advice on our Rome itinerary?
 

Flights are booked, apartment reserved, transportation from airport arranged. We are in Rome for 10 days beginning March 8th.. Although we do not want to schedule every minute.. I thought I would put together daily ideas to do and see if anyone advises against or for.

Arrive March 8th (Thursday) @ 4 p.m. at the apartment.. first day we plan on just getting to know the area.. Piazza Navona

Friday - Vatican and Sistine Chapel in the morning and Castle St. Angelo in the afternoon

Saturday - Piazza Navona and the antique shops around the area

Sunday - Flea Market - recommendations?

Monday - Colosseum, Forum, Palatine Hill

Tuesday - Train to Florence - explore

Wednesday - Train back from Florence

Thursday - Villa Borghese

Friday - get ready to leave.. odds and ends day in case we find something we missed..

Saturday - back home..

I am recovering from cancer and want to leave time to rest each day. I am thinking I have scheduled some full days and some not..

Thanks for any help.

Best wishes with your trip and with your recovery.

I would suggest one change in your schedule. The lines for the Vatican and Sistine Chapel (which is accessed at the end of the Vatican Museum Tour) are especially long first thing in the morning. You could stand two hours in line. Apparently, they are much shorter if you come at noon. I would just "switch" your morning and afternoon activities on Friday.

Also, be aware that if you go through the Vatican Museum first, you'll be able to enter directly into St. Peter's from the Sistine Chapel without having to endure a second queue.

One other tip: it can be very helpful to reserve spaces in a guided group tour of the Vatican Museum. You won't have to wait in line for tickets, and you'll get more out of the experience with the commentary of the tour guide.

I have written a blog article on this very subject that you might enjoy reading: http://travelhorizons.blogspot.com/2...ing-queue.html

I have written a long and very descriptive trip report for Rome and Florence that may give you some ideas. If you'd care to read it, here's the link
http://www.slowtrav.com/tr/tripreport.asp?tripid=1158

Castle St. Angelo is okay,but I generally don't recommend it for the first trip.
Have you discounted a Scavi tour at the Vatican?
You might consider staying somewhat flexible,depending on the weather. The Forum,Colosseum,etc is generally not as great to visit when raining.
Overall,a nice itinerary.

To save a massive amount of time at the Vatican, fax them a request for their tour. You'll need to have the fax number of the hotel you are staying in. The positive is that you don't wait in a line, you get a guide and it costs about $10 more than a standard ticket. The negative is that you won't find out if you got the tour until the day before you requested. Here is the webpage with the info...
http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/z-In...zi_Visite.html

Follow the directions and you will probably get what you want. We loved it, the normal entry line went out of site, we walked right in. Our guide was excellent, about 20 in the group.

When you get to the Sistine Chapel, there is a doorway on the right at the far end, this leads directly to St. Peter's. Ignore the sign about guided tours and just go through the door.

daveesle ..thank you..we are staying in an apartment with no fax available..so reserving a tour ourselfs might be difficult.. I am thinking of using one of the tour companies...

jabez.. I know it might rain.. we are from Az and I think we will love that as well as everything in Rome!! I am not familiar with the Scavi tour.. I will search for that information.

Everyone else much thanks for the help..