ROME TRAVEL TIPS FOR FIRST TIMERS | 40+ Must-Knows Before Visiting Rome + What NOT to Do!

For a lot of first time visitors going to the Eternal City, oftentimes they find it to be an eternal disappointment. From crafty pickpockets to tourist traps just around pretty much every corner, it can be surprisingly easy to have a terrible time in Rome. But don't worry, I'm here to help. Hi, I'm Cristina from HappyToWander.com and I've been to Rome three times now, each time enjoying it way more than the last. So in this video, I'm gonna be sharing all my top tips and tricks curated over a lot of painful trial and error. So let's start with some Rome travel planning. First off, arriving in Rome. The Rome-Fiumicino Airport, also known as the Leonardo da Vinci Airport, is the main international airport in Rome. So if you're coming from overseas, odds are this is gonna be your first point of entry. And this airport is located in Fiumicino, so that's about 40 kilometers west of Rome's historical center and it's right by the sea. Getting to the city center from this airport can be as quick as 32 minutes if you take the express train, but there's also different regional trains that are cheaper and it can take up to an hour in that case. Now, besides this airport though, a really good alternative if you're coming from within Europe is the Rome-Ciampino Airport. So this is an airport that services a lot of the budget airlines like Ryanair and Wizz Air. So not only is this airport actually only 12.5 kilometers away from Rome's historical center, it also services the cheaper airlines, which means you can save a lot of money flying into Rome and also getting to the city center is as quick as 14 minutes and only costs a Euro 50. So it's a really great way to save some time and money if you're on a budget. Now, in terms of when to go, definitely avoid peak season. I've personally been to Rome in June, July, and January, and by far the January temperatures and crowds were the most manageable and enjoyable. Not only are July and August extremely popular times to be visiting Rome, it can also get super hot and so sightseeing when it's scorching out is really difficult and trust me, in Rome, you're gonna be sightseeing a lot. So definitely try to avoid the heat of the summer because it's not comfortable at all. In terms of accommodation, another tip I have for you is to book your hotels as early as possible. And this is just because I found personally that there's not a ton of great hotel options in Rome. There's a lot of places that are a lot older and even though there's a ton of hotels, the good ones that are good value for money aren't super numerous. So what I would personally recommend is booking a hotel as soon as possible. I'd also recommend trying to stay somewhere central and prioritizing location over other factors like price. And that's just because Rome is so densely packed with amazing sites that being able to explore as soon as you leave the hotel is priceless. And also public transportation in Rome is not the most reliable. I'll be talking a bit more about that later. So just keep that in mind, time is money. If you're prioritizing your needs for accommodation, I highly recommend prioritizing location over anything else. Another tip is to consider booking an airport hotel if you're gonna be flying out of the city really early in the morning. So as I previously mentioned, hotels in central Rome tend to be really expensive and not great value for money. In contrast, Fiumicino actually has a lot of great hotel options and they're really affordable. We got to stay at this hotel for 66 euros a night and it even had a pool. So if you're flying out really early or maybe you're arriving quite late, it does make sense to book a hotel in Fiumicino just because it's actually quite a nice town on its own. It's right by the sea. There's a lot of nice restaurants. And so I would definitely consider doing that because you can save a lot of money and it's actually just way smoother to be super close to the airport the morning of your departure. Now let's tackle some Rome transport tips and tips for getting around. First is to get ready to walk a lot. My personal favorite way to get around Rome is obviously on foot. Trust me, you see so much more this way. I also find that using my own legs is oftentimes more reliable than Rome's public transport system, especially the buses. I feel like the buses there are not reliable at all. And if you're gonna use public transport, I would highly recommend sticking to the metro. Now, when you're walking around Rome, one thing to be really careful of is crossing the street. Crossing the street in Rome is honestly one of the most stressful experiences for no reason. And I do think it's because Roman drivers really do not care that much about pedestrians. And so I've anecdotally heard that if they see you and make eye contact with you, that to them is a sign that you've seen them so they're just gonna keep going. So what I personally do, because I'm still so bad at this, is I'll just wait for someone who's really confident, preferably a local, and I'll just follow them out into the street and walk next to them, because otherwise it's really hard to figure out when you can safely cross because these drivers just don't stop and it's very chaotic and scary. In terms of public transport, you should know that bus tickets and metro tickets are in fact the same. And so you usually buy them for about a euro 50 and then they're valid for 75 minutes after you validate them. Now, in addition to buying your tickets, you have to remember to validate them as well. That's because when you're in Rome, if you don't validate the tickets, then they don't actually count. So if you have someone coming in to check your tickets and it's not been validated properly, you're still liable to get fined. And this applies not only to public transport within the city, but also for your train tickets as well. So if you are at a train station and you have a physical ticket that you need to validate, make sure you do that in the machines before you get on the train, otherwise it won't count. That said, if you do plan on using public transport a lot, there are one day, three day, and week long passes that you can buy. But of course, don't commit to this unless you really think you're gonna be using public transport a lot. Another way to get around, of course, is by taxi. If you're in a bigger group, sometimes it can really make sense. In that case, what I would really recommend is downloading an app called FreeNow. This is basically Uber, except you're calling licensed taxis. And so that way you can order a taxi really easily from an app, and you can also see how much that total charge is gonna be roughly, so that you're not as susceptible to getting scammed, which is quite common