It’s 8am, the sun is already shining hot, and the thermometer is reading 30°C/86°F. Welcome to Rome in the summer, where mid-morning feels like high noon in the desert and walking on those beautiful sampietrini (black basalt cobblestones) feels like traipsing across hot coals. By mid-June, the Eternal City literally becomes the Infernal City — a Dantean hot spot of high temperatures, even as crowds of bodies still push through to catch a glimpse of every historic and cultural site in the city.
Romans have known since antiquity that there are only two real options for surviving summer: close the shutters, turn your home into a dark cave, and stay inside from 11am to 6pm — or pack your bags and relocate to the beach (or mountains) from as early as July 1st through September 1st. But that’s not going to cut it if you’ve got places to go — churches, archaeological sites, museums, restaurants. Here are my five tips for beating the Roman heat.
Grattachecca
The only word you need to memorize is grattachecca — the onomatopoeic solution to surviving the Roman heat, and everyone’s favorite summer treat. Not to be confused with granita, the Italian ice found at your local gelateria, grattachecca is a cup of hand-shaved ice flavored with fruit syrups, preserved cherries, or fresh lemon juice and coconut pieces. Ingested quickly, it delivers a ferocious brain freeze. Savored slowly on an afternoon walk, it’s a handheld cooling system that can change your attitude as fast as it changes your body temperature.
Where to find one? Walk along the Lungotevere — the sidewalk bordering the Tiber — from the Ara Pacis to Isola Tiberina, and you’ll bump into a green kiosk lined with bottles of syrup, manned by two grattacheccari: one shaving the ice, the other flavoring it. Note: this is usually cash-only, so bring spare change. For more, here’s my map of grattachecca spots in Rome.
Rise and Shine
I’m up every morning by about 6:30am — an unnatural and ungodly hour to rise, but I do it because summer sun comes in high and strong, and we don’t do caves. At 7am, Rome is still relatively empty of tourists, so I get a front-row spot at the Trevi Fountain and snap empty shots of the entire Piazza Navona. Next, I’ll head to Il Gesù to enjoy Baciccia’s beautifully frescoed ceiling on my own, and by 8:30am, if I’ve planned ahead, I’ll be at the Pantheon looking up at the Oculus. (FYI: all visitors now need a ticket.)
If you want to spend time at must-see, ticketed sites like the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, or St. Peter’s Museum and Dome, set your alarm and plan to arrive no later than 15 minutes before doors open — usually 8 or 8:30am, depending on the site. Each requires visitors to queue outdoors in piazzas with absolutely no shade, and lines can mean hours-long waits. By midday, sites like the Forum and Colosseum become petri dishes under intense sun.
Give Yourself a Break
Romans are absolutely right about this one. By midday, you need to give yourself a break and ricaricare — recharge, or better yet, replenish all those electrolytes you lost just by walking down the street. To a Roman, this means a long lunch, a few hours indoors, or preferably both. I know — you’re here to see the sites, not sit around — so here’s my pro tip: plan your visits to Rome’s not-to-be-missed museums during the midday lull.
Here are my favorite air-conditioned art spots: for Baroque art Galleria Borghese (reservation required) and Palazzo Barberini (park yourself on the velvet divan in the Grand Salon and look up), for ancient Palazzo Massimo and The Capitoline Museums, for modern and contemporary: La Galleria Nazionale. N.B. This does not include churches as clergy and staff take a lunch break too.
Go Underground
I’m lucky, I live with the uber-archaeologist Darius Arya, who thinks the best kind of date involves a trek a few meters below ground level into ancient Rome. Sexy times include investigating Roman insulae, Republican temples, imperial cisterns, Christian catacombs, pagan necropoli, and even a 2,500-year-old public sewage drain, all in the name of antiquity. Over the years I’ve realized there is nothing better than a trip down under — plus a great pair of shoes. There’s an underground site open every day of the week, so you can duck into a cooler climate for a few hours, daily if you want.
My line-up the crowd pleasurel San Clemente with its multilevel exploration, the somewhat overlooked Citta dell’Acqua and any catacomb(Santa Domitilla is a favourite). Pro tip for the church-goer: ask any priest at any centro storico church if there’s something below the pulpit. Chances are you’ll find a Republican-era building or an imperial temple hiding beneath your feet.
Night Vision
One of the most important lessons to learn in Rome is that just as the city wasn’t built in a day, you don’t have to see it all in one either. That’s why night visits exist. Rome’s incredible cityscape of ancient monuments, Renaissance palazzi, and Baroque domes is just as gorgeous in inky navy-blue evening light as it is in daylight, and over the past few years, more and more cultural sites have finally opened their doors after dark.
Why walk with the masses to the Sistine Chapel when you can have the Vatican Museums to yourself- and have an aperitivo in the Cortile della PIgna? How about a walk around the Colosseum and its underground chambers? Personally, I’m all about the flashback experiences at the Fori Imperiali where animated projections are set to melodramatic musical scores as you walk through history , and the evening visit to Castel Sant’Angelo never ever gets old.
