Day Trips from Rome — The Free Guide

Within two hours of Rome there are five places that deserve more than a photograph: a cathedral built to be seen from twenty kilometres away, a village on a crumbling cliff, a palace that turned a whole town into a stage set, a wood full of stone giants with no path to follow, and a garden that is a hydraulic machine.

I put them in a guide, the way I would do them: three days, one way of looking.

Day one: Civita di Bagnoregio in the fog of the morning, Orvieto until sunset. Day two: Caprarola and Bomarzo, absolute order and deliberate disorder, thirty minutes apart. Day three: Villa d'Este at Tivoli, as a whole day or an afternoon from Rome.

For each place: what to look at and why, a timetable built around the light, drawings, and the practical notes, checked in October 2026. Twenty-three pages, A5: read it on your phone on the day, or print it.

The guide is free for readers of The Slow Letter: a short letter every other Friday about a place, a building or a memory from a journey. Join below and it is yours.

The five guides, open to everyone

The same five places, one page each, with hours, tickets, how to get there, the order of the day and what to skip. These live on the site and I keep them up to date:

Orvieto Day Trip from Rome: What's Worth It, What to Skip Civita di Bagnoregio Day Trip: When to Go, What to See, and the Walk Nobody Does Villa Farnese at Caprarola: A Day Trip from Rome That Starts at the Bottom of the Hill Bomarzo Monster Park with Kids: A Day Trip from Rome, and the Afternoon in Viterbo Tivoli Day Trip from Rome: Villa d'Este, Hadrian's Villa, and How to Do Both

And the essays, for the why: Orvieto, Civita, Caprarola and its frescoes, Bomarzo, Villa d'Este and its palace.