The best rooftop bars in Rome: 13 terraces with a view

Why the rooftops matter here

Rome is a low city. There are no towers to speak of, so a sixth-floor terrace is enough to put the whole skyline at your feet — domes, umbrella pines, the Colosseum catching the last of the light. The rooftop bar is not a gimmick here; it is the only way to see the shape of the city you have been walking through all day.

Above the Colosseum

The terraces around Monti and Colle Oppio look straight at the amphitheatre. Arrive an hour before sunset: the travertine turns from grey to honey to rose, and the crowds below thin out as the site closes. Some of the hotels here open their pool decks for an aperitivo, which is as close as Rome gets to a rooftop pool with a two-thousand-year-old view.

Around Piazza Navona and the centro storico

The rooftops here are lower and more intimate, hemmed in by the ochre facades of the old city. What you get is not a panorama but a texture: tiled roofs, laundry, bell towers, and the dome of St Peter’s floating beyond them. Best just after dusk, when the lights come on.

How to do it right

Book. The good terraces fill up on a warm evening, and turning up at eight without a reservation usually means the bar rail rather than a table by the parapet. Aperitivo hour runs roughly from six to eight — you order a drink and something to eat arrives alongside it. Dress code is smart-casual almost everywhere; nobody will turn you away in trainers, but you will feel it.

The rooftop bars, one by one

Thirteen terraces worth the lift ride, with the hotel they sit on and the view they buy you. All of them are mapped, with opening hours and directions, inside the app.