Best of Rome
St. Peter’s Basilica and Square
Scavi Tour: This is an amazing tour of the necropolis underneath St. Peter’s Basilica where you can see the bones of St. Peter! Only about 250 visitors are allowed per day, so make your reservation sooner rather than later! Visitors must be over 10 years old. You can submit a reservation request here.
The easiest and fastest way to enter St. Peter’s Basilica is as a “pilgrim” rather than a tourist. Tourists have to wait in a line that usually wraps around St. Peter’s Square, however, if you’re facing the basilica, on the right hand side is a white “prayer tent”. They have Mass almost every hour, and a perpetual adoration chapel in the basilica. If you tell the attendant you are going in for Mass or personal prayer, you can skip all the lines!
There are bathrooms on the outside of both the right and left side of the basilica, but we have often found that the lines are shorter (especially for the women's bathrooms) on the right hand side just past the coat check.
Water: you can fill up on water in St. Peter’s Square in the spigots by the obelisk. Once you’ve entered the basilica, in the courtyard off to the right of the basilica there is a fountain you can fill up at (cool side note: on the fountain is written the verse from Ezekiel "I saw water flowing from the right side of the temple”).
The terrace of this hotel is open to the public and it an amazing spot to look over St. Peter’s Square! We would particularly recommend going there for the Sunday Angelus with the Holy Father because the view is unparalleled.
Papal Audience + the Angelus. Papal audiences occur on Wednesdays. Seating is always first come first serve so it is best to arrive early if you wish to sit. General Audiences begin at 9:00am, however the Holy Father will tour through St. Peter's Square at 8:45am so it is recommended to arrive by 8:30am latest. When entering St. Peter's Square, everyone will be required to pass through security which include metal detectors and x-ray machines. In the summer months when there are more visitors, guests will arrive up to 3 hours in advance to ensure seating. Seating is first come first serve. Even if you have a ticket, you are not guaranteed a seat. Papal Audience Tickets are entirely FREE! Request forms must be sent directly to the Prefecture of the Papal Household:
Post : Prefecture of the Papal Household
Vatican City State, 00120
Email : ordinanze@pontificalisdomus.va
Fax: +39 06 6988 5863
From the US & Canada: 011 39 06 6988 5863
From the UK and Europe : 0039 06 6988 5863
From Argentina: 0039 06 6988 5863
Please note: The Vatican receives a large amount of requests each and every day so you may have to be patient for a response.
The other opportunity to see the Pope is on a Sunday at 12 noon when he is in Rome. He will appear from the window of his apartment where he gives a short speech followed by the Angelus and ending with a blessing. He may also greet the crowds in various languages and the whole event usually lasts around15-20mins. He will impart the Apostolic Blessing at the end of the prayer. You DO NOT need tickets for the Sunday Angelus.
Eating and Drinking in Rome
The Fork is a great app for finding discounts at restaurants in Rome. Download the free app, and make dining reservations for up to 50% off your meal! (The earlier you make the reservation, the greater the discount!).
The best bang for your buck when it comes to gelato is Old Bridge. There is one right outside the Vatican.
Our favorite little coffee place near the Pantheon
La Prosciutteria is a chain restaurant in Italy and there are a few different locations in Rome. It’s a fun place to stop for a sandwich or a board.
When Mike went to the Vatican entrepreneur conference, they took everyone out to dinner here and he said it was phenomenal. Come to find out it is Pope Leo‘s favorite restaurant in Rome. The night before he went to the conclave he ate dinner here, his final meal before becoming pope!
We ate here a few times! In our opinion, the best Italian food we’ve eaten has not been in Rome, however, their pasta and tiramisu are pretty phenomenal!
Every time we go to Rome, we stay in the neighborhood that’s right next to Saint Peter Square! This was our go-to for morning espresso and croissant! They also have these really amazing fresh squeeze juices! The owners absolutely loved our kids! It’s also ridiculously cheap! I think a cappuccino is $1.50 and a croissant is like $1.20!
When we stayed right by the Vatican, we would go grocery shopping here. It’s right by the train station Roma S. Pietro and especially if you’re traveling with kids, it was great to know where the grocery store was to stock up on snacks and essentials!
Around Rome
Isola Tibernia is an island in the middle of the Tiber River! There is also a beautiful basilica on the island that’s worth visiting!
Trastevere is our favorite neighborhood of Rome! Definitely the place to be at night, so many street performers and fun things going on. It also has some pretty phenomenal food! Also, Saint Cecilia basilica is there and they have excavated underneath and it’s her home! It’s a really cool place to visit!
