Christmas week itinerary.
Nov 13th, 2016, 03:58 PM
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Christmas week itinerary.
We will be arriving in Rome on Dec. 25th, staying in an apartment in Trastevere. Does this itinerary sound about right? Any additions to the days or suggestions would be appreciated!
Dec 25th: Arrive late morning, check in Janiculum hill to see the view, Jewish ghetto, on off bus.
Dec 26th Ancient Rome: Colosseum, Forum, Palatine. Bocca della verita, Victor Emmanuel monument, Capitoline hill and church.
Dec 27th: day trip into Tuscany/Umbria, with car rental
Dec 28th: We have Borghese tkts for 3-5pm. Before that Capuchin crypts, check out the park? Piazza del Popolo, Catacombs of Pricilla. We have to change apartments at 11 am this day.
Dec 29th: Tour of Vatican starting at 10 am. After visit East Rome? San Clemente, Dioclecian Baths and church, National museum.
Dec 30th: Appian way (should we rent bikes?) Crypts, aqueduct. Testaccio & market
Dec 31st: Ostia Antica (if things are open) and then back to nap before New Years festivities! Where to go?? Colosseum?
Jan 1st: Tivoli, if open.
Where do I put the Pantheon? Trevi Fountain, Spanish steps!
Thanks for reading,
Kris
Dec 25th: Arrive late morning, check in Janiculum hill to see the view, Jewish ghetto, on off bus.
Dec 26th Ancient Rome: Colosseum, Forum, Palatine. Bocca della verita, Victor Emmanuel monument, Capitoline hill and church.
Dec 27th: day trip into Tuscany/Umbria, with car rental
Dec 28th: We have Borghese tkts for 3-5pm. Before that Capuchin crypts, check out the park? Piazza del Popolo, Catacombs of Pricilla. We have to change apartments at 11 am this day.
Dec 29th: Tour of Vatican starting at 10 am. After visit East Rome? San Clemente, Dioclecian Baths and church, National museum.
Dec 30th: Appian way (should we rent bikes?) Crypts, aqueduct. Testaccio & market
Dec 31st: Ostia Antica (if things are open) and then back to nap before New Years festivities! Where to go?? Colosseum?
Jan 1st: Tivoli, if open.
Where do I put the Pantheon? Trevi Fountain, Spanish steps!
Thanks for reading,
Kris
Nov 13th, 2016, 04:41 PM
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Just wondering about the On-Off bus. Is that a private bus tour company? Will they be operating on Christmas Day?
I'm also not sure about the day-trip to Tuscany/Umbria via car. Will you have rented a car when you arrived? Or is that something you need to pick up? Remember that this is wintertime and that part of Italy will be quite cold (we were in Florence for New Year's a few years ago). So it's not as picturesque as other times of the year, and it's not as pleasant to stroll around because it is chilly. Rome is warmer since it's further south.
Dec 29th looks very busy - lots of museums. I can only take one museum a day.
I'm also not sure about the day-trip to Tuscany/Umbria via car. Will you have rented a car when you arrived? Or is that something you need to pick up? Remember that this is wintertime and that part of Italy will be quite cold (we were in Florence for New Year's a few years ago). So it's not as picturesque as other times of the year, and it's not as pleasant to stroll around because it is chilly. Rome is warmer since it's further south.
Dec 29th looks very busy - lots of museums. I can only take one museum a day.
Nov 14th, 2016, 04:24 AM
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@halfapair I was wondering the same thing about the on-off bus, guess we will have to see.
We would rent the car on the 27th, it's 36 degrees here today so I'm fine with cold and I'd love to see it in the summer but... We plan to go to Orvieto and Sienna and throw some coins in Trevi for another trip!
And true...may be to many museums, especially with 2 teenagers! Thanks for your reply!
@ ellenem, I hate that the days are short, but my husband swears he will not mind driving in the dark...I would hate it!
We would rent the car on the 27th, it's 36 degrees here today so I'm fine with cold and I'd love to see it in the summer but... We plan to go to Orvieto and Sienna and throw some coins in Trevi for another trip!
