Rome Itinerary

Old Oct 26th, 2015, 05:04 PM
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Rome Itinerary

My fiancé and I will be spending 4 days/3 nights in Rome on our honeymoon. Here is our preliminary itinerary. Please give any advice to us as it is our first time in Italy.

Day 1 - Arrive and check in hotel. Self guided walking tour of Castel Sant'Angelo, Piazza Navona, Pantheon, and Campo de'Fiori

Day 2 - Vatican museums, st peter's, sistene chapel

Day 3 - Self guided walking tour starting at the Spanish Steps and walking to Trevi fountain, Campidoglio Square, Roman Forum, Colosseum, Paletine Hill

Day 4 - Leave mid morning by train to Florence or Naples.

Is Day 3 too crowded? Can we squeeze any of it in any other day?
solectod is offline  
Old Oct 26th, 2015, 05:34 PM
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When are you going? For example, if any time soon, this is how Trevi fountain look like right now: no water. https://www.skylinewebcams.com/en/we...-di-trevi.html

The first order is whether you want to start your trip in Rome. This might sound odd, but I can't tell you how many other guests I talked to last month in Italy who started their trips in Rome, but returning home from Venice, and realizing that their return home flights from Venice were super early and they had not figure out how to get to the airport on time.

Day 1. Depending on when you arrive, you room might not be ready to check-in. Either do the walk with clothes you are wearing or have something chosen and handy to jump into hotel restroom to get changed. If you are staying on the right side of Tiber river, Castel Sant'Angelo is practically next door to the Vaticans. Campo de' Fiori is better visited late morning to lunch time. Piazza Navona is perhaps prettier at night.

Day 2. Unless you are signing up to take a guided tour of the Vaticans, the order you want is St. Peters Basilica (enter well before 9am to not get stuck behind ginormous security line), then Vatican Museum with reservation time secured before hand. The Sistine Chapel is inside the Vatican Museum. When you see ticket purchase line snaking around the museum, you will be glad you already have a ticket. There are annoying ticket hawkers trying to entice you to purchase overpriced entry tickets. In all the time I have visited, I have always been able to enter well before the reservation time. You will not avoid crowds.
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Old Oct 26th, 2015, 06:00 PM
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We did a similar itinerary for our three days in Rome. Will you be doing guided tours?

Ours looked a little like this:
Day 1 - colosseum and roman forum - late in the afternoon as our flight landed around noon and we needed to get settled
evening exploration of campo de'fiori and a great dinner

Day 2 - GUIDED tour of vatican. we signed up for one through viator, cabbed to the meeting spot (it started early) and went through the museum, sistine chapel and the basilica, finished by lunch. There is a lovely mercato around there that is open until 2pm, then you can wander the streets back. This afternoon would be a good time to fill in something extra - we enjoyed walking back through the shopping streets.

Day 3 was Pantheon en route to the Borghese Gallery and gardens, and trevi fountain (under construction) and spanish steps in the evening.

Once you get the hang of the streets and maps you will find that getting around isn't too hard. I think you have a perfect amount of things to see and do.

I haven't been to Florence, but we were not fans of Naples.
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Old Oct 26th, 2015, 07:42 PM
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You are starting your visit at the right place. Castel st. Angelo is one of the few places I found in Rome where you can see the whole city. Go up on the roof and take 15 minutes to turn 360 degrees and study the city. From that vantage point, and with a map in hand, you can see many of the key attractions of the city. This will give you and excellent idea of where everything is in relation to the Tiber river and you will have a "sense" of the city for the next 3 days.

One thing: I think that Monday is the busy day at the Vatican museums as most others are closed on Monday.

Otherwise, your plan is not crowded. Central Rome is a small area which is easily walked and which is well serviced by buses.
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Old Oct 26th, 2015, 07:52 PM
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Castel Sant Angelo's roof terrace is certainly worth visiting but just bear in mind it costs 11 euro - a fairly hefty admission fee for views. They also have an assortment of displays that are temporary, you can take the walkway down to the resting place of Hadrian's ashes and walk along the parapet.
If you also want views of the whole city then attempt the climb of St. Peter's cupola. That is 7 euro for an elevator that takes you half way up and then stairs the rest of the way.
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Old Oct 26th, 2015, 08:49 PM
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Day 3. You might want to reverse the order so as not to get tired before hitting the Palatine hill. Start from furthest away, presuming you are staying in the center, by starting from Colosseum, then Palatine Hill, then the Forum, then Campidoglio to visit the Capitoline Museums consisting of Palazzo dei Conservatori (the main exhibit area), Tabernum, and Palazzo Nuovo (smaller exhibits in other side of Campidogio connected by underground passage. Tabernum is not to be missed for the best view of the Forum. Tabernum looks like an nondescript passage off the corridor between the Palazzo di Conservatori and Palazzo Nuovo. You can see the high altitude view of the Forum from the two observation decks at top of the Palatine hill, but the view from the Tabernum shows the depth of the Forum better.

