Rome... But on a budget

Rick has a bunch of audio tours for Rome, totally free so you only have to pay for the basic entry to the site.

You'll probably get a lot of responses, and I'll add something later when I have more time, but my first piece of advice is to go to your local public library and check out a good guidebook. Read it, study it. You don't have much time before your trip. As you peruse the posts here, you'll see that most of us spend months planning our trips.

And you certainly dn't need to hire a guide to enjoy the Colosseum. Read up on it ahead of time in a good book or on the internet - Wikipedia could be a place to start.

My second piece of advice is to go up to the search box at the top of this screen, (see the little magnifying glass? That's it.) and type in sights in Rome. Or better yet, get a few ideas of what you want to see from the guidebooks or internet, and type those in the search box. You'll get hundreds of hits.

You're also only planning to be there for two days? or three? Yikes. Pick out a few highlights, and concentrate on those. Leave lots of free time for walking around and soaking up Rome.

And hurry! If your trip is March of this year, you're late.

I suggest buying the Rick Steves Rome guidebook and following his suggestions. There are plenty of things to see that don’t cost money. For example, we really enjoyed our walk along the Via Appia Antica (Appian Way).

The Rick Steves Rome guidebook can help you plan for your budget. I looked at a map for your hotel and it looks like it's 4-5 miles away from the historic center of Rome. I am not sure how you will get from the hotel to the sights, but that will add time and money to your trip. Take a look at booking.com and see if there is a comparable (price/rating) hotel closer to everything.

For budget tips on food, go where the locals go. Many hotels and B&B's provide breakfast. Find a market and buy food for a picnic for lunch or dinner. Eating pizza is always a good idea! Get the Rick Steves Audio Europe app for your phone. It's free! There is a walking tour of the Colosseum and the Forum so you can just get your ticket and go inside with a free audioguide. The app also has several other walking tours that will take you through the heart of Rome, the Jewish Ghetto and Trastavere. These are all good, free walks to give you a flavor of Rome. You will also pass by some pretty cheap eats along the way.

Welcome to the RS forum! Happy birthday to your wife. Sorry you've hit a bump in the road, but you should be able to have a magical time in Rome on a limited budget. RS has plenty of free resources to help you plan.

Check for buses/subways from your hotel to the town center. You may find it inexpensive and convenient, a good compromise to staying closer but in a more expensive area.

Hi, and welcome to the forum!
I'm sorry that you're feeling stressed about your budget but take heart: Rome has umpty free things to do, and others which do not cost an arm and a leg. If it makes you feel better, we have yet to take any sort of guided tour of attractions in the city and done just fine. If you do want more help than just your guidebook (and you DO need a guidebook), some of them offer inexpensive rental audioguides, and Rick has some audioguides, including the Colosseum, which can be downloaded to your devices for free!

https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/audio/audio-tours/italy

Let's start with Colosseum? No tours needed, although some folks with bigger budgets have chosen to take those. You can pre-order general-entry tickets from the website, those do not limit you to a particular day/time slot, and include the Forum and Palatine as well (those last two must be visited together; can't leave one and then come back for the other). Here's where you get tickets
(€ 12,00 apiece plus € 2,00 reservation fees).

http://ecm.coopculture.it/index.php?option=com_snapp&view=event&id=C1F4480E-9F88-41FE-BD39-1C2283FF1AF9&catalogid=9732C28F-DBBD-7AD3-39B3-015C8183692F&lang=en

They also offer 5€ guided tours of general areas of the arena that can be reserved by phone or online (if slots are still available). You will need to purchase general-entry tickets in addition to the tour:
http://ecm.coopculture.it/index.php?option=com_snapp&view=event&id=81BE288A-FD1E-48C9-9E06-4174F9CB7A74&catalogid=35195772-3F27-31ED-243B-015F57D668F9&lang=en

