Two Days in Rome

By Enrico Massetti

You can pass a lifetime in Rome and, still, not know everything about the eternal city. You can get a good understanding by visiting for a week or more, but if you have only 48 hours, you must be willing to experience as much of Rome as possible.
You can rely on a tour operator to put you in a group as sheep, or you can pay through the nose for a private guided tour. You can also organize your time, searching the internet for all the information you need.
Unfortunately, most of the information you get in this way reflects the incredible amount of money the operators active in the tourism business are spending to end up at the top of the search results page.
Sometimes you could find a result saying that the church or museum you are interested in is not free to visit; it’s available only through some guided tour. Suppose you have the patience and the know-how. In that case, you could instead discover on page ten of the results that the official website of the church or museum says precisely the opposite, and it is free, or there is a minimal charge for some service, like the audio guide, or the elevator access to the roof.
I did all this research on your behalf for this booklet, and I included the results in my writing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Enrico Massetti
• Release date: Oct 22, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463326763

Enrico Massetti

Enrico Massetti nació en Milán, Italia, donde vivió durante más de 30 años, visitando innumerables destinos turísticos, desde las montañas de los Alpes hasta el mar de Sicilia. Ahora vive en Washington, Estados Unidos. Sin embargo, visita regularmente su ciudad natal y disfruta recorriendo todos los lugares de su país, especialmente aquellos a los que puede llegar en transporte público. Puede contactar con Enrico en [e-mail].

Book preview

Two Days in Rome

Enrico Massetti

Text Copyright © Enrico Massetti 2015-2021

Images ©, or CC Creative Commons license, as specified for each image

Cover image © Adobe inc.

Published by Enrico Massetti

All Rights Reserved

2021 edition

Visit Rome in two days, tasks you need to do.

You can pass a lifetime in Rome and, still, not know everything about the eternal city. You can get a good understanding by visiting for a week or more, but if you have only 48 hours, you must be willing to experience as much of Rome as possible.

You can rely on a tour operator to put you in a group as sheep, or you can  pay through the nose for a private guided tour. You can also organize your time, searching the internet for all the information you need.

Unfortunately, most of the information you get in this way reflects the incredible amount of money the operators active in the tourism business are spending to end up at the top of the search results page.

Sometimes you could find a result saying that the church or museum you are interested in is not free to visit; it’s available only through some guided tour. Suppose you have the patience and the know-how. In that case, you could instead discover on page ten of the results that the official website of the church or museum says precisely the opposite, and it is free, or there is a minimal charge for some service, like the audio guide, or the elevator access to the roof.

I did all this research on your behalf for this booklet, and I included the results in my writing.

Vatican Museum spiral staircase is open to the public for free - Andreas Tille CC BY-SA 4.0

If you want to organize your tour, you must plan and act accordingly. Rome can be very busy (at least when the COVID-19 is out of service). You can bypass the lines if you buy your ticket before leaving home:

Tourist guides

There are more than 4,000 tourist guides authorized to operate in Lazio, the region of Rome. I would recommend to anyone to stay away from organized tours. You are like a sheep herd: the ideal solution is to hire one guide to take care of and assist your small homogeneous