausoleum of Cecilia Metella with the Castrum Caetani is the symbol monument of the Appia. The joint ticket with the Capo di Bove Complex costs 8 euros full, 2 euros reduced for young people of the European Union between 18 and 24 years old and 4 euros for those who hold the Roma Pass 48 or 72 hours. It is open Tuesday through Sunday with last entry 30 minutes before closing, and the hours change with the season: from April 1 to September 30 from 9 to 19:15, in October and March from 9 to 18:30, from November 1 to the end of February from 9 to 16:30.

Villa of the Quintilii, with Santa Maria Nova, is the largest suburban residence in the Roman area and also costs 8 euros full, 2 reduced, 4 with the Roma Pass. The seasonal hours are the same, but last entry is allowed up to 75 minutes before closing because the site is large and it takes time to cross it. An important fact should be pointed out for anyone visiting in 2026: the Park has announced that starting June 22, 2026 two sites remain temporarily closed to the public for restoration and enhancement work, the archaeological area of the Tombs of Via Latina and the Capo di Bove Complex. Before planning the day it is best to check on the Park’s website if the closure is still in effect.

The Villa of Maxentius and the Rest of the Road

Just before Cecilia Metella you come to the Villa of Maxentius, with the best-preserved circus in the whole Roman area and the dynastic mausoleum. It is a municipal complex, with its own opening regime and ticket office separate from the state Park, and should be checked separately. Beyond Cecilia Metella Via Appia becomes what it is famous for: the ancient paving, the tombs, the cypresses and very few cars, especially on Sunday when the stretch is closed to private traffic. Walking to Villa dei Quintili means about five kilometers each way on irregular stone. It is beautiful and should be weighed honestly, because the walk back doubles the bill.

If the Day Still Holds Up: Caffarella and the Aqueducts

The Caffarella valley, which runs parallel to the Appia, is real countryside inside the Grande Raccordo Anulare, with sheep, the Casale della Vaccareccia and the Nymphaeum of Egeria. Further east, reachable by metro A to the stop of the same name, is the Park of the Aqueducts, where the arches of the Claudian Aqueduct and the Acqua Felice cross the meadow for hundreds of meters. They are two places with no ticket office that at sunset are worth any museum. Anyone who arrives tired can stop at the Appia and save the Aqueducts for another evening.

Eating on the Appia and Getting Back to the City

Dining along Via Appia is concentrated in a few points between Porta San Sebastiano and Cecilia Metella and fills up in summer. Bringing water is necessary, because on the ancient stretch the drinking fountains are sparse. For the return trip bus 118 is the most direct route toward the center, while those who pushed on to Villa dei Quintili come out on the side of Via Appia Nuova and take metro A at Colli Albani. The Park notes vending machines and a rest area under the olive trees at Villa dei Quintili, but not a food service.

Day 5: Ostia Antica, the Roman City Nobody Looks At

Ostia Antica is a Roman city preserved almost in its entirety and reachable from Rome in about half an hour by urban train, and in 2023 it recorded 273,638 visitors: a bit under a tenth of those who pass through the Colosseum in a month. It is the day that, more than any other, repays those who have seven days instead of three, because in three days Ostia never fits and anyone who goes discovers that it is, for extent and legibility, the most useful archaeological site in Italy for understanding how an ancient city really worked: not the imperial palaces, but the apartment blocks, the shops, the public baths, the warehouses and the latrines.

How You Really Get There: The Metromare Line

The old Roma Lido railway has been called Metromare since January 1, 2022 and is no longer run by ATAC: the infrastructure belongs to ASTRAL and the rail service to Cotral, under the 2019 resolutions of the Lazio Region. This detail matters because many guides in circulation still call it by the old name and attribute the service to the wrong company. The line starts from the Porta San Paolo station, which is physically attached to the Piramide stop of metro B, touches Basilica San Paolo, EUR Magliana, Acilia and Vitinia, and has a stop called Ostia Antica a few hundred meters from the entrance to the excavations. In all the line has 13 stations. The ticket needed for the urban stretch should be checked at the time of purchase, because management has changed hands and the fare rules may have changed: the simplest thing is to ask at the ticket office at Porta San Paolo.