Something else to consider might be the Roma Passes: €38.50 for 72 consecutive hours, and entries to two of the attractions it covers will be "free". Others will be at a discount. It would also include your transport around Rome (but not to/from the airport) via buses and metro. As your hotel is near the end of the "B" metro line (Laurentina station) it'll take you some time to get in and out of the historical center; I doubt you'll want to be doing it RT more than once a day but the pass would cover the cost. Otherwise, individual BIT tickets are 1.5 euro. In your case, I think the pass might be a good deal, though, and you can purchase them when you get to Rome.

http://www.romapass.it

I don't know what's top of your wish list but the usual recommendation is to use the "free" entries at the Colosseum/Forum/Palatine and Galleria Borghese. One little problem with the Borghese is that you must make advance reservations BY PHONE even if using the pass, and you may be a little late in game for snagging open time slots but you can try. Otherwise, choose a different attraction, and preferably one of higher versus lower price.

"If you intend to visit the (Borghese) museum with your Roma Pass 72 Hours or Roma Pass 48 Hours, you must make your reservation on the phone, by calling +39 0632810."

Passes do not cover entry to the Vatican Museums or tours of other attractions...which leads to the next bonus: Roman churches. Almost all of them are free, oodles of them are glorious, and some are wonderful art museums in-and-of themselves. They are the budget-challenged dream! St Peter's, at the Vatican, is free but the museums - which include the Sistine - are not. They are also enormous, crowded and can eat up a ton of time. We prefer the Borghese for its smaller size and excellent crowd control but I know that the Sistine is high on a lot of first-timer's list. So, here's where you order general-entry, "open-tour" Vatican Museum tickets; € 17,00 euro + 4,00 reservation fee.

http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/visita-i-musei/scegli-la-visita/musei-e-collezioni/musei-vaticani-e-cappella-sistina/visita-libera-musei-vaticani-e-cappella-sistina.html

Interesting free things (besides the hundreds of churches) include historic walks which may be laid out in your guidebook or an RS free download. (To be continued)

Just a couple other freebies...

The ruins in the Portico d'Ottavia/Teatro di Marcello area (in/near the Jewish Ghetto) are free and have signage to tell you what you're looking at, and the excavation of Area Sacra (Largo Argentina) - where Caesar was assassinated - is also free for a peer into from the sidewalks and also has signage.

http://www.turismoroma.it/cosa-fare/portico-dottavia?lang=en
http://www.turismoroma.it/cosa-fare/area-sacra-di-largo-argentina?lang=en

And then there are walk-throughs of the piazzas and walk-bys of fountains... You'll be spoiled for choice. Let us know if you want some recos for best churches, if interested in those?

Transport from the airport:
Use the directions on the website: https://www.villaeur.com/en/contact-us/

"BY AIR: From Fiumicino Airport (‘Leonardo Da Vinci’) you can take a local train bound to Roma Termini Railway Station and get off at Ostiense Railway stop; then you walk to the Piramide stop of Line B of Rome Underground and take a (metro) train bound to Laurentina."

Seeing where you're staying, and how you'll have to move around to do what you want to do, I recommend buying--either at Termini station or any tabacchi shop--a 48-hour unlimited bus & Metro pass for 12,50 Euro apiece. We were in Rome at this time last year and the buses are crowded but not packed, unlike other times of the year. Once you have that, if you're at Termini buy a laminated bus/Metro schematic from one of the kiosks for 3 Euro--it's invaluable to navigate the labyrinthine Roman transit system.

Now, for 28 Euro total you have the knowledge of how to get from Point A to Point B, and the means to get there. Hopefully before you leave you'll do enough research to identify free (or very cheap) stuff to see, because those opportunities are literally all over Rome. You just gotta find them.

