Best Day Trips from Rome: Your Complete Guide to Escaping the Eternal City

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Rome rewards a week, but some of the best days of a Rome trip happen outside the city walls. Every place below works as a day out from Rome by public transport, and we have kept to the ones that are worth the early start. We have listed them roughly from closest to furthest.

Train and bus times change with each timetable. Check the day before on the Trenitalia, Italo or Cotral websites, and check opening days with each site before you go (many museums and archaeological parks close one day a week). Checked October 2026.

1. Ostia Antica

Plan your visit: Our guide to the ruins of Ostia Antica

Ostia was the port of ancient Rome, at the mouth of the Tiber. What survives is a whole Roman town: streets, apartment blocks, bakeries, a theatre you can still sit in, and the Square of the Corporations, where the floor mosaics advertised the shipping firms that traded through the port. It is quieter than the Roman Forum and you can wander for hours.

Getting there: the Roma–Lido local train from Porta San Paolo station (next to Piramide metro) stops at Ostia Antica, a short walk from the entrance. This is the easiest day trip on the list.

2. Tivoli: Villa d’Este and Hadrian’s Villa

Plan your visit: Tivoli on VisitLazio (official Lazio tourism site)

Tivoli sits on the slopes of the Tiburtini hills, about 36 km east of Rome, and has two UNESCO World Heritage villas. Villa d’Este is a Renaissance garden built on terraces and run on water: dozens of fountains, pools and water stairs, all fed by gravity. Hadrian’s Villa (Villa Adriana), below the town, is the largest villa that belonged to a Roman emperor. Hadrian built copies of the places he had seen on his travels, including the long Canopus pool lined with statues.

Getting there: regional trains from Roma Tiburtina to Tivoli, or Cotral buses from Ponte Mammolo metro. Villa d’Este is in the town; Hadrian’s Villa is a short bus or taxi ride below it. Doing both in one day is possible if you start early.

3. Cerveteri

Plan your visit: Cerveteri on VisitLazio (official Lazio tourism site)

Long before Rome ruled the region, the Etruscans did. At Cerveteri, the Banditaccia Necropolis is a city of the dead cut into the soft tuff: grassy round tombs, streets between them, and inside, rooms carved to look like Etruscan houses, down to the beams and chairs. The Tomb of the Reliefs has carved tools and household objects on its walls. It shares its UNESCO listing with the painted tombs of Tarquinia, further up the coast.

Getting there: Cotral buses run from Rome (Cornelia metro) to Cerveteri; the necropolis is about 2 km from the town centre.

4. Orvieto

Plan your visit: Our guide to Orvieto's underground city

Orvieto sits on top of a cliff of volcanic rock in southern Umbria, and the train from Rome gets you there in a little over an hour. The cathedral front is covered in gold mosaics, and inside, the Chapel of San Brizio has Luca Signorelli’s frescoes of the Last Judgement. Under the town there is a second Orvieto of caves, cellars and Etruscan tunnels you can visit with a guide, and St Patrick’s Well, a deep well with two spiral staircases so mules going down never met mules coming up.

Getting there: regional and intercity trains from Roma Termini to Orvieto, then the funicular up from the station to the old town.

5. Civita di Bagnoregio

Plan your visit: Our guide to Civita di Bagnoregio

Civita di Bagnoregio is a tiny medieval village on a crumbling hill of tuff, joined to the world by one long footbridge. Its edges have been falling away for centuries, which is why Italians call it “the dying town”. Only a few families live there year-round. Walk the bridge early in the morning or late in the day, when the tour groups have gone and the valley below turns gold. There is a small entry fee, paid at the foot of the bridge.

Getting there: there is no train. Take the train to Orvieto, then a local bus to Bagnoregio and walk to the bridge. Many people pair it with Orvieto in one long day.

6. Florence

Plan your visit: Our guide to a day trip to Florence from Rome by train

Yes, Florence works as a day trip. High-speed trains run between Rome and Florence many times a day and take about an hour and a half. With one day, pick a few things: the Duomo and Brunelleschi’s dome, the Uffizi (book a timed ticket ahead), the Ponte Vecchio and a late lunch in the Oltrarno across the river. You will want to come back for longer.

Getting there: Frecciarossa or Italo trains from Roma Termini to Firenze Santa Maria Novella, which is a ten-minute walk from the Duomo.

7. Naples and Pompeii

Plan your visit: Our Pompeii guide: what to see and know

This is the big one. The high-speed train reaches Naples in about an hour and ten minutes, and from there the Circumvesuviana local train runs to Pompeii. Pompeii was buried by Vesuvius in AD 79 and is huge: give it at least four hours and bring water and a hat. If you have energy left, go back into Naples for a pizza near the station or in the old centre, where the Neapolitan pizza was born.

Getting there: Frecciarossa or Italo to Napoli Centrale, then the Circumvesuviana (Sorrento line) to Pompei Scavi, right by the entrance.

8. Assisi

Plan your visit: Our Assisi guide

Assisi is the town of Saint Francis, built in pink stone on the slope of Mount Subasio in Umbria. The Basilica of Saint Francis is two churches stacked one above the other, with Giotto’s frescoes of the saint’s life in the Upper Church. Walk up through the old town to the Rocca for views over the plain, or out to the church of San Damiano below the walls.

Getting there: trains from Roma Termini take about two hours (some need a change at Foligno). Assisi station is in Santa Maria degli Angeli; a local bus climbs up to the old town.

Which day trip should you pick?

Short on time: Ostia Antica or Tivoli. Ancient history: Pompeii, Ostia Antica or Cerveteri. Hill towns and long lunches: Orvieto, Civita di Bagnoregio or Assisi. Art: Florence. If you only do one, we would pick Orvieto: easy by train, beautiful, and still a working town.

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