{"id":3200,"date":"2016-02-01T20:04:06","date_gmt":"2016-02-01T19:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/?p=3200"},"modified":"2026-01-22T09:23:04","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T08:23:04","slug":"rome-on-own","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/?p=3200","title":{"rendered":"Rome on your own"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/booking-engine-hotel-campeggi-strutture-ricettive.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-5398 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/booking-engine-hotel-campeggi-strutture-ricettive-300x200.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/booking-engine-hotel-campeggi-strutture-ricettive-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/booking-engine-hotel-campeggi-strutture-ricettive-768x512.png 768w, https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/booking-engine-hotel-campeggi-strutture-ricettive-220x147.png 220w, https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/booking-engine-hotel-campeggi-strutture-ricettive.png 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><em>[revised January 2026] <\/em>We believe the guidance of a local expert makes a big difference in your Roman Holiday, of course!<\/p>\n<p><strong>But we also believe \u00a0you need your *own* time to explore the city, to wander and wonder, to feel lost and find your way&#8230;.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Moreover, there are some sites where you will have an internal guide or audioguide service included in your admission: we are also here to help you \u00a0save some money and rather have an extra bottle of wine at dinner!<\/p>\n<p>Here is the list of some\u00a0palaces, museums and attractions where you do not need us and the link to reserve a visit or receive informations:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.palazzovalentini.it\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Domus di Palazzo Valentini:<\/a> highly recommended, it&#8217;s a virtual reconstruction of two ancient Roman houses now buried by a Renaissance palace. The tour suits all ages, children and teens love it! \u00a0You are given an audioguide. Reservation is mandatory. <em>This visit can be combined with our orientation in the city centre or with\u00a0our Ancient Rome tour.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.villamedici.it\/en\/disvoer-and-visit-the-villa\/visit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Villa Medici<\/a> is a gorgeous Renaissance Villa now housing the Academy of Fine Arts for France in Italy. You will mainly visit the gorgeous garden and few rooms, enjoying an incredible panorama over Rome. <em>Great combination with our tour of the city centre, a bike tour in the Borghese park or our\u00a0&#8220;Grand Tour&#8221; walk.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/visite-palazzofarnese.it\/?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Palazzo Farnese<\/a>: the seat of the French Embassy (formerly a Cardinal residence, boasting some of the most precious frescoes in Rome) is open to visitors over the age of 10 for three days per week. <em>You can combine this tour to our walking orientation in the centre or a Food Tour around the market of Campo de&#8217; Fiori.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><strong>Catacombs<\/strong> offer only internal group tours. If you are interested in a deeper tour along the Appian Way, to St.Agnes&#8217; complex or to the <a href=\"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/?p=5196\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">&#8220;Underground Rome&#8221;<\/a>, we can include the catacombs in these visits (but we cannot guide you\u00a0 in there). If you are just curious to see the catacombs&#8217; tunnels, you can go on your own to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.catacombe.roma.it\/en\/index.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">San Callisto<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.catacombe.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">San Sebastiano<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.catacombedomitilla.it\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Catacombe di\u00a0Domitilla<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.santagnese.net\/site\/catacombs-mausoleum\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sant&#8217;Agnese<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/catacombepriscilla.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Catacombe di\u00a0Priscilla<\/a>. <em>We can reserve private access\u00a0to the Jewish Catacombs of Rome.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.museoebraico.roma.it\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jewish Museum<\/a>: the interesting museum of the Jewish Community of Rome is located under the Roman Synagogue and your ticket includes the visit of the Synagogue as well. <em>You can combine it with our tour of the Ghetto,\u00a0 Trastevere or with our Food Tour near Campo de&#8217; Fiori market\/Trastevere.\u00a0<\/em><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/parcocolosseo.it\/en\/area\/the-domus-aurea\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Domus Aurea<\/a> is the latin name of the Golden Palace of Nero, an incredible archaeological site currently under restoration and only accessible with internal guides during weekends. <i>This visit can be combined with our Ancient Rome tour or with a visit\u00a0to\u00a0 the Archaeological Museum of Rome.<\/i><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ambasciatadelbrasile.it\/palacio\/visita_guidata.