cathies

This post is to thank everyone who helped with this question. We are home now (sob!!) and I wanted to thank Kybourbon and Therese in particular. We landed in Rome as planned, whipped through customs etc in no time at all. We found the FR1 very easily (a train was ready to depart) and hopped off at Villa Bonelli. By this point our brains were a bit scrambled from the travelling (23 hours from Sydney) and after a few failed attempts to figure out where the buses were we caught a cab to our monastery. It was easy and we were VERY grateful as it would have been a nightmare without such precise instructions.

In case anyone is wondering the monastery was fabulous, but the location was a pain in the neck. If traffic was heavy (most of the time) it could take the best part of an hour to get into Rome centre.

Anyway, thanks again, you will never now how grateful we were. Cathie

Therese

Glad to hear that your trip went well, and that the monastery was nice. How did you travel from the monastery to central Rome? Did you take a bus all the way or the tram? It seemed like traffic wouldn't have as big an impact on the tram.

If you get a chance you should post about the accomodations, as it's a question that comes up here with some frequency.

cathies

Hi Therese, sometimes we caught a bus and then the No 8 tram, other times we caught a bus to Euro Magliana and caught a train from there.

That's a good idea re accommodation. I will post a report on our accommodation as most of it was great and we booked a mix of hotels, apartments & B&B's.

mariebut

Hi cathies, great to hear you had a wonderful trip looking forward to hearing your tales. Us Aussies head off in Sept so keen to know any suggestions you may have of your travels.

Valeria_82

The easiest way from Termini rail station is:

Take the underground - "A" line towards Battistini - for 8 stops

Get off at Valle Aurelia, get out the station and walk for about 50 metres to the bus stop VALLE AURELIA.

Take the bus 31 - towards Laurentina - for 18 stops (the bus comes every 12 minutes)

Get off at the stop NEWTON/USSANI and walk for 450 metres to Via del Casaletto,538.

Hope it helps!

mikster

I am going to be using Rome Shuttle Limousine based on many of your recommendations. Can you tell me what an appropriate tip would be? We will be just two of us so the cost will be 35 euro. We are from New York and always tend to over tip when traveling and it adds up. At the same time, I sure don't want to be stingy. What do you suggest?

kybourbon

Don't overtip as Europeans in general tip less. From the Santa Susanna web page (although this is talking about taxis):

An average fare from the Airport to the center of Rome is around 35.00 to 40.00 Euro. An appropriate tip is just a few Euro for a long trip and a 50 Euro cent tip for a trip across the city.

http://www.santasusanna.org/visitorInfo/tips.html#money

cathies - What made you decide to stay so far out? Were the closer convents booked? Did you book directly with the convent or with Monastery Stays(Monastery Stays marks up the convent/monastery prices about 10-15€ per night)?

cathies

Hi kybourbon, I'll preface this by admitting that it was my one and only stuff up as far as accommodation for this trip. Also, I didn't know about Fodor's at that point!! On the maps I looked at it didn't seem too far our of the city and we did like the idea of somewhere quiet to stay at the end of our busy days. I don't mind the markup, it was still pretty inexpensive (about 80€ per night and spotlessly clean and very spacious). By the time I realised I had chosen poorly, the Monastery Stays Co wanted to charge quite severe penalties for us to cancel this booking and rebook closer to the city which made it prohibitive. It was a nuisance but probably not the worst mistake I could have made, as it was a lovely place and we had good supermarkets, bars etc nearby. thanks, Cathie

ESmythe

I just returned from a Rome vacation and spent over $1,000 on Rome Shuttle Limousine's services. I do NOT recommend them. Stay away. All over the site they advertise a Mercedes Benz fleet. Two of our rides were in dirty old cars, a Chrylser mini-van and Lancia. The latter vehicle had no air conditioning. I complained but they don't care.

KTtravel

Hmm, ESmythe, why in the world would you spend $1000 if you found the service so poor? Shuttle service from the airport costs nowhere near that amount even if you took ten trips!