Rome in Three Days from The Rabbit Hole
A hand-picked itinerary for your first three days in the Eternal City, all on foot from Trastevere.
Three days in Rome are not enough to see everything — nobody has ever managed that, in a lifetime. But three days are more than enough to see the great masterpieces, walk the ancient streets, and end each evening back in Trastevere with a bowl of cacio e pepe and a glass of wine. Here is the itinerary we suggest to our guests: designed to be walkable, unhurried, and organised so that each day builds naturally on the last.
Day 1 — The Vatican and the river of the popes
Start early. Walk from The Rabbit Hole along the river, cross Ponte Sisto, and continue along the Tiber towards the Vatican — about thirty minutes on foot, past some of the most photogenic bends of the river.
Morning: Vatican City. Enter St. Peter’s Basilica for Michelangelo’s Pietà, Bernini’s baldacchino and the tomb of the Apostle. If you have the energy, climb the dome for the finest panoramic view of Rome. Then spend two or three hours in the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel — book online in advance, the queue at the door can eat an entire morning. And don’t forget to look down as you walk towards the square: somewhere in the pavement, hidden among the sanpietrini, is a small stone carved in the shape of a heart.
Lunch: in the Borgo neighbourhood, along Borgo Pio or Borgo Vittorio — small trattorias that have been feeding Vatican staff for over a century.
Afternoon: Walk five minutes along Via della Conciliazione to Ponte Sant’Angelo, and cross the river towards Castel Sant’Angelo. Emperor Hadrian’s mausoleum, papal fortress, opera stage — nineteen centuries in a single building. Climb to the terrace at the foot of the bronze Archangel for the sunset view over St. Peter’s dome.
Evening: Slow walk back to Trastevere along the river (about twenty minutes). Dinner in Piazza San Cosimato or in one of the alleys around Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere.
Day 2 — Ancient Rome on foot
Today is a walking day. Wear the most comfortable shoes you own, take water, and be ready for one of the great walks of your life.
Morning: Leave The Rabbit Hole and walk down Viale Trastevere to Ponte Palatino. Cross the river at the foot of the Aventine hill. Ten minutes later you are standing in front of the Bocca della Verità in the porch of Santa Maria in Cosmedin — arrive early to test your honesty without a queue. In the same tiny piazza, take a slow look at the Temple of Hercules Victor and the Temple of Portunus — two of the oldest and best-preserved Roman temples in the entire city.
Mid-morning: Walk a hundred metres east and enter the great empty oval of the Circus Maximus. Cross it, feel the scale of ancient Rome, then climb the Aventine hill on the far side.
Late morning: On the Aventine, stop at the Orange Garden (Giardino degli Aranci) for one of the finest panoramic views over Rome, then walk a hundred metres further to the famous keyhole of the Knights of Malta, where three sovereign territories align in a single view of St. Peter’s dome.
Lunch: Down the hill on the Testaccio side, at the covered market of Testaccio or at any of the historic trattorias of Via Galvani.
Afternoon: Walk east to the Colosseum and Roman Forums. Give yourself three hours here at the very least. Enter from the Palatine side to avoid the worst queues; leave time for the Imperial Forums and Trajan’s Column on the way back down towards Piazza Venezia.
Late afternoon: Ten minutes on foot east of the Colosseum stands the Basilica of San Clemente — three churches stacked on top of each other, with a Mithraeum in the deepest level and the sound of an ancient stream still running below. It closes late and by evening you will likely have it almost to yourself.
Evening: Tram 8 or a slow walk back to Trastevere. Dinner in the old quarter — you have earned it.
Day 3 — The Appian Way
Today you leave the city. Not far — just a bus ride south — but you will spend the day walking on the oldest paved road in the world, past Roman tombs, mausoleums, aqueducts and umbrella pines. It is one of the greatest half-day walks in the whole of Europe.
Morning: From Trastevere, take bus 118 to reach the Via Appia Antica, the queen of Roman roads, opened in 312 BC to connect Rome to Capua (and eventually all the way to Brindisi). At the start of the walk you can visit the Catacombs of San Callisto or San Sebastiano — vast early-Christian underground burial complexes hollowed out of the volcanic tuff, still holding the graves of martyrs, popes and ordinary Roman Christians.
Mid-morning: Walk south along the ancient basalt paving stones of the road itself. The traffic disappears after the first kilometre. On either side you pass Roman tombs, family mausoleums, the imposing cylindrical Mausoleum of Cecilia Metella, and long stretches where the ruts of ancient cart wheels are still visible in the stone.
Lunch: Along the way, several trattorias (L’Archeologia, Cecilia Metella, Hostaria Antica Roma) serve traditional Roman food in the shade of the pines.
Afternoon: Continue as far as your legs are willing. Six kilometres in, you reach the enormous Villa dei Quintili, a ruined imperial villa so grand that Emperor Commodus had its owners murdered so he could confiscate it. Nearby lies the Park of the Aqueducts, where six ancient aqueducts still march across the countryside on ruined arches.
Evening: Bus back to Trastevere. If you have any energy left, celebrate with dinner in one of the historic Trastevere trattorias — you have earned that too.
After three days
Three days in Rome are three days well spent. And you will leave with a long list of things you didn’t see: the Crypta Balbi, the Villa Farnesina with Raphael’s Galatea, the churches of Santa Cecilia and Santa Maria in Trastevere with their Cavallini masterpieces, the Gianicolo at sunset with the noon cannon, Ostia Antica an hour away by train, the Pyramid of Cestius and Monte Testaccio at the edge of the ancient city, Bernini’s Beata Ludovica hidden in San Francesco a Ripa, the Sunday market of Porta Portese, and half a dozen more.
Rome is not a place you see. It is a place you keep coming back to. Buon viaggio. 🌿🕊️✨
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