Lazio is Rome and everything the empire built around it. The city needs no argument: the Colosseum, the Forum, the Pantheon, St Peter's and the Sistine Chapel, and the Vatican Museums, are all within a few kilometres of each other. Outside it, Hadrian's Villa and the fountains of Villa d'Este at Tivoli, Ostia Antica's near-complete Roman port, the Etruscan necropolises of Cerveteri and Tarquinia, and the volcanic lakes of Bracciano and Bolsena are all day-trip distance — as are the Castelli Romani wine towns and the Pontine Islands.
- Colosseum, Roman Forum and Palatine
- Vatican Museums and St Peter's
- The Pantheon
- Tivoli — Villa d'Este and Hadrian's Villa
- Ostia Antica
- Cerveteri and Tarquinia Etruscan necropolises
- Ponza and the Pontine Islands
- Best time to go
- April–early June and late September–October. Rome in July–August is very hot and much of the city closes in mid-August; winter is mild, cheap and uncrowded.
- Getting there
- Rome Fiumicino (with a 32-min express to Termini) and Ciampino. Termini and Tiburtina put Florence at 1h30 and Naples at 1h10.
© OpenFreeMap · OSM · terrain Mapterhorn · boundaries © EuroGeographics (Eurostat GISCO)
Headline places
What italia.it leads with in Lazio.
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Colosseum The largest amphitheatre ever built, and still the symbol of Rome -
Roman Forum & Palatine Hill The civic centre of the ancient world, and the hill Rome was founded on -
Pantheon The best-preserved building of ancient Rome — and still the largest unreinforced concrete dome on earth -
Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel Seven kilometres of galleries ending at Michelangelo's ceiling -
St Peter's Basilica The largest church in the world, over the tomb of the apostle -
Trevi Fountain Rome's baroque set piece, fed by an aqueduct built in 19 BC -
Borghese Gallery Bernini's sculpture at its most astonishing, in a villa in a park -
Castel Sant'Angelo Hadrian's mausoleum, later a papal fortress with an escape corridor -
Villa d'Este, Tivoli Five hundred fountains on a hillside, all powered by gravity -
Hadrian's Villa An emperor's 120-hectare private city outside Rome -
Ostia Antica Rome's port town — as complete as Pompeii, and half an hour from the centre -
Cerveteri Etruscan Necropolis A city of Etruscan tombs laid out with streets and squares - Tarquinia Painted Tombs Six thousand rock-cut tombs, two hundred of them frescoed
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Civita di Bagnoregio The dying town — a tufa island reached only by footbridge -
Sacro Bosco, Bomarzo A 16th-century park of giant stone monsters -
Lake Bracciano A volcanic crater lake with a castle, an hour from Rome -
Sperlonga A whitewashed cliff village above the best beaches in Lazio -
Montecassino Abbey The mother house of Western monasticism, rebuilt after 1944
Cities & bases
Where to sleep, and what each place is good for.
Islands
Our guides
Full destination guides we already publish in this region.
Lazio by experience
The themes this region delivers on.
- Art & culture More UNESCO World Heritage sites than any other country on earth
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Food & wine Regional to the point of parochial — and all the better for it - Coast & islands 7,900 km of coastline and around eighty inhabited islands
- Italian lakes Como, Garda, Maggiore — the Grand Tour's original destination
- UNESCO Italy Sixty World Heritage sites — the largest tally of any country
- Borghi & villages The hill towns that carry I Borghi più belli d'Italia and the Orange Flag
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Nature & national parks 25 national parks, from alpine glaciers to volcanic islands - Spirituality & pilgrimage Rome, Assisi, and the pilgrim roads that connect them
