Walking Home Along the River

Cormac Delaney · 30 June 2026

The best half hour of a Roman evening is usually the one after everything has closed.

The Route

Down onto the embankment below the traffic, and the noise of the city goes with the road above you. The path runs for miles and is almost empty after midnight.

It is also the only place in the centre where you get any distance from a building, which changes how the whole city looks.

In Summer

There are bars and stalls along the banks through the warm months, temporary and slightly ramshackle, and they run later than most things in the city.

It is not the best food in Rome and that is not the point of it.

The Bridges

Cross by a different bridge each night. It is the cheapest possible way to see the city change, and Ponte Sisto at one in the morning is worth more than most paid attractions.

None of this needs planning, which is the argument for it. Rome is a walking city and the evening is when it is coolest and least crowded.

In Winter

The stalls are gone and the embankment is empty and slightly bleak, which is its own thing. The river runs high and fast after rain and the noise of it replaces the noise of the bars.

Fewer people do this in January, which is most of the argument for doing it.