Cities and culture in Roma

The classic mistake with a city trip is filling it up. This page does the opposite: few sights per day, a plan you can walk, and meals as part of the itinerary instead of the gap between two museums. Rome is three layers stacked on top of each other, and two thousand years of ruins that live next door to the street. The plan splits it by day so you do not end up crossing the same square five times in three days.

Rome is read on two levels: the flat one, with squares and fountains, and the one below, where ruins come up through the ground. The Colosseum and the Forum fit in the same day if you get in early, and Trastevere is the neighbourhood where you eat well without leaving the old town. With two big things on one day, Rome ends up being seen by nobody. With two nights you see the centre and with three you add Trastevere and the Aventino, which is where you eat. In summer the plan shifts: the visits concentrate in the morning and the afternoon fills with shaded squares. The Colosseum is best seen first thing, when there is still no queue, and dinner in Trastevere can wait until the city cools down.

• capital
• history
• food