Day Trips Rome

Although there is enough to see in Rome to keep the average visitor to the Eternal City busy for several weeks, if not months, there are also a lot of beautiful cities and tourist sites at no more than a short train or bus ride away. The most important sites that can be visited as a day trip from Rome are Tivoli, the Castelli Romani and of course Pompei. Tivoli is especially known for its gardens, the Villa d’Este and the Villa Adriana (Hadrian’s Villa), the Castelli Romani is a group of hill towns and Pompei does of course not need an introduction. Culture and pleasure can often be combined by visiting one of the various beach resorts near Rome. The closest one of these is Ostia and the most beautiful one Sperlonga. Our personal top 10 of day trips from Rome:

1. Pompei: Although many of the artifacts found among the ruins of the old Roman city of Pompei are on display in the National Museum in Naples, the site is still an impressive testimony of one of the most famous natural disasters ever.
2. Tivoli: A hill town east of Rome. The Villa d’Este has an impressive number of more and less elaborate fountains and Hadrian’s Villa, just outside the town itself, is characterized by reproductions of several famous foreign buildings of the time.
3. Castelli Romani: The most well-known, and easiest to reach (a short train ride from Termini), is Frascati. Frascati is famous for its white wine and for its porchetta and its position on top of a hill provides a gorgeoous sunset view of Rome itself. The city of Palestrina also has some impressive ruins.
4. Sperlonga: About 100km south of Rome, its tiny and extremely picturesque town center is built on a cliff overlooking a spotless beach. Steep steps everywhere make you feel as if you are in one of Escher’s paintings.
5. Ostia and Ostia Antica: Ostia is the nearest beach town to Rome itself. Too crowded in July and August, but bearable in spring and autumn. Ostia Antica is the ruin of the old harbor and gives a good impression of what a Roman city used to look like in the days of the empire.
6. Cerveteri: The center of Cerveteri is not the most impressive one around, but a 30 minute walk outside the city will bring you to an impressive Etruscan Necropolis.
7. Bracciano: Another city with a beautiful historical center, Bracciano is especially known for its lake – a quiet alternative for people who do not like crowded beaches but still want to go for a swim in the summer.
8. Viterbo: The capital of the province of Viterbo has a beautiful medieval town center and several interesting museums, as well as some interesting spa towns and natural parks nearby.
9. Orvieto: A one hour train ride from Rome, Orvieto boasts one of Italy’s most famous basilicas and a medieval town center characterized by narrow alleys and (too) many shops catering for tourists.
10. Anzio: An old fishing village, with a rather rocky beach and a cute historical center. The presence of a rather unexpectedly high number of elderly Americans is explained by the fact that Anzio was the landing site of the Allied tropps in World War II.

There are people who visit Pisa or Florence (and sometimes even both) as a day trip from Rome, but we do not really recommend this. The train ride to Pisa take more than 3 hours and that is a bit much for just a tower, leaning or not and in Florence there is just too much to see and much more than one day is needed to appreciate the city. Apart from the top 10 above there are dozens of other sites worth seeing in the regione Lazio, which is divided into 5 provinces: