🇮🇹 Let’s Spend 7 Days in Rome!
Rome is one of those cities that deserves more than a quick highlight reel.
Yes, there’s the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and Vatican City — but there’s also another side of Rome filled with hidden churches, neighborhood trattorias, quiet gardens, cobblestone streets, and little discoveries you might never find if you’re only checking landmarks off a list.
This week, I’m kicking off a 7 Days of Rome series inside my Italy Trips Facebook group.
Each day, we’ll explore something different — from iconic historical sites and hidden gems to Roman food and one of my favorite neighborhoods.
If Italy is on your travel wish list, come join us and follow along. You may just find a few ideas for your own future trip.
🏛️ 7 Days of Rome | Day 2: The Colosseum
Few landmarks are as instantly recognizable as the Colosseum.
Standing in front of it for the first time is one of those travel moments that can feel almost surreal. After seeing it in books, movies, and photographs for years, suddenly you’re right there — looking at a structure that has stood in Rome for nearly 2,000 years.
Built in the first century AD, the Colosseum could hold tens of thousands of spectators who came to watch gladiatorial contests, public spectacles, and other events.
But what makes a visit so fascinating isn’t simply its size or age — it’s imagining what this place would have felt like when it was filled with roaring crowds, elaborate ceremonies, and the energy of Ancient Rome.
One of my favorite things about visiting the Colosseum is that it connects so naturally with the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill nearby. Together, they give you a much fuller picture of what life in Ancient Rome may have looked like.
Linda’s Travel Tip: Don’t rush this area. A knowledgeable guide can make an enormous difference here by helping you understand what you’re actually looking at instead of simply walking past another pile of ancient stones.
Rome has plenty of beautiful sights, but the Colosseum is one of those places where history suddenly feels very, very real.
🏛️ 7 Days of Rome | Day 3: The Pantheon — “Of All the Gods”
Walk into Rome’s Piazza della Rotonda and suddenly there it is — the Pantheon, one of the best-preserved monuments of Ancient Rome and one of the city’s most extraordinary architectural achievements.
Its name comes from Greek roots often interpreted as “of all the gods” or “all the gods,” fitting for a building originally associated with the worship of Rome’s many deities. The first temple on this site was commissioned by Marcus Agrippa in 27 BC and dedicated to “all the gods.” The structure we see today was largely rebuilt under Emperor Hadrian between AD 118 and 125.
And then there’s that dome.
Nearly 2,000 years later, the Pantheon’s enormous unreinforced concrete dome remains an engineering marvel. At its center is the oculus, an opening almost 30 feet across that is the building’s only source of natural light.
There’s no glass covering it, either.
When it rains in Rome, it rains inside the Pantheon! The original Roman engineers planned for that, creating drainage holes in the slightly sloped marble floor to carry the water away.
The Pantheon’s story didn’t end with Ancient Rome. In AD 609, it was consecrated as a Christian church, Santa Maria ad Martyres, which helped preserve the building through the centuries. Today, it also holds the tomb of Renaissance artist Raphael, as well as several Italian monarchs.
Linda’s Travel Tip: Don’t just walk inside, take a photo, and leave. Stand beneath the oculus for a few minutes and look up. Then step back outside, find a spot in the piazza, and enjoy the view with an espresso or aperitivo. Sometimes the best way to experience Rome is simply to stop rushing through it.
Of all the incredible buildings in Rome, the Pantheon might just be the one that makes me wonder the most: How did they build this nearly 2,000 years ago?
⛪ 7 Days of Rome | Day 4: Basilica di San Clemente — Rome’s “Lasagna Church”
Rome is a city built in layers, and few places show that quite as dramatically as the Basilica di San Clemente.
In fact, you may hear San Clemente affectionately called the “Lasagna Church” — not because of anything on the menu, but because centuries of Roman history are literally stacked one on top of another, like layers of lasagna.
From the street, it looks like a beautiful historic church just a short walk from the Colosseum. But once you step inside and begin descending underground, you essentially start traveling backward through time.
At street level is the beautiful medieval basilica, dating largely to the 12th century.
Descend below it and you enter an earlier 4th-century Christian basilica.
Keep going deeper and you reach ancient Roman structures, including a Mithraeum — a temple dedicated to the mysterious cult of Mithras — along with remains from Roman buildings dating back nearly 2,000 years.
And that is what makes this place so fascinating.
You aren’t simply reading about the different eras of Rome. You are physically walking from one century into another, descending deeper beneath the modern city as the history around you gets older and older.
It really is a perfect example of Rome itself: layer upon layer upon layer of history.
And perhaps the best part?
Many visitors to Rome have no idea it’s there.
The Colosseum may be only a short walk away, but San Clemente feels like discovering one of Rome’s secrets.
Linda’s Travel Tip: This is exactly the kind of place I love adding to a Rome itinerary. Absolutely see the famous landmarks — but leave room for places that surprise you. Those unexpected discoveries often become some of the best memories of a trip.