And true...may be to many museums, especially with 2 teenagers! Thanks for your reply!
@ ellenem, I hate that the days are short, but my husband swears he will not mind driving in the dark...I would hate it!
Nov 14th, 2016, 06:04 AM
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A one-day car rental will normally cost you the equivalent of a three-day rental. If you're fine with that OK, but personally seeing Orvieto and Siena in mid-winter by car wouldn't be worth it to me. I'd probably just take the train to Orvieto and/or Chiusi rather than drive.
Nov 14th, 2016, 06:49 AM
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The on-off buses in Rome are run by several different companies. None get very good reviews, perhaps through no fault of their own.
A good part of what tourists want to see in Rome is in narrow streets where buses can't go. To make things worse, about five years ago, the city greatly reduced the number of stops these buses could make in the center of Rome, as an anti-polution and traffic control measure. And to top it all, the best of the tour companies, the Open 110, was operated by the Rome transportation authority; their concession was revoked a few years ago because it had been granted to a friend of a friend without a competitive bid.
I suggest you avoid these tours, because you end up having to walk a lot, wait a long time for the next bus, and contend with broken headsets. In the winter, you probably wouldn't enjoy sitting in one of the open tops, and down below you can't see much, especially if the windows are fogged up.
I don't know if I'm unusual, but after visiting the Vatican Museums, which I've done four times, the only thing I want to do the rest of the day is take a nap. I find it extremely exhausting, between the crowds and the sheer size of the place. It does have some spectacular art. I highly recommend visiting the Egyptian and Etruscan sections, which are not included in all tours, even if you have to backtrack to do so.
The catacomb of Priscilla is perhaps my favorite. You can just show up and wait for a tour in English to begin. If you have to change apartments that day, I'm not sure you'd have time for all the rest. I'd give priority to the catacomb of Priscilla.
Tivoli is a town, so naturally it's open on January 1st. However, the Villa d'Este and the Villa Adriano, which is what most people want to visit there, are both closed that day.
In the past, some museums have had special openings on the 1st of January, but it's too early to know whether this will happen this year.
In Rome, here are a few things you could do on New Year's Day, apart from just taking a walk.
There's an annual display of traditional Christmas crèches from all over the world, which is open every day, including Christmas and New Year's Day, in the Bramante rooms, in Piazza del Popolo. It's called the "exhibit of 100 nativity scenes", but there are really closer to 200. This page in Italian describes it; you could paste the URL into translate.google.com to get a fairly good translation.
http://www.prolocoroma.it/mostra-100-presepi-roma/
You could see Piazza del Popolo and the park on New Year's Day also. There's a big bash in the piazza on New Year's Eve, so there may be broken glass all over.
The Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, built into the ruins of the Diocletian Baths, usually has a short organ concert on New Year's day, between the 10:30 mass, which ends at about 11:15, and the 12:00 mass. The organ is one of the best in Italy, so it's worth hearing it, if only for half an hour.
There's a New Year's Day concert of classical music at the Tempietto, at 5:15 PM. Their web page has their entire schedule, in Italian, but here is the description of this particular concert, which will at least show you the composers and their works.
<i> Concerti del Tempietto
FESTIVAL MUSICALE DELLE NAZIONI
Sala Baldini
Piazza Campitelli, 9 - Roma
Domenica 1° Gennaio 2017 ore 17.15
CONCERTO DI CAPODANNO
BOCCHERINI DVOŘÁK SCHUMANN BLOCH DEBUSSY
Matilde Michelozzi (violoncello)
Sergio Costa (pianoforte)
Musiche di L. Boccherini (Sonata n. 4 in La Maggiore); A. Dvořák (Waldesruhe – La calma del bosco B. 173); R. Schumann (Fantasiestücke Op. 73); E. Bloch (Prayer); C.Debussy (Sonata in Re Minore per violoncello e pianoforte L. 135)
</i>
At 8 PM, there's a concert of opera arias at the Church of St. Paul Within the Walls.
http://ivirtuosidelloperadiroma.com/...il-nuovo-anno/
A good part of what tourists want to see in Rome is in narrow streets where buses can't go. To make things worse, about five years ago, the city greatly reduced the number of stops these buses could make in the center of Rome, as an anti-polution and traffic control measure. And to top it all, the best of the tour companies, the Open 110, was operated by the Rome transportation authority; their concession was revoked a few years ago because it had been granted to a friend of a friend without a competitive bid.
