Free Attractions in Rome Help the Travel Budget

Whether or not you consider yourself a hard-core budget traveler – the kind who will eat the local equivalent of ramen a couple times a day in order to make sure there’s enough money left over for the next chicken bus ride – there’s a good chance you like saving money when you travel. This is why hearing about free stuff to do in any city makes travelers in every economic bracket happy – and this is especially true in a normally expensive city like Rome.

Even a brief perusal of a good Rome guide – including the mTrip app – is enough to make your eyes start to glaze over at the sheer magnitude of attraction options. The list seems never-ending, and just when you think you’ve got it narrowed down, you hear about some church or museum or gelateria “only the locals know about” that you just have to include. Pretty soon, you’re tallying up both the amount of time and the amount of cash you’ll need to see and do everything. Luckily, there are several things to do in Rome for free.

We expect to pay a sometimes-hefty entry fee to get into famous museums like the Vatican Museums or iconic sights like the Colosseum, but one of the coolest buildings anywhere – the Pantheon – is free to enter. It’s a snapshot of Roman life from 2,000 years ago, and although you can’t buy that kind of time capsule it won’t cost you a euro to get in. The “Mouth of Truth,” which many of us recall from the delightful film “Roman Holiday,” is also free – although there’s usually a line in the summer. And did you know that one of the biggest attractions in Italy – St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican – is completely free to get into? Time your Vatican Museum visit right, and even that’s free (on the last Sunday of every month).

A list of free stuff to do in Rome won’t help with the fact that you’ll still feel like you need several months to work through your to-do list, but it will help you save a few euro. And given how much flying to Rome is costing us these days, every little bit helps.

What’s your favorite free thing to do in Rome? Let us know in the comments.

– by Jessica of BootsnAll

Download mTrip’s Rome Travel Guide

photo by jimmyharris