Every road in Italy still starts here. Four of them are done by lunchtime, and four lead to the rest of the country. Scroll, and each route leaves Rome in turn.
Day trips from Rome
Tivoli
Fountains in a cardinal's garden, and an emperor's country house.
How
Regional train or bus
Time from Rome
About 1 hour
Best season
April to October
The regional train runs from Roma Tiburtina to Tivoli, and buses leave from Ponte Mammolo. Allow 40 to 60 minutes either way, plus a short climb or bus ride up to the old town.
Romans have been escaping to Tivoli for two thousand years. The emperor Hadrian built a country estate here on a scale that would shame most towns, and a sixteenth-century cardinal laid out a hillside garden whose fountains still run without a single pump.
Both are UNESCO World Heritage sites and they sit a few kilometres apart, so they pair neatly into one day. Villa d'Este is the one for water and shade. Hadrian's Villa is the one for space and silence.
Do this
Walk the Avenue of the Hundred Fountains and stand in front of the Organ Fountain
Have lunch in the old town, not beside the villas
Finish at Hadrian's Villa in the late afternoon, when the stone turns gold
Watch for: Villa d'Este opens at 14:00 on Mondays, so on a Monday do Hadrian's Villa first. Villa Adriana is open all day.
The gardens are green, the shade is welcome and lunch can be outside. In winter the gardens are quiet and the light is low, which suits Hadrian's ruins.
Take the train from Porta San Paolo, next to Piramide metro station, to Ostia Antica. The entrance is a short walk from the station.
Ostia was Rome's harbour, and when the river changed course and silt buried the town, a great deal survived: apartment blocks, a theatre, mosaics, a bar with its counter still in place. It is less crowded than Pompeii and easier to reach.
You can walk the main street end to end in half an hour, but nobody does. Give it a morning, pack water and wear a hat.
Do this
Walk the main street, then the side lanes where the apartment blocks stand
See the theatre and the mosaics of the baths
Bring lunch or eat at the café near the entrance, then sit under the pines
Watch for: The park is closed on Mondays, and from 25 October it closes at 16:30.
Spring brings flowers among the ruins. Summer is hot and there is very little shade on the main street.
A cathedral that glows, on a cliff of volcanic stone.
How
Regional or Intercity train
Time from Rome
About 1 hour 15 minutes
Best season
April to June, and September to October
Direct trains leave from Roma Termini. In Orvieto, a funicular or a shuttle bus links the station to the old town on its cliff.
Orvieto sits on a block of tufa that rises out of the Umbrian plain, and the first sight of its cathedral is one of the quiet shocks of an Italian trip. The facade is covered in mosaic and carving, and when the late sun hits it, it looks lit from inside.
It is an easy day from Rome because the train is direct and the old town is small. The local white wine, also called Orvieto, is what Romans drink with fish.
Do this
Stand in the cathedral square in the afternoon, when the sun reaches the facade
Walk the paths along the foot of the cliff walls
Order pasta with a local wine at lunch, then take the late train home
Watch for: The cathedral's Sunday visiting hours are shorter than on weekdays, so check before planning a Sunday trip.
Cooler air, clear light on the cathedral's facade and wine-growing country at its most colourful.
Volcanic lakes, white wine and the cool hills Romans escape to.
How
Regional train
Time from Rome
About 30 minutes
Best season
April to October
Trains to Frascati leave Roma Termini about once an hour, and the Albano branch serves Castel Gandolfo. Services thin out to about every two hours on holidays.
The Castelli Romani are the old volcanic hills south-east of Rome, with a string of small towns around two crater lakes. Romans come here for Sunday lunch, for the air and for Frascati, the pale white wine of the area.
It is the closest thing to a countryside day that does not need a car. Take the train to Frascati for the town and the wine, or to Castel Gandolfo for the view over Lake Albano.
Do this
Walk down from Castel Gandolfo to the shore of Lake Albano
Have a long lunch of roast pork and Frascati wine in one of the old cellars
Linger until the light changes over the lake
Watch for: The railway has been shut for engineering works for weeks in some summers, so check Trenitalia's notices before you go.
