DAX, I completely understand what you mean. I posted this on my Rome travel page on another board:
<i>What can I say about Rome? I so want to love it, but I just can't quite get there. I admire it and respect it but there is something that keeps me wanting to keep it at arm's distance. I picked up a book in my apt., left behind by a previous visitor and came upon this paragraph that eloquently describes my feelings:

&quot;I had been to Rome several times before, and never much liked it. Italy is without a doubt one of my favorite countries in the world, perhaps my single favorite, but I've always found Rome grimy, congested, and despondent. Beautiful, yes --- Michaelangelo's Campidoglio, St. Peter's, the Villa Borghese, the Via Veneto, are all striking in different ways, ancient, luxuriant, opulent--- but overwhelming, threatening.&quot; - Joseph Finder, Extraordinary Powers

Whatever you say about Rome, it's a tale of many cities; the ancient, the modern, the Catholic, the poluted, the protected, the laid back, and the hectic..... There's a Rome there for everyone.</i>

I think the answer may be in just letting the City happen around you. When you try to &quot;do Rome&quot; it's frustrating and impossible. After you've had enough trips to check all the boxes of things you must see, maybe you can just &quot;be in Rome&quot; and see if the experience is different.

If you like to read, check out &quot;Eat Pray Love&quot; by Elizabeth Gilbert. She spends 4 months in Rome, just being.

Thanks for the new tips, I should clarify that this is for a father &amp; son trip spending a week. I'll find the book suggested because that's what we do on our family trips anyway, just being there, no agenda just absorbing a place,

O Rome! My Country! City of the Soul!&quot;

So said the English poet George Lloyd Byron, and he knew whereof he spoke. Rome is everyone's country... everyone's City of the Soul.

There is an interesting book by a Roman born journalist, William Murray.The Title is : A Walk in Rome, City of the Soul.

Enjoy my beautiful city DAX..Ciao