What You See in the Excavations

The natural route starts from the Porta Romana, continues along the decumanus maximus and crosses in sequence the Baths of Neptune with the black and white mosaics, the theater with the Square of the Corporations behind it, the forum with the Capitolium, the Forum Baths and then the area of the multistory houses, the real reason to come all the way here. The insulae of Ostia, with their balconies and stairs, are the only place where you understand that the Romans lived in small buildings of four or five floors with shops on the ground floor, exactly as in a modern city. The Square of the Corporations preserves the mosaics in front of the shipowners’ offices, with the names of the ports from which the ships came: it is a page of economic history readable with the naked eye.

To cross the site you need at least three hours, four if you also go into the Museo Ostiense. The ground is everywhere ancient paving or gravel, with constant changes in level: it is not suitable for wheelchairs except on limited stretches, and the accessibility of the individual routes should be checked in advance with the Park. Shade comes in patches: in July and August you visit at opening time or in the last hours.

The Village and the Castle of Julius II

A few hundred meters from the excavations, on the station side, is the village of Ostia Antica, a small fortified settlement of the 1400s built around the castle commissioned by Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere, the future Pope Julius II. The castle and the village are part of the same Archaeological Park that manages the excavations, together with the Necropolis of Porto at Isola Sacra, the Museo delle Navi and the area of the Imperial Ports of Claudius and Trajan. The castle’s opening regime is different from that of the excavations and should be checked: historically the visits have been at fixed times and with an escort.

Hours and Tickets: What to Check Before Leaving

The official websites of the Ostia Antica Archaeological Park could not be consulted during the preparation of these pages, and for this reason no figure is given here: the price of the excavation ticket, the seasonal hours and the weekly closing day should be checked on the Park’s website or at the Park’s phone number before getting on the train. Two elements are instead confirmed: the Park takes part in the Domenica al museo initiative, with free entry to all sites on the first Sunday of every month, and the online ticket office is that of the state circuit. Be wary of resellers who sell at a markup a ticket that you buy at the gate.

The Afternoon: The Sea or the Return Along Via Ostiense

Anyone who finishes early has two sensible options. The first is to continue on the same line to the sea, getting off at Lido Centro or further on: it is not the most beautiful coast of Lazio, but in summer a swim after four hours of excavations changes the day. The second is to stop on the way back along Via Ostiense: the Basilica of San Paolo fuori le mura, which has its own stop on the same line and is the second-largest church in Rome, and a little further up the Centrale Montemartini, which closes the circle perfectly: ancient statues displayed among the turbines of a power plant of 1912. Anyone who wants to understand how the city’s river port came about can also stop at the small Via Ostiense Museum, inside Porta San Paolo, at the foot of the Pyramid of Cestius.

Day 6: Tivoli or the Castelli Romani

The sixth day is a choice between two very different day trips out of town: Tivoli, which means two UNESCO sites in the same day, and the Castelli Romani, which mean towns, volcanic lakes and food. Tivoli is a day of visits. The Castelli are a day of landscape. Anyone traveling with children or with someone who has already run out of patience for ruins will do well to choose the Castelli. Anyone who came to Rome for the ancient cannot skip Villa Adriana.

Tivoli: Villa Adriana

Hadrian's Villa is the residence that the emperor Hadrian had built at the foot of Tivoli about 28 kilometers from Rome, over an area that the sources put at around 120 hectares, built in three main phases between 118 and 138 AD. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1999. Three buildings stay in the mind: the Canopus, the long rectangular basin surrounded by columns that evoked the delta of the Nile near the Egyptian city of Canopus. The Maritime Theater, a circular portico with an island 45 meters in diameter in the middle reachable only by drawbridges, probably Hadrian’s first lodging on the site. And the Poikile, the large porticoed square with a central pool inspired by the stoa of Athens. To cross it without rushing you need at least three hours, and the site is largely outdoors on uneven ground.

Tivoli: Villa d’Este

Villa d’Este is instead in the historic center of Tivoli, up high, and is the other face of the same trip: a 1500s garden built entirely on the principle of moving water, with hundreds of fountains fed by gravity and without pumps. Villa d’Este is also a UNESCO site. The hours, closing days and ticket prices of the two villas could not be reliably verified during the preparation of these pages: the domain that for years hosted the site of the two villas is no longer a cultural site and has been taken over by other content, while the institutional portal could not be reached. Before leaving they should therefore be checked on the Ministry of Culture portal or by phoning the ticket office. A general rule that holds for almost all Italian state sites, and that should in any case be confirmed case by case, is the Monday closing.

