From everything I have been reading, there are several ways to see Rome, from the most basic way of buying a map and walking the city on your own, to catching a hop on hop off bus, joining a walking tour group for a particular part of the city, or hiring a private tour guide for a walking tour of these parts instead. There are also large bus tours and private driven tours of the city, of which I have pretty much ruled out these two options. So I am still pretty confused. I want to make the most of our five days in Rome and not roam around lost and wasting time. Our hotel is also centrally located next to the Pantheon if that makes a difference. We are not on a tight budget, so we could spend a few dollars more if it helps to have less stress and be able to see more sites. Any suggestions?

In five days - you can see alot. We did it in 6 days and mostly on foot with the help of a few cab rides and a few bus trips. The buses were very easy to follow - ecah bus stop tells you where each line goes. We walked alot of it and had no trouble getting lost - -and the few times we thought we were lost - we usually found the most wonderful sites and shops in back streets. Rome is made for wandering. We also utilized the "hop on - hop off" bus from the main train terminal on our first day. It gave us a very good overview of the city and helped us to get our bearings. From the Pantheon you can walk to Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navonna, etc. I guess hiring a tour guide would depend on how much dialogue you want to have. I would definitely suggest a guide or at least the audio guides at the Forum, the Colossum and the Vatican. Enjoy!

For the Forum & the Vatican Museums, I would recommend Scala Real, now known as Context Rome. You'll find many postings on them here. They also will help you with cultural offerings for your time in Rome, if you are interested. Just e-mail them.

From your excellent vantage point, you can see much on your own, as well. Mix it up.

However, if you are interested in the Vatican's Scavi tour, you will have to apply for that directly to them as no other group can take you there.

Hi PP,

We did the 'green' hop-on hop-off bus tour in Rome and did not find it useful (I have like them in other cities, so I just don't suggest that one). We also took an American Express tour of the Vatican city and wish we had booked more of them. Since they take you from the Spanish Steps to the Vatican, they give a commentary on the way, I found that to be a better overview than the 'green' bus.

The 'green' one had a poor audio quality, not very informative narratives, and their timings were NOT what they had listed.Perhaps someone can suggest a hop-on hop-off tour they enjoyed?

If you decide to walk, I would stay in Central Rome (Pantheon/Piazza Navona/Trevi). I would also buy a good street map. Streetwise Rome has all streets, piazza, and major landmarks, on a folding, and laminated map.

Just make sure you have a really good map and a great guidebook. Then walk. (We usually tagged onto a tour in the major sites - or used one of the audiophones - and did just fine - and had the benefit of moving at our own pace/following our own interests.)