With monumental baroque fountains and sculptures in piazzas where people gather to chat, Rome feels like a cross between an open-air museum and a big living room where there’s a house party every day. It’s one of the reasons I fell in love with this city more than 15 years ago and decided to move here. The city has changed a lot since then, in some ways for the better, in other ways not so much.
Rome has always been a crossroads, drawing people from all over the world. Lately it feels like the centro storico—where you’ll find many important sites—is being consumed by mass tourism, and the city is struggling to find ways to handle it. Sitting on the Spanish Steps, once a cherished pastime for locals, has been banned since 2019. In 2023, the Pantheon started charging a €5 entrance fee for the first time in its history. Now, to get close to the basin of the Trevi Fountain, you have to wait in line. And this year, the Catholic Jubilee is expected to bring an extra 30 million visitors to the Eternal City.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t visit Rome, but if you want to avoid the crowds, you’ll have to be a bit strategic. There are plenty of underrated places that never seem to get crowded. For a quieter side of the Eternal City, simply follow the Romans and do as they do.
Minimal tourists ‘round these parts: The San Lorenzo neighborhood is hip and far from the visiting crowds.
Photos by Michelle Heimerman
Venture beyond the centro storico
The centro storico (literally historic center) is sort of a nebulous term. At its essence, it refers to the area around Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, Campo de’ Fiori, and the Jewish Ghetto, but essentially anywhere within the Aurelian Walls could be considered the centro storico. Beyond the walls, there are many neighborhoods—including the restaurant and nightlife hotspot Testaccio and street art–filled San Lorenzo—where you can see a more authentic side of the city.
“My personal favorite thing is just walking around neighborhoods,” says Sophie Minchilli, author of The Sweetness of Doing Nothing and cofounder of Via Rosa, which offers food-focused tours in Rome and throughout Italy. Some of her favorite neighborhoods to explore are Coppedè, which is full of early 20th-century art nouveau architecture; Garbatella, a working-class neighborhood with little bars, shops, and markets; and Esquilino, an ethnically diverse neighborhood that’s becoming a destination for dining and nightlife. “The whole area around Piazza Vittorio [in Esquilino] is really changing, because they just opened the design fashion university there,” she says. “It’s near the train station, so for a while it didn’t really have a good reputation. And now, with the opening of this university, there’s a lot of really cool bakeries, restaurants, and Chinese food.”
The Vatican Museums are a destination for many visitors.
Photo by Laura Itzkowitz
Consider under-the-radar museums and churches
Everyone wants to check the Colosseum and Vatican Museums off their bucket list, but there are many less-crowded museums and churches where you can see artistic masterpieces, sometimes right around the corner from more famous places. “At Palazzo Massimo, you can see marvelous classical antiquities and frescoes, along with a numismatic [money] collection downstairs,” says Elisa Valeria Bove, CEO of Roma Experience, which offers bespoke private tours of Rome and beyond. She suggests combining it with a visit to the nearby Baths of Diocletian, once the largest bath complex in ancient Rome and later renovated by Michelangelo. For €16, you can buy a combined ticket for all the locations of the Museo Nazionale Romano, which includes Palazzo Massimo, the Baths of Diocletian, and Palazzo Altemps.
“In Celio, there’s the Basilica di Santi Giovanni e Paolo and Roman houses underneath, plus the Forma Urbis, which opened last year. It’s a map of the city that helped archeologists reconstruct ancient Roman events,” Bove continues. She recommends merging it with a visit to the Palatine Hill, where emperors like Augustus built their opulent palaces, and the Circus Maximus, where epic chariot races took place.
I love visiting aristocratic palaces that have been opened to the public, such as Palazzo Doria Pamphilj and Palazzo Colonna; both are still partially inhabited by the noble families that have owned them for centuries. Across the river in Trastevere, you can visit Villa Farnesina, which has incredible ceiling frescoes by Raphael.
La Matriciana Dal 1870 is one of those sublime restaurants that has 100+ history and still serves a peerless version of a classic dish: bucatini all’amatriciana.
Photo by Laura Itskowitz
Eat where the locals eat—and avoid fresh pasta
If you want to avoid the tourist traps, steer clear of restaurants right on the main piazzas, places that have photos on their menus, or where somebody is standing outside trying to persuade you to go in.
“I feel like a way to tell if it’s a tourist trap has become fresh, handmade pasta,” says Minchilli. “That’s not really a thing in Rome. We mostly eat dry pasta from the bag or the box, but people have realized that tourists think that fresh, homemade pasta is always better than dry, which is not true.” In particular, she cautions against dining at restaurants where someone (often a grandma) is standing for hours on end making fresh pasta in the window while a line of tourists waits to get in. Also, be wary of places that go viral on social media, like a certain sandwich shop that always has extremely long lines. They might be legitimately good, but there are often better, less expensive alternatives without lines nearby.
