April is high season in Rome. To get in at museums like the Colosseum and enjoy your stay worry-free and without long queues, you need to prepare well in advance.
What’s on?
There is a lot going on in Rome in April. Palm Sunday on April 2 marks the start of celebrations at the Vatican, culminating on Easter Sunday April 9.
On April 21, Rome’s Founding Day is celebrated. There are events at the Circus Maximus and a parade in historical costume on Sunday April 23. April 25 is a national holiday and so there are some nice bridge days until May 1.
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April in Rome
In April, Rome becomes very crowded. During the first two weeks, many pilgrims are expected in Rome. Many visitors from Italy come to Rome for a weekend, for a papal audience or for shopping.
Finding reasonably priced rooms in April is not easy. Read our tips in our article Hotels in Rome.
Rome is a very green city. Take the time to enjoy the daily changing nature in one of the Roman villas. And of course you have to visit a lookout point. Combine a visit to the excavations in Ostia Antica is with a trip to the sea. The still wintry Villa D’Este creates an interesting atmosphere, especially in the evening. Located in the valley below Tivoli, Villa Adriana is the largest villa that a Roman emperor has ever built. In its ruins, on sunny days, it can get quite hot as early as March.
But you can also reach more distant destinations such as Pompei, Naples or Florence in one day with the high-speed train or with a guided tour.
After an intense day, you can experience Rome’s culinary offerings in the evening. Whether light Mediterranean cuisine or hearty Cucina Romana, you can eat very well in Rome. You can find out more in our category Food in Rome.
How warm it is
In April you can sometimes almost sniff the summer in Rome. During the day it is nice and warm and in the evening it is pleasantly cool. Record temperatures in April are a maximum of 30°C/86°F and a minimum of -2°C/28.4°F, although it is more likely that temperatures will rise above 22°C/71.6°F than that they will fall below 12°C/33.8°F.
Climate data April
| Tmax Ø | 19°C/66.2°F |
| Tmin Ø | 10°C/50°F |
| Sunshine hours Ø | 5,9 |
| Days with rain Ø | 8 |
Source: www.wetter.com
Long periods of rain are extremely rare. Most of the time it doesn’t rain for long and it is enough you have a light rain cape that you can quickly put on.
Usually, light summer clothing is sufficient. To be able to sit outside in the evening, you need a light jacket.
When visiting sacred sites, your shoulders and knees must be covered. If you wear off-the-shoulder shirts or dresses, you will need a shoulder scarf or pareo. Comfortable shoes are also important in Rome, as you will be walking a lot and the sidewalks are often bumpy.
High season in Rome
You would think that in Rome the flow of visitors would be well distributed. But in the city center it is crowded and on many streets there is a big crush. Even at the museums and the churches there are often crowds and waiting times. Public transportation is overloaded.
These are our tips so you can have a great time in Rome:
- Book the guided tours and tickets for the museums you want to visit well in advance. Provided that some museums, such as the Colosseum, do not have the booking window open yet, use Tiqets’ reminder function so that you are among the first as soon as the tickets are available.
- Visit St. Peter’s Basilica, the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps early in the morning.
- Get an overview with a hop on hop off bus ride.
- Read our information on getting around Rome and public transportation.
- Let yourself drift and enjoy the beautiful Roman parks.
- Visit lesser known museums such as the Baths of Diocletian or Palazzo Altemps.
- Get off the beaten path and visit the excavations at Ostia Antica or the Via Appia Antica.
- Read our information on dining in Rome and make restaurant reservations.
Rome is a paradise for shopping for every taste. Whether fashion, antiques or delicacies, you will find everything here.
You must also try the delicious Roman cuisine.
April ends the season of artichokes, “Carciofi”, which you can find fried especially in the ghetto. They are very tasty and are called “Carciofi alla Giudia”. You can find the typical Roman pasta dishes all year round. Very tasty is the preparation Cacio e Pepe with pecorino cheese and pepper, variations are the Gricia, the Amatriciana and the Carbonara.
Rome for early risers
It pays to get up early in Rome. Visit the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain before they are besieged by tourists.
