Everyone tells you Rome is beautiful.

They tell you about the pasta, the history, the romance, the fountains, the ruins, the gelato. What they do not tell you is that visiting Rome is also physically exhausting, logistically chaotic, aggressively crowded, and somehow both awe-inspiring and deeply overstimulating at the exact same time.

And honestly? I think people deserve to know that before they go.

This was my first time in Italy, and it was also my mom’s first trip to Europe entirely. We started our mother-daughter trip in Rome before continuing on through Florence, Tuscany, Lake Garda, and Venice. I’m glad I went. There are absolutely things in Rome that I think everyone should see once.

But there are also a lot of things nobody adequately prepares you for when visiting Rome for the first time.

Rome Is Massive

Online, everything in Rome starts to look deceptively close together.

It is not.

This city is huge, sprawling, crowded, and significantly more physically demanding than most people expect. At one point I looked at my mom and said that Rome feels like Las Vegas if Las Vegas had been built by emperors and Catholics and required extreme amounts of cardio.

That is not an exaggeration.

You are walking constantly. You are navigating crowds constantly. And if you rely on buses the way we did, understand now that they can become extremely packed, extremely hot, and occasionally feel like pure psychological warfare.

I live in Chicago. Public transportation is not new to me but even I nearly lost my mind one afternoon packed shoulder-to-shoulder on a bus with zero air circulation while my mother was overheating beside me.

If you struggle with crowds, heat, claustrophobia, or sensory overload, plan your days carefully.

There Is No Such Thing as “Shoulder Season” Anymore

We traveled during what people still love to call shoulder season. One thing I quickly realized while visiting Rome is that the internet still dramatically underestimates how crowded the city has become year-round.

It was still busy as hell.

The lines at St. Peter’s Basilica stretched down the block by midday. The crowds around the Vatican were intense. The major tourist corridors were packed. The buses were packed. The piazzas were packed.

At this point, I genuinely think the internet needs to stop pretending shoulder season means “quiet” in major European cities.

Maybe it once did.

It doesn’t now, as someone who has traveled extensively during this season in Europe I can tell you that season sounds now sounds like a made up fairytale.

Why Timed Tickets Matter in Rome – Flexibility is NOT Implied

This is one of the biggest mistakes we made.

We missed our timed entry for the Colosseum after transportation delays and an unexpectedly early check-in distracted our timing. Once you miss your slot, you are done. There is no sympathy. There is no “we’re almost there.” There is no magical Italian flexibility.

If your ticket says 1:00 PM, act like it means 12:15 PM because you will be (depending on the site) standing in certain lines with everyone else.

The city is too unpredictable to cut timing close.

And while we still explored the Roman Forum and surrounding sites afterward, missing the interior of the Colosseum completely changed the structure of our day. It allowed another art gallery, which ended up being our safe haven so always be prepared for changes when traveling. As I’ve said before, travel will humble you and it’s exactly what I write about in The Itinerant Flâneur: A Travel Philosophy.

The Roman Forum Is Wildly Underrated

People obsess over the Colosseum and completely underestimate the scale of the Roman Forum and the remaining sites.

That place is enormous.

You could spend an entire day there when visiting Rome and still not absorb everything properly. We spent hours walking through ruins, churches, museums, arches, and ancient structures and still barely scratched the surface.

If you’re booking your day assuming the Forum is a quick add-on to the Colosseum, rethink your schedule immediately. You will also want to plan, there is no shade. It is alot of walking so bring water, a small snack and don’t be afraid to sit down and just marvel at the site every once in awhile, you are surrounded by 2700 years of history after all.

The Vatican Is Not a “Quick Morning Activity”

If you’re visiting Rome and planning Vatican City, give yourself significantly more time than you think you need and stop pretending you’re also casually fitting in three other major attractions afterward.

I promise you, you are not.

We booked directly through the Vatican Museums instead of through a third-party platform, and honestly, I would absolutely do that again. Our guide was phenomenal, we skipped the massive public lines, and we paid significantly less than many of the outside tours charging astronomical prices.

But even with an early morning tour, the Vatican consumed most of our day.