In general, Romans don’t wait in line except at pizzerias and street food spots. Instead, do some research and make reservations. “The really old-fashioned, traditional restaurants don’t have multiple shifts. So it’s not like, if you show up and they’re full, they’re gonna say, ‘Oh, wait for the second shift at 10 p.m.’ They’re gonna say, ‘We’re fully booked,’ because you just reserve and the table is yours for the evening,” Minchilli explains. Some of her favorite old-school restaurants include Al Pompiere in the Jewish Ghetto, which claims to have the best coda alla vaccinara (oxtail stew) in Rome; La Matriciana dal 1870 across from the Opera House, which supposedly introduced amatriciana (the tomato-and-guanciale pasta that hails from the town of Amatrice) to Rome; and Flavio al Velavevodetto in Testaccio, which was built into the side of Monte Testaccio, a hill created by ancient Romans dumping piles of amphorae.
When you book through one of Rome’s best tour operators, you, too, could putter around the city in a yellow Fiat 500.
Photo by Laura Itzkowitz
Book a tour with a local guide
No matter how many times you’ve visited Rome, your knowledge of the city will never compare to that of a local guide. Even after living here for more than five years and visiting many times before that, I always learn something new on tours. Plus, they often have insider access to off-limits places and connections to shopkeepers, chefs, and artisans with whom you wouldn’t otherwise interact. Thanks to Roma Experience, for example, I visited a winery on the Appia Antica that’s run by a prince who personally explained the wines and offered me a tasting.
On her food tours in Rome, Minchilli loves bringing guests to the Market of San Cosimato in Trastevere. “I’ve been going there for years, and it’s just nice to see how it’s the same people every day. They love me, and they love meeting the people on my tour, and they’re so curious, asking questions,” she enthuses.
In Rome, there are tours for every interest. You could do an early morning running tour with ArcheoRunning, founded by Isabella Calidonna, an art historian and a personal trainer. When my family visited last year, we did a Vespa tour with Scooteroma, which brought us to places that my parents and sister—who have been to Rome several times—had never seen, like the Baths of Caracalla and the Orange Garden on the Aventine Hill. Imago Artis Travel and Stellavision Travel are both based in Rome but organize trips throughout Italy; each has unique, exclusive offerings. With the former, I rode around the city in a vintage Fiat 500 and visited the Church of San Lorenzo in Miranda overlooking the Roman Forum. The latter has a walking tour focused on the women of ancient Rome that I’m eager to do.
Stay in a hotel, not an Airbnb
“I feel like before, when Airbnb just started becoming a thing, staying in one was a way to get off the main tourist track. Now, Airbnb has completely destroyed the center of most Italian cities,” Minchilli says. She cites well-known problems: Butchers, bakers, and grocery stores are being replaced by take-out joints catering to tourists with cheap sushi and two-for-one spritzes; hardware stores and artisans are being replaced by souvenir shops and chains; and locals are being priced out of the center of Rome. “In my building, there’s just two of us left: me and my middle school teacher who lives upstairs. The rest is all Airbnbs,” she remarks.
In the lead-up to the Catholic Jubilee, in particular, many apartments that would otherwise be rented to locals have been converted to Airbnbs. Hotels, on the other hand, employ locals and offer services that help you make the most of your time in the city. And there are plenty of fabulous hotels in Rome, from buzzy new properties to opulent grand dames. I’m a fan of Casa Monti, a new boutique hotel with a maximalist design, a cool rooftop bar, and young staff who are eager to share their tips. When it comes to truly pampering properties, one of my favorites is Hotel Eden, a historic grand dame frequented by movie stars, with a fabulous restaurant on the rooftop.
Stay longer
Perhaps the best way to experience Rome like a local is to stay longer. In the past year or so, Bove has noticed an encouraging trend: people staying for five days or more instead of using the city as a stopover on their way to the Amalfi Coast or Tuscany. She and Minchilli both recommend spending a week or more in Rome. That way, you can delve deeper into the city’s underrated places without sacrificing the bucket list sights.
Roma Experience, Imago Artis Travel, or Stellavision Travel will work with you to design a bespoke trip of a length of your choosing. With five days or more, you can tour archaeological sites like the ancient Appian Way and the Baths of Caracalla; visit museums in aristocratic palaces such as Galleria Barberini and Galleria Corsini, twin locations of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica; explore Pigneto and other up-and-coming neighborhoods; and perhaps take a day trip to Ostia Antica, the once-bustling port of ancient Rome, or the Sacro Bosco di Bomarzo, a park full of larger-than-life mannerist sculptures of monsters and mythological creatures.
“Rome needs to be understood,” affirms Minchilli. “It can be chaotic, it can be loud, it can be uncomfortable, but it’s the best place in the world. You need to give yourself time to understand it, and you’ll fall in love and never want to leave.”
