We're here! But it seems like our Pompeii excursion may be abandoned. Does anyone have any thoughts on a nice town to visit that is close and convenient to get to?
Thanks!

What do you call "a nice town"? What are you interested in? There are tons of possibilities for the case you get jack of Rome after a stay of 1 week or so.

Nice isn't much of a description. Close is relative.

Try Orvieto.

Ostia Antica is a very short trip and would be a good substitute for Pompeii.

Orvieto is another good day trip

We are thinking about visiting Bracciano on an upcoming trip - main attraction, castle. Tivoli is another option - lovely gardens.

We really enjoyed Ostia Antica.

Ostia Antica will be most like Pompeii,so I'd recommend that. Also much closer than Pompeii. It's really a nice ancient site.

Just curious - why are you abandoning Pompeii?

Tivoli: 45 min from Tiburtina station. The Villa D'Este was one of the absolute highlights of our March Trip.

Ostia is also very good.

Villa d'Este and Hadrian's Villa in Tivoli.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mksfca/...57622915079327

If you enjoy wine, you may want to consider Frascati, which is a 20 minute train ride from Rome. I'll be doing this in a couple weeks and booked a tour/tasting with at the Old Minardi Farmhouse.

Thanks so much for the great ideas. We will surely enjoy our last days here.
kwren - we wanted to take a shuttle to Pompeii using the enjoyrome website. We made plans based on one of their info pages but when it came to booking, they offered the trip on different days. So that didn't fit our schedule.

You can just take the train from Rome to Ostia, get out and tour on your own, and come back when you want to.

Tivoli and/or Hadrian's Villa are also very nice and easy to get to from Roma. Both can be done on your own.

Just on case, it's easy to go to Pompeii on your own for a day. We did that by bus, went to the archeological museum in Naples, then back to Rome by train. Long day but definitely worth it if your heart was set on going.

Agree with Michael - highly recommend Tivoli for Villa D'Este and Villa Adriana, Hadrian's Villa.

Nice images, Michael!