Food-wise, hopefully your hotel room has a fridge. What we did was go to a market/salumeria and buy some meats, cheese, fruit, rolls, coffee, and that was our breakfast each morning for a week--fantastic. You'll be surprised at how inexpensive prosciutto is compared to the States! Bakeries usually have 'take-away' slices of Roman pizza from 2-3 Euro for lunch. A quick caffe (espresso) pick-me-up in the afternoon should be no more than 1,50 Euro. Dinner--there's no reason you shouldn't be able to find a great, non-touristy place where you can have a shared appetizer, two entrees, shared dessert and half-carafe of house wine for under 40 Euro total. Again, those places are all over town, just not around the perimeters of the touristy piazzas--they'll soak you there, and I guarantee the food won't be as good.

Enjoy your planning--and as stated upthread, if you're talking about this year, start your homework now! (And it seems that Kathy per above has gotten a lot more specific than I could--take note!)

In Italy, you'll usually pay a great extra to enjoy a coffee or other beverage at a table rather than standing at a bar. Don't sit down! Italian ice cream (gelato) is usually very good. Buy a cup or a cone at a takeaway counter; don't have your ice cream at a café table ($$$).

I think the Pantheon is still free. Working churches allow free entry; sometimes you pay extra to climb a tower, go down into a crypt, etc. The Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona--free. I've been to Rome several times and have never paid to go inside the Colosseum; I enjoy wandering the streets more.

LOL, Jay. Probably TOO specific but I remember our first time. Oof.

Good info on food from you. I'll just add that at restaurants, soft drinks can be more expensive than wine (go figure) so teetotalers may want to stick to water, The bottled water on the tables will cost just a couple of euros but how you do as the Romans do. :O)
It looks like a reasonably substantial breakfast is included (?) in the hotel tariff so and that's a plus! We usually fill up in the morning, skip lunch, have an afternoon snack, and our only (non-fancy) meal "out" is in the evening.

soft drinks can be more expensive than wine (go figure)

Kathy, that reminded me of when Deb and I were San Gimignano. We wanted to grab a quick bite of lunch before heading off to Volterra. There was a walk up pizza place that sold by the slice. Deb got water to go with her pizza, but I wanted a Coke. When I checked the prices, a beer was a lot cheaper! Needless to say, you didn't have to twist my arm to substitute.

Thank you so much to everyone that has replied, you have all been incredibly helpful.

I wholly appreciate it's late but unfortunately, as mentioned, we've had a very tough few months and our focus has been on everything but this, but we are now temporarily shaking of our issues to try and fully enjoy ourselves, but you are absolutely right in that we are much later than we normally would like to organise things. This is our first trip for quite a few years together. Thank you for the kind wishes too.

The audio tours make lots of sense and that should cover us for some of the major things that we know we want to take in like the Colosseum and the Palantine Hill and Forum, the Vatican and Gallerie Borghese. I feared that by us both listening to tours we would end up barely speaking to each other however but I guess that's not too much different from a proper guided tour. The various audio tours also give some suggestion of where to go as I was hoping to find some lesser known hidden delights as well as the bigger things, maybe optimistic with only three full days!

The general consensus is the Roma Pass seemed good value so thank you for confirming that in our instance.

We happen to be there on the first Sunday of the month, i.e. free day but, again from what I've read, that seems to suggest to be a curse rather than a blessing as there is a mass (ok poor choice of words on retrospect) of people descending on the big sites so maybe that would be a good time to do something less busy such as some of the churches? Or has anyone got any feedback that it's actually ok to go along on these days if going early or late?

For better or worse (better for our hotel distance at least) we are arriving at Ciampino airport. I think its the Line 720 bus to the airport and seems to be every 15 mins. A cab suggests it's going to be about 40 euros! so will take a 3 euro bus fair =) Can't seem to find any info that suggest you can take a train or metro from there. I'll definitely try and get the pass.

Our hotel has a breakfast but no fridge so that's covered, but yes I think we'll end up eating lots of pizza in the day and try and find something welcoming in the evening. All recommendations say off the main area but I guess we can always see tripadvisor or alike for restaurant suggestions exactly where we are for that, thank you.

Sounds like a weekend of beer or wine is order... not sure how we'll cope =o)

I know I've said it already but just want to underline my genuine gratitude. Because we've had a rough run, and because we have not been away in what feels like a long time and we don't really have much chance for awhile again, I just want to make sure its extra special for her and that we don't have something to spoil it unnecessarily or that we've missed something important.

