We will be in Rome in April for 9 full days, leaving on the 10th day. Please review my itinerary for our trip and let me know where any changes should/could be made. If there are any days we could add something from another day in order to allow for an extra free day that would be great. Our apartment is approximately 2-3 blocks south of the Coloseum on Via Labicana. I have listed everything in the order to see, walking from the apartment.

Day 1 – Sunday – 20th
Arrival day @ 8:40 AM should get to apartment, I think about 11 AM.
Not sure if anything on my list can be done this first day.

Day 2 - Monday – 21st
Colosseum
Arch of Constantine
Roman Forum
Palantine Hill
Key hole view
Farnese Gardens

Day 3 – Tuesday – 22nd
Trajan’s Market
Column of Trajan
Trevi Fountain
Spanish Steps
Piazza del Popolo
Pantheon
Piazza Navona

Day 4 – Wednesday – 23rd
Circus Maximus
Mouth of Truth
Foro Boarium
Teatro Di Marcello
Porticio d’Octavia
Santa Maria in Travestere
Janiculum Hill
Piazzale Garibaldi
Botanical Gardens

Day 5 – Thursday – 24th
Scavi Tour at 9 AM (have confirmation)
Tour St. Peters Basillca
Castle Angelo

Day 6 – Friday – 25th (Liberation Day – Holiday) Car rental
Scenic drive either to or return from
Tivoli
Hadrian’s Villa
Villa Este

Day 7 – Saturday – 26th Car rental
Scenic drive either to or return from
Orvieto
Assisi (possibly)

Day 8 – Sunday – 27th Car rental
Scenic drive either to or return from
Florence (just to look and see)
Pisa (only to view the Tower, will not climb to top)

Day 9 – Monday – 28th
Vatican Museum tour (reservation not made yet). Intend to make 3 hour guided tour reservation @ 9 AM through Rome Museum website.
Do anything we may have missed or shop!

Day 10 – Tuesday – 29th
Departure day

So, what do you think? Any changes?

Thanks, Lydia

You left out the churches. Most of the great artwork, architecture and sculpture is in the churches.

Day 1 - Walk over to San Clemente, it should be within a block or 2 of your apartment. Then take a bus (or walk) to San Giovanni. Remember, the churches are closed from about 1pm until 3pm. You are also very close to San Pietro in Vincoli (Michelangelo's Moses).

Day 2- Be sure to pack a picnic lunch, can't beat a snack in the Forum. Depending on how you do the walk, you can go through Campidoglio and see the Capitoline Museums. You might also want to see Santa Maria in Aracoeli, next to Piazza Campidoglio.

Day 3- San Andrea della Fratte, between Trevi and Spagna. Depending on how you do this day, you can also see the Mausoleum of Augustus and the Ara Pacis.

Day 4 - You could actually combine most of Days 2 and 4 into a full day tour. Colosseum,Palatine,Circus,Foro,Marcello,Campidogli o,Forum

You have car rentals listed. Are you planning on leaving the city for a few days or just doing day trips. If day trips and returning to Rome, do you know where you are going to park at night?

Is this your first time in Rome? You've done a pretty darn good job so far of planning.

dave

Your days in Rome might profit from a little tweaking:

Day 2 - Monday – 21st
Colosseum
Arch of Constantine
Palatine Hill
Farnese Gardens*
Roman Forum
Column of Trajan**
Trajan’s Market

Day 3 – Tuesday – 22nd
Piazza del Popolo***
Spanish Steps
Trevi Fountain
Pantheon
Piazza Navona
Portico d’Ottavia
Teatro di Marcello

Day 4 – Wednesday – 23rd
Circus Maximus
Mouth of Truth
Foro Boarium****
Keyhole view (Piazza Cavalieri di Malta)*****
Santa Maria in Travestere
Botanical Gardens
Janiculum Hill
Piazzale Garibaldi

*The Farnese Gardens are on the Palatine Hill.
**The Column of Trajan and Trajan's Market won't take that long.
***You can take public transport straight to Piazza del Popolo, then do a walking tour.
****Foro Boarium: I assume you mean the two temples; they're across the street from the Mouth of Truth.
*****The Mouth of Truth is the closest thing on your list to the keyhole view, which is on the Aventine Hill (not the Palatine Hill).

