Rome in 48 Hours: A Whirlwind Tour

Rome defeats time. Two thousand years of continuous history packed into a living, breathing city — the layers compressed so densely that a medieval church might sit atop a Roman temple atop an even older Greek foundation. Two days is not enough. It never is. But it's more than enough to fall in love.

Day 1: Start at the Colosseum at 8am, before the tour groups arrive. Pre-book tickets to include the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill — the cradle of Western civilisation, and most tourists walk straight past it. By midday, cross the Tiber to the Vatican. Book the Vatican Museums separately and in advance; without a booking, the queue in summer can exceed four hours.

Day 2: The Pantheon opens at 9am and costs €5 — the best-preserved ancient building in the world, free until recently and still an astonishing deal. Walk to the Piazza Navona and then to the Campo de' Fiori for lunch from one of the market stalls. The afternoon is for wandering: follow the ochre walls of the centro storico wherever they lead, through tiny piazzas and under ancient arches.

Finish with the Trevi Fountain at dusk — still crowded, always worth it. Then dinner: cacio e pepe at a trattoria in Trastevere, finished with a grappa and a walk home along the moonlit Tiber.