My husband and I will be spending 4 days in Rome later this month. I'm having a problem deciding how to spend our second day, but I think it might be better if I just post the whole itinerary - so here goes:<BR><BR>Day 1 - arrive approx. noon from London, lunch, then visit the Pantheon and &quot;Il Gesu&quot; church. We have a night walk scheduled at 6 pm with Scala Reale, starting in the Piazza Navona.<BR><BR>I will post the rest of the itinerary later today or tomorrow. As I said - I need help with Day 2, but would be happy to get any comments on any of the other days. Thanks in advance for your help.

Hi<BR>Just a suggestion: when you are ready to post the rest, this initial posting may have fallen down quite a bit on the list on the left side, since postings are listed in order of the timing of the last response. Keep scrolling down on the left until you find this so you can post the rest of your itinerary together with this one. That way all your info and responses will be in the same place.<BR><BR>Also, have you been to Rome before?<BR>If not, what kinds of activities did you have in mind? More churches? Museums? More walking tours?<BR><BR>I have a file on Rome; if you'd like to see it, email me at<BR>[email protected]

Thanks for your reply, Elaine. I may need to email you since I am having lots of problems logging in and staying logged into this site. Argh!<BR><BR>This is our first visit to Rome. I've been reading the Cadogan guide and Rick Steves, and reading a lot on this site, too. Still not sure what we want to emphasize, in terms of churches, museums, etc.<BR><BR>Anyway, here is Day 2: Either spend the morning touring some of what Rick refers to as &quot;Pilgrim's Rome&quot; - San Giovanni in Laterano, Santa Maria Maggiore, San Clemente - OR, do the Scala Reale Orientation Hike, which seems like a good &quot;intro&quot; to the Forum and Colosseum. Regardless, in any case we'll be taking a 2 pm tour of both the Forum and Colosseum, with Rahul of Roman Odyssey Tours.<BR><BR>Any advice on this day? We won't have time, either on this day or the rest, to do both the Orientation Hike AND the &quot;Pilgrim's Rome&quot; churches. I think we are trying to squeeze enough into 4 days as it is, and I don't see the point in rushing around. Which would be better to do - Scala Reale or the churches? Help please - I'll post the rest of our trip later (if I can get back onto this site, that is!).

I think it'll be much easier for us to react to your itinerary if you would post your plans for the entire trip, not just a day at a time. Since we don't know what your plans are for days 3 and 4, it kind of difficult to give many suggestions.

Just wanted to post an update - it looks like our itinerary for Day 2 has been decided for us, since Scala Reale have now changed their Orientation Hike and it does not appear to meet our needs.<BR><BR>Here is our itinerary now:<BR><BR>Day 1: as I previously posted.<BR><BR>Day 2: In the morning we are planning to tour some of &quot;Pilgrim's Rome&quot; - San Giovanni in Laterano, Santa Maria Maggiore and San Clemente. We have booked a 2 pm tour of the Forum and Colosseum with Rahul of Roman Odyssey Tours.<BR><BR>Day 3: We have a tour of the Vatican and St Peters at 9 am with Scala Reale, followed by a Scavi tour at 1:45 pm. We're hoping to visit the Cappuchin Crypt in the late afternoon.<BR><BR>Day 4: Borghese Gallery at 11 am, followed by a leisurely lunch, then a long stroll and return to Ciampino airport by 6:30 pm.<BR><BR>Any comments/suggestions appreciated! I continue to have great difficulty in logging into the site, so please bear with me if I can't answer back straight away. Thanks in advance for your help.

Just wanted to post an update - it looks like our itinerary for Day 2 has been decided for us, since Scala Reale have now changed their Orientation Hike and it does not appear to meet our needs.<BR><BR>Here is our itinerary now:<BR><BR>Day 1: as I previously posted.<BR><BR>Day 2: In the morning we are planning to tour some of &quot;Pilgrim's Rome&quot; - San Giovanni in Laterano, Santa Maria Maggiore and San Clemente. We have booked a 2 pm tour of the Forum and Colosseum with Rahul of Roman Odyssey Tours.<BR><BR>Day 3: We have a tour of the Vatican and St Peters at 9 am with Scala Reale, followed by a Scavi tour at 1:45 pm. We're hoping to visit the Cappuchin Crypt in the late afternoon.<BR><BR>Day 4: Borghese Gallery at 11 am, followed by a leisurely lunch, then a long stroll and return to Ciampino airport by 6:30 pm.<BR><BR>Any comments/suggestions appreciated! I continue to have great difficulty in logging into the site, so please bear with me if I can't answer back straight away. Thanks in advance for your help.

Sounds good to me. You do not seem to have overscheduled your agenda. Just one question: Do both the Scavi and Scala Reale tours take place in the Vatican (i.e., St. Peter's and the Museum)?

For Day 2: I suggest you start at Santa Maria Maggiore. Why? Because Santa Maria Maggiore closes at about noon or so (opens around 9:30am or so) and it doesn't reopen until about 3:30pm. Be sure to see the chapel with the alleged manger and the Holy Eucharist chapel where a veiled nun constantly sits in adoration of the host. It is very moving. Then have a caffe in one of the small caffes lining the square. Might I suggest a quick trip to Santa Prassede which is 2 minutes from Santa Maria Maggiore -- it's not well known by tourists and it has LOVELY mosaics and a part of the alleged pillar to which Christ Jesus was scourged. Then, you can walk down via Merulana for about 15 minutes (or take the bus) to San Giovanni in Laterano (which doesn't close at noon) and tour the Basilica. It is never as crowded as a lot of other churches. It is important to visit because San Giovanni in Laterano is the mother of all Christian churches in the world -- it also has lovely chapels but many are closed. It is the first Christian church and the frescoes are beautiful. Then you could walk to San Clemente but make sure it is open. I never have been able to visit all 3 levels of San Clemente because of time constraints, but if you can just get in quickly and see the chapel with the Masolino frescoes of Saint Catherine in the main church, it is well worth it. And you can walk to San Clemente from San Giovanni in Laterano in about 6-7 minutes. If you take your map of Rome out, you will see the logic of what I have explained. You are going in a straight line from Santa Maria Maggiore to San Giovanni, then over to San Clemente and then 5 minutes further you're at the Colosseum. Enjoy your trip!