Villa Gregoriana, the Third Villa Almost Nobody Does

In Tivoli there is a third villa, and it is the least visited of the three: the Park of Villa Gregoriana, a historic park set in the gorge of the Aniene, with the Great Waterfall, the remains of the temples of Vesta and the Sibyl at the top and a route of staircases that goes down and back up the ravine. It is managed by a different body from the other two villas, so it has its own hours and ticket, and the seasonality is marked: in winter the openings are reduced. Anyone with good legs can do Villa Adriana in the morning and Villa Gregoriana in the afternoon, leaving Villa d’Este for another trip. The opposite, three villas in a day, does not work.

How to Organize the Day in Tivoli

The practical knot is that Villa Adriana is not in the center: it is on the plain, a few kilometers before the town, while Villa d’Este and Villa Gregoriana are in the historic center on top. Between the two there is a transfer that has to be factored in. The most efficient order is to start at Villa Adriana as soon as it opens, when there is shade and nobody around, go up to Tivoli for lunch and devote the afternoon to Villa d’Este, which looks much better with low light and the spray of the fountains. From Rome the town is reached by regional train from Tiburtina station or by regional buses. Times and frequencies should be checked against the timetable of the day, because they vary between weekdays and holidays.

The Castelli Romani: What They Are

The Castelli Romani are a group of 14 historic towns in the Alban Hills, southeast of Rome: Albano Laziale, Ariccia, Castel Gandolfo, Colonna, Frascati, Genzano di Roma, Grottaferrata, Lanuvio, Marino, Monte Compatri, Monte Porzio Catone, Nemi, Rocca di Papa and Rocca Priora, to which Velletri and Lariano are often added. The territory is an ancient volcanic complex, and the two lakes, Lake Albano and Lake Nemi, occupy two craters. For a one-day trip you choose two towns, not five.

Which Towns to Choose

Frascati is the easiest to reach by train and the most urban, with the Villa Aldobrandini that dominates the piazza and the cellars where you eat simply. Castel Gandolfo has the lookout over Lake Albano and the papal palace with its gardens, open to the public with their own arrangements and tickets that should be checked. Nemi is a tiny village overlooking its lake, famous for its wild strawberries, and at the foot of the town is the museum that housed Caligula’s ships. Ariccia is the capital of porchetta and of the fraschette, the traditional osterie, and preserves Palazzo Chigi, one of the few Roman Baroque palaces left with their original furnishings. Genzano is the city of the Infiorata, which the sources indicate as the oldest in the world, documented from 1778, while in Marino the Sagra dell’Uva has been held since 1925. Rocca di Papa, the highest of the Castelli, is for those who want to walk.

How You Get to the Castelli

Historically the connection with Rome is by rail, with three lines: the Roma Frascati, the Roma Velletri and the Roma Albano, the last completed in 1889. The regional lines leave from Termini and in part from Tuscolana, and the towns not served by the railway, among them Nemi and Rocca di Papa, are reached by Cotral regional buses, generally from the terminus of metro A at Anagnina. Frequencies and hours change a lot between weekdays and holidays, and on holidays some runs disappear entirely: checking the timetable of the day is not an option. Anyone who rents a car for this one day gains a great deal in freedom, but has to factor in the traffic on the return to Rome in the late afternoon on Sunday.

Tivoli or the Castelli: How to Choose

You choose Tivoli if you travel for archaeology and historic gardens, if you accept a day of visits with tickets and hours, and if you are willing to walk quite a lot in full sun at Villa Adriana. You choose the Castelli if you want a slower day, with a long lunch, a lake to look at and two towns to walk through without tickets. There is also a seasonal criterion: in July and August Villa Adriana is very hard because of the heat, while the Castelli are in the hills and are several degrees cooler than Rome. In autumn and spring the opposite holds, and Tivoli becomes the better choice.

Day 7: The Neighborhoods, the Rome That Is Not a Monument

On the seventh day you stay inside Rome but leave the historic center, and you visit neighborhoods that have no ticket office: Testaccio, the Garbatella, the Coppedè and the EUR are four different ways of having built the city between the end of the 1800s and the 1900s, and they are crossed almost entirely free of charge. It is the least tiring day of the week and often the one visitors remember most, because it is the only one in which you meet more Romans than tourists.

