Don’t go, if you can help it. Rome, from the perspective of a visitor in 2025, spirals viciously with reinforcing cycles of increasing tourists and increasing attractions for tourists and increasing tourists…
Which might be inevitable. The sheer volume of masterpieces in the Vatican museum alone is staggering; in a single day not only can you not hope to see it all, your brain is oversaturated well before reaching the Sistine Chapel. Everyone walks past a room with a handful of Dali paintings without noticing; the mind has no room for them.
The Pantheon is breathtaking in its architectural beauty. The palimpsest excesses of decoration over the centuries only slightly tarnish the perfection of the design. It hurts to tell you not to see it.
I was there in October and still there were hordes of tourists. I shudder to think what more crowds combined with the oppressive heat of summer feels like. Even the Colosseum struggles to compete for your attention.
Perhaps one, or two days. Skip Campo de’ Fiori. Skip Piazza Navona. Then go to another town where you’ll experience actual Italy; not an English-speaking series of trinkets and tours and consumer opportunities.