FIVE WALKS IN ROME

INTRODUCTION

This interactive website presents the best ways to discover Rome with five detailed walking itineraries, each representing one day, vividly illustrated with videos, photos and practical maps. You will find them all listed in the sidebar menu. Our approach is unique: the entire guide is devoted to efficient step-by-step walking routes that cover all the major historic attractions and many out-of-the-way modern delights. Many included videos will bring the most important sites to life for you, while lively descriptions will offer a clear understanding of the sites.

Rome has so many wonderful sights it could be overwhelming, but don’t worry: this guide shows how to efficiently cover the major attractions in a few days and find the real character of the city.

You can also watch the walking tour video on the dedicated video page.

This is a very long and detailed section of the website because it contains an entire book! The author published Rome on Foot, available as an epub on Apple Books and Amazon. Here you can have all of that information, and more, for free, but ©denniscallan, only for your personal use. More books have been written about Rome than any other city! This website summarizes everything you need to know.

Because the content is so long, it is divided into 22 different web pages, like laundry on a line! This keeps the pages to a reasonable size to make it easier to navigate, instead of a doom scroll through endless content. Pages follow a logical and geographic sequence, and are all very easy to find in the sidebar menu. At the end of each section there is a link bringing you to the next part of the walk. When each page ends, the next begins from that same place, unless it comes at the end of a day. For convenience and organization the tour is divided into five days, but obviously you are free to rearrange things as you wish, depending on your schedule and interests.

This five-day period provides a basic format because a good visit to Rome takes that long and is a reasonable amount of time people have for a major city as they travel. If you have more time, our itineraries can be expanded over additional days, while those with less time will find tips to help shorten the visit. If you have fewer days, pick those parts of our itineraries that most interest you and do as much as you can. These carefully structured schedules have flexibility built in for personal interests and to accommodate surprises: you’ll want to stay open for exciting distractions and spontaneous events that you will find waiting around the corner.

Of course, the major destinations like the Colosseum, Forum, Pantheon and Vatican are included, but there is so much more to experience. Special tips will reveal pleasant cobbled pedestrian lanes alive with shops, restaurants and locals all day and into the night. This contemporary face of the city is just as interesting as its ancient one, but it is missed by too many travelers. Rome is a city with 2,700 years of history, art and culture, which you can see in a short time if you know where to go. We will bring you the history along with today’s life in the city, explored on foot.

You will get a close look at what makes Rome so special and learn ideal walking routes with tricks for getting around in detailed day-by-day outlines. This site includes exact directions on where to walk, best times to visit, what to skip, descriptions of sites, how to get around by transit and taxi, avoiding crowds and many more helpful recommendations. These guidelines will deliver an authentic experience that puts you face-to-face with the people and history of this amazing city. Time is precious when traveling and you don’t want to waste it getting lost, going in circles, visiting less-important places or following inefficient routes. The routes described here pack in the sites efficiently, enabling you to carve out some free time to follow your own passions.

Exploring these pages will be a pleasure for everyone who enjoys travel, whether you are heading to Rome in the near future or not. It is especially useful as a guide during your trip: reading through the routes and viewing the videos and photos will help organize your itinerary to get the most out of the experience. This website is also fun to read at any time, whether you anticipate a journey to this wonderful city in the future or are looking back on a past trip. If you love travel and have not yet been to Rome, this is the next best thing . . .and you will surely be there some day. Armchair travelers not going anywhere will also enjoy the website as it transports them to one of the world’s greatest cities without having to pack up and go. But go you must; you must go to Rome!

One usually appreciates reading about a place after being there because you can visualize things as they were and recall the sights, sounds, smells and events. This website is the next-best thing to being there: the numerous videos and photos will truly give you a vivid picture of Rome’s attractions.

This site is NOT padded with redundant, obsolete information about hotels, shops and restaurants that you can more accurately find online. Nor is it a typical, disconnected list of sites from A to Z offering no clues for getting around in the most efficient way. We connect the dots, serve as your personal tour guide, and take a step-by-step approach to cover all of the major sights and many of the minor ones. Armed with this practical orientation, you are empowered to then strike off on your own and wander freely through these wonderful lanes, making your own personal discoveries.

Rome is a friendly, safe place, one of the world’s best cities to discover on foot because its compact center is filled with both fascinating history and vibrant, modern life. The website describes exactly how to choose the best routes, understand what you see and make the most of your precious vacation. Don’t waste time with a city bus tour: most of Rome’s important sites can only be reached on foot, while a bus will waste half your time stuck in traffic you can easily avoid as a pedestrian.

Experienced travelers know that the best way to explore a city is walking. Practical suggestions will ensure that time is not wasted getting lost or wondering what to do next. The website offers strategies to bring you in direct contact with the people and places that make Rome such a special destination.

