Marchela Technically, it’s not my first time in Rome. I spent few hours in Rome few months ago. I didn’t have enough time to enjoy the city, so I set as a goal to go again and organize the trip on my own. I went through the most important section in Duolingo – il cibo (il chibo) which means the food. It really helped me to understand the menu and the waiters explaining the meals. In the areas closer to the center you can find restaurants with English menus and English speaking waiters, but you risk to lose the authentic experience of ordering food like a local. And the reason why I say this is because I noticed how the food around the center becomes more expensive and not as good as it is far from the center. I had the luck to try a Carbonara with burnt meat. I went to a restaurant near Termini which was really fancy and was recommended to me by others and indeed the pizza there wasn’t bad, but the pasta I ordered smelled like burnt and the meat tasted like burnt. I was trying to recall if my last Carbonara in Rome was like that and if this taste was intended. Later I understood it wasn’t intended, because my stomach got upset. Apart from that I enjoyed pretty much all the food in Rome. With the help of locals I discovered that there is an area named Pigneto which offers good food at a good price. It is also visited by tourists, but the menus are in Italian and not every waiter speaks English. The perfect place for practice ordering in Italian! What experience could be more authentic than this one? “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” 
What you should definitely try is aperitivo as you pay for the drink and the meal that goes with it replaces the dinner. However make sure to not underestimate the lunch, because it usually consists of an appetizer (antipasti), first course (primi) and second course (secondi), side dishes (contorni) and desserts (dolce).
It was an interesting experience to reach anywhere with the public transport. Getting to Pigneto by metro felt like clearing phases of a game. It was the same with crossing the streets in the center. You can see your life in a time lapse as nobody tries to slow down or stop. Hence you have to be brave and cross anyway or you will wait forever. Buying tickets for the bus/metro was just as confusing as it was back in Abruzzo area, so I ended up buying them in the ticket machines at the metro stations as they were valid for the buses as well. At the airport I bought my ticket for the bus at the ticket office inside the airport as there were no ticket machines outside. 
You can actually catch bus 720 or 520 from airport Ciampino to a metro station and then reach whatever is your destination and for a regular public transport ticket price of 1,50€. On the other hand it is fun to go around the city with a scooter/vespa, so if you have the chance and the courage you should go for it.
After this first time in Italy, I know what to focus on. I noticed that a lot of tourists do the itinerary Milan – Venice – Florence – Rome – Naples when they visit Italy for the first time. There are some interesting suggestions on what to visit for the first time here as well. Instead of this itinerary, I decided to plan 3 different itineraries – North (Bologna, Florence, Venice, Milan, lake Como, Turin), South (Bari, Naples, Cagliari, Palermo) and Central Italy (to be decided). These are just initial plans of course. There are a lot of itineraries in the internet, so you can have a look and decide which is the one that fits your time, budget and interests best.
