We went to Rome in December 07, supposed to be for eight days. It was cold, but not freezing. Some of the days were blue skies, but I mostly wore a beanie, jacket and scarf. We found by day 5 we'd done everything we wanted to do and were looking to travel elsewhere in Italy (but family circumstances brought us home early). We found that things are in close proximity, so you can knock over a few touristy things in the one day. We dedicated one entire day to the Vatican, and one to the Colosseum, but everything else fit into the other couple of days. Being winter, it's very quiet, so you can get around quicker without the crowds. I didn't recognise the Spanish Steps to begin with because there wasn't thousands of people sitting on them!

If you go to Rome, a tour of the Colosseum is a must - it's awesome to do it with a guide. The Sistine Chapel runs on short hours during winter, so if that's on your list of things to do, find out when it's actually open. We got there 15 minutes after the doors had closed for the day and we weren't able to return

We found it to be cold and dirty, but my mum went in summer and found it dirty too, so may not be just a winter thing. There are lots of homeless people and stray animals. The locals are friendly enough and willing to help and do well with English too (DH's background is Italian so we could communicate either way). We were caught off guard a couple of times with ordering dinners - the meals don't come with sides. If you were to order a parma for example, that's all that would be on your plate. A salad or vegies to go with it are regarded as extra dishes and charged accordingly. We stayed in a 3 star rated apartment, which fitted into our very small travel budget, was clean but had paper thin walls and the guy singing opera in the room next door at 3am got a bit much

I think if you were going for any longer than a week, I'd be inclined to get a car/rail pass and travel out to stay in the regions. We saw Venice and Florence and adored both, wishing we had spent a lot longer in Florence than we did in Rome.