3 Day Plan for Travel in Rome, Vatican City – How to Cover Major Attractions ?

We recently visited Rome for about 3 days and tried to cover most of the key things, while we missed few places, below is our travel plan and what worked out for us. Rome is all about Squares and Fountains. A square ( large meeting place) in Rome is called Piazza.   Rome is a lot of walking, be prepared to walk a LOT. On an average we covered about 9 to 10 KM per day walking and standing all day…

Day 1  – Colosseum, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill 

  • The major attraction that everyone in the world knows is Colosseum. It is really crowded and I would put that on top of my list to do it on Day 1.  There will be long lines and too much of crowd there, so just cover it that day.
  • Your ticket to colosseum will let you free entry to Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, you should both of these on Day 1 as well. There is a lot of walking to get to Palatine Hill and it is really great. The good part is that you have all of these around the same time. You exit colosseum and then enter Roman Forum and Palatine hill is inside the Roman Forum.
  • Once you are done, you can walk to Piazza De Venezia in the evening to get a good view and walk around. You wil not be able to go up to the top of it, if you are late as they close it by 6:45 PM.
  • One of the evening we went to Trastevere which is beautiful for walking next to river and having good food. I highly recommend it.

Day 2  – Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Piazza De Navona, Piazza De Popolo, Borghese Gallery. 

  • You should take the Rome Free Walking Tour , they will take you to the major attractions like Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona, etc. It takes about 1.5 to 2 hrs for this, but totally worth it.  If you cannot get to the walking tour, you should try to cover these attractions as they are all close by
    • Start at Spanish Steps
    • Trevi Fountain
    • Pantheon
    • Piazza De Navona.
  • You can go to Piazza Del Popolo is a great place to go in the evening and the square is magnificent. You have Borghese gallery there around as well and you can visit it, if you go there early.

Day 3 – Vatican City Museums, Sistine Capella,  St. Peter’s Basilica, Gardens

  • Day 3 you start with the museums in the morning like 9 AM and it will take you at least around 3 PM or 4PM to have a high level glance in the museums. You can spend few days in these museums as they are magnificent and grand.
  • The museums are super crowded and people even step on each other, so be prepared.
  • Once you are done with museums, you stand in line for the St Peter’s Bascilica and you can even do the dome tour by taking extra ticket. Once done, you can visit gardens and sit in the square.

This is a hell a lot of walking and your knees will hurt, but be prepared for it. The place is super touristy and a ton of crowd at all places. What was your plan in Rome like ?