Rome: First Time Advise Please
 

We are thinking about making Rome our next trip and are hoping to visit in early October. The most time we will have for our trip is nine nights flying non-stop Boston to Rome. I don't think this is enought time to do the "big three": Rome, Venice and Florence, particulary at a leasurely pace. Right now I an leaning towards basing ourselves in Rome (near the Pantheon hopefully) and seeing all the highlights of Rome and also incorporating daytrips from the city. Any thoughts on this approach or perhaps some alternatives. Thanks very much.

You can keep yourself quite busy in ROme for 9 nights and certainly won't feel rushed. You would also have plenty of time for day trips (Orvieto, Pompeii to name a couple). ANother options is doing Rome and 1 other city (Venice or FLorence) with 5 or 6 nights Rome and the rest in the other location. If you should choose the later, definitely go for an openjaw ticket (or did you already purchase round trip to ROme?).

we did 10 days in rome a couple of years ago so i think that 9 days with a couple of day trips would be fine. ostia antica is a fun day trip. stop at the ruins and then continue on to the sea for lunch. i really could stay in rome for a couple of weeks. there is so much to see and do. we stayed at the hotel des artistes. i would recommend this hotel but there are many other nice ones that people will recommend. have fun.

MFNYC:
No, we have not purchased our tickets yet. Still in the planning stages. Can you please explain "open jaw ticket". I have seen this several times on the forum but don't quite understand how it works. Thanks.

Openjaw is arrive in 1 city, depart from another. I've found that this doesn't affect the price all that much, if at all.

An "open jaw" ticket is when you fly into one place (e.g. Rome) and out of another (e.g. Venice). The price can be a bit higher but probably not as high as a return train ticket to get you back to Rome for your flight. If you have never been to Venice or Florence, I highly recommend considering one or the other in addition to Rome. Rome for 6 days and Venice for 3 would be wonderful. And then you will have no choice but to return to Italy!

I would split it between Rome and Florence. Venice is too far north to try and do on this trip. You could do 5 days in Rome and 4 in Florence - that would allow you time to see all the important sites in each city, at a leisurely pace. It is entirely feasible and sounds like a great trip! The train in between Rome and Florence is a fast one, so that helps timewise too. It would allow you to settle into the city and still have time to see things same day.

6 Rome, 3 Venice sounds good to me too! You can even consider spending 1 night on the road in between in one of the smaller towns. We've done similar trips twice before (each no more than 9 nights).

We will be travelling to Italy in May and will fly into Rome, immediately fly over to Venice for 3 days (we were told we didn't need more than this), on to Florence via train for 3 days, and then on to Rome for 4 days. Daytrips from Rome (e.g. Pompeii) are very long and you will require a full day's bus tour. (We have been to Rome and the southern half of the country before.) You will need at least 4 days in Rome itself to truly appreciate all of it. If you find that you have a full day to stray, take a bus tour through the Amalfi coast -- you will never forget it! Also, the area around the Pantheon is wonderful. We particularly loved a little bistro right across the piazza - very romantic at night with the Pantheon lit up.

We visited Rome last Sept. and concur with your selection of the Pantheon area. We also loved the bistro right across the piazza. There are a number of hotels in that general area
(Pantheon, Campo de Fiori, Plazza Navona, etc.) Although it is dangerous to generalize, I found hotels in this area to be smaller with a real Roman flavor (vs. bigger/glitzier full service hotels).

I don't strongly disagree with the above, but let me make another suggestion.

Rome is great, and you won't run out of things to do, even with daytrips, and you want to be leisurely, but Rome is also hectic and it might be nice to have a change of pace for the last few days of your trip. So I'd suggest:
Plan 5 days in Rome, do a daytrip one day, perhaps to Florence (depending on your interests. Then spend the remaining days in either Venice (from which you can fly home on an open-jaw ticket) or from Florence (in which case you can fly home from there with a change of plane, or return to Rome to fly home.)

Bette, I don't think there are any non-stops to Rome out of Logan, Alitalia was the last one but they discontinued that 4-5yrs ago. Now they just do Milan non-stop.
  But I have only gone off-season (Nov-Mar) so perhaps some airline does do that route in peak/shoulder-season. Regards, Walter

Thanks for all your replies.
Paradise Lost: Alitalia is showing a non-stop from Boston starting in May through October. Not everyday of the week. Right now it shows 5 days only. I thought we would have to go through Milan also and found this non-stop just by pricing out various flights on their website. I called them just to verify the non-stop status from Boston; the agent indicated this is a new service and appears to only be high season right now.

I agree with Huitres. Spend a few nights in Florence (FANTASTIC) and the rest in Rome (UNFORGETTABLE). I recommend you stay at the Hotel Pendini, affordable, gracious, large rooms right in the heart of the historical district in the Republica square if I remember correctly.
Look it up at www.FLORENCEITALY.NET. In Rome I highly suggest you stay at the Grand Hotel Plaza, a little expensive but an experience by itself, get a room overlooking the courtyard, large rooms and very quiet which is rare in Rome. Walking distance to everything. Don't let the map of Rome fool you. You can walk to almost any point of interest within 15 to 20 minutes and of course your enjoying the sites along the way. The Vastican will be further but a $5 cab ride takes care of that. Enjoy!

Sorry, forgot. If you can go to Florence first, rent a car upon leaving and drive to Rome, droping the car off probably at the train terminal, taxi to the hotel. The trip from Florence to Rome through the Tuscany region is to die for, and you'll spend a night in one of the many hilltop stone walled cities. (WONDERFUL!!!!!) Don't pass on this. You have plenty of time. WHY? BECAUSE YOU"LL BE RETURNING TIME AND TIME AGAIN LIKE THE REST OF US AND YOU DON"T HAVE TO EXHAUST EACH SITE ON YOUR FIRST VISIT. Enjoy, I'm jealous!