Rome is dreamier than I ever remembered. Everywhere you walk, you feel like you are in a movie. It was almost overwhelming to take in the incredible history, intricate artwork, ancient buildings and architecture, and don’t forget the most delicious food!! The gelato and pasta can’t be beat.

I went to Rome when I was a kid, for a couple days on a layover, on my way to Israel. I was so jet lagged on that trip, I felt like I was sleep walking wherever I went. Now years later, when we were planning our Europe trip with our older kids, we added in this stop to Rome at my husband’s request. I am so glad we did. It ended up being pure magic!! I loved every second!!

Let me show you how we organized our days to fit in as much as we could in 3 days, while still having relaxing evenings to dine with family and friends.

This post may contain Amazon or other affiliate links, meaning that if you choose to click through and make a purchase, I will receive a small commission for sharing at no cost to you.

Pantheon Neighborhood – Day 1

Our first day in Rome, we did our own little walking tour of the Pantheon Neighborhood. Everything was so close together, we just plugged all of the places below into our GPS and started walking. We were able to do it in an afternoon. You could make a full day of it if you stop to browse longer at the different locations or shops along the way. I’ve starred some of our top favorites!! I’ve also added links to each location with some basic background, history, and if you need to purchase tickets.

Walking Tour of Amazing Fountains & Architecture:

· Pantheon* (if you are doing a tour here, it is free, but you need tickets and it fills up fast)

· Altare della Patria

· Trevi Fountain* (My favorite!! We went back to see this every day at different times. Beautiful!)

· Piazza Navona

· Trinita dei Moni

· Spanish Steps* (Loved this one, too! Breath taking lookout of the city at the top)

· Basilica Papale di Santa Maria

· Terrazza del Pincio (nice look out)

· Piazza del Poppolo

· Castel Sant Angelo (get tickets here)

· Campo de’ Fiori (a fun square with shops & restaurants- loved eating here!!)

Delicious Restaurants Near the Pantheon:

· Miscellanea

· Giolitti (world renown gelato!)

· Baccanale (in Campo de’ Fiori) – best carbonara EVER!!

· Raviolo d’Oro (everything was amazing)

· Sweet Life (loved this gelato place, too. They gave us tons of free samples and wouldn’t let my husband order until he was absolutely sure he knew what he wanted and that his flavors complemented each other)

Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel – Day 2

We used Head Out to book our “skip the line” Vatican Museum & Sistine Chapel tickets. The “skip the line” tickets mean that you have a guide to walk you through the gate to pass all the walk ins that are showing up. The line is hours long, so the tickets are well worth the purchase.

Head Out was great for our ticket purchases. Their website was very easy to maneuver for Americans and the best deal we found. (We ended up using them for the Colosseum and several of our outings in Paris as well.)

We chose the “Vatican at Your Pace” tickets. Our friends went the day before us and felt the Guided Vatican tour they got with their tickets was too long and too rigid. We downloaded the Rick Steve’s App (free), and listened to his audio tour as we went through and it ended up being great. We could be slow where we wanted to be and cruise through the other parts that were less interesting to us.

We did St Peter’s Basilica a different day, but you could easily do it the same day. I would do St Peter’s Basilica first thing in the morning. There was no wait at 8:30am when we went. The Romans like to sleep in. 😉 Our friends really liked doing the paid tour to look out the dome, but we just did the free entrance without tickets and it was great for us.

We did a walking tour of Trastevere in the afternoon, and it was really cool to see that part of the city. As we finished that area, it was getting dark. It felt like we were on a movie set strolling the streets with the restaurants lit up at night. It was so romantic!!

Our friends loved a restaurant called Nannarella Osteria in the Trastevere neighborhood. Another they loved was Tonnarello. Sadly, we weren’t with them those nights!

Delicious restaurants near the Vatican:

· Old Bridge Gelato* (our favorite gelato and had the most generous portions)

· Ioman Gioduecento Gradi 200 (great sandwich shop)

Rome Temple & Colosseum – Day 3

The Rome Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is quite far from the city center where we were staying, but with buses and the metro we were able to make it there. You could also pay a bit more money and grab a taxi to save time.

We went on a Sunday, so the Rome Temple wasn’t open, but we were able to go into the beautiful Visitor’s Center (also on the property) and catch sacrament meeting at the ward building right next door. The visitor’s center is gorgeous! We loved the stained glass mural in the entry way, created by a world renown glazier.

The biggest highlight of the Visitor Center at the Rome Temple, was the Christus Statue surrounded by the statues of the original 12 apostles. That room had the most peaceful and heart warming feeling. It was palpable. I felt the spirit stronger there than in any other place we went to in Rome. I would definitely recommend going even though it is far from everything else in Rome.

We went to the Colosseum, Roman Forum & Palantine Hill that afternoon. The ticket is for all 3 places to use in one day, so make sure you plan enough time to go to all of them before they close. We were able to do it in an afternoon. An audio tour came with our tickets, but our cell service was so poor, we couldn’t get it to download. So if you are interested in listening to that, I would download it at your hotel or Airbnb when you are on wifi before you go. If you enjoy the Rick Steve’s Audio Tours, he also has some for those historic sites. You can also listen as you are planning your trip, if you’d like to do a little studying up before you get there.

We had our favorite sandwiches just outside the Colosseum at a place called Le Saline Shop.

Other Favorite things about the trip:

Our Airbnb was amazing and right in the center of everything so we walked everywhere except the temple: it was located on Via dei Banchi Vecchi. It was bright and very roomy. I would stay there again and again.

We loved Rome so much! It was the best experience for us!! We visited the Trevi Fountain a few times so we could see it at different times of day. It’s so beautiful during the day and also lit up at night!