Rome: Absolute Must Do List?

  • Thread starter Thread starter CoffeeFanatic
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
C

CoffeeFanatic

Guest
So, if you were to go to Rome, what would be your bare basics list of places you’d absolutely need to check out? Which churches must you visit, et cetera?
 
Last edited:
St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major. Wednesday General Audience. Skip the Colosseum. Then leave Rome and get to Assisi. There is no place like it.
 
Honestly, I thought Rome was a disappointment after Assisi. But I would at least recommend checking out St. John Lateran and going on a scavi tour (if you can swing one).
 
If we had gone to Assisi first I’d have felt the same. What an amazing place!
 
The Vatican! and the Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls. Saint John Lateran and Santa Maria Maggiore. All those have first class relics.
 
There is a place here in the US with a similar spiritual “feel” to it. Chimayo, New Mexico. I will be attending a weekday Mass there sometime this week.
 
I’ve been there twice, first time for 2 days, second time for 3 days. I still have to go back because it’s really hard to “do” Rome all in one trip.

This is how I’d rank stuff:
  1. Papal Audience
  2. St. Peter’s/ The Vatican, the church part - try to go early in the morning and attend a Mass if possible (this is easiest if you’re on tour with your own priest, but there are dozens of Masses going on in there every morning, every priest who’s on tour books an altar and brings his group). Also see if you can somehow arrange to access the basement part where various Popes who aren’t in the top part are buried. We had a Mass in the basement as well as one in the top part.
  3. Colosseum
  4. A catacomb - there are several good ones and if you can attend Mass in one, so much the better.
    Again it helps if you bring your own priest.
  5. Vatican Museums, mostly to see the Sistine Chapel ceiling. I’ll admit not being all that moved by much of the other stuff in the Museums, nor by the humongous line to get in; I’d just as soon watch a Sister Wendy video of everything that isn’t the Sistine Chapel ceiling and let her explain it to me while I lounge on my couch.
  6. Capuchin Museum/ Bone Church, but only if you’re going to allot enough time to actually read about all the Capuchin saints and not just rush through to the bone part like all the annoying tourists do. I discovered several nice saints there.
  7. The Pantheon - former Roman temple, now a church dedicated to Mother Mary.
(Continued next post)
 
  1. Climb the Scala Sancta on your knees for a plenary indulgence. They put the wood coverings back on them - the bare marble was exposed for a few months for the first time in 300 years - but it’s probably more comfortable than the worn marble. Wear knee pads. I can’t stress this enough.
  2. There are like, dozens of churches in Rome. You will want to see some. You’re not going to be able to see them all unless you’re staying for 3 weeks maybe. So you’re best off choosing which ones you definitely must see in advance by looking at websites, because they’re not all open all the time and you will have to plan which ones you want to see.
At this point I’ve seen maybe 2 dozen of them. I really liked the Madonna dell’ Archetto (smallest church in Rome), the Madonnella de San Marco chapel (built into the Palazzo Venezia), the church of the Santi Quattro Coronati (Four Crowned Martyrs, go when the nuns are singing Vespers) and the Church of St. Alphonsus Liguori (has the original icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help). The church of Santa Maria Degli Angeli e Martiri is nice too, it’s built in the ruins of an actual Roman Bath, has awesome art and has a giant zodiac sundial inlaid into the floor. It is also close to a giant statue of St. JPII that graces the bus station.

There are other churches with tombs and relics of saints like St. Lucy, St. John the Baptist, St. Catherine of Siena and Sts. Philip and James. Also churches featuring the great art of one or another artist. So it’s all in what you are looking for. Make a plan before you go because you’ll need to make sure the churches you pick are open and aren’t under construction, etc when you want to go.

Two additional things:
  • If you like cats, be sure to go to the cat park in the ruins near where Caesar was murdered. The cats came and sat with me because the caretaker was weed whacking their lawn so they wanted to get away from the noise.
  • If you like Marian apparitions, go to the Shrine of Our Lady of Revelation, Rome’s local apparition. It is approved for faith expression and they have daily Mass there. It’s a very pretty shrine, you can get there via the train and a short walk. It is also near where St. Paul was executed if you wanted to see that too. You will see statues of Our Lady of Revelation sold in the gift shops around Rome, but if you don’t know the apparition you probably wouldn’t recognize it was her (the colors of her clothing are how you can tell).
I need to go back again another time to see things like the Purgatorial Museum, the “Keyhole View of Rome” (a keyhole you look through) and the Ice Bar and best pizza place in Rome (which was closed the day I wanted to go).
 
One thing I’ve not see mentioned, the Domus Aurea (Nero’s Golden Palace). There are some amazingly well preserved rooms still left, I didn’t find this one until my 4th trip there.
 
At the Vatican:
  • Scavi tour (arrange ahead of time)
  • Vatican Gardens (arrange ahead of time)
  • Vatican Museum - as soon as arriving rush through to the Sistine Chapel and then work BACKWARDS through the museum you rushed through.
  • Angelus or General Audience
At the Lateran:
  • San Giovanni en Laterno
  • Sancta Scala - Holy stairs
Roman Forum and Colosseum

Outside the Walls:
  • St. Paul’s Basilica
  • Catacombs
Smaller but fantastic Churches:
  • San Pietro en Vincoli (Horned Moses and Chains)
  • Santa Maria Sopra Minerva
  • Gesu
God bless your pilgrimage,
Deacon Christopher
 
Yes I had forgotten about Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. It houses a magnificent Michelangelo statue, “The Risen Christ.” Explore the streets around the Vatican for lunch. I found the most amazing porchetta sandwich from a street vendor there.
 
Last edited:
I would Defiantly want to see St Peter’s Basilica and even see St. Peter’s Baldachin by Bernini (possibly one of my favorite baroque artist) and just be present in a beautiful, holy place. Then I would explore around Vatican city, and, of course hit up the museums to see famous art works in person.
defiantly would like to see the Colosseum and any other locations listed above.
In short I want to see as much as I can of the faith, history and art. ❤️
 
Last edited:
EricF said:
St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major. Wednesday General Audience. Skip the Colosseum. Then leave Rome and get to Assisi. There is no place like it.
Click to expand...
Not even St. Peter’s? The idea of getting to Rome, seeing only two churches, then leaving, is hard to understand.
 
Of course, but these were my personal highlights. Rome is magnificent for the pageantry and pomp and circumstance of the Catholic Faith, but Assisi spoke to me more, maybe because that is where ordinary people, Francis and Clare, received the graces from God to become the saints they were, and you get the feeling there that those same graces are available to us too, if we would just cooperate with them.
 
Last edited:
St Clement Basilica really struck me the last time I was in Rome. It’s a 16th century church built on the ruins of a 2nd century church built on the ruins of a pagan temple. The 2nd century church has some of the first examples of the Italian language in writing on the walls and the stone work that 2nd century Christians used is beautiful in simple and functional kind of way. I highly recommend checking it out.
 
My top 3 have already been mentioned, but they would be :
  • The Vatican (in particular the crypt under St. Peter’s Basilica, where you can see St. Peter’s grave, and the Wednesday general audience)
  • catacombs
  • St. Clement’s
 
CCI lived in Rome for two years. There’s too much to see. Hopefully you have at least a week, if not more. You should research it beforehand and make a list of what’s important to you. Religious and historical sights abound and are virtually inexhaustible. A good thing is that many of the most touristy sights, like the Borghese Museum and Gardens, Spanish Steps, Trevi, forum and palatine, Vatican City, etc, are all within a small distance and can be walked to. There are close to 1000 Catholic Churches in Rome, the vast majority of historical significance. So you should read about what you want to see ahead of time and make a plan. I love Santa Cecilia, Santa Pudenziana, and the Gesu, among others. Make sure to do the Scavi tour at St. Peter’s!
 
Last edited:
There are so many churches in Rome that you will find one where you can go to Mass every day. Santa Maria Maggiore has at least 5/day so if you stay in that neighbourhood you can go to the 7am Mass and then go back to have breakfast before starting the day´s activities. The Basilica of Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill is a favourite of mine.

Walk. It takes 30 minutes ordinary pace, not stopping to look at a lot of things and buildings, to walk from Santa Maria Maggiore to the Vatican. On the way you will pass about 7 churches. I lost track of the number of churches as there are so many of them. 😁

Read something before you arrive about some of the things you will like to do and see. Book tickets in advance to some of the major sites. It is common with +2 hour queue to get into the Vatican muséum for example. I would recommend pre booking the first “visit” in the morning and then spend the rest of the day doing things between that local area and your hotel/guesthouse instead of travelling across town several times.

There are water fountains at every “tourist site”, which is basically all of Rome, where you can fill your bottle so there is no need to buy bottled water.

Observe the dress codes. The fashionista police are standing outside churches making sure you are properly dressed! I highly recommend good walking shoes as the streets are cobble stones almost everywhere. Black sneakers are often easily mistaken for dress shoes so leave the really colourful ones as well as flip flops and high heels at home.

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

Look at previous posts about travelling to Rome and Italy. There are several more suggestions on what to do.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top