Testaccio

Testaccio was born as a working-class neighborhood around the river port and the slaughterhouse, and today it is the place where you eat best in Rome without ceremony. Its most extraordinary element is the Monte dei Cocci, an artificial hill 35 meters high formed exclusively of fragments of amphorae, estimated at around 25 million examples, piled in orderly layers over centuries by the dockworkers who unloaded oil and foodstuffs. It is not a random dump: it is a structure built with method, and it is probably the largest ceramic artifact of the ancient world. The former Slaughterhouse, closed as a slaughterhouse and converted, today hosts a branch of MACRO and the architecture faculty of Roma Tre.

The Nuovo Mercato di Testaccio left Piazza Testaccio in 2012 for the new structure on Via Galvani, where below the market floor archaeological remains that emerged during the works are visible. It is the right place for lunch, among fruit stalls and kiosks that make sandwiches. Not far away the Museo diffuso del rione Testaccio tells the working-class history of the neighborhood. On the Porta San Paolo side are the Pyramid of Cestius, tomb of a Roman magistrate of the 1st century BC built into the Aurelian Walls, and the Non-Catholic Cemetery, where Keats, Shelley and Gramsci are buried. You enter by voluntary donation and speak in a low voice. The stop is Piramide on metro B.

The Garbatella

The Garbatella was founded on February 18, 1920, Ash Wednesday, when Victor Emmanuel III laid the first stone in Piazza Benedetto Brin. The urban plan, led by Gustavo Giovannoni and Innocenzo Sabbatini with the contribution of other architects including Mario De Renzi, applied the English garden city model: low houses arranged around shared courtyards, a lot of greenery, vegetable plots for families who came from the countryside and had to settle into the city. The layout by numbered lots has remained intact, and walking between lot 24 and lot 41 means crossing staircases, arches, courtyards with laundry hung out and houses that look like they belong in a village four kilometers from the Colosseum.

In the following years, as the population grew, the suburban hotels were built near Piazza Eugenio Biffi, three large collective buildings called Rosso, Bianco and Giallo, conceived as temporary lodgings for those displaced from the center during the clearances. They are the exact reverse of the garden city idea and tell how building policy changed. The neighborhood belongs to Municipio VIII, Ostiense zone, and is reached by metro B, stop Garbatella. Among the things to see are the urban gardens, which continue the original agricultural vocation. You wander freely, without tickets, keeping in mind that these are inhabited houses: courtyards and stairs are private spaces.

The Coppedè Quarter

The Coppedè quarter is a block of 18 small apartment buildings and 27 minor buildings between Via Tagliamento, Via Arno, Via Ombrone, Via Serchio, Via Reno, Via Clitunno and Via Adige up to Piazza Trasimeno, in the Trieste district. It was designed by the Florentine architect Gino Coppedè starting in 1915 on commission from private financiers, with the first official presentation on October 19, 1916. Coppedè died in 1927 with the complex still unfinished and the work was completed by Paolo Emilio André. The style is a deliberate mix of Liberty, medieval, Baroque and Greek decoration that has no equivalent in Italy.

There are four elements to look for: the large entrance arch between Via Tagliamento and Via Dora, with the wrought-iron chandelier hanging in the center. The Fountain of the Frogs, built in 1924 in the center of Piazza Mincio. The Palazzo del Ragno at Piazza Mincio 4, with the sculpted spider and the motto on work. And the Villini delle Fate, decorated with mosaics and reliefs that celebrate Florence and Venice. The quarter is residential and also hosts diplomatic offices: it is visited only from the outside, free of charge, and 40 minutes are enough. The useful stop is Bologna on metro B, or the trams that go up Viale Regina Margherita. A few minutes away on foot is Villa Torlonia, with the Casina delle Civette, which closes the morning well.

The EUR

The EUR is the quarter built for a world's fair that was never held, interrupted by the war and completed in the postwar period with different functions. It is the place to go to understand what Rome did with its own antiquity in the 1900s: very wide streets, white marbles, repeated geometries. The symbol building is the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana, universally known as the Square Colosseum, with its rows of identical arches. Not far away are the Palazzo dei Congressi and the small lake with the Japanese cherry trees, which in spring is the most photographed spot in the quarter.

