Hi,
We are traveling (first time abroad) to Italy in late September. We will do much of our travel from "point to point" by train. My question is this: our last morning in Rome, (we will have already checked out of our hotel and "checked" our luggage there for departure), and we will be attending the Wednesday morning audience with the Pope. Once that is over, we will immediately taxi back to our hotel, pick up our luggage and head for the Termini station to catch our train to Siena.

Do any of you know how long the "audience" lasts and how much time we would need to allow for traveling back to our hotel (don't know how hard it is to get a taxi from the Vatican back to "Rome central" right after the audience)? Our hotel is the Hotel Julia located fairly centrally between the Trevi F., Barbarini Square,and the Via Veneto, and, supposedly not too terribly far from the Termini, at "Via Rasella 29" ...

I'm just unsure of how much time to allow after the audience...we do not have too many options. There is one train that leaves Roma Termini at 1:46 and then the next one isn't until 3:14. It would be great if we could make the earlier train.....eager to hear your input. Thanks in advance!

(I have appreciated all the information here about train travel in Italy!!!)

What time is the audience? I did this once years ago and the audience seemed to take forever and a day. And it was a real bore, by the way.
I should think you'd make it, but it does depend on what time the audience is.

Hi StCirq,
The audience is at 10:30. I did some more checking on Trenitalia and there is another train at 2:57 also. Thanks.

The audience takes at least two hours, and getting out of the piazza together with 60.000 others takes some time, too. Save yourselves the hassle and go for the 3 p.m. train.

Hi L,

>There is one train that leaves Roma Termini at 1:46 and then the next one isn't until 3:14. <

You are in the land of "il dolce far niente" and you are worried about a 1:30 hr difference?

Slow down and smell the roses.

Thank you to all who replied! (having never done this before, we had no idea how long the audience would be. quokka, your info really helped gt

ira, if we were traveling just the two of us, it would be easier to "smell the roses"...but you know how things get just a little more complicated when you are traveling in a group.............gt good advice, though, and once we GET to Siena, we plan on a much more relaxed pace!!

How many are in your group? You may want to take the metro back to your hotel instead of a taxi. It would be more reliable, considering traffic issues. Do you have anyone with problems walking?

I was in Rome and we saw the Pope on a Sunday at noon. It was much more abreviated than the Wednesday audiences. We really enjoyed it, though, despite the massive amount of people.

You may not mkake the 1:46. Don't count on it, but you can try! Will you have a Eurail pass or will you buy tickets?

KatieL,
I wish the Pope were going to be there on Sunday! Maybe we'll be lucky and his itinerary will change before then.

Is there a metro stop quite close to St. Peter's? If so, we may consider the metro instead of a taxi. (There are just 4 in our group and no one has any mobility issues.)

We will not be purchasing a pass, but will, hopefully, purchase our tickets online at Trenitalia (whenever I can get it all figured out! This forum has been of great help in that regard, but I am still "studying".)

The Ottaviano metro stop on line A is close to St. Peters. It will be a little walk, maybe 10 minutes max? But, it will probably be less than waiting for a taxi with thousands of people. Plus, it has a stop at Barberini, which may be close to your hotel.

Regarding the train, I wouldn't stress too much over buying tickets in advance. A couple days advance purchase may be wise during busy season, but it probably isn't necessary to purchase way early unless you absolutely have to make certain trains. We travelled by train frequently for one month, and not once were on a full train. We had reservations most of the time, which we usually booked a couple days early, and never had problems.

Are you going to be on the train a lot? You may want to consider a Eurail pass if you will be traveling at least 3 or 4 different days.

Hi KatieL,
Thanks so much for the "metro" info. Our train hops are short and we are renting a car while in Siena to do day-trips, so it's still cheaper to do point-to-point tickets for us rather than a pass. gt

We will be there in late September and early Oct--we do need to take specific
trains in order to make it to our tours, etc., so I think I will probably order the tickets "ticketless" from home as early as possible....also, we are traveling from Siena to Venice on a Sunday morning, so the train is apt to be more crowded I hear....I guess I'm not a "fly by the seat of my pants" kind of person, LOL! Thanks again.