I suggest you avoid these tours, because you end up having to walk a lot, wait a long time for the next bus, and contend with broken headsets. In the winter, you probably wouldn't enjoy sitting in one of the open tops, and down below you can't see much, especially if the windows are fogged up.
I don't know if I'm unusual, but after visiting the Vatican Museums, which I've done four times, the only thing I want to do the rest of the day is take a nap. I find it extremely exhausting, between the crowds and the sheer size of the place. It does have some spectacular art. I highly recommend visiting the Egyptian and Etruscan sections, which are not included in all tours, even if you have to backtrack to do so.
The catacomb of Priscilla is perhaps my favorite. You can just show up and wait for a tour in English to begin. If you have to change apartments that day, I'm not sure you'd have time for all the rest. I'd give priority to the catacomb of Priscilla.
Tivoli is a town, so naturally it's open on January 1st. However, the Villa d'Este and the Villa Adriano, which is what most people want to visit there, are both closed that day.
In the past, some museums have had special openings on the 1st of January, but it's too early to know whether this will happen this year.
In Rome, here are a few things you could do on New Year's Day, apart from just taking a walk.
There's an annual display of traditional Christmas crèches from all over the world, which is open every day, including Christmas and New Year's Day, in the Bramante rooms, in Piazza del Popolo. It's called the "exhibit of 100 nativity scenes", but there are really closer to 200. This page in Italian describes it; you could paste the URL into translate.google.com to get a fairly good translation.
http://www.prolocoroma.it/mostra-100-presepi-roma/
You could see Piazza del Popolo and the park on New Year's Day also. There's a big bash in the piazza on New Year's Eve, so there may be broken glass all over.
The Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri, built into the ruins of the Diocletian Baths, usually has a short organ concert on New Year's day, between the 10:30 mass, which ends at about 11:15, and the 12:00 mass. The organ is one of the best in Italy, so it's worth hearing it, if only for half an hour.
There's a New Year's Day concert of classical music at the Tempietto, at 5:15 PM. Their web page has their entire schedule, in Italian, but here is the description of this particular concert, which will at least show you the composers and their works.
<i> Concerti del Tempietto
FESTIVAL MUSICALE DELLE NAZIONI
Sala Baldini
Piazza Campitelli, 9 - Roma
Domenica 1° Gennaio 2017 ore 17.15
CONCERTO DI CAPODANNO
BOCCHERINI DVOŘÁK SCHUMANN BLOCH DEBUSSY
Matilde Michelozzi (violoncello)
Sergio Costa (pianoforte)
Musiche di L. Boccherini (Sonata n. 4 in La Maggiore); A. Dvořák (Waldesruhe – La calma del bosco B. 173); R. Schumann (Fantasiestücke Op. 73); E. Bloch (Prayer); C.Debussy (Sonata in Re Minore per violoncello e pianoforte L. 135)
</i>
At 8 PM, there's a concert of opera arias at the Church of St. Paul Within the Walls.
http://ivirtuosidelloperadiroma.com/...il-nuovo-anno/
Nov 17th, 2016, 08:31 AM
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Great advice! Thank you so much for the in-depth recommendations @bvlenci!
We were only thinking of the HOHO bus on the first day due to jet lag...would probably fall asleep on it!
Ok so... Vatican city- take the day and a nap!
The New Year eve advice is great, thanks so much!
We were only thinking of the HOHO bus on the first day due to jet lag...would probably fall asleep on it!
Ok so... Vatican city- take the day and a nap!
The New Year eve advice is great, thanks so much!