We cover the major historic sites, the lively shopping streets and dozens of narrow, cobblestone lanes where you can leave the crowds behind and experience peaceful local neighborhoods. Yes, walking takes effort, but its rewards are great. Not only is it free and educational, but walking is healthy and helps you to burn off those calories from great Italian meals so you can maintain your fitness while on the road. You will be amazed at how effortless and what fun it is to walk on a route lined with fascinating sights!

Walking routes are planned for the best time of day — for example, some places are better in the morning, like the outdoor food market of Campo dei Fiore; most churches are closed for siesta from 12-4pm; if you arrive at the Vatican Museum in mid-morning you might wait on line for hours; Trastevere is the perfect place for an early-evening stroll; specific shopping streets are best in late afternoon for the passeggiata (evening stroll) of stylish Romans promenading with friends; and so it goes through the daily cycle of the city.

Other websites and guidebooks provide useful material but they are not organized in daily schedules that connect attractions into convenient walking routes: none takes our approach of time-based itineraries through Rome with detailed walking routes joining sites into sequences. Most travel books have either too much information, with endless, quickly outdated lists of restaurants, hotels and shops, or too little, lacking exact directions, except perhaps a one-page walking tour tossed in here and there.

We have selected the most enjoyable sights and placed them in the proper order, so that you can easily walk to a series of attractions and find interesting features all along the way, without getting lost or backtracking on the same streets. This arrangement solves the basic challenges of travel: where to go and what does it all mean. With this website you can focus on enjoying what you see rather than trying to figure out where you are and what to do next. Nothing is more frustrating than investing time and money in a much-anticipated trip and then getting lost, visiting the wrong sites at the wrong time of day, fighting the crowds or wandering into boring neighborhoods, wasting time and money.

This information is based on the author’s experiences during the past 32 years leading groups on 80 European tours, learning about how much ground one can cover in a day to see as much as possible without getting too tired. This experience has provided valuable insights into what people actually enjoy doing and what can be skipped. The website will be your personal tour guide, with comprehensive text that is richly illustrated with videos, photos and maps that help you understand and enjoy the city. Each route has been thoroughly tested many times to make certain that everything works perfectly.

Walking Tips:

Wear comfortable shoes to protect your precious feet, crucial to discovering this city. Running shoes are the best choice, slightly broken in but not more than one year old, so they still have some bounce left. You are going to be on your feet much more than normal, so sandals or walking shoes might not be up to the task. Sorry, but you cannot see much of the real Rome on a standard bus tour or from a cruise. You must stay several days and walk to appreciate the incredible art, ancient architecture, the best food, impressive churches, quaint cobbled alleys, unlimited shopping and cozy neighborhoods. This is not a marathon race, so you don’t have to be an athlete to complete the course. Just follow your own pace and stop frequently to absorb the sites. It is important to sit and rest for a few minutes every hour, which is yet another reason to visit all those churches and sit on their benches. Get in shape before leaving home by walking at least 30 minutes daily for a month, and you will easily cover everything presented in this comprehensive plan.

Fortunately most of the streets you will be walking are quiet lanes with very little automobile traffic. Many narrow streets are semi-pedestrian with few cars coming along, so you can walk in the road, especially since sidewalks are often non-existent or blocked. Keep your ears open for oncoming traffic and walk on one side as courtesy to the drivers and as safety for yourself. However, there are some big streets with crazy traffic you must deal with. When possible, cross at a traffic light and go with the green, but this convenience is in short supply. Jaywalk to save time and energy when necessary, but do so very carefully. Don’t expect cars to stop for you when you are in a marked crossing. When Roman drivers see a pedestrian in the street, they will be aiming their vehicle to just miss you on one side or the other, so if you abruptly change your speed, or stop, you might throw off their calculations and get hit. Don’t confuse them. Just make your move and walk at a normal, steady pace so the traffic can pass around you. Another strategy is to stand next to locals and walk next to them as they cross the street, but don’t lag or blindly follow. Stay Alert. You are ultimately responsible for your own safety.

Summary video: Campo dei Fiori, Via Giubannari, Pantheon, Ghetto, Portico Octavia, Marcello, Capitoline, Forum, Colloseum

You are viewing a website, a television series, map archive, photos and notepad, all in one electronic package that is easy to use. Welcome to a new generation of travel guides.

If you are looking for a centrally-located hotel, with reasonable rates and excellent service, consider the Albergo Santa Chiara. The hotel is right behind the Pantheon, in the very center of the historic area of Rome, with many attractions a few minutes away on foot. It is located on Piazza della Minerva, a quiet and peaceful oasis in the midst of a very lively city. This central district is mostly for pedestrians, with ancient, narrow cobbled lanes lined with shops, restaurants and cafes.

Rome has got everything a traveler could want: history, pasta, narrow lanes, beautiful people, crazy traffic, mellow attitudes, easygoing lifestyles, modern fashions, compact attractions, architecture, sculpture, good weather, major piazzas, quiet corners, gelato, diverse hotels, public transit, cobblestones, loose cats, kids at play, animated conversations, great coffee--so what more could you possibly need? This website will show you how to experience it all. Bella Roma!

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