By this time, you might be exhausted, so you might want to do Spanish Steps and Trevi fountain later, and neither takes much time. This is possible since both are always open. This is not the case for the Palatine hill. If you get exhausted by the time you get to Colosseum, you must push on.

The Colosseum offers several tours. One interesting one is the Underground tour, which you need to book months in advance during the high season. Normal entrance gets you to the ground=1st level, and the second level. The underground tour let you visit the underground area, a restricted area on 1st level, plus the locked 3rd level of the Colosseum. http://www.coopculture.it/en/colosseo-e-shop.cfm.

If you are staying in the center, you would naturally pass in front of Pantheon during your stay and you would probably have no need to schedule a special trek for that purpose. If you connect Trevi to Piazza Navona, you will pass Patheon. Pantheon closes at night.

The elevator at St. Peters is 8EU, by the way. If you plan to go up, you really should start St. Peters as early as practical. I have visited the cupola top in 2013 and again last month. What a difference two years made. It is now choking full of selfie stick toting tourists. When you enter St. Peters, the right entrance is hand rail blocked separately from the center and left entrances. The right entrance is only for the cupola. The center and left are for the basilica. Both get increasing crowded after 9am. By 11am, the entrance look like a major city subway station - sea of humanity heading into the basilica.

As you hop onto train, likely at Termini, to Florence, stop and look at a nondescript wall at the front of Termini station. It is the best preserved section of Rome's first defense wall, the Servian Wall from the 4th century BC. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servian_Wall. The taller wall you saw coming into the city from the airport is the Aurelian Wall https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurelian_Walls from the 3rd century A.D.
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Old Oct 26th, 2015, 09:34 PM
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Dear,

Hope this message finds you at your best.

Important # Free entrance to the Vatican Museum on the last Sunday of the month and the door closes at 12.30 PM.

Things and sights to see in Rome Every thing is at a walking distance... 3 Day Pass - Only buy when and if you want to enter to all the museums.

There is a way to start and end the day.

Day 1. All walking distance (early morning) 1. Colosseum (free entrance on the first sunday of the month) 2. Foro Romano and the Palatine 3. Piazza Venezia 4. Campodolio 5. Theater Marchello 6. Buuka Di Verita (the mouth of truth) 7.Crico Maximo 8. Key hole of Malta9. Therme Di CARACALLA. End the day by relaxing at the Circo Masximo and the surrounding hills.

Day 2. all walking distance 1.Vatican Museums 2.Vatican St. Peter's Church 3. Castel St. Angelo (Day & Night) 4 .Piazza Navona 5. Piazza Pantheon # Don't forget to have gelato from Golitti. 6. Parliament 7.Fontana Di Trevi 8.Spanish Steps 9.Piazza Popolo And end Day 2 relaxing at Villa Borgese.

Day 3 @ 7 Euro bus ticket 1.Piazza Barberini 2. The Cappucine Monks Church ( thousands skeletons on the walls) 3. Piazza Republica + Teresa Church of the martyrs. 4.Therme ( Right in front of Piazza Republica) 5.Santa Maria Maggiore 6.San Giovani church 7.Papal Museum. 8. Catacombs of Castalli 9. St. Paulo Church (2ND after St. Peters) Take an evening walk in Trestevere and the surrounding area.

Day 4 Tivoli (2 VILLAS Ancient) , 1/2 Day.

Please don't forget to take a night tour of the main monuments.

This my own experience...... may be this might HELP you? You can see these in 3 days if you are fast enough.

# V.Important- Keep every thing safe when near Station Termini,Metros and buses.

let me know if you want any other information.

Read my profile.

If you are in front of St. Peters Baslica between 9am and 4 pm, Let me know.

3891667145

Yours Truly.
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Old Oct 27th, 2015, 01:09 AM
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"The first order is whether you want to start your trip in Rome. This might sound odd, but I can't tell you how many other guests I talked to last month in Italy who started their trips in Rome, but returning home from Venice, and realizing that their return home flights from Venice were super early and they had not figure out how to get to the airport on time."

I wish we had sticky posts here or that greg could start a thread with a subject line something like "Why You Shouldn't Fly Home from Provincial Cities".

This may be the best travel advice you will ever get.
Ackislander is offline  
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