We stayed at an apartment in Rome for a week in early March of last year, and I was absolutely amazed at how inexpensive most of the normal daily stuff cost, in many cases cheaper than back here in the States. Yes, soda is expensive. If you drink booze a lot, that can get pricey, although if you're only doing a half-carafe of house wine at dinner, that's usually only 5-6 Euro. I would imagine that for 'youngsters' entrance to clubs would be pricey, but that ship sailed for me many moons ago!

You still have a few days to let your fingers do the walking research-wise, and basically plan out that Saturday, March 3 and Sunday, March 4 so you're getting maximum bang for your buck. I'll venture to say that for this type of thing, Rome is the perfect city to do it--so much cheap or for free!

During your walking about, if you have your own water bottles that you have brought with you; you can get safe fresh water from all the drinking fountains around the city.
You will see locals doing that .
Some have a tap where you put your finger over a hole to make the water spray up so you can drink directly.
Don't buy bottled water!

It has been discussed several times on the forum that it can be very helpful to make a reservation for dinner in Italy, especially in Rome. It's often sufficient to stop by the restaurant during the lunch period and ask about a table for dinner. Since you don't have a lot of time, you may want to do this to be sure you get at least a couple of interesting meals.

I can't say that this is essential in March, because my trip was in late May 2015, but I did have a problem trying to find a place to accommodate just one person for dinner as I wandered around Trastevere. Places looked empty, but I learned later that Italian restaurants do not usually turn their tables, so if someone has made a reservation for 8 or 8:30 PM, their table will probably not be available to you at 6:30.

For a wonderful Roman experience and some of the best -- and least expensive -- pizza, try to go to Da Remo in Testaccio. a half liter of house red, 2 suppli, 2 pizzas (thin, Roman kind), plus a liter of water will set you back about Euro 35. Can't imagine a better Friday night. Arrive by 20:00 and seating should be immediate.

Since you'll be there on a free Sunday, you may not need the RomaPass depending on what paid things you wanted to do. Go to the Borghese that day. It still requires a reservation ahead of time but since they limit access, it won't be any more crowded than usual. (Helps to start upstairs). Then try lesser visited museums. I wanted to go to the Villa Giulia but didn't make it. I think it's be a nice walk from the Borghese.

The Forum/Colosseum or Capitoline will be an expense, but I'd avoid that in Sunday unless the budget is getting really tight, and the Vatican isn't covered by the RomaPass. There's a list online with all the covered sites and discounts they give. Check what you really want to see and go from there. I was in Rome for four days over a free Sunday and getting the pass would have been a wash, but I didn't use transit as much as I could have. Bus tickets are about 1.50euro each, if that helps you decide. And for art, see the free churches.

And eat pizza. Bonci Pizzarium is a couple blocks around the Vatican and its great. And busy. And if you walk that way towards the Cipro metro stop, you'll see a thing to refill water bottles, still or sparkling. Free! There's another one if these near the colosseum. And bottles can be filled around town to save a couple bucks (then put that money towards wine for lunch).

A thigh to refill water bottles??? Hmmm.

I want to second Kathy's comments about churches. They're like free art galleries, and they're everywhere! You don't have to be religious to appreciate them, but you do need to dress respectfully (no bare shoulders or knees.) On one trip to Rome, we spent the better part of three days just visiting churches!

Fill up at the breakfasts, then hit pizza and sandwich places. Most bars serve inexpensive sandwiches. Most bakeries ("forno" is the word to look for) will make custom sandwiches. Just point to the meats or cheese you want. Yummy, authentic, and cheap.

Have a wonderful time.

If by "get a travel guide," you mean a hired person, no, you don't need that. If you mean a guide book, then YOU ABSOLUTELY DO NEED ONE.

It's unclear to me whether you've bought the Rick Steves Rome book. If not, get yourself to a bookstore today and buy one. (Not the "Pocket Rome" but the complete Rome book, on Amazon prime for $13.) It will save you TONS of money and time as it's full of economical ways to do Rome. You'll find yourself referring to it constantly while you're there. Do it. Do it. Do it. (If I had your address, I would ship you a copy of it on me. Seriously.)

Sounds like a weekend of beer or wine is order... not sure how we'll
cope =o)

Marvelously well. :O)
We'll often grab a couple bottles of beer from a market (cheap!) and take it back to the hotel for end-of-day nightcaps.

Yikes, there have been so many posters wondering about Free Sunday in APRIL - that falls on Easter - that I spaced off MARCH! Yes, I'd avoid the Colosseum for SURE (a Roma Pass does you no good on free Sundays) and the Vatican Museums are closed on Sunday. You could still do any of the walks, and a lot of the churches between scheduled masses and any normal afternoon closures some of them have.

The other thing you could do? Take a bus out to the Appia Antica and have a nice long walk, if it's a nice day. We LOVED that one, and they close it to traffic on Sundays. The Tomb of Cecilia Metella will be open (and free on Free Sunday) as well as Villa di Massenzio.

http://www.coopculture.it/en/heritage.cfm?id=88#
http://www.villadimassenzio.it/en/museo/editoriale
http://www.060608.it/en/cultura-e-svago/beni-culturali/beni-archeologici/circo-villa-di-massenzio-e-mausoleo-di-romolo.html

General website for the park:
https://www.parcoappiaantica.it

You've gotten a lot of suggestions for free and almost free things. The RS audio guides aren't very long, usually 3-4 minutes of narration for each stop along the way, so there's plenty of time to talk together and share as you go along. Don't rely on buses on Sundays - the service is extremely curtailed!!! I found that out the hard way last year.

Splurge on little things - like a seemingly expensive drink at a sidewalk cafe. You are paying for the seat, not the drink. Take as long as you want and remember, a fancy coffee, a glass of wine and a bottle of water will all cost about the same. Choose a place with a view and rest your feet, enjoy your surroundings and people-watching. If you just want a cup of coffee, have it standing up at the counter - it will cost a fraction of the price at a table.

Order house wine in a restaurant. You can get it by the glass, or 1/4 or 1/2 liter carafe to share. It's cheap and usually very drinkable. If you aren't sure, ask to taste it before you commit.

Don't stress about seeing the highlights or missing a tour. Some of the best things in Rome are free.

These sites might give you some more tips and ideas:

https://www.romewise.com/money-in-rome.html

https://wikitravel.org/en/Rome

I hope you and your wife have a lovely time and that you get to go back for a longer stay someday.

I also wanted to add, that there are free walking tours( not really free but tip based), I haven't tried any of them in Rome, but I have in other cities in Europe , and they've been very good. Great reviews on TA as well.

https://www.romefreewalkingtour.com

http://romesultimate.com/free-walking-tour/

http://venividivisit.org/free-rome-walking-tour/

http://www.newromefreetour.com/

Jane- Ha. Edited to make that "thing". But thigh might work too, as long as you're not trying to stick it in the Trevi fountain. Messing with the Trevi makes them mad, but it's free to see and the people watching is fun.

If you do go out to dinner, remember you're not required to get a full meal. One appetizer to split and a couple pastas is a fine dinner. With wine of course.

Chani's right about ordering house wine. Most restaurants and trattorie serve surprisingly good wine for very low prices. Someone mentioned getting beer at the grocery store; we do the same with wine, for our evening drink in the hotel room. Dirt cheap, and tasty.

One of my favorite things to do in Rome is to take the bus up to the Janiculum hill. The views are incredible and it's quite peaceful in the park overlooking the city. The Pantheon is also free. As others have mentioned, the transit system in Rome is quite good and costs 1.5 euros per ride. Enjoy!

