See Rome in Two Days | Rome Travel Guide Itinerary

I’d like to think of myself as an avid traveler, so when it came time to plan a trip to Italy with hubby, I wanted to have everything laid out from our arrival to our departure. This included a plethora of restaurant options, must-see sights, and how to get around the city. The hardest part of planning was choosing which part of Italy we would see on this trip, because we only had 6 days, and a lot to see. As a lover of fashion, Milan was at the top of my list, however, so were the beaches and sunshine along the Amalfi Coast. There was Rome, with its history, architecture and the fact that it’s the capital city. And then Florence, the Tuscany capital, with the Duomo Cathedral, and Michelangelo’s David sculpture. And what about Venice? The canals, the beautiful scenery…it was so hard to decide!

So, in the interest of time and based on proximity, we chose Rome and the Amalfi Coast. Our original itinerary included a day trip from Rome to Milan, but we waited too long to buy our train tickets when the prices were low, so we just couldn’t swing it. Instead, we decided to add an extra day to our Amalfi leg of the trip and take a boat to Capri for a day instead.

The great thing about Rome is that many of the city’s main attractions aren’t too far from each other, so it isn’t too difficult to plan and see most of the main attractions in a few days. Now, if you want to do it in two days as we did, you just have to be diligent about starting early and keeping track of time.

Here’s the itinerary I created that you can use as a guide on seeing the sights in two days. The highlighted green areas are great food options, some of which are from Anthony Bourdain’s eateries of choice, others are per high reviews and recommendations. Some of them are not open on Sundays, so make sure you check the hours before planning to go there. We ended up missing out on our Day Two eateries for this reason, HOWEVER, I feel like you’d have good luck just about anywhere as we did! Please note, that we first stopped in London prior to our arrival in Rome (to see bae’s family), so the first day of our trip includes travel from London. You’d obviously have more time to see and do more if you have a full first day in Rome.

We ended up purchasing a TurboPass in order to get our transportation and attractions taken care of in one go. This included entrance to the Vatican with a front of the line pass, St. Peters Basilica, entrance to the Colosseum with a front of the line pass, the Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill, plus free access to the Hop-on Hop-off bus and the city’s public transit system. I’ve included my review of the TurboPass and our experience with it on my YouTube channel, but just a note, I was very disappointed that the time we selected for the Vatican was not given to us as promised, and this caused us to miss our entrance to the Vatican. Very, very disappointing! The rest of my review is below.

Aside from our Vatican mishap, the rest of the trip was absolutely perfect. Since we didn’t get inside the Vatican, we moved some of our Day Two sights to Day One, and instead, on Day Two took a city tour on the Hop-on Hop-off bus, saw the Altare della Patria (stunning military museum), went to an urban marketplace, and people watched around the city.

Here’s a complete look at our trip to Rome below, and click here to see how we went from Rome down to Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast!