How big is Rome??
 

I need to get an idea of just how large is the city of Rome? I'm trying to plan our trip and trying to decide to take a bus tour or should we walk to the major sites. Our hotel is located close to the Colosseum. For instance could we walk from the Colosseum to say the Trevi fountain? Would this be a one mile walk or maybe a 3 mile walk. I see that there is a metro line in rome and it looks like we could take the metro from our hotel to say the Vatican. Guess I just need some help in determining distances.
Thanks
Diane

While Rome is a large city, the historic center is relatively small and very walkable. You could easily walk from the Colosseum to the Trevi Fountain, it's about a mile and a half at most. Yes, you can take the metro to the Vatican but you will need to change metro lines at Termini Station.

...Which is easy to do (there are only two metro lines in the whole city). I prefer to stay closer to the Pantheon and Piazza Navona when I visit, but the virtue of being near the Colosseum metro line is that you can easily and cheaply get to the Vatican or the Spanish Steps - after a few days of walking everywhere you'll look forward to "cheating" by taking the metro.

Colosseum to Trevi would be one mile rather than three. (Does your map have a scale?) It is easy to walk between many of the central major sites along the Spanish Steps to Piazza Navona route, maybe a mile.

Yes, you would probably take the metro to the Vatican museums, since the entrance is around the other side from St Peter's. On the other hand, from St Peter's square, it is a pleasant walk across the Tber back to the center.

Hi Diane,

It's about 3 km (2 mi) from the Colessuem to the Trevi Fountain.

See www.multimap.com for a zoomable map.

I'll try to draw you a picture with nice walking times.

The Colosseum, Capitoline Hill and Piazza Navona are in a straight line.

From The Colosseum to the Hill is about a 15-20 minute walk and about 20 minutes to the Piazza. The Pantheon is to the right from The Piazza by about 5 minutes and then another 10 or so in the same line to the Fountain.

Therefore the line from the Colosseum to the Piazza is more or less at right angles to the line between the piazza, Pantheon and Fountain.

In you draw another line from the colosseum to the Fountain and the Spanish Steps, that would be a staright line. From the Fountain to the Steps is about 15 minutes.

A staright line from the Colosseum thru the Piazza continues to St Peter's. The walk from the Piazza to St Peter's is about a half hour or so.

Hope this is English and helps.

Check out the link below. It has a nice table showing how long it takes to walk between the major sites, as well as lots of other useful information.


http://www.enjoyrome.com/tourist/cit...portation.html

Thank you very much. The web sites and descriptions help alot.

The Colosseum is not exactly in the center of the city but Rome does have good bus and Metro service. The Vatican is a bit far, even if you are staying in central Rome. One good thing is that walking around in Rome is always a pleasure. There is so much to see along the way.

I have a websight on Rome if you want to look...

Go here and follow the path to Europe, then Rome...

http://richardab.home.comcast.net

or cut and paste this for a direct route;;;

http://richardab.home.comcast.net/Fl...Departure.html