24 Hours in Rome

What do you do with only 24 hours in Rome? Try to see it all!

In my last post, I talked all about our incredible trip to Tuscany. We didn’t fly direct because we were able to snag an amazing flight in and out of Rome (less than $400/each round-trip, LAX – FCO!).

All told, we had about 24 hours total to see as many Roman sights as we could. Well, we did our best and came out of it feeling totally fulfilled and not too exhausted.
So if you’re ever just passing through Rome, here’s the layout of our self-directed walking tour of Rome that will help you to make the most out of the quick trip!

We booked one night at Hotel Quirinale which is an easy walking distance to the main train station (trains to FCO airport and Florence). The hotel held our bags for us while we ventured out into the city. We love to walk and since we had such a short amount of time in the city, we decided to walk everywhere so we could see the city as we went. We were amazed by how much we could walk to from our hotel.

Santa Maria della Concezione (Bone Church) ~ 20 min walk from Train Station

This church was highly recommended by friends that had traveled to Rome before us and so it was on our “must see” list and I am so glad it was! Entrance fee is 8.5 euros and it is 100% worth it. You start with a tour of the museum and then head to the crypt. The crypt contains the remains of 4,000 friars buried between 1500 and 1870 and the bones are arranged into art. It is completely unique and unlike any other church that I’ve been to.

Pizza Lunch Break

After the church, we headed to the Spanish Steps and along the way stopped for a quick bite. We had a big agenda ahead of us so kept this meal quick!

Spanish Steps ~ 10 min walk from Bone Church

One of the best things about Rome is that most of the attractions can be seen as you walk. We loved taking photos and enjoying the Spanish Steps. We also loved that it wasn’t something we needed to “tour” or pay an entrance fee. After the steps, we walked through a few of the expensive shopping streets and enjoyed some people watching.

Trevi Fountain ~ 8 min walk from Spanish Steps

This fountain is huge and beautiful. It’s super crowded so hard to get great photos, so if you have a lot of time in Rome, come early one morning before other people get up! Tourists from around the globe love to throw coins over their shoulder into the water. Legend is that if you do this, you’ll return to Rome in the future.

Pantheon ~ 10 min walk from Trevi Fountain

Wow. The Pantheon is incredible. The current building was dedicated around 126 AD. It is free to go inside and an unbelievable sight to see. We went during the off season so there wasn’t a wait and we were able to spend a lot of time looking and walking around inside.

Coliseum ~ 22 min walk from Pantheon

The Coliseum: it’s huge, it’s beautiful, it’s iconic. There is nothing quite like seeing it in person. We opted just to walk around the outside vs. taking a tour due to our quick trip and still feel like it was a great experience.

Aperitivo at Fafiuché ~ 6 min walk from the Coliseum

Ok, so you don’t have to have aperitivo at Fafiuché, but you should absolutely have it somewhere while you are in Italy! Aperitivo is the wonderful snack time/cocktail hour before dinner. It’s usually just about the same price as a cocktail but you also get a slew of snacks. Fafiuché has an exceptionally impressive spread. We could have eaten a full meal of delicious snacks. The only downside is that it’s a wine-only bar so you can’t order negronis here.

Dinner at Alessio ~ 16 min walk from Fafiuché

We choose Alessio for dinner because it was close to our hotel and we were tired from all that walking. We couldn’t have picked a better way to end or busy day than a delicious spread of pasta, risotto, bread, and wine.

Needless to say, we were exhausted after all that walking. We managed to clock 20,000+ steps on our pedometers. We saw so much of the city and really took advantage of our last day in Italy and only day in Rome.

Anyone else been to Rome recently, anything we should check out on our next trip?? I can’t wait to go back and may or may not already be looking at flights 🙂

17 comments

  1. Ah, this makes me so excited to see Rome one day! I’ll (hopefully) be going next summer, and you’ve given me quite a few new places to top off my Rome Bucket List with! Thanks 🙂

    • Keep your eye on flights, they keep having Europe sales and you can seriously get tickets for around $400 roundtrip from the US. I signed up for Scott’s Cheap Flight deals newsletter (the free version) and he always emails out when prices drop.

  2. That sounds so awesome! Time is precious! We must not waste it. That is an amazing 24-hour activities!

  3. It sounds like you had a hectic but an awesome trip. I keep postponing my travel plans due to time constraints but your post has inspired me to plan quick trips to places I want to see!

  4. That sounds like an amazing day! Italy is one of the countries I want to visit most. We’ll make it someday and when we do, I’ll remember this list for Rome. Thanks for sharing!

Let us know what you think!