My mother, sister and I will be going to Rome February 24 for one week. We need advice on restaurants, day trips, "don't miss sights", etc. I would especially like to know about the process of having religious gifts (rosary, crucifix) that I buy in Rome blessed by the Pope. Any information on shopping would be great, too!

A great Rome site is now back on line! www.twenj.net<BR><BR>

Karen<BR>I have a long file on Rome; if you'd like to see it, email me.<BR>Have you bought a good guidebook on Rome? It will have lots of suggestions for restaurants, day trips, shopping, etc. Elsewhere on this Fodor's website you can get great ideas under<BR>"Restaurants" and "Destinations" for Rome. Or do a search on this message board under Rome restaurants or just "Rome" and find many past suggestions.<BR>good luck<BR><BR>And Jody, thanks for the update.<BR>I'm going to broadcast the revival of twenj.

Here are some good day trip suggestions. <BR><BR>http://www.travel-italy.com/tours/gu...ngs/index.html

Must sees in Rome, that's tough. My girlfriend and I spent two weeks there last year, and neither of us felt like we had enough time to see the city.<BR><BR>Here are some of our favourites:<BR>1. The Pantheon<BR>2. Church of San Clemente<BR>3. The Colosseum and Roman Forum<BR>4. The Borghese Gallery (make a reservation)<BR>5. The Vatican Museums, St. Peter's Basilica, and the Scavi tour (you definitely need to make reservations well in advance for this) etc.<BR>6. The Trevi Fountain<BR>7. The Palatine<BR>8. Piazza Navona -- sit down, have a caffe, and people watch for a couple of hours<BR>9. Santa Maria Maggiore<BR>10. Go see an AS Roma soccer game at Stadio Olimpico. Watching "il calcio" in Rome is a great thrill (and one of my fondest memories) even if you're not a soccer fan. "Forza Roma"<BR>10. Just walking the streets...<BR><BR>I don't know, I believe Rome is the greatest city in the world. It's loud and it's dirty, but the history is everywhere, the food and wine are wonderful, and the place just hums with vibrancy and excitement.<BR><BR>As for rosaries, etc. blessed by the Pope, I believe the Vatican has a public audience with the pope every Wednesday. I'm just not sure how to make reservations for that. I think you should probably contact your local arch/diocese as they might be able to help get reservations.<BR><BR>Hope this helps,<BR><BR>Rob<BR><BR>PS: Feel free to email me if you like.

If you have no luck getting your gifts blessed.<BR>I _believe_ that a sign in the St. Peter's giftshop (on the roof of St. Peter's) says all the items are blessed by the Pope. Buy your postcards there also, ask the Nuns for the stamps and drop it in the mailbox just outside the door (Vatican Stamp and Vatican Postmark). <BR> As soon as you enter into St.Peter's Basilica the elevator & stairs to the roof are on your left. Regards, Walter

Thank you all so much for your quick and helpful advice. This is the first time that I've used this web site, and I can't believe how nice everyone is.

My advice ... take a guided tour through the forum. Without the tour, it just looks like a bunch of rumble strewn about. We took the tour with a group called Through Eternity (www.througheternity.com), had an Irish tour guide (Colm) who was a student of Classics. He was excellent ... made the Forum come to life! I highly recommend it, particularly if you can get Colm as your tour guide. (It was the only tour that my 3 kids actually enjoyed!)