Until six o’clock in the morning there is very little traffic in Rome and you can take very nice photos of the sunrise at monuments and squares undisturbed. Sunrise in Rome in April is at 6:54 at the beginning of the month and at 6:09 at the end of the month.
St. Peter’s Basilica opens at 7 and there are no queues yet.
Early morning is also the best time for jogging.
Avoid queues
Keeping your distance is a necessary precaution. Avoid the queues and make a daily schedule. In our category 3 days in Rome you will find suggestions that you can combine with each other.
Since you have to reserve in advance at most museums, the risk of queues is low there. Queues are almost always at ticket offices in airports and at the ticket machines. Bookings on the Internet are therefore the best choice.
Arrival
Organize the journey from the airport to the hotel in advance and read our information about the metro and how you can get tickets quickly and easily.
Museums
Many museums can only be visited by reservation. These include the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Museums, the Colosseum, the Borghese Gallery and the museums of the Municipality of Rome. You can find information about the museums on our pages
Since the Colosseum and the Vatican Museums are largely booked up at Easter, we recommend the Rome Tourist Pass, where 100% guaranteed bookings are still possible.
Welcome to Rome Multimediashow
In the center of Rome, between the Vatican and Piazza Navona, a 30-minute multidimensional film show and an exhibition with interactive models await you.
Corso Vittorio Emanuele II 203 
Bus 46, 62, 64, 916 C.so Vittorio Emanuele / Navona
St. Peter’s Basilica
Admission to St. Peter’s Basilica is free of charge. However, there can be quite long queues when there are many visitors.
Unfortunately, there is currently no preferred entry skip the line. If you don’t want to wait long, you should be there early in the morning. Also, if you book a guided tour for the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s Basilica, you won’t have to wait in line.
For more information read our pages on St. Peter’s Basilica, St. Peter’s Square and the history of St. Peter’s Basilica.
Opening hours
St. Peter’s Basilica
Basilica 7 am – 7 pm – dome 8 am – 6 pm – treasure 9 am – 6:15 pm
More information about St. Peter’s Basilica>
St. Peter’s Basilica is closed during the Pope’s celebrations, for which you need invitation cards. In April, these are the masses of Pope Francis on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday as well as the audiences on Wednesday mornings.
The exact dates can be found in our article Easter in Rome.
Colosseum
9 am – 18:15 Closing 19:15
Closing on Good Friday April 7 1:00 p.m.
On Sunday 2 April admission is free
Details about the Colosseum>
Vatican Museums
Monday – Saturday 9 – 16 Closing 18:00, Sundays closed. Admission until 17:00 6-8 Apr, 11 Apr, 24 + 25 Apr. Evening opening from 14 Apr. Friday and Saturday last admission 20:30.
Free admission on Sunday 30.4. 9 – 12:30 closing 14:00.
Details on the Vatican Museums>
City museums and national museums
In Rome, some of the museums belong to the municipality and some to the state.
The city’s museums include the Capitoline Museums, Trajan’s Markets, Imperial Forums and numerous other museums. National museums include the Colosseum, Castel Sant’Angelo, Borghese Gallery and many more. For the full list of museums, opening times and tickets, see our Rome Museums page.
Free entry
For all the museums of the Municipality of Rome, such as the Capitoline Museums and the Markets of Trajan, free admission on April 2. Admission to the national museums is also free and no reservations are required with the exception of the Borghese Gallery.
Exhibitions
The rose garden of the Municipality of Rome, Collections Department, is open daily 8:30 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. starting April 21. The rose garden is located on the slope of the Aventine above the Circus Maximus. Entry is free.
