5 days in Rome
 

My husband & I will be in Rome from Sunday 8th July to 12th July. Has any one got an idea about itineries for each day. Want to see as much as possible without being too much. Definitely want to see the Vatican City, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain. We are staying at Eco Hotel. Also what should be pre-booked and through which company?
Hoping you can help us make the most of our Roman holiday.
Thanks Deborah

Get Top 10 Rome, a pocket-sized book which will offer you plenty of ideas for things to do each day. It will be warm and crowded in July, which may impact your tolerance for activities. I would suggest that you pre-book Vatican Museums/Sistine/St, Peters, preferably with a small group tour company, e.g., Rome Walks or Context, or with the Vatican directly. If you like Renaissance art in general, then Borghessi [sp] Gallery would be something else to prebook. You can google all of the above suggestions.

The Eco Hotel is far from Rome.

I would begin by going to the Destinations section here on Fodors.com, and reading about Rome. There are several itineraries suggested in most guide books, and lots of Rome information contained here on the Forums in various trip reports.

However, the Eco Hotel's website is extremely misleading. It says "minutes" from the Vatican, which I guess can be construed as true, if you maybe count hundreds of minutes as "minutes."

The two things that you should book in advance - since getting in may be difficult otherwise - and they should both be booked direct with the venue - are the Scavi at the Vatican and the Borghese Museum (both of which will give specific times).

Other than that I would leave things loose and tour based on what you feel like each day - based on how late you have been out the night before and wether.

You should figure on devoting one day to the VAtican - including the museum (Sistine Chapel), St Paul.s, Treasury, Dome, Scavi and Castel Sant Angelo.

Figure on devoting another day to major Roman sights - Colloseeum, Forum and Capitoline Museum.

Then you will have plenty of time left to see Renaissance Rome, tour the piazzas and fountains (esp nice to ealk home through them after a nice dinner).
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Three places I especially like:

The Pantheon and sitting in one of the cafes in the piazza in front of it having a drink and munchie in late afternoon and watching the world go by

Visiting San Clemente church, where you can descent through the levels of multiple different churches to the Temple of Mithras at the bottom (god of the Roman army)

Visit the Vill Giulia - which has incredible exhibits of Etruscan artifacts and household goods

If you have a special interest in art or architecture, I can make some additional suggestions to the excellent ones that nytraveler offers above.

You are wise not to overplan. It will be hot and crowded. For some sites like the Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain, the earlier you get out, the better. They get very, very crowded by 10 AM. Those two are within easy walking distance of each other.

Five days is a good amount of time to spend on this kind of trip, esp if you are going on afterwards to somewhere that you can relax. You will be tired but not whipped at the end.

Be sure to search for posts on here about clothing at the Vatican. Despite the hot weather, you will have to be fairly covered up.

You can see what we did with our 6 full days (albeit in October not July). Additional suggestions in my trip report.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...log-photos.cfm

All I know is our first trip to Rome we planned 6 days and ended up spending the entire 3 weeks there. So map out exactly what is important to you. I agree about prebooking the Vatican and Villa BOrgheses.

If you want, go to my website. Go to the LIBRARY area. You can download my free printable tour guide and MP3 audio guide. These have 6 tours, approximately 1/2 day each. In addition you'll find official travel brochures and mroe. Look on the GoogleMaps area for info on both the itineraries and the locations of about 50+ churches in Rome.

www.passagetoroma.com

dave

bmk

If you want to visit some of the more off-the-beaten-path places, I recommend the new MAXXI Museum, which was designed by Zaha Hadid, as well as Renzo Piano's Parco della Musica. They are within walking distance of each other, and can be reached by bus or taxi from the city center.

If you're in Rome on a Friday night do "Vatican Museums Under the Stars and avoid all the crowds. Tickets available online later in the Spring.

Assume you've looked at Trip Advisor re: Eco Hotel ??
Yes, it does get positive reviews, BUT do be aware of location .... it's outside city center. And when they say "minutes away" from Vatican, that's minutes away when taking the bus ..... NOT walking.

With that hotel, Vatican City - Trevi Fountain - Spanish Steps already IS your program for five days; if you get up early, that is :)

Plug in Rome in this Forum category for another fodorite listing new Rome sights opening in 2012.

jan - would you care to translate?

i didn't quite get your drift.

Hi annhig. I think she meant this:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ttractions.cfm

thanks, indydad. not sure I'd have got that on my own!

The Scavi tour was amazing. We started the day with the Scavi, then did St. Peter's and the coupola, last the Vatican Museums with the Sistine Chapel, we kinda cruised through the museums but we were done by 6 p.m. that day.

The Borghese was great as well, I also recommend it.

jscarby - you packed a lot into that day! fortunately we were able to do the Scavi tour and see the vatican museums on different days [actually on different trips!] but even so by the end of the day touring the museums and St. Peter's we were wacked.

If possible, I would recommend splitting it up, so that you do the scavi tour and the Dome one day, and the vatican museums another.

Agree with nytraveler. Scavi and Borghese. We were ther in May 2011. Both are really fantastic,