Ann, the young princess of an unnamed European country, is on an official visit to Rome and is tired of her duties. One night she slips out of her embassy and wakes up in the flat of Joe Bradley, an American reporter. Joe realises who she is and, with his photographer friend Irving, spends a secret day with her around the city to get an exclusive story, but they fall in love. William Wyler shot it entirely in Rome, with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck.
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Roman Holiday follows Ann, a young princess who runs away from her embassy for one day, and Joe, an American reporter who shows her Rome while secretly planning to sell her story. It was all shot on the real streets of Rome in 1952, and almost every place is still there. Start at the Mouth of Truth, where Joe pretends to lose his hand, and the Theatre of Marcellus the Vespa passes on the way.
The rest fits in two walks. In the north: Via Margutta 51, Joe's flat, the Spanish Steps of the gelato, the Trevi Fountain and the barber's shop round the corner, then Palazzo Barberini, the embassy, and Piazza della Repubblica, where Ann's escape begins. In the centre: the Pantheon café, Piazza Venezia, the Roman Forum where Joe finds her asleep, the Colosseum, Palazzo Colonna for the final press conference, and Castel Sant'Angelo at dusk for the dance on the river.
Check before you go: Palazzo Colonna opens only a few days a week, the Colosseum and Forum need timed tickets, and Via Margutta 51 is a private courtyard. Sitting on the Spanish Steps is now forbidden. Seven years later Fellini filmed La Dolce Vita at the same Trevi Fountain.
14 filming locations.
A real filming location. Under the porch of the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Joe tells Ann that this old stone face bites off the hand of anyone who lies. He puts his own hand in and pulls it back hidden in his sleeve: Audrey Hepburn had not been warned, so her scream is real.
Access · In the porch of a working church. Entry is usually free and there is often a queue for photos. Check opening times before you go.
A real filming location. Ann, free for the first time, walks around in her new short haircut and eats a gelato on the Spanish Steps. Joe 'happens' to meet her there and offers to show her Rome for the day.
Access · Public steps, free at any time. Sitting and eating on the steps is now forbidden and fined, so take your gelato photo nearby.
A real filming location. On her morning of freedom Ann wanders past the fountain, watching ordinary Romans go about their day, before spotting the barber's shop around the corner. Joe, following her, tries to borrow a schoolgirl's camera here.
Access · The square is free. The area in front of the basin needs a €2 ticket for non-residents (since 2 February 2026): 09:00 to 22:00, from 11:30 on Mondays and Fridays, free after 22:00. Rome residents, children under 6 and disabled visitors with a companion go in free. Tickets online at fontanaditrevi.roma.it or at the entrance. Bathing in the fountain is forbidden and fined. Check the times before you go.
A real filming location. Ann walks into a small barber's shop and asks Mario, the barber, to cut her long hair short. He invites her to a dance on the river that evening. The shop is gone and the space now sells leather goods.
Access · A private shop today: look from the street.
A real filming location. Joe finds Ann half asleep in the street and, not knowing who she is, lets her sleep in his small flat, reached through the leafy courtyard of number 51. She leaves the next morning, and he races after her.
Access · Private residential courtyard: look from the gate and keep your voice down.
A real filming location. In the evening Ann goes to the dance on the barges moored on the Tiber below the castle. Secret agents from her embassy arrive to take her back, a brawl breaks out, and Ann and Joe escape by jumping into the river. Wet on the bank, they kiss for the first time.
Access · The riverbank is public. The castle is a museum with a ticket: check opening times before you go.
A real filming location. The ending. Back in her role, Princess Ann meets the press in the great gallery of this palace and recognises Joe and Irving among the journalists. They give her the photos of their day together, and will never publish them. Joe stays behind alone in the empty hall.
Access · Private palace: the gallery is open to the public only on Friday morning (guided visits from 09:30) and Saturday morning (09:15 to 13:15, last entry), with a ticket. On other days only private visits booked in advance. Check before you go.
A real filming location. During their Vespa tour Joe and Ann, with Irving taking secret photos, stop at the Colosseum. It also appears in the opening newsreel of the princess's tour of Europe.
Access · The outside is free at any time. Inside you need a timed ticket, best booked ahead. Check before you go.