By the time we finished the museums and the Sistine Chapel and attempted to head toward St. Peter’s Basilica, the Basilica line had become completely insane.

If I could do it again, I would separate them:

• one day for the Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel
• another early morning specifically for the Basilica

Museums Were the Place I Could Finally Breathe

This surprised me the most.

Outside, Rome often felt relentless to me. Loud. Packed. Fast-moving. Constantly in motion.

Inside museums and galleries, everything changed.

Galleria Borghese was extraordinary. Seeing Bernini’s sculptures in person honestly feels almost impossible. Marble should not be able to look that alive.

But the place that affected me most was Galleria Doria Pamphilj.

I could breathe there.

The collection is stunning. The atmosphere feels calmer and more intimate than many of Rome’s larger tourist sites. The palace still partially belongs to the family, which somehow makes the entire experience feel even more surreal.

If art museums are your happy place the way they are mine, prioritize them.

Watch Your Phone. Seriously.

You will encounter people handing out roses.
Bracelets.
Small gifts.
Anything designed to create distraction and interaction.

Do not let your guard down.

At one point my mother handed her phone to a stranger offering to take our photo after giving us a rose, and I nearly had a heart attack watching the interaction happen in real time.

Most people are harmless.
Some absolutely are not, as my mom will find out in Florence when my phone got stolen (Yes! It can absolutely happen to anyone!)

Especially in major tourist areas and transit hubs like Roma Termini railway station, stay alert.

Rome at Night Is a Completely Different City

As overwhelming as daytime Rome could feel, nighttime Rome was where I finally understood the city emotionally.

The walk around the Spanish Steps at sunset.
Music drifting through the streets.
The glow around the Trevi Fountain at night.
The city slowly shifting from chaotic sightseeing machine into something softer and more cinematic.

But let me clarify something because I think people massively underestimate this too: Rome does not really calm down early at night.

It was still busy at midnight.
Sometimes even 1 AM.

If you are looking for quiet Rome, you realistically have two options:

• get up incredibly early
• stay out incredibly late

And I mean EARLY early. Like 5 AM early.

Otherwise, you are sharing the city with everyone else trying to chase the exact same Roman fantasy you are.

The funny part is I normally travel much slower than this. I like lingering. Sitting in museums. Wandering neighborhoods a little more aimlessly. Letting cities unfold instead of trying to consume everything at once.

My mom, meanwhile, was on her first trip to Europe and absolutely did not want to stop moving. She turned visiting Rome into a marathon sprint!

Not necessarily because she cared about every museum or every church the way I do, but because everything was new. She wanted to shop, wander, see things, keep going, keep experiencing. And honestly, I understood it. There’s this energy that happens on a first Europe trip where you suddenly realize how much is around you and you don’t really want to waste a second of it sitting still.

So we kept moving.

Even when we were exhausted.
Even when the crowds were overwhelming.
Even when our feet were screaming.

And somehow, despite all of that chaos, nighttime Rome was still the version of the city I connected with most.

Final Thoughts on Rome

Would I go back?

Yes.

There’s still so much I didn’t get to see while visiting Rome.

But would I spend an extended amount of time there?

Probably not.

For me, Rome was less about falling in love with the city itself and more about falling in love with the art, the history, the atmosphere, and the moments hidden inside the chaos.

And maybe that’s enough.

FAQs About Visiting Rome for the First Time

How many days do you need in Rome?

At minimum, plan for 3 to 4 full days in Rome. Major sites like the Vatican Museums and Roman Forum take significantly longer than most travelers expect.

Is Rome walkable?

Parts of Rome are walkable, but the city is much larger and more physically demanding than many first-time visitors realize. I suggest you take buses or metro when you can to alleviate the walking but remember what I said about about public transport.

Is the Vatican worth visiting?

Absolutely. The Vatican Museums and Sistine Chapel were some of the most impressive experiences in Rome, but they require advance planning and significant time. All sites do, do not think you can just go to any sight anymore without pre-planned tickets.

Is Rome crowded during shoulder season?

Yes. Rome remains extremely crowded even during shoulder season, especially around major attractions like the Vatican, Trevi Fountain, and Colosseum.