Cinecittà si mostra Visit the dream factory of Roman cinema, Metro A Station Cinecittà Tickets
Galleria Colonna – one of the largest ancient private palaces in Rome. The most beautiful rooms of the palace and the art collection of the family with artists from the 15th and 16th centuries such as Pinturicchio, Cosmè Tura, Carracci, Guido Reni, Tintoretto, Salvator Rosa, Bronzino, Guercino, Veronese, Vanvitelli
Via della Pilotta 17 (near Piazza Venezia) Bus 51, 60, 63, 80, 83, 85, 160, 170, H, n5, n8, n11, n90, n543, n716 (Piazza Venezia) Tickets
Capuchin Crypt – Museum and Crypt of the Capuchins
Via Vittorio Veneto 27 Bus 52, 53, 61, 63, 80, 83, 160, n90, nMA (Barberini) Tickets
The Colosseum tells of itself, permanent exhibition in the Colosseum – with the support of Heinz Beste, DAI Rom
Piazza del Colosseo Metro B Colosseo Tickets
Pasolini Painter
Pasolini Pittore is an exclusive exhibition project, completely new in its kind, conceived on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Pier Paolo Pasolini. It aims, more than forty years after the last complete publication on Pasolini the painter in 1978, to bring back attention to an important artistic aspect, often neglected by critics, in the overall context of the work of the writer and director.
The exhibition includes about two hundred works, most of which come from the Gabinetto Scientifico Letterario G.P. Vieusseux in Florence. They reconstruct Pasolini’s artistic career since the early 1940s and document the continuity of Pasolini’s painterly practice and his technical tenacity. In the end, the artist was always more interested in the “composition” – with its contours – than in the material, in line with that painterly phase of Italian art that, especially between the 1960s and 1970s, was increasingly defined also by its civic commitment.
Gallery of Modern Art, Via Francesco Crispi 24 – until April 16, 2023
La Movida. Spain 1980-1990
La Movida. Spain 1980-1990, the first exhibition in Italy by photographer and artist Miguel Trillo, through more than 60 photographs, chronicles the 1980s, the cultural movement known as La Movida and its social and political consequences.
Through April 30, Museo di Roma in Trastevere
Technoscape – The Architecture of Engineering
The exhibition highlights the relationship between structural or avant-garde engineering and the omnipresence of technology in the contemporary world.
The exhibition is divided into technological innovation and structural engineering.
MAXXI – Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI secolo, Via Guido Reni 4a – until April 10, 2023
Armando Trovajoli. A legend of music
The Museo di Roma in Trastevere Roma presents the first exhibition reconstructing the long artistic career of the master of light music Armando Trovajoli (Rome 1917 – 2013), an Italian pianist, composer and conductor who collaborated with major film directors and created more than 300 soundtracks and a record-breaking production.
Museo di Roma in Trastevere, Piazza di San Egidio, until May 14
Bōchōtei. Lifes in the shadow of the wall. Enrico Graziani
A photographic exhibition dealing with the consequences of the construction of the mighty tsunami protection walls, focusing mainly on the architectural and social impact, as well as on the daily life of the inhabitants.
Museo delle Mura, Via di Porta San Sebastiano 18 (Appia Antica), until May 14
Tuesday – Sunday 9 – 14, free entry
Pericle Fazzini, the sculptor of the wind
A journey through the poetics of the artist of the Vatican Resurrection through a selection of about 100 works.
Museo Carlo Bilotti Aranciera di Villa Borghese, until July 2, free admission
The Colors of Antiquity. Santarelli Marbles at the Capitoline Museums
In two rooms of Palazzo Clementino at the Capitoline Museums, there is on display a broad overview of the use of colored marbles, from their origins to the 20th century, through a fine selection of pieces from the Santarelli Foundation.
The World of Banksy – The immersive experience
Be captivated by the masterpieces of one of the most enigmatic artists of our time!
Tiburtina station – Shop gallery – until 28 May Tickets
The Rome of the Republic. The narrative of archaeology
At Palazzo Caffarelli, the exhibition of some 1,800 works illustrates, through a series of archaeological themes and contexts, the characteristics and changes in Roman society from the 5th to the middle of the first century BC.
INFINITY. Michelangelo Pistoletto.
Contemporary art without limits
until October 15, 2023
Fifty works and four large site-specific installations. More than 60 years of art, almost 90 years of life.
An infinity of ways of making art, an infinity of ways of seeing, of changing perspective, of reading reality.
In the Chiostro del Bramante (Piazza Navona area) Via Arco della Pace 5
Events
Papal audience every Wednesday at 9 am
The Pope’s Angelus prayer takes place on Sundays at noon in St. Peter’s Square with the exception of Easter Sunday.
