Afternoon in Rome
 

Our plane will reach Rome at 12.30 pm early Oct (next week!). We had plans to see the Colosseum & Roman Forum after we checked in (about 1 or 1.30pm) but realised that the stadium will be closed around 3 pm!<BR><BR>Anybody has any suggestions how we can spend our 1st afternoon in Rome?

St. Peter's Basilica, Pantheon and Trevi Fountain.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>

You will be too tired to take in St. Peter's basilica on your first day. Stay outside and get lots of fresh air. Walk to the Pantheon and to Piazza Navona. Be sure to have a gelato; there are lots of great places near the Pantheon for gelato. Save St. Peter's and the Vatican for another day.

Why planning so much? Rome is a wonderful city where to walk, so just have s troll around the center looking about yourself. Maybe you will just walk inadvertently into some monument, maybe you will discover something wonderful which wan't included in your plans, for sure you will have a great time. Take it easy, do not aim at anythin particular, walk for fun and until you feel tired and not because you have to get somewhere.

I spent my first afternoon by having lunch at Tre Scalini and then visiting the Capitoline Museum. If you've studied ancient art you will get to see some of the biggies in person, and if not they have put all the exhibits together very well, with excellent commentary. When you're done looking at the museum, you can wander over to the reconstructed Senate building(I think) and look out on the Forum.

Alice is right. Our first afternoon in Rome we walked to the Vatican because that is the area in which we stayed. After a brief nap, we walked towards central Rome and just fell in step with a crowd of people thinking they were headed somewhere and we stumbled across the most magical restaurant. I couldn't even tell you where I was but it was fantastic.