The EUR also hosts museums that almost no tourist visits and that are worth the trip: the Museum of Civilizations, which brings together the prehistoric, ethnographic and folk tradition collections, including the holdings of the former Museo Pigorini and those of the former Museo delle arti e tradizioni popolari, and the Museo dell’Alto Medioevo. Hours and tickets of the individual museums should be checked on their respective websites. You arrive by metro B, stops EUR Magliana, EUR Palasport and EUR Fermi, and also by the Metromare line that goes down toward Ostia, which lets you fit the EUR into the return from the Ostia day, if you prefer to keep the seventh day lighter.

How They Fit Into a Single Day

Four neighborhoods in one day are possible only if you use the subway well and accept that you'll hardly go inside anywhere. A sequence that works: morning at Coppedè and Villa Torlonia, then Line B heading south, lunch at Mercato di Testaccio, afternoon between Monte dei Cocci, the Pyramid and the Non-Catholic Cemetery, and two stops on to Garbatella for sunset among the lotti. EUR, the farthest, is better kept separate and combined with the trip back from Ostia.

Other neighborhoods, if you have time left

They're not the only ones. You already cross Trastevere in the first days, but its upper part, the one that climbs toward the Janiculum, is another neighborhood: the view from Piazzale Garibaldi, the Fontana dell’Acqua Paola and San Pietro in Montorio with Bramante's Tempietto. The Aventine, with the Orange Garden, the Basilica of Santa Sabina, the Rose Garden and the famous keyhole of the Villa del Priorato di Malta, makes a perfect half day for anyone who wants to walk slowly. San Lorenzo, next to the Sapienza, with the Basilica of San Lorenzo fuori le Mura and the monumental Verano Cemetery, is the university and nightlife Rome.

The museums that always get left out of three days

With seven days in Rome, four museums that a short itinerary always sacrifices finally make it into the program, and together they tell the story of Roman art better than any other combination: Palazzo Massimo alle Terme for ancient sculpture and painting, the Centrale Montemartini for the short circuit between archaeology and industrial archaeology, the Galleria Doria Pamphilj for the most intact private collection in the city, and the Galleria Borghese for Bernini and Caravaggio. None of the four takes more than two and a half hours, and you can spread them over the free afternoons of the week instead of cramming them into one day.

Palazzo Massimo alle Terme

Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, home of the National Roman Museum a short walk from Termini, is open Tuesday to Sunday from 9:30 to 19:00, with the ticket office closing at 18:00 and a weekly closure on Monday. It's the museum that almost no passing tourist visits and that almost all art historians name as the most important in Rome for ancient sculpture. On the second floor are the frescoes detached from the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta, with the painted garden covering the four walls of an underground room, and the reconstructed rooms of the Villa della Farnesina, reopened in the current layout in 2010. On the ground floor and the first floor are the imperial portraits, the Boxer at Rest and the Lancellotti Discobolus. The ticket price could not be verified from an official source while these pages were being prepared, so check it on the museum's website.

The other three sites of the National Roman Museum

The National Roman Museum is split into four sites, and the other three are all a short distance away: Palazzo Altemps, near Piazza Navona, with the ancient sculpture collections put together by the great Roman families and the Ludovisi Throne. The Baths of Diocletian, in front of Termini, with the epigraphic section and the Michelangelo cloister. The Crypta Balbi, the only museum in Rome that really explains how you get from the ancient city to the medieval one by digging a single block. Historically there has been a combined ticket valid for all four sites for several days. Its price and duration should be checked on the official website, because they have changed over time. Anyone with a week has the actual time to use it properly, which is impossible on a weekend.

Centrale Montemartini

The Centrale Montemartini, at Via Ostiense 106, is open Tuesday to Sunday from 9:00 to 19:00, with last entry one hour before closing and a weekly closure on Monday. On December 24 and 31 it closes at 14:00. It's the first public power plant in Rome, and since 1997 it has housed part of the collections of the Capitoline Museums: Greek and Roman statues displayed in front of the turbines and the diesel engines, with no attempt to hide the machinery. The effect is one of the best in Europe. The ticket price isn't published on the pages I consulted, so check it on the Musei in Comune website or with the city contact center. You get there by subway Line B, Garbatella stop, five minutes on foot, which means you can combine it with the neighborhoods day.

