I would love to hear your suggestions to enjoy Rome and get the max out of a 3 day visit.
Thanks

Good walking shoes and a decent map and you'll be fine.

Figure a day centered around the Vatican, a day centered around the Forum and Coleseum, and a day to travel out to the catecombs and do some other things on the outskirts.

Then fit the other things of interest around those days.

Read <u>Angels &amp; Demons by Dan Brown. Follow the &quot;itinerary&quot; of the protagonist. You'll hit all of the highlights -- the Vatican, the Pantheon, Piazza del Popolo, etc., and do it with some semblance of structure.

Trying to see Rome in 3 days is like trying to see all of New York, London, or Disneyworld in 3 days.</u>

We arrived in Rome and were in our hotel by 12:30 on a Thursday. From then until Sunday night, we saw (and I mean inside visits or more than a walk-by):

Fontana di Trevi
Piazza Colonna
Pantheon
Piazza Navona
Spanish Steps
Piazza del Popolo and the Pincio
Villa Borghese
Cappuccin Crypt
Campo de Fiori
Jewish Ghetto
Torre Argentina / cat sanctuary
San Giovanni en Laterano
San Clemente
Colosseum
Roman Forum
Baths of Caracalla
(we had already been inside the Vatican Museums and St Peters Basilica on a previous visit)

We used the city bus to go out to the furthest location, then walked back in toward the hotel. Sometimes we then took a bus from the last visit to the hotel.

We bought a Romapass, which let us enter the Colosseum at the front of a long, loooong line. We also used it for the Baths of Caracalla, but just because we could. The Romapass covered 3 days of bus rides.

I think the most important thing to remember is that 3 days is too short to see everything you'd like to. You have to accept that and enjoy what you can see.
It is also really helpful to stay in the central historic area to minimize travel time, maximize opportunities to stroll around in the evenings or early mornings.
here is a fairly recent thread on Rome in 3 days (for a family with kids)
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35045649

IMO the catacombs would not be a major site to visit in only three days (although we did enjoy the archeobus route during a week-long stay in Rome)
I would do Vatican museums and St. Peters, Forum/Colosseum/Palatine/other ancient Roman sites and some time around the Piazza della Rotunda/Piazza Navona/Campo de Fiori area, then add on to these things that interest you. Many people would want add on the Borghese gallery as a &quot;must see.&quot;

Trastevere and the ghetto neighborhood are interesting and have good restaurants--maybe consider these areas for dinner.

for pre-trip reading Michaelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling would be my choice over Angels and Demons.

If this is your first trip to Rome, you might consider one day for the Vatican museums &amp; St. Peters, one day for ancient Rome (Forum and Coleseum area) and one day for just walking the city and seeing the fountains, piazzas and churches. A trip to the Borghese Gallery on this day might be good as well.

One way to do this is to sample the city on a hop-on, hop-off bus. Don't buy the ticket from your hotel since they often charge a additional fee but simply head towards one of the major attractions (several companies have stops beside St Peter's) and ask the sales assistants.

Some schedules are more intensive than others - we opted for a route which had a poor 2 hour frequency.

Having spent an hour or two on the bus, you than then decide what takes your fancy! You will only scratch the surface in three days - you could spend an entire day in the Vatican/Sistine Chapel alone.

For more ideas on visiting Italy, please go to my site:

http://www.hidden-italy.com/

Peter

<i>...for pre-trip reading <b>Michaelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling</b> would be my choice over Angels and Demons.<i>

I just pulled this book out to read for my trip next week. I may not finish it before I go but will enjoy it on my cruise too.

Monica </i></i>

Monica--I think you will enjoy the Ross King book. His style is very readable. It is about Raphael and the Raphael rooms as well as Michelangelo and the Sistine chapel.
I will be interested in reading about your cruise.
Have a great trip

Thanks Vttraveler, I just started the book today. Still need to finish The Pillars of Hercules by Paul Theroux.

Journal to come after my trip!

Monica ((F)0

Here is the link to my 3 days worth of itineraries. Someday I may actually post the 4th and 5th days, but remember I'm old and lazy (ha ha)

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

dave

Many if not most people who try to see and do it all in Rome in a few days find the experience exhausting and even unpleasant. Far better to prepare well with guidebook and map, choose your battles be open to fliratation (with city or otherwise) so your experience includes both &quot;empire&quot; and &quot;dolce vita.&quot;

Rome is famously &quot;eternal&quot; - many writers have suggsted you can see ancient Rome, or early Christian Rome, or Renaissance Rome, or &quot;modern&quot; (Italian nation) Rome, but you can't see them all at once. It is possible, though - however it takes a good sense of what you're looking at and a superior sense of direction! (Plus a good map.)

To both enjoy Rome and get the most of three days, don't try to see too much, give yourself enough time to sit for 10-20 minutes every hour or two (coffee, gelato, lunch, a glass of wine, or just a break to look at your guidebook).

Organize your ideas of what you want most to see into zones you can handle without running around too much: in 3 days I wouldn't bother to try to master the public transportation. Walk and take a taxi or two (it seems funny to some people, but it can be easiest to take a cab from your hotel in the AM to your most distant destination of the day, then work your way back on foot. Partly because your hotel will call the cab, and also because it can be an organizing method for your day.)

One day might be Vatican, Castel s Angelo, and Pza del Popolo (for S. Maria del Popolo, a real treasure house of a small church, if you love art) and the shopping area to the south of it. Some might say Vatican in the AM, then up to the Borghese and surrounding gardens (tickets in advance for museum), circling down to the Spanish Steps, &amp; the window shopping around via Babuino, Condotti etc at end of afternoon/early evening.

A day can easily be devoted to the Forum, Capitoline, Pza Venezia area (Bocca di Veritas, etc) and one or another adjacent area: Colosseum to south or Pantheon and pza Navona to north.

For another (and more recent) picture of Rome, take in Trastevere, and views from either the Aventine or Janiculum. Add the Villa Farnesina, a trip to Volpetti in Testaccio (fantastic food shop) and/or Campo dei Fiori.


One can also easily mix Vatican morning with Trastevere PM (people suggest Trastevere for a reason: you feel more of the sense of Rome as a place where people live there, it has lots of good restaurants and a couple of worthwhile churches to visit, some nice squares, etc.)

Obviously, 12 people here could come up with 12 different plans, all reasonable and worthwhile.

One way to add to the trip for Rome is to download the travel audio guides (free with registration) from www.sound-guides.com. They include detailed information on the forum, colossuem, pantheon, piazza Navona, St. Peters, etc. I downloaded them onto my mp3 player and will enjoy seeing the sights while listening to each tour.

Monica