lele

After Tuscany arrive in Rome.
My itinerary for Rome.
June4 check in Apt. and maybe overall bus line tour, double decker to get familiar with city, maybe Pantheon.
Thursday no plan yet. Friday, Vatican tour and excavations,Yea!! Sat, Sun, Mon and Tue. no plan. We are planning to fit in a Colosseum tour, a family visit to Abruzzo and Pompeii, and maybe Capri!! Any suggestions on a plan that we can handle without totally wearing us out!!
Thanks

LJ

Can't help specifically as I don't know your families tolerance for being herded from place to place, but it sounds doable.

But do not rush the Abruzzesse visit. It is a wonderful part of the country and, while only 60-90 minutes from Rome (depending on where exactly your family is located) SO very different. IMHO, I would even skip a night in Rome and add it to your visit to add a serene quality to your trip. Where are you going?

lele

We are heading to Capistrello and Avezzano. Hoping to visit relitives that I have found names but no specific contacts yet.

lele

Opps, I am typing fast. Relatives spelling.

sjj

I'm not sure if this is to your taste, but on one of our visits to Rome my wife and I spent a lot of time visiting churches. Try searching for Rome churches to get threads on this topic. We also liked the Piazza Novona, the Piazza del Popolo, the Largo Torre Argentina with its temples and cat sanctuary, the Pantheon, the Ara Pacis, the Roman and Imperial Forums, Hadrian's tomb, the museums on the Capitoline Hill, and other museums - the Borghese Gallery, the Etruscan Museum, the Dora Pamphilli museum just off the Corso, the Roman history museum near Termini, and lots more that I can't remember now. We've been to Rome for extended visits three times, and there's still lots of stuff we'd like to see.

LJ

If you have not come across this website yet, it is a good guide to the town of Avezzanno which has a nice church and a good art gallery...not much left of the original as this was in the heart of the 1915 earthquake country.BTW, there is an English tourist guide in this site, you just have to keep 'clicking'.
en.comuni-italiani.it

Steve_James

Hi Lele - Your best source for planning sightseeing in Rome is:

www.romaturismo.it

It has excellent itineraries for seeing the best of Rome in 4 days.

Pompeii is viable as a day-trip from Rome.
Alternatively you could make it a 2-day trip to include Capri ...

Hope this helps ...

Steve

Vttraveler

You are spending 6 days in Rome with two day trips planned so I would spend the rest of the time --day of arrival and four full days in Rome

A lot of older threads and guide books were written when admission to the Forum was free. Now there is an entrance fee--combined ticket with the Colosseum and Palatine Hill (valid for 2 days) I am not sure what the easiest way to get tickets to the Colosseum is now--used to be to go to one of the entrances to the Palatine in the Forum. Ticket lines at the Colosseum itself are long and you could lose time that way. You could also look into a Roma Pass

The itineraries suggested on the Romaturismo web site have a lot of good information but IMO they are not realistic in terms of time you would want to spend at different sites. For example the Vatican museums and St. Peter's are both supposed to be visited in a morning, and day #1 would also require you to move at a very fast pace. There is a suggested visit to Ostia Antica which would not make sense if you are definitely going to Pompeii. It also recommends the EUR which I would not visit if you only have four days.

Frommers destination guide has some suggestions for a three day itinerary you also might want to review. It also sets a really hectic pace and you can certainly slow that down and spend more time on fewer sights each day

If you decide to visit the Appian Way and catacombs this would be especially nice on a sunday when the upper stretch of the road is closed to traffic. We took the archeobus sponsored by the tourist office last March and had a good experience but there are complaints it gets very crowded and harder to use during the summer. It goes out to the aqueducts park after the Appian way, and we really enjoyed seeing that area.

We also enjoyed going up the Janiculum for the view of the city from the Piazza Garibaldi and the interesting walk down hill (we took a bus up--easier!) into Trastevere

when you are planning your time in Rome you have to plan around mid day closing times for many churches

lele

Thanks, LJ for the tread on avezzeno.
My cousin went 2 years ago. On his visit someone took him to a church which has our name on the wall. I
hope it is the one you mentioned. I
will find out.
Lele

fieldtripcoordinator

bookmarking

lele

LJ
I have been trying the website en.com
and there is always a problem. Is it en.com ?
lele

larussa1

If you plan a day at the Colisseum also plan the day at the forum and don't miss San Pietro in Vincoli (Saint Peter in Chains)not to far...walking distance. It is a church that is home to Michelangelo's magnificent statue of Moses and the prison chains of St. Peter. Be careful because they are closed in the middle of the day. Their hours are 7am to 12:30pm and again from 3:30pm to 7pm.
A big yes to Trevi Fountain, Panetheon and Piazza Navona. Another hidden jewel is the Church of San Luigi dei Francesi- it houses three works of art of Caravaggio.

Kristina

Hi-
I spent 8 days in Rome over Easter week. I think I would recommend 1 or 2 day trips max. We spent a day in Orvieto and a day at Ostia Antica. I think Capri would really be a stretch from Rome.
I found that planning one "big" sightseeing thing per day was the way to go. We still saw a lot more that that, but we didn't feel pressured to squeeze in as much as possible.
If you want to see how I planned out our 8 days, it's all on my website:
http://www.wired2theworld.com
Click on the "Rome 03/08" report.

LJ

Sorry about the incomplete web-link: I am going to try again...even if it doesn't underline in blue the entire citation, if you enter the whole thing into your search function, it should take you there. Here goes!
en.comuni-italiani.it/066/006/index.html

LJ

OK, I apologize and give up on that weblink to Avezanno. Here is another, less complete than the Italian one, but it is in English!
www.abruzzo2000.com/abruzzo/laquila/avezzano.htm

Steve_James

Here's another one:

http://www.comune.avezzano.aq.it/ind...fe200714cc7d1c

Hope this helps ...

Steve

theitaliantraveler

Skip Capri - not enough time. You will even return tired from Pompeii which deserves a day to explore. When in Rome buy the 24 hour tourist bus pass and get on it in the mid to late afternoon. See the whole town (takes close to 2 hours to make the loop). The next day get up early and see everything that you want on the loop, spend the rest of the day in the interior sections to see the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps...
You may want to dedicate a day to major areas of the city.

Areala

I am going with my sisters this September and one thing I insist they see is Villa D'Este in Tivoli. It is about 1/2 hour from Rome, easy to get to, wonderful village and the Villa with all the fountains are just breathtaking. I like to go in the morning have lunch and leave to explore something else, but what a wonderful day. ( I have already done this 3 times before..this makes 4 and I never tire of it)

JeanneB

Seconding larusa's suggestion to combine the colosseum and forum on the same day. I had been before, but last trip we hired a private guide for that day (3 hours). She made the history come alive. Well worth it.

Our day was similar to larusa's, but we combined colosseum/forum with San Clemente. She guided us through all the levels, ending 3 levels down where we walked through an excavated temple and the adjoining "city", a rabbit warren of 1st century apartments.