in Rome, unfortunately. All right, now let's move on to Rome tips for attractions. So first off, you have to be prepared for a lot of construction and renovations. Rome is an ancient city, as you know, that's kind of the reason most people go to visit it. But at the same time, that means there's constant maintenance that needs to be performed on all these very famous monuments. And so just be prepared for that. Odds are you've seen photos of the Colosseum, you've seen photos of all the sites, but when you see it in real life, there might be a portion of it, or large portions of it, that are covered in scaffolding. And there's nothing you can really do about it, but just, you know, temper your expectations, make sure you're not gonna be completely devastated if you see parts of things are covered, because it does happen. Another important thing to keep in mind is that there is a strict dress code for churches in Rome. So if you plan on visiting any churches while you're there, you have to make sure that your knees are covered and also your shoulders are covered. Now, if you're visiting in the summer, the best way to ensure that you're always abiding by these rules is to wear a longer skirt or longer pants, and also having a light scarf in your bag at all times. That way, if you ever walk into a church and you realize your shoulders aren't covered, you can just drape it over. Another thing you need to make sure you do is buy your tickets in advance. And anytime there's a skip the line option, make sure you buy it just because time is money and it can honestly save you so much time, especially in peak season. Now, the cheapest way to get entry tickets for any of these attractions is probably from the official website. So make sure you're on the official website for that attraction. Otherwise, if you're looking for something with a tour or you're looking for some kind of combo ticket that brings you to a bunch of places, get your guide or tickets. Both offer really great options. And I would highly recommend booking a guide for some of these more prominent historical attractions, just because with a place like Rome that has such an intense history, it can be really overwhelming for a first timer to kind of grasp the context of everything that you're seeing. So I definitely recommend hiring a tour guide at some point if you're going to, especially the ancient sites like the Colosseum or the Roman Forum, because it can be really tough to make sense of the ruins that you're seeing. And it really helps a lot to have kind of that historical context. Now, in terms of sightseeing passes, I would definitely think twice before buying something like the Roma Pass or the Omnia Card. And I say this because even though I'm usually a huge fan of getting these city passes that allow you entry to a bunch of places for one set price, the ones in Rome aren't actually a good deal for most travelers. And that's for a few different reasons. The first one is none of the passes are actually all inclusive. So no pass is actually gonna include every single place in Rome. And most of them only include a few attractions and then discounts to the rest. So it's not a super great deal in that sense. Also, none of the passes include any guided tours either. So as I mentioned before, historical context can be really important. So it's not usually that fun to just have entry. I feel like booking a guide really helps a lot. And also a lot of the time you can already buy these tickets at a reduced price anyway. So if you're an EU citizen aged 18 to 25, for instance, you get a discount. So it's gonna be cheaper if you use your discounted rate rather than using a card like this. And last but not least, these passes aren't really worth it unless you use all the benefits, including like the hop-on hop-off bus, which to me isn't really the best way to see Rome. So for those reasons, I don't really think these sightseeing passes make sense when you're visiting Rome. Instead, I would recommend just booking the different things you wanna see individually. Now, in terms of seeing the big attractions, one thing I would really recommend is waking up really early, especially if you're going in peak season. Honestly, if you're looking to get photos without crowds in them for any of the major sites like the Trevi Fountain or the Colosseum, you do have to wake up super early because regardless of which season you go in, there's gonna be crowds. So make sure you get up just after sunrise to explore. I promise you, you're gonna feel like it's super magical because you feel like you have these places mostly to yourself. Another tip you can take advantage of is potentially visiting places just before they close. I've personally done this at the Vatican Museums and found that the crowds about an hour before closing were way thinner than when you arrive even first thing in the morning, just because that's what everyone tends to do these days. So if you don't mind rushing through attractions a little bit, then going just before they close is definitely a really good idea. Now I have to say besides the paid attractions, which I'm sure you already know about, it's really important that you familiarize yourself with some of the free things to do in Rome because honestly, if you're doing nothing but paying for these attractions, it can get quite pricey. And there's a lot of really fun things to do in Rome that are completely free. So be sure to take advantage of them. One of my personal favorite ones is exploring all the different parks and green spaces that they have in the city. Honestly, I would recommend, especially if you're going in the summer to schedule in a relaxing park stop every single day, preferably after some sightseeing because then you can relax and kind of process all the things that you just saw. Some of the parks that I really like are the Villa Borghese Gardens as well as the Parco Savello. Both of them are so beautiful and really worth visiting. Now, if you're planning to climb up St. Peter's Basilica, another tip I have for you is to make sure you time your visit so that you're at the top at the top of the hour. And that's because Rome has over 900 churches and at the top of the hour, that's when they all start to ring their bells in unison. And it's absolutely magical when you're up there for that. Now, another thing to keep in mind is to not sit on the Spanish Steps. So since 2019, sitting on the Spanish Steps has actually been forbidden. And if you're caught doing it, you can risk a fine up to 400 euros. In practice, I don't think anybody actually gets fined for this, but they do have a special whistle police, I'm not even joking, that kind of like hovers around the Spanish Steps. And as soon as they see you taking a seat, even for a quick photo, they will blow their whistle. So just remember.