Roma, come stai?

Rome is crowded, dirty, littered with garbage, walls rife with graffiti, but one of my favorite cities. In my view, the key to Rome is to stay on the edge of touristy Rome so you are near the action and within walking distance, but still able to go a couple streets in the opposite direction and find kids playing or a small shop for coffee in the morning with only the locals.

Rome is a walking city, so be in shape, wear "sensible" shoes, the Italian women may have mastered walking in spike heels on cobblestones, but you can't do it, at risk of breaking an ankle. You probably will not use public transport, save for a few choice routes to far off spots, or to save your feet.

For a first timer, what will amaze is that history seems to be around every corner, Roman, Renaissance, recent, and most of the populace casually ignores it, or from time to time grumbles about the inconvenience of it and the tourists. In 8 days, you yourself will become somewhat dull to the sense of awe as you OD on churches, art, history, and culture. So pace yourself...the la Dolce Vita thing, you know? Take time in the morning to have coffee and a pastry at that small shop...the same one, where after a couple days they will know your order. Take two hours, yeah two hours, to eat dinner, late at night, get 3 or 4 courses, wine, dessert, and wrap up with a caffe or a limoncello. The calories? they are Roman calories, you will walk them off tomorrow. Stop in the afternoon for an Apertivo, just ask for an Aperol Spritz. Let your sightseeing be short bursts between coffee and lunch, lunch and apertivo, and apertivo and dinner.

If you tire of specific sights, just find on off the beaten path neighborhood and wander. Get lost in some ancient streets, you will find the Tiber River eventually to guide you back to where you need to be. Have a great trip.

Paul, I love this advice. We're leaving for our first Italy trip in a couple weeks and my over-planning self needs this advice to do the official sight seeing in between the relaxing, eating, and people watching. :)

Yeah, I did leave one out since, hopefully, the weather will be turning. But the weather has been very warm, especially here in Sicily, so we have taken to the old fasioned practice of adding a bit of Pennichella, or the Italian equivalent of siesta. In the afternoon as the temperature peaks, we will head back to the hotel, freshen up in the AC, make sure we get water, relax, then head back out.

It is easier to pace yourself as we have gotten older, and after a number of trips, we found that some churches and museums can go unseen (one need only look at so many Greek and Roman pottery shards to get a sense that civilization existed) so we focus on only the most significant.

Paul gives good advice. It's true you can not see everything, although 8 nights in Rome is a darn good start!

Many have admitted themselves over-planners--so am I. And...our last trip to Rome was in February, of 2017, for a week at an apartment at Campo de' Fiori. Still considered off-season, there are certain things you must plan or get advance tickets for--the Vatican, St. Peter's, etc.--but for the most part at that time of year you can get in anywhere without reservations. It's definitely the way to see Rome.

It being February, however, weather could be iffy. In fact, for that 2017 trip, we had a week in Rome of 50's/60's high's and 40's lows, with one sprinkle, and it was glorious. Absolutely perfect touring weather--I'm not a fan of heat. Contrast that to the following 5 days we spent in Sorrento--100 miles south, which was cold & rainy for the most part. Luck of the draw.

So...what we did is pre-trip, listed on Excel all the activities we wanted to do/restaurants at which we wanted to dine over that period of time. Then, once we arrived, each morning we had our breakfast and had the delicious discussion, starting with '...what do we want to do today?', and pored over our list as to what made sense. You would think that tactic would drive an over-planner like myself batsh*t crazy, but it was actually freeing. I still had my list, but the spontaneity part was intoxicating. Dependent upon weather or our stamina level for the day, we could zig & zag. And if we didn't see something on our list, oh well, next trip.

Fingers crossed, we are returning May 2022 with dear friends of ours to Roma for a week. Then, on my bucket list is spending an entire winter, just under the 90-day Schengen rule, using Rome as a base.