"Easing in" to Rome advice?

Perhaps a bit more information from you first. How many nights will you be in Rome? In what part of town is your hotel? Have you already booked timed tickets to any of the sites? Have you made a tentative itinerary for the things you want to do and see?

Just as a general start, though, I wouldn't have any prebooked tickets for the day you arrive. In fact, given your frazzleability, I wouldn't make any plans at all for that first day. Hopefully you are staying at a hotel, so you can take a taxi from the airport and have the hotel store your luggage if it's too early to get into your room. Then just get outside and stroll. If you need to pick up a few odds and ends, ask the hotel where to find them and go there ( have a shopping bag in your purse). Stop at a likely place for a coffee and people watch. Take one of Rick's audio guide walks. Have lunch at an outside cafe and people watch some more. Breathe deep and just relax. You are going to be jet lagged, and having fixed plans will just add to your anxiety.

Have an early night and then hit the tourist sites in the morning. If you know you have a finite tolerance for crowds, noise and chaos, then limit yourself to one big site in the morning and one in the afternoon. Build in breaks, including a restful lunch to recharge. Then have a secondary "if I have time and feel like it" B list of sites if you find yourself with extra time and energy. There is no gold medal for the most tourist attractions seen in any given stay, so resist the temptation of planning too much into any given day. My philosophy is that it is better to thoroughly savour one or 2 things than to rush through and not really experience 3 or 4.

Maybe visit the Largo Argentina ruins and cat sanctuary

Hello,

My first thought would be the Borghese Gallery. Timed entry limited to Two Hour visit, so not crowded or an overwhelmingly large museum. Plus, you can wander the gardens/park before or after, which is nice and low key.

Second thought was Ostia Antica. You can go on your own (which I did my first visit) or take a tour with City Wonders (which we did last October). It was fairly quiet this last time but our guide said it's never crowded. Mostly high school student groups and a few of us tourists. Definitely hits the history/museum mark, but you'll be outside. :)

Which brings me to the third idea: Go out to the Appian Way and visit a couple of the Catacombs.

Rome’s changed in some ways in just the last few years. The Pantheon, for example, now charges and entry fee, requires a reservation, and may have a line to get in. Such is modern tourism.

Ostia Antica is a great idea. Compared to Pompeii, it’s practically devoid of visitors.

In downtown Rome, I believe you’d really appreciate the Galleria Doria Pamphilj. It’s a private art collection in a private palace (the prince and princess still live there), but is open to the public, and has a surprisingly tiny amount of visitors. Really low-key opportunity to see masterpieces.

Savor La Dolce Vita by taking a break at a cafe or gelateria. Have a morning Maritizzo, a sweet roll filled with a ridiculous amount of whipped cream. Affogato - coffee with ice cream at the bottom. Gelato - as often and much as you wish, just don’t get it anywhere they display huge piles of it in a case. Authentic, proper gelato doesn’t need a massive heap in a display case, and might even be hidden in cold metal containers with a metal lid.

The Borghese Gallery, mentioned earlier, not only limits people to a maximum of 2 hours (and you’ll want every minute), but limits how many people are permitted during that 2-hour period. If you take a tour offered by the museum (see the Website when you’re getting your reserved ticket), they’ll start at the bottom floor and work upwards. If you’re seeing it on your own, beat the (small) crowd and head straight to the top floor (elevator is available if you don’t choose to do the stairs) and work your way down. Just keep bc an eye on the two-hour clock, so you have plenty of time to view the amazing sculptures on the ground floor.

If you don’t want a too-intense sightseeing agenda to start things off, there are parks, where Romans take some time off. Assuming it’s not pouring rain (it will be October, after all) the Borghese Gardens is a big park, with the Borghese Gallery at its southeastern corner. If it’s a weekend, just stay off of the walkways that have families on rental bicycles/multi-person pedal devices. They’re hazards, not relaxing, easing-in things to join on the walkway.

Farther south, in my favorite neighborhood to stay, Testaccio, there’s a nice-sized green space, the Giardino Famiglia di Consiglio gardens, with the Santa Maria Liberatrice church at the west end, and a block south, Piazza Testaccio, with some Romans and few tourists. Some there may be kicking a soccer ball, just so you’re not close to getting in the middle of that.

If I will be in my arrival city for more than a couple of days, I like to take a food tour on the first full day. They typically involve walking outdoors, which should keep you awake, but they move at a fairly slow pace. You'll absorb the history of a neighborhood, eat various foods over a several hour time period, and gain ideas for where you'd like to go during the rest of your stay in that city.

Similar to what is said by veteran poster Cyn upthread, in Rome it's fairly easy to get away from the teeming throngs of people. October will still be fairly busy but at least you shouldn't have the summer heat to deal with, which is why we travel in late February/early March. For our 4th trip to Rome next March, we'll have a week at an AirBnB in Testaccio, as Cyn says nice & quiet, after our other 3 visits over the last 15 years we had been staying in tourist-laden Campo de' Fiori, which was great but time for something different.

And this time we are excited about doing a daytrip to Galleria Borghese, mostly to see the six Caravaggios, among all the other artists' masterpieces, so good call there.

May I suggest you research, on this board and others, and find firstly a neighborhood that's safe, within walking distance (or a short FreeNow ride) to attractions you like but not where the selfie-stick groups will be traipsing? I'm hoping Testaccio will be that. We walked around Prati last year, and that looked worthwhile as well. Centro Storico, Piazza Navona, even Trastevere in the last few years...fun to walk through but so many tourists more often than not. And anyplace around the huge white Vittorio Emmanuel II monument that every bus line seems to pass on every route, stay away from that too. And avoid the Vatican as well.

A good strategy is to in advance compile lists of stuff to do, but if possible leave it all flexible & spontaneous. If you just feel one day like sitting at an outdoor cafe with a cappuccino and people-watch for two or three hours...do it! Don't be locked into a tight schedule, that'll stress you out right now. Rome is to be savored, slowly. So much to see.

And I might say, do it quickly. The good places book up fast, and you're less than two months out. Enjoy your planning!

You are going to find Rome significantly different than 1998. Maybe not in a good way. But I still love it.

I'll answer the question about Ostia - yes, I went there last year. We did a "quieter, gentler" trip to Italy (except for the first few days in Naples, which were a blast!) and we ended our trip with a couple of days in Ostia before flying home.

Ostia is much closer to FCO than Rome - about 15 mins vs 45 mins - also cheaper transportation and less traffic to frazzle the nerves. I'm surprised more people don't seem to do this, but you might consider Ostia as a "gentler" entry/departure point to ease in or out of your trip.

Put another way, rather than just make a day trip to Ostia from Rome, consider it as either the first or last stop of your trip.

The ruins at Ostia Antica rival Pompeii (minus the drama of Vesuvius) and are also a "gentler" experience. It isn't crowded at all, and is much cooler than Pompeii due to many more trees.

My personal favorite area of Rome is the Trastevere neighborhood which is where you really experience Roman life with the local families strolling around in the evenings enjoying street performers and various restaurants and shops tucked into little winding alleys. You're not going to check off any boxes for the Big Sights here, but it is the kind of urban community vibe you will appreciate as a native New Yorker.