San Clemente is one of our favorite churches in Rome! You can go to all of the places that they have excavated underneath the church and see the baptismal font where Saint Cyril and Methodius were baptized! It’s really cool because they took a pagan temple and built on top of it, and the mosaic in the main part of the church is phenomenal!
Santa Maria Sopre Minerva is by the Parthenon and is home to the body of St. Catherine of Siena
Besides visiting the Vatican, I think the most powerful thing that you can do as a pilgrim in Rome is to go to the catacombs. It is incredible to see where almost half a million of the first Christians were buried, and all of the little side chapel and family Crips. It puts life into such perspective, I think every time we’ve visited it has brought me to tears. The catacombs are a bit difficult to get to, there is a public bus that can take you out there, but there isn’t a subway or train, and often times the buses are on strike in Rome. You can get a taxi out there, but it’s nearly impossible to get a taxi back because it’s so far outside the walls so the best thing to do it if you are going to hire a taxi is to hire him for a round trip and ask him to come back or just pay him to wait there. But it totally is worth it.
An hour outside of Rome is the small city of Nettuno where Saint Maria Goretti is buried. She’s my confirmation St. so it was such a powerful thing to be able to go visit, but it’s also right by the sea, which is really nice as well! If you guys are looking to do a little day trip Out of the city, I would really recommend going
A lesser visited Basilica of Rome, but it has the pillar where Jesus was scourged on. It’s right by Saint Mary Major so if you visit Saint Mary Major, I would highly recommend stopping by here as well!
I did a lot of research into the highest quality/cleanest Italian skin care products, and over and over again this came out as number one. I bought a couple things from here last year and they are fantastic! Their recipes date back to Florence circa 1221!
Trains
Navigating Termini: Termini is a huge central station so definitely give yourself extra buffer time to get around in the station. If you’re taking the train from Roma Termini to Assisi, it always leaves from platform 1 or 2 EST which is not part of the normal platforms. You have to walk down another longer sidewalk and it takes extra time, around 10-15 minutes if you have luggage! If you’re going from Termini to the station “Roma S. Pietro” (to get to St. Peter’s Square), the platforms are on the completely opposite side of the station!
If you’re going to St. Peter’s from Termini, we have found the easiest way to get there is by train rather than metro (especially when traveling with many young children and lots of luggage!). Using the TrenItalia app, you need to search for the station “Roma S. Pietro”. It’s a shorter walk to the square than from the metro station “Ottivano”.
Strikes
TODO things are always on strike, have a backup plan
Tours
During the academic year only (October to May), seminarians at the North American College offer tours of two papal basilicas, St. Peter’s and St. Paul Outside the Walls, and are occasional tour guides of the St. Peter’s Scavi. These tours are free!
- Tours of St. Peter’s basilica begin in front of the façade of St. Peter’s Basilica after you pass through security. Your seminarian tour guide will meet you there Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 2:30 PM wearing a Roman collar. You must go through security before meeting the group at the façade of the basilica (front of the basilica). Please note: security during high tourist season can be up to 1 hour and 30 minutes long. You are responsible for ensuring that you are through security in time to meet your seminarian guide at 2:30pm. RSVP to attend a seminarian-led tour of St. Peter’s basilica: https://forms.office.com/e/5pYyfWa2h3
- Tours of St. Paul Outside the Wall run every Tuesday and Thursday at 3:00pm. Our official tours will begin on October 6th, 2025 and end on May 29, 2026. Exceptions are Nov. 27, 2025 (Thanksgiving), from Dec. 19, 2025–Jan. 7,2026 (Christmas break), from Jan. 23–Feb. 16, 2026 (Exam Period), and Mar. 30– Apr. 13, 2026 (Holy Week and Easter break). Tours of the basilica begin in the courtyard. Your seminarian tour guide will meet you there at 2:50 pm wearing a Roman collar. Tours begin at 3:00pm.Tours are free of charge generally run for approximately 1 hour. No reservations are needed for small groups (10 people or less). For large groups (more than 10 people), please send an email request to stpaulstours@pnac.org to set up an appointment. In such cases, additional times may be offered outside of the normal schedule.
Hiring a private tour guide in Rome? We’d suggest John Noronah!
Another great tour hack we’ve used is to ask chatGPT for a custom tour. We will set parameters like wanting to see places of Catholic pilgrimage, that are stroller friendly, and plug in our exact location in Rome and we’ve seen some pretty unique churches and holy sites this way!