Rome: the Forum at opening, Testaccio at lunch, Trastevere after dark

Rome

1. 8:45 am1

   Roman Forum and Palatine from the Via di San Gregorio gateRome

   One €18 Colosseo–Foro–Palatino ticket covers all three and runs 24 hours from your Colosseum slot, so spend the cool part of it here. Three gates open onto the Forum: Largo della Salara Vecchia is the one every group is dropped at, and Via di San Gregorio, on the Palatine side, is usually walk-up. Tickets are named and released 30 days out on coopculture.it — between April and October the 09:00–10:00 slots go in the first hours.

   13 min walk · 950 m
2. 10:45 am2

   Down the Palatine and out under the Arch of TitusRome

   Come off the Palatine at the Titus end rather than back the way you came: it drops you within sight of the Colosseum's security line with nothing retraced. Fill your bottle at the nasone beside the arch — there is nowhere to drink inside the amphitheatre and the queue for the one bar is longer than the one to get in.

   13 min walk · 950 m
3. 11:15 am3

   Colosseum, levels 1 and 2, on the timed slotRome

   Already paid for on the combo ticket, so nothing to buy here. The slot is an entry window, not a tour: be in the line ten minutes early, then go straight up to level 2, because the ground-level arcade is where everyone else stops and stands. The arena floor and the underground are a separate, dearer ticket that sells out first — if you did not get one, level 2 looks down on the hypogeum anyway.

   8 min by train or taxi · 2.0 km
4. 1:15 pm4

   Mordi e Vai, box 15, Mercato TestaccioRome

   Sergio Esposito's stall does one thing: boiled-beef panini soaked in their own gravy. Allesso di scottona is the one to order; picchiapo if they are out. The queue builds 12:30–13:30 and the market winds down around 15:00, so this is not a 14:45 plan. Cash moves the line faster than card. Verified 2026-09-06 (market listings; the market has no working official site): Mercato Testaccio runs Mon–Sat roughly 07:00–15:30 and is shut all day Sunday, with Mordi e Vai serving about 10:00–15:00 — the whole day below is a Monday-to-Saturday day.

   9 min by train or taxi · 5.3 km
5. 2:30 pm5

   A supplì at the original TrapizzinoRome

   Two blocks from the market on Via Giovanni Branca, and only worth it if you did not have a second panino. Pollo alla cacciatora is the original filling and still the best one; this is the shop the chain grew out of in 2008, not a branch of it.

   8 min by train or taxi · 5.1 km
6. 3:15 pm6

   Cimitero Acattolico and the Pyramid of CestiusRome

   €5 suggested donation in the box at the gate, and a colony of cats that live in the pyramid's shadow. Keats and Shelley are signposted and busy; the part worth the hour is the older enclosure against the Aurelian wall, where nothing is signposted at all. Verified 2026-09-06: Mon–Sat 09:00–17:00 with last entry 16:30, so this slot fits — but on Sundays and public holidays (and Easter Monday, 25 April, 1 May, 2 June, 29 June) it closes at 13:00 with last entry 12:30, when a 15:15 arrival finds a locked gate.

   8 min by train or taxi · 1.9 km
7. 7:45 pm7

   Over Ponte Sisto into TrastevereRome

   Walk it rather than taking the tram down Viale Trastevere: the bridge is where the light goes copper over the river bend and the buskers have not started yet. Piazza Trilussa on the far side is solid by 20:30, so cross before then and cut straight up Via del Moro.

   10 min walk · 750 m
8. 8:30 pm8

   Dinner at Da Enzo al 29Rome

   About thirty seats on Via dei Vascellari and a reservations book that only covers the early sitting; without one you leave a name at the door and drink across the lane until somebody shouts it. Cacio e pepe and the fiori di zucca. The carciofo alla giudia is only honest between November and April — the rest of the year it has been somewhere cold for a long time. Verified 2026-09-06: closed Sundays; service is 12:15–15:00 and 19:00–23:00, so 20:30 sits mid-sitting.