Maybe these will help inspire:

https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/italia/lazio/roma/pantheon.html

https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/italia/lazio/roma/piazza-navona.html

https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/italia/lazio/roma/fontana-di-trevi.html

https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/italia/lazio/roma/piazza-di-spagna.html

https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/webcam/italia/lazio/roma/campo-de-fiori.html

One thing I enjoyed after taking in the breathtaking Pantheon (at the time I went, it was not crowded at all), was to sit on the wall outside the Pantheon. If you and your wife choose, you can get a sandwich and drink and weather permitting, sit on the wall and enjoy the people, the music, the hustle-bustle of the Piazza della Rotonda.

At the time I went, there were musicians - a keyboardist, a guitarist, a saxophonist, and a violinist.

A couple of them sang, lovely voices. Their voices just wafted through and all around. They each played for almost two hours. The melodic tunes were very mesmerizing and equally haunting. Actually some of those same artists go to other Piazzas, so you can catch them at Campo and Navona too. There is no schedule. They just show up or so I experienced. I also caught them at Piazza Navona one evening.

Here is a link to explain the drinking fountains and the regular fountains in Rome.

https://www.explore-italian-culture.com/drinking-fountains-of-rome.html

Lots of great suggestions already. Should you happen to be cat people, the cat sanctuary at Torre Argentina would be a wonderful, free, way to spend an hour or two. It was a highlight for my cat-loving wife. The sanctuary is near a corner of excavated ruins said to be the site of Julius Caesar's assassination. So history and cats, together. What's not to love?

http://www.romancats.com/torreargentina/en/introduction.php

For cheap eats across the street from Torre Argentina, there's Pizza Florida, ranked No. 36 of 10,000-plus restaurants in Rome by Trip Advisor.

The Vittorio Emanuelle Monument is quite impressive just to walk around and climb the steps to the plaza level. If it's not out of your budget, the elevator to the top is 10 euro, but offers wonderful views of the city. The monument is basically next door to Trajan's Forum, where you can take in a view of 2,000 years of history in a sweeping panorama without spending a dime.

The Spanish Steps is regarded as a touristy cliche by many. Our Rick Steves called it the "Kardashian of sights -- famous for being famous." But you know what? It's a pretty great place to sit for an hour in the evening and watch Rome go by. Won't cost a thing.

I was trying to think of something specific to add to the great advice above, but I think everyone here has given you brilliant advice about transportation, admissions and the house wine at restaurants. (Seriously, if you like wine at all, do yourself a favor and order the house wine. It's usually a large quantity for a ridiculously low price (at least by US standards), and it's almost always some of the best wine you've ever had.

Remember that tourists often stand out in a crowd, so while you may not need to worry about your physical safety, your wallet is another story. Keep it secured at all times, especially in crowded tourist areas.

Refill those water bottles. Pause a few times and look around you and go, OMG, we're in ROME. (Seriously, that's 50% of what I did on my first visit. Okay, maybe not 50%, but I did it a lot. Just BEING there was incredible.)

Sandwich shops and markets are great for an INexpensive lunch. My other half and I can usually split a sandwich from one of those places when we travel, because you get a lot of food for less than many sit down meals.

You'll love the walking tour guide audios from RS. You will even have an advantage over a tour, because you can press pause and stop and talk to your wife without interrupting the tour guide! ;-)

And last - I'm glad that you're able to do this for your wife's birthday. I hope that things improve for you guys, and I hope that you have an amazing time in Rome, the first of many adventures in Italy.

[edit to fix typo above!]

You've been given tons of great links. This one right here on the RS website is a great introduction, too. I didn't notice it on any of the other lists.

With all our help, your heads may be swimming with the multitude of possibilities. With only 2 full days in Rome, your wife's challenge (and yours) will be to choose the absolute must sees, especially for her, since it's her birthday.

Have fun, but don't wear yourselves out by trying to do too much.

Ah, yes. Musicians in piazzas. mm14 made me remember...