A real filming location. After escaping the embassy, Ann, sleepy from the sedative her doctor gave her, lies down on a low wall above the Forum, near the Arch of Septimius Severus. Joe, walking home from a card game, finds her there. The road of the film has since changed, but the view of the ruins is the same.
Access · The viewpoints from the street are free. The Forum itself has a ticket, often combined with the Colosseum. Check before you go.
A real filming location. Joe takes Ann to a pavement café facing the Pantheon. Irving joins them, and Ann has her first glass of champagne while Irving secretly photographs her with a camera hidden in a cigarette lighter. The café, Caffè Rocca, has closed and the space is now a shop.
Access · Public square, free at any time. The Pantheon itself has a ticket: check before you go.
A real filming location. The outside of the embassy where Ann is staying, the place she escapes from at night and returns to in the end, with Joe watching from the street. Only the exterior was used. Today the palace is a museum of old master paintings.
Access · The museum has a ticket; the garden and the front can often be seen from the entrance. Check before you go.
A real filming location. Ann takes the handlebars of Joe's Vespa and zigzags wildly through the traffic around the square, below the huge white monument to King Victor Emmanuel II, while Irving follows by car. The chaos ends at a police station.
Access · Public square, free at any time; the traffic is heavy, so cross only at the lights.
A real filming location. Joe and Ann ride the Vespa past this ancient Roman theatre, with its rows of arches, between the café at the Pantheon and the Mouth of Truth. At first glance many people take it for a small Colosseum.
Access · The outside and the walkway around it are free. Concerts are held in the area in summer: check before you go.
A real filming location. Ann escapes the embassy by hiding in the back of a delivery truck. When it stops in this large round square, by the Fountain of the Naiads, she climbs out alone into the Roman night.
Access · Public square, free at any time.
Yes.
The Bocca della Verità is in the porch of the church of Santa Maria in Cosmedin; entry is usually free and there is often a queue for photos.
For the area in front of the basin, yes: 2 euros for non-residents since February 2026, from 09:00 to 22:00, free after 22:00.
The square around the Trevi Fountain is free.
Yes, but rarely.
The gallery of Palazzo Colonna opens to the public only on Friday and Saturday mornings, with a ticket.
No.
Via Margutta 51 is a private courtyard: look from the gate and keep your voice down.
Tap a number to see the place and get directions in Maps.
The dance on the barges and the jump into the Tiber
Walk ~5 min
Ann's day in Rome on foot: from the Mouth of Truth to Via Margutta
The princess's day of freedom, from the stone face to Joe's courtyard: the Vespa square, the café at the Pantheon, the fountain, the haircut and the gelato on the steps.
Eating on the Spanish Steps is now fined: take your gelato photo nearby, not sitting on the steps.
On a phone, Google Maps opens at most 5 places at a time.
Joe's joke at the Mouth of Truth
Walk ~13 min
The Vespa ride through the traffic
Walk ~9 min
At the café with Irving (the lighter camera)
Walk ~7 min
Walk ~5 min
Ann's walk past the fountain
Walk ~5 min
Ann's haircut
Walk ~8 min
Ann's gelato on the steps
Walk ~5 min
Ann wakes up at Joe's
Walk ~12 min
The Vespa tour (the Colosseum)
Walk ~5 min
suggested place, not bookedItalian€€nearby
✓ Listed as gluten-free (OpenStreetMap)
Walk ~15 min
Joe finds Ann asleep
Walk ~6 min
The Vespa ride (past the ancient theatre)
Walk ~5 min
Walk ~5 min
Estimated return 17:30 · add yours in Trip preferences
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Hotel3 nights × €180 · 1 room€540
Lunches and dinners2 people€360
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Roman cooking since 1961 beside the Pantheon, a walk from Palazzo di Giustizia in House of Gucci
trattoria€€
Salita de' Crescenzi 31, 00186 Roma
Mediterranean bistro with an oyster bar, open all day between the Trevi Fountain and Via del Corso
bistro€€
Via delle Muratte 23, 00187 Roma
Family-run Roman trattoria in a lane three minutes from the Trevi Fountain, where Ann wanders in Roman Holiday
trattoria€€
Vicolo Scanderbeg 112, 00187 Roma
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We always say if it is:
Production · film commissions · tourist boards · guides
We always say if it is:
