Where to Stay, How Long to Stay, and What to Eat in Rome

What’s known as the Spanish Steps, which lead up to the Trinità dei Monti church in Rome, Italy. A great part of central Rome for seeing Baroque landmarks and finding luxury hotels and spacious rental apartments. April 22, 2022.

Rome is one of the major world cities, along with Paris, London, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. And just as with a trip to any of these major cities, you can get completely overwhelmed when it comes to planning a trip there—and you can get easily sidetracked on your visit, too, leaving you returning home without having had the experience you’d wanted.

To help you have the best possible trip to Rome, I’ve crafted a set of top tips based on my recent travel experiences, which I’ve combined here and in an article focused on how to see and enjoy the best of the city’s sights.

First things first: Let’s look at how to decide where to stay while in Rome, how much time to schedule for your visit, and what you can expect in terms of eating and drinking while there.

How to Decide Where to Stay

Rome is a very, very old city—with more preserved history and historical ruins than any of the other major cities listed above. That Rome has preserved many of its ancient ruins makes comfortable stays in certain areas difficult, if not impossible.

If you want to stay in a large room in a luxury hotel with all the bells and whistles, you want to stay in newer parts of town. (Newer, in this case, means areas redeveloped in the 18th and 19th centuries—so still not that “new!”) In this case, you will find your almost only—and best—options in the area around the Spanish Steps. You’ll find the most spacious and modern rental apartments in this same area for the same reasons.

In the older parts of town—the ones closest to the Roman ruins, for example—you’ll find smaller rental apartments and boutique or micro hotels. Many of these smaller and less luxurious places to stay are positively lovely, don’t get me wrong. However, historic preservation considerations mean that their proprietors have limits on what they can build, how they can renovate, where they can expand, and what they can do in terms of water and electricity, for example.

In these neighborhoods, the places have smaller spaces and, in many cases, fewer amenities. Rental apartments may not have washers and dryers, multiple bathrooms and bedrooms, and the like. Hotels will have more cramped rooms and older technology and less spacious and well-equipped common areas. (If you’d like guidance on whether to choose a hotel or a rental apartment, read my trip-planning article.)

If you plan to concentrate your time on the Roman ruins, you may want to stay close to them to reduce your walking or traveling time to and from the sights you’d like to see. Just realize that when you start seeking accommodation in that area, you’ll need to frame your expectations accordingly.

However, if you plan to see the Roman ruins but love more space and prefer hanging out in the more Baroque areas of town, such as the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain, the area with the fancier hotels and bigger apartments works perfectly fine.

Either way, you can still get to the different parts of central Rome on foot—you’ll just need to allot a little more walking time to get to one set of sights over another. Choosing a place of stay closest to the sites where you’d like to spend most of your time in Rome will save you considerable time and energy over the course of your trip.

What to Expect in Terms of Food and Drink

We took a food tour early in our latest trip to Rome and the guide said we’d find it very, very difficult to eat well in the central part of the city due to the high levels of tourism.

Unfortunately, we found this to be very true. Most of the restaurants we visited or considered had overpriced and underwhelming (to say the least, especially given that this is Italy) tourist-trap offerings.

After trying and failing to find decent restaurants in our first few days, we finally gave up—we decided we’d rather focus our efforts elsewhere, rather than on repeatedly underwhelming dining experiences.

If you go for a rental apartment rather than a hotel, plan to make many of your meals in your own kitchen with the abundant fresh and simple ingredients available in the markets and grocery stores around town.

When you do want to eat away from the rental apartment—or if you’ve chosen to stay in a hotel—save time and give up on finding amazing sit-down restaurants for a lingering meal, as we did. Instead, aim to eat simple food in quick-turn cafés, pizza places, and to-go spots. You’ll find endless options for take-away pizza and gelato. Cheap? Nope. The best? Not that, either. (You’re in the most touristed part of Rome, remember.) But they’ll do the job.

We did luck into two good addresses, both for pizza—one in the center of town near the Trevi Fountain (hard to believe, but true!) and the other on a main road near the Trastevere neighborhood. The former, Piccolo Buco, has a long line that moves fast—and that insists you eat fast as well—though the pizzas (plus the people-watching out on the street) make the wait well worth it. The latter, Pizza Ré, always had tables available, delicious food, and a friendly wait staff. Don’t, however, expect much in terms of atmosphere or a leisurely meal in either.

Arnaud read to dig into our amazing Neapolitan-style pizzas from Piccolo Buco, where we ate several times during our visit to Rome. April 27, 2022.

The exterior of Pizza Ré in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome, which became another go-to place for us to stop for lunch. April 25, 2022.

How Much Time to Schedule in Rome

We stayed longer than a week in Rome and didn’t see all the major, top-rated sites listed in our Michelin green guide to Rome.

Lucky us: This means we get to go back. We have so much more still to explore!

However, for anyone who thinks they can see Rome in a long weekend, I’d recommend you reconsider.

You’ll need at least three full days to rush through the top of the top tourist sites. The Vatican City will take a day; the Colisseum, Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill will take a second day; and the Pantheon, Spanish Steps, and Trevi Fountain will take a third day—at the very least and if you rush.

But why would you want to rush and not enjoy your visit? And why would you want to see only the most major of the major sites if you’ve gone all the way to Rome?

I’d suggest you allow at least a week for a visit to Rome—and that doesn’t include its surrounding areas. Ideally, spend nine or ten days. This will allow you to see and enjoy the major city-center sites plus visit one or two sites outside the central part of the city. (And, like us, you’ll still leave feeling you have so much more to see!)

Planning Makes for Better Travel to Rome

Now that you know where to start your planning for a trip to Rome, now you can read on for how to best approach all the attractions and sites to see in Rome—because you’ll find more to do in this incredible city than you can possibly do in any even lengthy stay.

And while this means you’ll have plenty of reasons to go back to Rome—and yes, you will definitely want to return after you visit!—you’ll at least approach the trip you’re planning with the right overall framework in hand. Because while you can visit without a plan and wing it for each day of your trip, you’ll more likely leave with a feeling of having truly explored and experienced if you do a little planning before you go.

P.S.—If you want a treat for the eyes as you plan your Roman holiday, take a look at the article where I’ve collected a few of my videos and photos of the gorgeous ancient mosaics you’ll find in the city.