Rome and Florence in 6 days, need help with trains
 

My girlfriend(who I will propose to in italy) and I are going to Rome in the Spring. I'm not sure how to arrange travel from FCO to the hotel located on Via Clitunno. I have searched maps for the street and can't seem to find it to look for a nearby train station.
Would it be better to take a train to Termini and get a cab, or to try to take a cab from FCO?
Also, we will only spend a day in Florence and plan to take a train to and from. Should we book these tickets ahead of time or would it be better to buy tickets the morning we leave? Thanks...

If I'm not mistaken, is this near the Spanish Steps? If so, you may want to take a taxi from the airport for approx. 50 Euro. It would be a lot less hassle then taking the train and then a cab. Usually the site for the hotel gives you info on how to get there. You can book the train for Florence either on the website or book when you get to Rome. You will need reserved seating. I wouldn't wait until the day you plan to leave for Florence. It takes approx. 1 hour 25 minutes on the Eurostar. Best wishes!

We took the Leonardo Express to Termini and from there switched lines and walked to our hotel. Taxis are more expensive but defiitely easier, especially if you had a long flight over. You may also want to look into airport shuttles.

Trains run frequently between Rome and Florence (at least one an hour). If you know what day and time you want, I would go ahead and purchase your tickets when you get to Rome to guarantee that you have seats. Otherwise, you should be fine trying to purchase the ticket the day you leave.

Good luck!
Tracy

Hi Matt,

>...we will only spend a day in Florence and plan to take a train to and from.

Too bad. Florence is worth an overnight.

However, since you will want to leave in the early AM, I suggest you buy your tickets not later than the day before.

Uffizi and Academia Museum Reservations

The easiest and cheapest way is to call Florence 011 (U.S. international access code) 39 (Italy's country code) then 055-294-883 8:30-18:30 M-F and 8:30-12:00 Sat. Florence time. You will get an English speaking operator and in 2-3 minutes YOU CAN RESERVE FOR BOTH. This is through the reservation service at the Uffizi and costs beyond the normal entry fee only about 3 euro for the service. This is MUCH cheaper than the commercial booking services.
You will not be charged for the reservations unless you use them.

Have a great visit.

((I))

PS, Venice is a great place for proposing.

There are also shuttle services from FCO. I used www.airportshuttle.it to get to the airport. Via Clitunno is nowhere near the Spanish Steps. Is there a reason why you are staying there? It's way in the northeast section of Rome and a long ways away from everything you will want to see. You will waste a lot of time getting to the areas you want to visit and will be too far away from the hotel to stop back during the day. If you can change your hotel, the Piazza Navona/Pantheon area would be much better. Just a suggestion.

you can take the express train to termini from FCO, i believe it's 11 euros and just cab it from there. No sense it wasting 50 euros, which, when they see that your american will turn into about 70-80 euros due to them not finding the hotel etc. Mark my word!

thank you so much everyone! i am not familiar with the area and really needed the help. i'll look into changing hotel reservations and i really appreciate the train and florence info. happy holidays!!

matt, I think you'll be very glad you changed hotels. If you need help finding one in the Piazza Navona area, do a search here for Rome Hotels and you'll get lots of advice.

Hi Matt - the hotel may be able to arrange a shuttle ride for you from the airport. I stayed at the Hotel Julia in March and they arranged a shuttle for 12 Euro. There are many hotels that offer this, so it is worth asking. It is very convenient. The downside was that I had just missed a shuttle and had to wait about 20 minutes for the next one to leave. The hotel needs to make the arrangements at least 24 hours in advance. Have a great time! I hope she says yes :)

well, i have changed my reservations to the hotel gioberti which is pretty close to termini. i will definitely try the shuttle from the airport. that sounds like the most convenient thing to do. thank you all so much for the advice and well wishes.

matt, Although that location near Termini is better than the previous hotel, it's still not very central. I see that the website says that they are in the historical center of Rome, but that's really not true. Or are you staying near Termini because of your one daytrip to Florence? That doesn't make sense, it's better to stay near the things you will want to see the rest of the time.

May I ask where you are getting the information as to where to get a hotel? Plenty of people stay near Termini and think it's OK, but (just my opinion) it's still a good distance away from all the things you'll want to see. Is your budget determining where you stay? If you tell us how much you want to spend per night, you can get lots of recommendations for hotels much closer to all the sites. Just trying to help you get the best trip!

susan, i have done all of my booking on expedia. we do have a budget although it is not the main determining factor. by expedia rules, i can only choose hotels that are expedia special rate hotels(yellow bars above the listing). there are some nice ones but honestly, i am shooting from the hip on my choices. i looked over a map and thought the termini area was close to the forum and the colusseum. the hotel is actually on via gioberti.

thanks again!
matt

matt, you're right, it isn't too far from the Forum and Colosseum, but it's further from everywhere else (Piazza Navona, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Vatican, etc.) I'm not saying it's a bad location, I guess I just like to be right in the center of things, plus the Termini area is not as charming.