Travel with Rick Steves · Saturday, August 8, 2026
For a 20-year-old student studying in Rome with ample free time, tour guides suggest visiting Ostia Antica, the ancient port of Rome, for a less crowded experience similar to Pompeii but closer. Alternatively, they recommend exploring the Testaccio neighborhood for its authentic feel and historic 'mountain' of broken amphorae.
“An adventure they should probably go out to Ostia Antica. So they could take the B line, the Metro line B to Piramide, change to a train, take a 30-minute train ride out to the ruins of old Rome. And it's not going to be crowded, so it's like seeing Pompeii but not really.”
“Well, uh, for drink, I would say in a hip area that in a kind of clubs, little bit where tourists could be comfortable? Well, I I would say that probably young people, they there are several parts of Rome that they are kind of interesting, but also Testaccio, Testaccio is one of the old part of Rome that I like because has a very deep sense of the neighborhood.”
“And that's where all the cheesy discotheques were built into the side of this mountain. So if she's 20 years old and she wants to hang out where the cheesiest Romans around and hear the cheesiest pickup lines, that's exactly where she should go.”