Some people have DM'ed me about restaurants, a few typos corrected below. -To any of you who contributed by posting about Rome, thank you! My earlier questions helped us plan a great vacation. https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/rome-recs-for-2nd-tier-gems-over-ny. My H & I had been to Rome over NY 2019, so thought we were prepared for the crowds, but they were larger. We focused our trip on smaller museums & planned more of an Italian passeggiata (stroll) type holiday, with one museum in the morning and getting outdoors to see an area of Rome each afternoon. We didn’t go into any of the main monuments, which we’ve seen before. A lot more young people speak fluent English than even a few years ago, but I still had a chance to speak Italian daily, usually with the older crowd. I'm in my late 60's and have foot problems, H is mid 60's and seemed to do just fine no matter how far we walked.
Rome was unseasonably warm, but cooler in the mornings & evenings. I wore a packable down jacket with summer weight pants, a long sleeved T and wool scarf & we both wore smart wool socks and Merrill Moab hiking boots. My H wore his heavy jacket and got warm during the day, but liked having it along as somehow those cobblestone streets & old buildings were chilly. Most people we saw wore trainers but I can’t imagine how their feet felt by end of long days on cobblestones! The best item I packed was a reusable ice pack, which the hotel kindly kept in the freezer so I could ice my aching feet.
I tend to research trips long in advance & watch lots of Youtube videos to focus in on the museums to see. Anything by Ancient Rome Live was very helpful - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6g75E6Lzls&t=447s. As were the short videos by Smart History. I also like to make a Google map with lots of restaurant suggestions, so when we’re tired and out somewhere, there are some food options nearby. I found that just having the google map helped a lot, I could look up the opening hours of museums, etc inside Google so didn’t carry the guidebook out of the hotel. And by using Notes to make a master list, noting opening hours and what’s open on the holidays, it worked well. I would also strongly suggest watching something about each monument the day before going to see it, who can remember all this stuff?? I missed out on the significance of one of the Caravaggio’s we saw, would have been nice to understand the calling of Matthew before getting back to Sweden, ah well.
Our preference is to get out as early as possible to roam around, visit one museum and have lunch before returning to hotel to put our feet up and rest before venturing out later in the afternoon. We tend to take taxis one way & walk back if it’s more than a 30-min walk, and even with that, we walked 12,000-15,000 steps, (up to 9 miles) every day. We had planned to get out of Rome a few days to Ostia Antica & Tivoli, but my feet started to ache too much so we stuck with long walks in Rome.
BEST museums & cites - Palazzo Massimo was absolutely FABULOUS. Vicus Caprarius, the underground aqueduct museum close to Trevi fountain is also great, an unusual gem where you see the water flowing below you. Teatro Marcello was a delight to walk through. Museum of the Wall on the outskirts of Rome was a really nice break from the crowds. All things I hadn’t seen on my previous 25-ish visits to Rome.
FAV churches visited this trip - St Louise of the French near Piazza Borghese, what a Baroque gem! Even without the 3 stunning Caravaggio in one chapel, its a lovely church.We wandered into a few other churches, including Sant'Agnese in Agone in Piazza Navona, but St Louise of the French was the standout.