Rome

Everything You Need to Know

Rome is not a city you visit; it is a city that claims you. Walking its streets is an act of time travel: turn a corner from a buzzing espresso bar and find yourself face-to-face with a 2,000-year-old temple; toss a coin into the Trevi Fountain where Baroque marble cascades in an almost absurd display of sculptural excess; stand inside the Pantheon and watch a single beam of sunlight rotate through the oculus, illuminating the exact same marble floor that Roman emperors once trod.

The Colosseum anchors the ancient heart of the city — a colossal amphitheatre where 50,000 spectators once roared, now standing open to the sky like a giant's broken crown. Nearby, the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill unfold layers of republic and empire, while the Vatican, technically a sovereign city-state, houses Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling, Raphael's School of Athens, and St. Peter's Basilica — the largest church in Christendom, crowned by a dome that defines the Roman skyline.

But Rome is also carbonara eaten at midnight in Trastevere, a gelato from a back-street gelateria that changes your understanding of frozen dessert, a Sunday morning passeggiata through the Villa Borghese gardens, and a Negroni on the Spanish Steps as the city turns golden. Romans have perfected the art of la dolce vita, and they invite you — generously, loudly, with abundant hand gestures — to join them.