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Palazzo Pamphilj<\/a> is an historical building overlooking the famous Piazza Navona, and it is now property of the Brazilian Embassy. Visits are possible on few days of each month, led by the staff of the Embassy,\u00a0\u00a0the only obstacle is that visits are only in Italian and Portuguese, but you can appreciate the beauty of the frescos and architecture anyway.\u00a0<em>You can combine this tour to our walking orientation in the centre, an &#8220;Underground Rome&#8221; tour in the centre or a Food Tour around the market of Campo de&#8217; Fiori.<\/em><\/li>\n<li>In case you are interested in the seats of the <strong>Italian Institutions<\/strong>, they follow these rules\u00a0: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.senato.it\/relazioni-con-i-cittadini\/visitare-senato\/enti-e-associazioni\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Palazzo Madama<\/a>, our Senate House, \u00a0opens on the first Saturday of each month. \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.governo.it\/visitare-i-palazzi-istituzionali\/prenotazione-visite-guidate\/2939\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Palazzo Chigi<\/a> is the seat of the Government and it&#8217;s accessible upon reservation on Saturday morning. <a href=\"https:\/\/eventi.camera.it\/eventionline\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Palazzo di Montecitorio<\/a>, the Italian Parliament, is open on the first Sunday of each month. The <a href=\"http:\/\/palazzo.quirinale.it\/visitapalazzo\/prenota.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Quirinale Palace<\/a>, where our President lives and works, can be visited every day but only with internal tours. Recently re-opened to the visitors also the beautiful <a href=\"https:\/\/www.governo.it\/visitare-i-palazzi-istituzionali\/prenotazione-visite-guidate\/2939\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Casino Algardi &#8220;del Bel Respiro&#8221;<\/a> inside Villa Pamphili, hosting from time to time Government events.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Vatican:<\/strong> several areas of the Vatican are forbidden to external guides (the Gardens and \u00a0the Excavations for example), but you can join\u00a0\u00a0a group tour. You can find more information in a <a href=\"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/?p=2689\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">special blog post<\/a> dedicated to pre-booking (bear in mind the necropolis under St. Peter&#8217;s requires to be booked several months in advance). In this post you also find details about the <a href=\"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/?p=2689\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Papal Audience and the Papal Mass<\/a>:\u00a0here\u00a0you do not need a guide, some companies ask you to pay for these events, but they are for free!<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hop-on-hop-off-bus.com\/rome-bus-tours#sort=%40regionsortorder%20descending\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hop-on Hop-off Open Bus<\/a>: we do not recommend this experience in Rome, as most of the &#8220;must sees&#8221; are in pedestrian areas and you do not see a lot from the bus. Moreover, traffic is really bad in Rome and you lose time \u00a0in traffic jams or waiting for the next bus. So, just avoid the hop-on hop-off (better and cheaper to use metro or local buses) and consider this tour only if you need a general overview sitting on the bus for approx 1,5 hr taking some picture and resting a bit. Several companies offer the same tour, the price is more or less the same, we just linked one of them.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Segway<\/strong> tours: we openly declared <a href=\"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/?p=3007\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a> we do not like segways in Rome, but if you really like this vehicle or you have promised your children &#8230; well, you can contact <a href=\"https:\/\/www.segwayrometours.com\/it\/index.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Segway Rome Tours<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Golf cart<\/strong> tours: same as above, we do not like this way of going around the city unless you have some mobility issues. In that case we can rent the golf cart for you and add our licensed guide onboard (our price will be higher than other companies for this reason). If you just want a general orientation with a driver, you can contact <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dearoma.it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dea Roma<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Enjoy Rome, with your <strong><em>Friend in Rome<\/em><\/strong> and on your own!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[revised January 2026] We believe the guidance of a local expert makes a big difference in your Roman Holiday, of course! But we also believe \u00a0you need your *own* time to explore the city, to wander and wonder, to feel lost and find your way&#8230;. Moreover, there are some sites where you will have an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-planning-your-trip","category-on-your-own"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3200"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6180,"href":"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3200\/revisions\/6180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afriendinrome.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}