• Visit the Roman Forum before the Colosseum

The line to get tickets at the Roman Forum is WAY shorter than the line to buy them at the Colosseum! Choose the option to buy a ticket to see both at the Roman Forum, that way when you get to the Colosseum you can skip the line to buy tickets. The ticket even lasts for two days if you’d like to split your time between the two.

• Take recommendations from locals

My favorite restaurant I ate at while in Rome was a little hole in the wall pizzeria recommended to us by our Airbnb host. The food and wine were amazing and the service was great! We even ate here twice during our weekend trip because we loved it so much. We wouldn’t have even thought to go there if we wouldn’t have asked a local.

• See the Vatican Museum at night

On Fridays, there is an option to take a night tour of the Vatican Museum. I highly recommend this! It was less crowded than normal so it was easier to navigate. It also was very hot in Rome the weekend we were there and there is no air conditioning, so I can’t imagine exploring the museum during a hot day.

• Take time to just wander around

Sometimes when visiting a city for a short amount of time it’s easy to get caught up in sightseeing and you can forget to actually take in the culture of the city. Take time to just walk around with no real place to be and just take in the beauty of the city.