Rome runs at its own pace. The mistake is trying to overtake it. Lunch ends at four. Dinner starts at nine. Nothing meaningful happens in the in-between hours, which is why those hours are best spent walking. Once you accept the schedule, the city stops feeling like a destination and starts feeling like a place. Two things to know. First, Rome is bigger and older than your assumptions about it. Most of the photographs you have seen were taken in a few hundred metres of the Centro Storico, but Trastevere, Monti, Testaccio, the Aventine, and the Gianicolo are different cities glued onto the same map. Pick one as your base and walk from there. Second, the Romans have already had every restaurant trend that visitors are excited about. The traditional places have outlasted all of them, which is why they are still the ones with reservations. Atrium recommends Rome by neighbourhood and by mealtime. Hotel de Russie for the Spanish Steps quiet. Villa Agrippina for the Vatican-side garden. Pierluigi for the Roman power lunch. Retrobottega for the kitchen-lab evening. Drink Kong in Monti when the night starts properly. Sacripant for the gallery hour between lunch and dinner. Walk between them. Don't try to do everything.