First time in Florence, in 2010, we finished off a (for us anyway) late dinner somewhere, were walking back to our hotel, and passed the Uffizi. And about halfway down that narrow street towards the Arno, we could hear a solitary flautist playing heavenly tones, his notes wafting up into the air and echoing off the buildings. In fact, it was so perfect I at first thought that it was a recording being played through a speaker. We walked down the street, sat and listened for a few minutes to a beautiful rendition of the theme to 'Beauty and the Beast', threw a couple Euro coins in his case and were on our way. That was magical indeed.

Then last March, at our apartment overlooking the Campo de' Fiori piazza in Rome, it was a chilly, cloudy late afternoon, and we were back in our room resting the ol' dogs from a day of walking, before deciding where to go for dinner. The French windows were open only a tad, but I could hear music from the piazza below. I got up, opened the window and looked--it was a trio of amplified guitar, accordion and viola, only bathed by a few streetlights, playing a haunting version of Pink Floyd's 'Wish You Were Here', again with the natural reverb off the buildings. With that and a little fog creeping in, it was an ethereal moment. I was awestruck and thought, 'It is for this I have come.'

Not only the free stuff, but the unexpected things may very well be what you remember from your trip.

aquamarinesteph, I'm sure it was a typo, but don't you mean "in expensive lunch?"

Hi Eggey,

I am charmed by your determination to make this a memorable trip for your wife. My suggestion - for under 2 Euros (including postage) pick up a postcard of a site she really loved in Rome and mail it home to her, letting her know how much the trip with her meant to you. When it finally shows up a month or so after you return home, it will bring back great memories.

sth, I absolutely LOVE that suggestion!

don't you mean "in expensive lunch

I surely did. I fixed the typo. Thanks! :-)

We've been to Rome 5+ times in last 10 years.

Rather than add to the many excellent suggestions already made, two small suggestion - for a restaurant and another site near Coliseum..

We found most of Rick's recommended restaurants OK but somewhat pricey in the tourist area. we stumbled across Luzzi's and never went anyplace else near Colisseum. from their www site, their house white and red are 2.5 euro for 1/2 liter and the wine is good. It's a few blocks from the Coliseum, but we liked it so much we started using our metro passes to get off there and walk a few blocks, even if we weren't going to Coliseum.

Their pizza is fine, but pasta dishes are excellent. Their tripa Romana and ox tail are excellent specialties which may not be for everyone's tastes, somewhat more expensive than other items on the menu.

per tripadvisor, you must book on Sunday afternoons.

http://www.trattorialuzzi.it/

Another interesting site is 1 1/2 blocks from Luzzi - may be closed Sunday. No guided tour needed, just walk in and buy a ticket. 20+ centuries of history on 3 levels.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g187791-d198746-Reviews-Basilica_di_San_Clemente_al_Laterano-Rome_Lazio.html

Thanks, jcrdstone, for the restaurant suggestion. We'll be in Rome for just a couple of days (21 Day BOE), and are making notes on interesting and inexpensive places to eat.

And I'll ditto your suggestion of San Clemente. It's one of a kind!

And for the birthday girl -- GELATO! Several times a day. It's never too cold for gelato!

Best wishes for a great trip. This will be our first trip to Italy on March 20. We are really looking for a great trip. We have been all over Europe, but never in Italy.
Enjoy,
B

Looks like you may have already gone on your trip (how did it go?). So this is for anyone else needing to go on a budget:

The good news for going on a budget is that the "street" food can be some of the best food in Rome! Plenty of suggestions about the pizza, but make sure you try Suppli - a fried ball of rice with meat and tomato sauce and a filling of melted mozzarella.

http://www.buzzinrome.com/2012/06/03/rome-best-street-food-suppli-and-here-is-our-top-ten/

Of course there are other "street" foods that are great as well. Some of my favorite places to eat in Rome are the walk in counters that serve pizza and suppli. Just try to get off the beaten path a few blocks to get the best food. Look for the spots the locals are using. Those spots won't be on the main piazzas next to the tourist attractions. The tourist traps aren't nearly as good!