Galleria Doria Pamphilj

The Galleria Doria Pamphilj, inside the family palace on Via del Corso, is open Monday to Thursday from 9:00 to 19:00 with last entry at 18:00, and Friday to Sunday from 10:00 to 20:00 with last entry at 19:00. It's closed every Wednesday, as well as on January 1, at Easter and on December 25. The full-price ticket costs €16 at the ticket office and €17 when booked online, children under 12 and visitors with disabilities get in free, and the audio guide in Italian, English, French and Spanish is included in the price while devices last. The venue gives an indicative visit time of 90 minutes, with no limit on how long you stay. It's a private collection still hung the way it was in the 18th century, with Velázquez's portrait of Innocent X in its own small room: the exact opposite of a modern museum.

Galleria Borghese

The Galleria Borghese is open Tuesday to Sunday from 9:00 to 19:00 with last entry at 17:45 and closed on Monday. The full-price ticket costs €13, made up of €11 admission and a €2 booking fee. The reduced ticket for European Union citizens aged 18 to 24 costs €2 plus €2 booking, and the 17:45 entry costs €8, that is €6 plus €2. Buying in advance is mandatory, the visit is organized in two-hour slots, and the maximum number of visitors per slot given by the official ticket office is 180 people. On the first Sunday of the month admission is free, but the booking fees are still due. Inside are Bernini's Apollo and Daphne, Rape of Proserpina and David, and six paintings by Caravaggio. Around it is Villa Borghese, with the secret gardens, the Bioparco, the Museo Pietro Canonica and the Museo Carlo Bilotti.

The others, if the week allows

These are left off the list of four, but they're worth it: the Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia, which is the most important Etruscan museum in the world, 10 minutes from the Borghese. Palazzo Barberini and Palazzo Corsini, the two sites of the National Gallery of Ancient Art, with a ticket that has historically linked them. The MAXXI by Zaha Hadid for contemporary art and the city's Galleria d’Arte Moderna for the Italian 20th century. The Domus Romane di Palazzo Valentini for anyone who wants a multimedia route below street level. And the Museo Napoleonico, the Museo Barracco and the Museo di Roma in Trastevere, three small city museums where you walk in without a line.

The logistics of a week, which is a different job

Over seven days three things change compared with a weekend: a long-duration travel pass beats single tickets, you have to wash your clothes, and the choice of where to stay matters much more because you go back to sleep in the same place seven times. These are the details that decide if the week is restful or exhausting, and nobody ever talks about them.

Transit passes: when the CIS pays off

The price list published by Rome's transit company shows the BIT single ticket at €1.50 for 100 minutes, the Roma 24 ore at €8.50, the 48 hour at €15, the 72 hour at €22, the CIS, that is the weekly integrated card, at €29, and the personal monthly pass at €35. The math for a week takes a minute: the CIS beats single tickets from the 20th trip, which is just under three rides a day, and it always beats a 72 hour pass plus scattered tickets. Anyone staying eight days or more should compare the CIS with the monthly pass, which at €35 costs only €6 more and lasts 30 days. For regional trips there are dedicated tickets: the daily BIRG, listed in a range from €4 to €16.50 depending on the zones, and the three-day BTR, from €10.80 to €46.50. Before buying, check the updated price at the counter anyway, because price lists change.

Roma Pass, MIC Card and the other cards

The Roma Pass, in the 48 and 72 hour versions, combines transit and admissions and gives reductions at some sites: the Appia Antica Archaeological Park, for example, gives holders of the 48 and 72 hour card a reduced price of €4 on the €8 tickets. Over seven days, though, a 72 hour card covers less than half of the stay, and the math has to be done carefully: often the combination of the CIS for transit and single tickets bought on the official websites works out better. The MIC Card is something else again: it costs €5 and is valid for 12 months of admissions to the city museum system, but it's reserved for people who live or are domiciled in Rome, so it isn't a tourist card. Anyone spending seven days in the city who has a domicile should check the requirements, because at that price it alone covers the Centrale Montemartini, the Capitoline Museums and about 20 other sites.

The Appia Park ticket, the case where the week wins

There is a ticket designed exactly for people who stay several days: the Appia Antica Archaeological Park ticket costs €12 and is valid for seven days from the date of first entry, with a mandatory reservation for each site. It means you can do Cecilia Metella one afternoon and Villa dei Quintili another day, without having to squeeze everything into a 10 kilometer day on foot. Anyone who comes back to Rome often can consider La Mia Appia Card, which costs €25, is personal and is valid for one calendar year from first entry with unlimited admissions to all the sites of the Park, always with a prior reservation.