Day 8 – Sunday – 27th Car rental
Scenic drive either to or return from
Florence (just to look and see)
Pisa (only to view the Tower, will not climb to top)
The scenic part of the drive (Chianti, Val d'Orcia) is very time-consuming; I'm not sure you'll have time to include Pisa as well.

Dave - Thank you for your great suggestions! Yes, this is my first time to Rome. I am armed with maps, Fodor's, TA, and every other message board and websites I could find.

Car rental, yes this will only be day trips. There are serveral parking lots in the area, not sure if overnight is available. The Hertz car rental is very close to the apartment, it is a gas station, so I'm thinking they could provide parking or direct me to a place. I know this involves parking fees, but we REALLY like the freedom a car provides.

Zerlina, thanks also for the "tweaks".

I will be doing the tweaking both of you have suggested.

Thanks again,
Lydia

Liberation Day is a big holiday, made bigger by the fact that it falls on a Friday. Most Italians will be making a long weekend of it by traveling to other places by car and train. Just want you to be prepared.

That said, you paid for an apratment for 9 nights, but would you consider one overnight away from Rome? For example, drive out of Rome Friday, head to Florence and stay overnight. Saturday head back to Rome, stopping in Orvieto or Assisi along the way. You'd only have to pack a small bag and could leave the rest at the apartment.

ttt

Ellenem: I have been mulling over that scenario for awhile, but haven't made up my mind yet

<<would you consider one overnight away from Rome? For example, drive out of Rome Friday, head to Florence and stay overnight. Saturday head back to Rome, stopping in Orvieto or Assisi along the way.>>

I have been concerned about the holiday and have considered swapping the day trips with the weekday sightseeing. My only concern is, would the "tourist" sights inside of Rome be even more busy than the weekdays.

<<Liberation Day is a big holiday, made bigger by the fact that it falls on a Friday. Most Italians will be making a long weekend of it by traveling to other places by car and train. Just want you to be prepared.>>

Yes, I looked at your schedule and tried to deicde which days might switch, which sights in Rome wouldn't "feel" as crowded.

Paart of the problem with such a switch is that you have the Scavi tour booked on Thursday, so that would push the switch to perhaps Tuesday-Wednesday. Your sights on Tuesday and Wednesday are mostly outdoors. I think the Tuesday sights would be fine on a Friday as crowds began to build. Your Wednesday sights would be great for a possibly crowded Saturday, since your plan is mostly about walking outdoors fromplace to place.

By Sunday you may just want a day to crash--you might save the Janiculum for that day and enjoy some time relaxing the park with a great view.

Thanks Ellenem.

On the 25/26/27 you are doing the rental car thing. I like rentals too, but you will find parking in Rome is almost impossible, absolutely impossible on a holiday weekend. Those that are going out will be replaced by those coming in.

So, since the apartment is a done deal, I would agree with the earlier post about packing a day bag and staying 2 nights out of town.

If it were me, I'd pick up the car at Ciampino and go to Tivoli. After that, you could drive up to Orvieto and spend the night. It is about 80 miles from Tivoli. Or stay somewhere in between.

See Orvieto on the second day and drive up to the Florence area. Spend the second night outside of Florence, there is a neat little hotel (Hotel Monti) in San Baronto, about half way between Florence and Pisa. It's like 60 euros per night.

Train into Florence, leaving your car at a close station. Then train back, grab the car and drive to Pisa.

Final trick is to return the car to the Pisa airport and take the train back to Rome. Many rental companies don't have an extra fee for doing this kind of drop off. I know with Car Rental Express it is no problem.

This way, you don't have to hassle with parking or traffic, you have the car when you want it, but you don't have to battle traffic or times to get it back. And the return trip can be relaxing.

Just a thought,

dave

Some places I would try to fit in not on your itinerary:

Campo de'fiori (best in mornings to Monday to Saturday for the market)
Piazza Farnese
Via Giulia
(these first three are all close together)
San Pietro in Montorio w/ Bramante's
Tempietto (easy to do with the
Janiculum and Botanical gardens,
on the way walking to
Trastevere.
Piazzale Garibaldi is the piazza
with the great view on top
of the Janiculum so that is
not a separate destination)
As suggested by others, more churches would be easy to add--for example San Luigi dei Francesci near Piazza Navonna and Santa Maria sopra Minerva near the Pantheon (both have great artwork) and Santa Maria del Popolo in Piazza del Popolo
Piazza Mattei and the tortoise fountain when you are walking in the ghetto area

