Rome's Best Travel Routes

A weekend may sound too short for a city that has stood for more than three millennia, but three days are enough to live Rome with intensity if you know how to approach it. You won’t see every single church, nor will you walk through every museum hall, but you will touch the city’s beating heart. Rome is not a place to tick boxes—it is a place to breathe, to listen, to taste.

In seventy-two hours, you can trace the arc of Roman history from the Colosseum’s monumental stones to the hidden cobbled lanes of Trastevere. You can walk through piazzas where emperors held triumphs, toss a coin into the Trevi Fountain like millions before you, and stand in front of Michelangelo’s masterpiece on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. But just as importantly, you can savor a creamy maritozzo for breakfast, sip an espresso shoulder to shoulder with locals at the bar, and watch the sky blush pink over the city from Pincio Terrace. The secret is not to do everything but to choose the right things—the experiences that together form a complete picture, the memories you choose to keep forever. Three days are enough if you follow a rhythm that alternates great monuments with everyday details, the “wow” moments with the intimate ones. That is how you leave with Rome imprinted in your memory, not just in your photo roll.