So now you know: if someone tells you they visited the “Lasagna Church” in Rome, they weren’t talking about lunch. 😉
🍝 7 Days of Rome | Day 5: Eat Like a Roman at Armando al Pantheon
You can learn a lot about Rome through its monuments — but you can understand a completely different side of the city through its food.
And for classic Roman cuisine in the heart of the historic center, Armando al Pantheon is one of those restaurants worth knowing about.
Located just steps from the Pantheon, this family-run restaurant has been serving traditional Roman dishes since 1961, when Armando Gargioli transformed the space into what he called a “Bottiglieria con Cucina” — essentially a wine shop with a kitchen. Today, the Gargioli family continues that tradition through multiple generations.
The menu celebrates the foods Rome is famous for, prepared in a traditional style. Depending on the season, you might find dishes such as rigatoni all’amatriciana, saltimbocca alla romana, trippa alla romana, and other recipes rooted in Roman culinary tradition. Their current tasting menus are a wonderful example of just how seriously they take the classics.
And this is something I always tell travelers about Rome:
Don’t spend your entire visit chasing the restaurant with the prettiest view.
Sometimes the most memorable meal is found in a small dining room where the recipes, ingredients, family stories, and traditions are the real attraction.
Linda’s Travel Tip: Armando al Pantheon is extremely popular, so this is not a restaurant I would leave until the last minute. Reservations are handled online and currently open on a rolling basis, so a little advance planning can make all the difference.
And after lunch or dinner?
You’re only a few steps away from the Pantheon — which means you can walk back into Piazza della Rotonda and enjoy one of Rome’s most beautiful settings all over again.
Because in Rome, sometimes the perfect itinerary is simply:
See something incredible. Eat something incredible. Wander a little. Repeat.
🔑 7 Days of Rome | Day 6: A Tiny Keyhole with a Very Big View
Some of Rome’s most memorable moments aren’t found inside its grandest monuments.
Sometimes, they’re found by peeking through a keyhole.
High on the Aventine Hill, in the quiet Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta, you’ll find one of Rome’s most delightful hidden gems: the Aventine Keyhole.
Look through the keyhole in the great green door of the Priory of the Knights of Malta, and you’ll see something almost perfectly composed — the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica framed at the end of a tree-lined garden. It feels a little like discovering a secret Rome wasn’t supposed to tell you about.
And just a short walk away is another beautiful stop: Giardino degli Aranci, the Orange Garden.
Officially known as Parco Savello, this peaceful garden sits atop the Aventine and offers sweeping views across Rome, including the Tiber and the dome of St. Peter’s in the distance. The garden we see today was created in the 1930s within the walls of a former medieval fortress.
This is a completely different Rome from the bustling streets around the Trevi Fountain or Colosseum.
It’s quiet.
Romantic.
Unhurried.
And it’s exactly the kind of place where you want to find a bench, enjoy the view, and simply stay awhile.
Linda’s Travel Tip: Pair the Aventine Keyhole and Orange Garden together. They’re close enough to enjoy during the same visit, and this part of Rome is especially beautiful later in the day when the light begins to soften over the city.
These are the moments I love building into an itinerary — not just the places everyone expects to see, but the little discoveries that make you feel like you’ve found something special.
🌿 7 Days of Rome | Day 7: Trastevere — Rome Beyond the Monuments
After six days of ancient landmarks, hidden churches, beautiful viewpoints, and incredible food, I wanted to end our Rome series somewhere that feels a little more like simply being in Rome.
Welcome to Trastevere.
Its name comes from the Latin trans Tiberim, meaning “across the Tiber,” and that’s exactly where you’ll find it — on the opposite side of the river from Rome’s historic center.
Trastevere is known for its narrow cobblestone streets, ivy-covered buildings, lively piazzas, neighborhood churches, cafés, trattorias, and that wonderful feeling of wandering without needing a destination.
During the day, it can feel relaxed and almost village-like in places.
By evening, the neighborhood comes alive.
Locals and visitors gather for aperitivo, dinner tables spill into the streets, and the piazzas fill with conversation and energy.
One of the neighborhood’s most important landmarks is the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, one of Rome’s oldest churches, with beautiful mosaics and a piazza that makes a perfect place to stop and soak in the atmosphere.
But Trastevere isn’t really about checking off a list of sights.
It’s about wandering.
Turning down a street simply because it looks interesting.
Stopping for gelato.
Finding a little wine bar.
Sitting in a piazza longer than you planned.
And experiencing Rome at a slower pace.
Linda’s Travel Tip: Visit Trastevere in the late afternoon and stay into the evening. You’ll get to experience the neighborhood as it transitions from quiet daytime wandering to one of Rome’s liveliest areas for dinner and nightlife.
And don’t worry about following a perfectly planned route here.
Sometimes the best plan in Rome is to get a little lost.
Over the past seven days, we’ve explored some of Rome’s most iconic landmarks, ventured underground, peeked through a secret keyhole, tasted traditional Roman cuisine, and wandered through one of its most beloved neighborhoods.
But the wonderful thing about Rome?
We’ve barely scratched the surface.