For Easter celebrations read
Porta Portese Market
every Sunday 7:00 – 14:00 Flea market & antiques
between Porta Portese and Via Ippolito Nievo
Ponte Milvio Market
Antiques market every Sunday
Between Ponte Milvio and Ponte Duca D’Aosta
Cirque du Soleil
Until April 29 Cirque du Soleil – Kurios
Under The Grand Chapiteau, Viale Tor di Quinto, 110
Tickets at 
30 March -2 April Romics International Festival of Comics, Animation, Cinema and Games
Fiera di Roma – Rome fair Train FL1 direction Fiumicino airport
April 25th, Italian Liberation Day, national holiday
Concerts
Rome has a lively music scene. Many pubs and music venues offer live music, especially on weekends. Classical music can be found in many churches and palaces.
Rome’s Music Park
A jewel is the Parco della Musica, built by the internationally known architect Renzo Piano, in northern Rome on Via Flaminia. See all events here. Events and tickets
Tram 2
There are several auditoriums and an open-air stage in the Parco della Musica. There are performances in all styles.
Some events are also organized together with the Casa del Jazz. Events and Tickets Casa del Jazz
Bus 160, 671, 714, 792
Palazzo dello Sport
The Palazzo dello Sport is a multifunctional hall where concerts are held regularly. It is located in Quartier EUR and is easily accessible by Metro B station Palasport.
Metro B EUR Palasport
Atlantico
Atlantico is a concert hall in the EUR neighborhood. You take Metro B to EUR Fermi and then bus 705 or 706 to Colombo / Atlantico.
Viale dell’Oceano Atlantico, 271D
Metro B EUR Fermi -> 705, 706
Largo Venue
Largo Venue is a cultural center on Via Prenestina.
Largo Venue, Via Biordo Michelotti 2
Tram 5, 14, 19 Bus 81, 412, n5, n543, nMC Prenestina/Gattamelata
Teatro Brancaccio
The Teatro Brancaccio on Via Merulana also hosts musical events.
Via Merulana 244 Bus 16, 75, 714
Amusement parks
In Rome and the surrounding area there are a few parks that offer a welcome change.
Luneur
The Luneur Park offers many rides. It is located in the south of the city in the EUR district on Via Cristoforo Colombo. The opening times in winter are irregular, mostly Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., in summer daily until midnight. On the Luneur website you can see the calendar with the opening days. Bus connections are lines 30, 170, 714 and 791, Colombo / Agricoltura stop. From there it is 750m to the entrance on Via delle Tre Fontane 100.
Cinecittà World
Cinecittà World is a theme park about cinema and television. It is located next to the Castel Romano outlet center on Via Pontina between Rome and Pomezia. A shuttle bus runs from the Termini main station. Tickets
Excursions around Rome
Rome has beautiful surroundings. The Romans go to the seaside or the mountains for a good meal on weekends.
The seafood restaurants by the sea are also well attended in the early spring. There is a rustic kitchen in the mountains that goes well with the cooler temperatures. When there is snow, the Romans ski in the nearby Appenines.
You can reach many destinations by public transport.
Excursions to the sea
If you want to see the sea, just go to Ostia Lido. A ticket for city traffic is sufficient for the journey and on the way you can visit the excavations of the old port city of Ostia Antica.
Excursions in the mountains
The most famous summer residence of the Romans in Castel Gandolfo. The popes spent the summer here at an altitude of around 400 m. Pope Francis, however, remains in Rome and the palace and gardens at Castel Gandolfo can be visited.
You can get to Castel Gandolfo by train from Roma Termini or from Ciampino with a 3-zone ticket. The train station is located on the volcanic hill between Lake Albano and the village.
Day trips
With the high-speed trains that are punctual to the minute, Florence and Naples are only around 1 ½ hours away. With our tips you can put together your own day tour or book an organized tour. Take a day to stroll around Florence and see the world famous Uffizi Gallery. Or visit the excavations in Pompeii and see Vesuvius, which is still active today and buried the city under its ashes.
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