February was a perfect time to explore the city. It was in the high 50s or even 60 degrees most days. Some days we didn’t even need coats as long as we had a sweatshirt or sweater on. The crowds were only really bad at the really famous sights, but we alleviated that as best we could by booking the earliest entry tickets we could get. Usually 8am. We had a great Airbnb right near the Tiber River across from Castel San Angelo in a quiet area with fun alleyways to explore along with plenty of shops, gelato and cafes. Walking distance to pizza navona, Vatican City, the Pantheon, Spanish steps, trevi fountain, as well as a taxi stand to take us anywhere else we couldn’t walk to. Prices were very reasonable for eating and sightseeing. Roman cuisine is excellent. The pastas. The organ meats. Cheap wine (10 euro for a liter of house wine).
I visited Rome 25 years ago after college and I loved it even more the 2nd time as did my wife and kids who were on their first visit. A week was enough for us, we did heavy sightseeing in the mornings, then would break for lunch and head back to apartment to relax before an afternoon walk to get gelato of do some light sightseeing. You could certainly do everything in say, 3 days, but we didn’t want such a grueling pace. We did take a separate day trip to Pompeii and Naples one day. I will post photos of that separately.