Day Trip to Rome from Florence?
 

Has anyone ever done a day trip to Rome from Florence? I realize this is insane, but we are on a very tight time frame and we like to still see Rome. We are going to be flying home from Florence with a 3 day stopover in London.
Any constructive thoughts, please?
Thank you.

bump

I've done a daytrip to Florence from Rome, but not the other way around. Rome is a huge city and difficult to see and enjoy in four days, let alone one. There was a post a couple of months ago that addressed this topic so do a search or maybe someone will remember the title and pull up the link. The Eurostar from Florence to Rome takes and hour and a half. If you are up for a long exhausting day, get to Rome in the morning, see St. Peter's and the Vatican Museums and then the Forum and the Colosseum before heading back to the train.

I haven't but it really isn't insane :).
On the Eurostar it's 1hr35 and basically everything (museums & tourist sites) are within a 1sq/mi-1.6sq/km area with the train station in the northwestern corner of this square. Regards, Walter

Opps :) Read the post Walter!!!
What was I thinking?

I have done a day trip to Rome from my home town ( Aberdeen). We left Aberdeen at 6.30 am and arrived back at 10.30pm. We did this as I have always wanted to go to Rome but my husband wasn't too keen.
It was great. Because of time restrictions we chose to do the Ancient Rome tour.We saw the Forum, the Colloseum, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona.
And one of the best things is my husband could now be persuaded to go back to Italy, as he loved it!

I had the question reversed but it is doable.
I would take the Metro to the Colosseum but walk down to the Roman Forum's Via d. Fori Imperiali entrance.
Explore the Forum and go up to the Palatine Hill where you get a ticket for the Palatine and the Colosseum (same ticket).
Do a walk thru of the Palatine or just skip it due to time and head over to the Colosseum and bypass the queue.
I would also do the Sistine Chapel with a quick walk-thru of the Vatican Museums. But I would time it so I got to the ticket office just before closing to avoid the long queue.
I would be bad :( and exit the Sistine Chapel in the far right corner which is reserved for tour groups (just walk-out with a group).
This puts you alongside St. Peter's Basilica, visit it and then take a taxi, bus or walk to the Metro and back to the train station. Regards, Walter

Yes you certainly can. I would take the first train south and the late train home. It is far better than not going at all. You may not have a lot of time for museums but you could certainly see the sights. You may want to do some research and establish an itinerary or perhaps start with some sort of a 1/2 day tour that would give you a good overview. AMEX at the Spanish Steps used to operate a few tours. Leave some time for just walking about. You may want to ensure a solid train reservation depending on which train you go back to Florence on. Another idea may be to go to Rome the evening before and get a hotel. Spend part of the evening walking around to get you bearings and return to Florence late the next day.

Hi JV,

Johnian has the right idea.

Yeah, we did the reverse by staying in Rome and going for a daytrip to Florence. We're not too keen on museums so what little we saw in Florence was good enough for us. But exploring a bigger city like Rome I'd say you need a longer time (we stayed 4 days and it was too short). I guess johnian's suggestions should be considered.