New Years eve in Rome

I did exactly that about 10 years ago. The fireworks were great. Walking back to the hotel with my wife and teenage kids down streets packed with drunks smashing bottles on the ground was less than great. I've also done NYE in Budapest, London, Sydney, New Orleans, NYC and Honalulu; nothing compared to that tragic evening in Rome. Get a hotel room with a roof top or a room with a view so you can avoid it.

Make sure you have refundable reservations. Italy is on lockdown and may not be open to tourists even in late December or will they be allowing large outdoor events. We just do not know.

I'd agree with James E. that New Year's Eve in Rome pales when compared to other cities. Many years ago, different neighborhoods had their own celebrations, but those have generally faded, and the "city fireworks" last about 20 minutes. (Granted, they are impressive when seen over the Colosseo and other monuments - but it's often PACKED! ).

Conversely, in my first year in Copenhagen, I was amazed to see fireworks - primarily privately owned - soaring for a couple of hours. And here in The Netherlands, they start at about 10.00 PM and end at about 4.00 AM! Like James, I've been fortunate to celebrate New Years' in many wonderful locations, including London, Paris, Vienna, Madrid, Prague, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, etc.

I can remember my surprise at the style of my first Roman New Year. We walked into Piazza del Popolo about 11.00 PM and it was packed as folks set off bottle rockets and other incendiaries. Frankly, it was rather scary. Walking the streets, people used cardboard boxes to create tables and were selling champagne. But most of these were not used for drinking. Nope, when the new year arrived, the bottles opened and the owners started spraying everyone around them! In subsequent years, I learned not to wear my best clothes if I was downtown on New Year's Eve.

There are a couple of free concerts.. usually a pop or rock concert at Fori Imperiali; a classical music concert at Piazza Del Quirinale; an event at Circus Maximus... and some neighborhoods still featured scaled-down events (in my neighborhood, Prati, we had about a 10-minute fireworks celebration and music at Piazza Risorgimento). If you're going, the metro was free for our rides home after midnight.

The next day, the Pope speaks, there's a crowd at the Vatican and a parade - sometimes a little disorganized. After a couple of Roman New Year's, we often opted to travel elsewhere.

We spent Christmas in London 2019 followed by New Years in Rome. Rome was gridlocked with tourists, Italian tourists and they have a right to visit then. But it was impossible to move around; it was not a good experience. Luckily we had made dinner reservations in advance. I would never recommend visiting Rome at that time. I heard it was wonderful a week later.