Laundromats

By the fourth or fifth day you need to wash clothes, and in a city where almost nobody has a dryer the practical solution is the self-service laundromat, which you can find in almost every residential neighborhood in Rome: San Lorenzo, Testaccio, Pigneto, Prati, Trastevere, the Termini area. How it works is standard: you pay at the machine with coins or a card, a wash cycle lasts between 20 and 30 minutes and drying takes as long, so allow about 90 minutes in all. Rates vary a lot from one shop to another and there's no point giving an average figure. Anyone staying in an apartment almost always has a washing machine but almost never a dryer, and in Rome clothes hung out on balconies dry in a few hours from April to October. Hotel laundry service, by contrast, charges a disproportionate amount per item: it's the expense people get wrong most often.

Where to stay for seven nights

For a weekend the answer is the historic center, whatever the cost. For a week it isn't. Over seven nights the price difference between the center and a well-served semi-central neighborhood becomes important, and the advantage of sleeping inside the center shrinks because from the fourth day on you leave the city anyway. Three criteria matter: being less than 10 minutes on foot from a subway Line A or B stop, being reachable from Termini without changes for the arrival and departure day, and having a zone around with grocery shops and a couple of real restaurants. Neighborhoods that meet all three criteria are Prati and Ottaviano on Line A, Monti and San Giovanni on the same line, Testaccio, Ostiense and Garbatella on Line B, and the Bologna and Policlinico area for anyone who isn't afraid of being a bit out of the way. Trastevere is beautiful but has no subway, and after seven days you feel it.

A sustainable pace: the empty half day

The rule that saves a week in Rome is to schedule one half day with nothing in it. Not a whole day, which creates guilt, but an afternoon with no ticket, no schedule and nothing to get to: a park, a market, a square, a bar. The right moment is the fifth day, after the trip outside the city. Villa Borghese, Villa Doria Pamphilj, which is the biggest park in Rome, Villa Celimontana and Villa Ada exist for this. The second rule is never to put two museums in the same day: the threshold beyond which you stop looking at anything is about two and a half hours of galleries.

The rainy day and plan B

Between November and March the chance of getting at least half a day of rain is high, and plan B isn't staying at the hotel but moving a day indoors: Palazzo Massimo with the other sites of the National Roman Museum, which you can walk between, the Capitoline Museums, linked by an underground gallery, or the Doria Pamphilj followed by the churches of the center. The catacombs in the rain are the worst choice. The Appia and Ostia should be put off.

The calendar of the week: who closes when

Building a week in Rome without looking at closing days means losing at least one visit. The general rule is that state and city museums close on Monday, but there are many exceptions and the sites of days 4 and 5 in particular follow different calendars.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

On Monday the Galleria Borghese, Palazzo Massimo, the Centrale Montemartini, the sites of the Appia Antica Park, the Catacombs of San Sebastiano and, as a rule, the big state sites are closed. The Colosseum with the Forum and Palatine, the Vatican Museums and the Doria Pamphilj stay open. On Tuesday the Catacombs of Domitilla are closed. On Wednesday the Catacombs of San Callisto and the Galleria Doria Pamphilj are closed, and it's also the day of the general audience in Saint Peter's Square, which changes access to the basilica. On Sunday the Vatican Museums are closed except the last Sunday of the month, when admission is free and the line doubles.

The first Sunday of the month

On the first Sunday of every month admission is free at the state museums and archaeological parks that take part in the ministry initiative, including the Archaeological Park of Ostia Antica and the Galleria Borghese, where the booking fees are still due. It's good news only in appearance: free admission brings enormous crowds to the best-known sites, and in a seven-day week it's better to use it for the less visited places, for example Ostia or the minor sites of the National Roman Museum, leaving the Colosseum for a paid weekday. Anyone who happens to be in Rome that Sunday and already has a booked ticket for a state site should check if it is worth moving it.

Frequently asked questions about a week in Rome

Is seven days in Rome too much?

Seven days in Rome isn't too much: it's the first format in which you manage to get out of the historic center and see the Appia Antica, Ostia Antica and a trip outside the city without giving up the main monuments. The first three days cover the classic core, and from the fourth day on you visit places that short itineraries always cut. The risk isn't boredom but tiredness: you need to schedule at least one half day without tickets and without schedules.

How much is the ticket for the Catacombs of San Callisto?