Warm days with cool air in the hills, and September for the grape harvest, when the wine towns are at their most lively.
Frecciarossa or Italo trains run from Roma Termini to Firenze Santa Maria Novella, in the middle of the old city.
Florence is small enough to walk across in half an hour and rich enough to occupy a week. The Duomo, the Uffizi and the bridges are the headline, but the Oltrarno, across the river, is where artisans still work in the same workshops.
Tuscany beyond the city needs a car or a driver. The Val d'Orcia, with its cypress-lined roads and pale hills, is a day away from Florence and unlike anywhere else in Italy.
Do this
Climb to Piazzale Michelangelo at dusk for the view of the whole city
Cross the river and spend an afternoon in the Oltrarno workshops
Give the hills a full day, with a driver, a long lunch and no plan
Watch for: Book timed entry to the Uffizi and the Duomo's dome in advance, especially in spring and autumn.
Pleasant to walk in, with long light for the hills. August is hot and the city is at its busiest.
The loudest, most generous city in Italy, and the town a volcano preserved.
How
High-speed train
Time from Rome
About 1 hour 10 minutes
Best season
April to June, and September to October
Frecciarossa or Italo trains run from Roma Termini to Napoli Centrale. From there the Circumvesuviana line reaches Pompei Scavi in about 35 minutes.
Naples is not a city that eases you in. It is crowded, loud and extremely good at food, and the pizza is the reason many people first come. The Archaeological Museum holds many of the finds from Pompeii, which makes it the best place to start.
Pompeii, thirty-odd minutes by local train, is the other half of the story: a Roman town frozen mid-day, with its streets, shops and wall paintings still readable. Give it a full morning.
Do this
Eat pizza in the old centre, standing up if you must
See the Archaeological Museum before you go to Pompeii, not after
Go early to Pompeii, take a hat and refill your water bottle at the fountains
Watch for: Pompeii is large and shade is scarce. Allow at least three hours, and go early in summer.
Warm enough for the coast and cool enough to walk Pompeii, which has very little shade in July and August.
Take a high-speed train to Naples, then the Circumvesuviana to Sorrento and a ferry onward. Or travel on to Salerno and ferry to Amalfi in about 25 minutes. Ferries run from April to October only.
The coast is a narrow road cut into a cliff, with towns stacked above the sea on either side. It looks easy in photographs and is hard to do by car in summer, so we use the water wherever we can.
Positano is the postcard, Amalfi is the old maritime republic and Ravello sits above it all in the hills. Walking the high path between villages, the Path of the Gods, shows you the coast the way the mule drivers saw it.
Do this
Arrive by ferry, not by bus, and take the boat between towns
Walk the Path of the Gods, or its shorter version, high above the sea
Stay at least two nights so you see the coast when the day-trippers have left
Watch for: In July and August the road is badly congested, and there is no regular direct ferry from Naples to the Amalfi towns. Plan the boats first.
The ferries are running, the sea is warm and the coast road is not yet jammed. Many seaside hotels and restaurants close in winter.
Frecciarossa or Italo trains run from Roma Termini to Venezia Santa Lucia, which stands on the Grand Canal.
Venice is a city you walk, take a boat across, or get lost in. Between about ten in the morning and five in the afternoon the centre fills with day-trippers, and the city you came for is somewhere else: the early morning on San Marco, the evening in Cannaregio, a gondola yard in Dorsoduro.
That is the whole argument for staying a night. We usually give Venice two, so you see both versions.
Do this
See San Marco at first light, before the day-trippers arrive
Visit a working gondola yard in Dorsoduro
Eat cicchetti, the small plates, in a Cannaregio bar in the evening
Watch for: Day-trippers fill the centre between ten and five, so stay at least one night and plan the famous places for early or late.
Quieter, softer light and pleasant to walk. High water is possible from autumn into winter, so pack waterproof shoes.