I think you could easily plan to visit the Pantheon/Piazza della Rotunda and Piazza Navonna on the afternoon of the first day without feeling pressured. These are places you may want to re-visit later in the week. They are nice areas to relax and people watch and sample gelato

For me the Forum plus Colosseum plus Palatine is a lot in one day unless you are doing a very quick visit to each. the colosseum and Palatine are visited with a combined ticket but if you go to one in the afternoon you can visit the other in the morning. It is easier to get the tickets at the Palatine (entrance from the forum near Arch of Titus) than at the colosseum (long line)

Florence is really hard to do in one day even "just to look and see" and adding Pisa would make it even harder.

You could easily do Orvieto and Florence by train rather than car

Thanks Dave and Vttraveler for your wonderful input.

Here I thought I was pretty much done with planning! Oh well, return to the drawing board.

Thanks again,
Lydia

Hi Lydia...

Well here is one of the big problems with the car, besides parking, if you stayed in Rome with it. You'll spend at least 2 hours each day just driving in and out of the city. I hate city driving, but love driving long distances. Once I learned that you could do one-way rentals without paying a fee, that was it for me. Drive out, train in or drive point to point.

I read your post from last year on Germany, as it is we are going there after New Years for about 4 days, after a week in Rome. We start in Munich and end in Frankfurt. I'm still wavering as to whether to rent a car or take a train. Your earlier post is pushing me back in the car direction, again. Looks like we are doing each other's trip, flipping years.

Also, did you ever get the Rome videos and MP3s to load from my site? I know you had a problem and I fixed it.

dave

I also dislike city driving but can drive 10+ hrs a day just taking in the sights. Our Germany trip had us driving something like 1500 miles in a total of 18 days. Of course, this included driving from Salzburg to Venice and then back to Munich. We loved it!

<<Also, did you ever get the Rome videos and MP3s to load from my site? I know you had a problem and I fixed it.>>

Dave, I downloaded the MP3s but I can't get the videos. I believe they are set up for PCs and I have a MAC.

If there is a way to get the videos for my MAC I could download them to my iPod. I would love to have the videos.

For the Colosseum, buy either the ticket at Palatine or else buy a Romapass. The lines (multiple) to buy tickets at the Colosseum were the longest lines I believe I have ever witnessed to anything, anywhere, ever. I am not exaggerating. With the pass, you go thru a shorter security line then to a dedicated entry for Romapass holders, virtually no waiting. (our visit was this past September).

Hi Lydia

My wife and I will be in Rome for 4 days next June - thanks for your list!!

As far as an out of town excursion I would recommend Siena - there are frequent buses there from Rome. You could even stay a night there and see Florence and Pisa the next day.

Renting a car is something we looked at but may be a little costly and end up being a headache.

I am sure others will disagree but I was not a big fan of Florence unless you are really into the museums. I found the city very noisy and hectic with scooters everywhere !! Maybe its just me.

Good luck with your planning.

Murray

Lydia - Have you ever been to Italy? You can't compare driving anywhere else in Europe to driving in Rome (except Naples). The non-scenic route to Florence on the autostrada will take 3 hours one-way not counting the hour it will take you to get out of Rome. The scenic route would take much longer. You can't drive into Florence historic center as it's restricted.

You should consider overnighting somewhere (Florence? Orvieto? Assisi?) instead of trying to go in and out of Rome.

Lydia,

That's weird about the movie files. They are just compressed Windows Movie Files (wmv), so they should play on almost any media player.

Now, I know I had the link wrong, but fixed that. Here is the link again, if you want to try them out.

http://www.passagetoroma.com/trips/

Have fun.

dave

Dave:

I went to the Apple store to find out how to get a .wmv file to play on a MAC. Found out I had to get software (free) from the internet.

I downloaded the Coleseo tour and it played. It's a little jumpy or pixelated (not sure how to describe it), but I can now watch the tour.

I notice you have a DVD available, is that a video of the tours?

Thanks!

To all others who have responded, I gratefully thank you. The ideas put forth have been great and reviewing my plan with all the suggestions made.

Thanks,
Lydia

Lydia,

Yes, the videos online are pixelated, that is due to the compression routines I used to make them work online with lower speed connections.

I have the real ones on DVD, but I have not completed itineraries 4 and 5.

dave