The ticket for the Catacombs of San Callisto, on Via Appia Antica, costs €10 full price and €7 reduced for young people aged 7 to 16, with free admission up to age 6. The hours given by the official site are 9:00 to 12:00 and 14:00 to 17:00, with closure every Wednesday. You enter only with a guided tour, in groups of at least two people, with departures every 30 minutes and a duration of about 40 minutes. Online booking is required.

How much is the ticket for the Appia Antica Archaeological Park?

The combined ticket for the Appia Antica Archaeological Park costs €12 full price and is valid for seven days from first entry on all the sites of the Park, with a prior reservation. The single tickets for the Mausoleum of Cecilia Metella with Capo di Bove and for Villa dei Quintili with Santa Maria Nova cost €8, reduced to €4 with the Roma Pass 48 or 72 hour. The annual pass La Mia Appia Card costs €25.

How much is the Galleria Borghese ticket and does it need to be booked?

The Galleria Borghese ticket costs €13, that is €11 admission plus a €2 booking fee, and buying in advance is mandatory. The museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 9:00 to 19:00, closed on Monday, and entry is in two-hour slots with a stated maximum of 180 people per slot. The 17:45 entry costs €8. On the first Sunday of the month admission is free, but the booking fees are still due.

How much does a week of public transit in Rome cost?

A week of public transit in Rome costs €29 with the CIS, the weekly integrated card shown in the official price list of the transit company, against €1.50 for the 100 minute single ticket, €22 for the 72 hour pass and €35 for the monthly pass. The CIS pays off from about 20 rides, that is fewer than three a day, so for anyone visiting Rome for seven days it's almost always the best choice. Price lists should be checked at the time of purchase anyway.

How do you get to Ostia Antica from Rome?

You get to Ostia Antica with the Metromare line, which is the former Roma Lido railway renamed on January 1, 2022 and now run by ASTRAL for the infrastructure and by Cotral for the service, no longer by ATAC. You leave from Porta San Paolo station, attached to the Piramide stop of subway Line B, and get off at the Ostia Antica stop, a few hundred meters from the entrance to the excavations. The trip takes roughly half an hour. Hours, the price of the excavations ticket and the closing day should be checked on the Park's website.

Which day of the week is best for Tivoli?

For Tivoli it's best to pick a day between Tuesday and Saturday, because Italian state sites usually close on Monday and on Sunday the train and regional bus service thins out. Villa Adriana and Villa d’Este are visited on the same day, starting with Villa Adriana at opening and going up into the town for the afternoon. Hours and prices of the two villas should be checked on the Ministry of Culture portal, because the old dedicated site is no longer active as a cultural site.

Is a week in Rome suitable for children?

A week in Rome is suitable for children precisely because it lets you alternate: two days of monuments, a day outdoors on the Appia Antica or at Ostia Antica, an afternoon at the Bioparco in Villa Borghese or at Explora, the children's museum. The catacombs aren't recommended for the youngest, because the visit is guided, in the dark and with no way to leave early. The ancient paving of the Appia and Ostia is uneven and poorly suited to strollers: a baby carrier backpack is better.

Is it worth renting a car for a week in Rome?

For a week in Rome a car isn't worth it, because the center is almost all a limited traffic zone, parking is expensive and the subway covers daily travel. The only reasonable exception is renting one for the Castelli Romani day alone, where the towns not served by rail, like Nemi and Rocca di Papa, can otherwise be reached only by regional buses with schedules that thin out on holidays. In that case allow for the traffic on the way back to Rome in the late afternoon.

One last piece of advice for anyone with seven days

The temptation, with a week ahead, is to fill it. It's the most common mistake and the easiest to avoid: seven days packed with visits produce the same tiredness as three, just spread out worse. The week works if it alternates sharply between dense days and slow days, if the trips outside the city are no more than two, and if there's at least one afternoon when you go nowhere. Rome can't be finished: you come back. Anyone who leaves here feeling they've left something behind has understood the city better than someone who ticked every box.

Anyone who works in tourism and leads groups in Rome, or builds itineraries for third parties, will find on tourleaderpro.com tools designed for the job: group management, materials for guides and organization of visit days, which on a seven-day program make the difference between an itinerary that holds up and one that frays from the fourth day.

Anyone instead who is planning their own trip to Italy and wants to work out how to fit Rome in with the rest of the country, from trains to other cities, will find on italyplanner.com planning guides that deal with exactly the practical problems of a long trip: moves between regions, realistic timing and choosing the bases where you stay several nights.