Rome
The ruins are free to walk past at any hour; the queues are only for the ones you walk into.
Skip the centro storico for dinner and walk ten minutes into Ostiense or Testaccio instead — same city, half the markup, and the trattorie there are cooking for neighbours, not tour groups.
Logged in Rome
Baths of Caracalla
Rome, ItalyThe colossal ruins of Rome's imperial bathing complex, marble halls bigger than most basilicas, open to the sky.
Trattoria Pennestri
Rome, ItalyA modern Roman trattoria on the quiet Ostiense edge, doing gricia and pajata far from the tourist crowd.
Mentioned in
Bacareto da Lele
Venice, ItalyA student-favourite bacaro near Piazzale Roma, selling cheap ombre and simple panini standing up.
Baths of Caracalla
Rome, ItalyThe colossal ruins of Rome's imperial bathing complex, marble halls bigger than most basilicas, open to the sky.
Trattoria Pennestri
Rome, ItalyA modern Roman trattoria on the quiet Ostiense edge, doing gricia and pajata far from the tourist crowd.
Mexico City
Too large to see in one trip, so most people pick a neighborhood and live in it for a few days.
Milan
A working fashion-and-finance city that treats lunch as sacred and tourists mostly as an afterthought.