CityGuy

We are a family of four, with 2 teenage boys, visiting Rome for 4 days in October 2015. Our tentative itinerary for the 4 days are:
Day 1: Ancient Rome
Day 2: Vatican Area
Day 3: Train ride to Naples + Pompeii
Day 4: To be determined

Are apartments safe and comfortable? We appreciate recommendations for our stay - in terms of location.

Thanks.

CityGuy

Our family is thinking about another Day trip. Venice or Florence. A fast train to Venice is 3.5 hours. And looks like people have done that day trip and are happy about it.

Any thoughts Venice or Florence ?

cornishannie

Any thoughts Venice or Florence>>

yes, not Venice. you will get the worst of the day, doing a day trip, just trippers like yourselves and 7 hours in a train is hardly fun.

Florence is a better idea, lots of fast trains and the station is very close to the centre of the city. Better still, IMO is Orvieto - about an hour on the train, a wonderful little city with the most lovely Cathedral and lots of nice shops and restaurants. Ideal for a day trip.

I would in any event suggest just one day trip in a 4 day visit to Rome - you won't have begun to scratch the surface of what the Eternal City has to offer in that time. Naples and Pompeii is another long day - lots of sitting in trains for your restless teens.

apartments are generally very safe though 5 nights is quite a short time to rent one, but if you don't mind not having the series of a front desk, why not? On our first trip to Rome, one of the highlights of the trip for our then 14 year old son was going out in the morning, by himself after the first day, to but our morning pastries from the nearby bakery. He had no italian and the assistants didn't speak english, but somehow he did it, and loved it as much as seeing the Colosseum.

Elizabeth_S

How many nights is your stay? Is Day 1 also the arrival day? Not much time for Rome if you do Naples and another day trip.

We stay at apartments all the time and prefer them. Renting from reputable organizations is fine. But if your stay is only 3 or 4 nights you might find a hotel more convenient.

Here's a link to a nice looking 2 bedroom apartment that another Fodorite recently booked.

Re location - if it's your first visit I think it's best to stay in the obvious Historic Centre area - easy walking distance to most sites.

http://www.booking.com/hotel/it/casa...al&type=total&

nytraveler

Even if you have 4 full days (versus 3.5 days) in Rome I think 2 days trips is too much. And Venice is definitely too far for a day trip - at least 7 hours on the train and then 8 hours or more including getting to and from train stations, getting ticket, etc.

Pompeii, thought I adore it, is a very long day trip as well and if you are going in the summer (I don't see trip timing) it's unbearable hot with no shade. You might consider Ostia Antica ruins instead - less than an hour from Rome and might be enough for you (hard to tell since we don;t know your interests).

You could easily spend a week in Rome and only begin to scratch the surface - so confining yourself to only 2 - or 1.5 days - is really giving it short shrift.

As for apt or hotel - depends on if you are comfortable with not support on a first trip. I always think a first trip is better in a hotel even for people who rent apts (we alway do hotels since we want full services). Definitely stick to the historic center for a first visit.

Also I don;t see how old kids are. You should suggest they get a copy of Let's Go Europe to see what student reco for the city - esp if they are going out in the evening.

ms_go

Not sure whether it fits your budget, but we have stayed at Palazzo Olivia, which has apartment accommodations and many of the reception services of a hotel. We thought the location, just off Piazza Navona, was excellent.

http://www.palazzo-olivia.it

CityGuy

Thanks for the great suggestions. We arrive on Day 1 in the morning. We have 4 nights, and leaving to Athens on the 5th morning.

Using TripAdvisor and HomeAway we were able to identify a vacation rental just near the Trevi Fountain (less than a few minutes walk). We have not finalized the stay yet.

Based on your suggestion we probably will skip Venice, and just might stay in Rome or do the Florence trip.

Rome is not our final destination, just a stopover. Our entire trip is about 21 days, so we wanted a place where we could wash our clothes and hopefully get a different experience than the hotels. We are staying in a resort in Thessaloniki for 13 nights, so we thought a rental would be a nice change.

Merlin22

Apartments in Rome are usualy very comfortable. This city is set up for tourists so most of Hotels offers a high quality sleep and eat conditions.

CityGuy

Thanks again.

I went to HomeAway to select an apartment; and I got a reply from bookmyplace.com. It looks lie BookingManager.com will handle the payments.

Before I go through with them, has anybody worked with these people? I hear there are lots of scams with vacation rentals.

Seamus

This summer we had a wonderful stay - with two teenage boys - in this place https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/6462201
Loads of room, all modern conveniences, clean as a whistle and lovely owner. Each by had their own room, we took the master with en suite and they shared the other bathroom. Location was great - literally in view of the Vatican walls, close to metro stop, neighborhood conveniences. Highly recommend it.