Rome ideas
 

My husband and I are planning a trip to Rome/environs mid-March of 2012. We are thinking of about a week in the city and then another few days somewhere in the surrounding countryside. Is March a good time to go? (We tend to prefer the shoulder season, with less crowds and slightly lower prices.) And what nearby location in the countryside would you recommend?

March is a good time, as is November.

I don't find the countryside around Rome to be particularly rewarding, but Florence and Tuscany are a reasonable train ride away. If you haven't been to Italy before, it is worth it. Siena is perhaps even more wonderful, and Venice is the best of all.

You won't have any trouble filling up ten days or two weeks in Rome with perhaps a local tour to one of the nearby gardens or villas.

in /march, I'd be inclined to head south for the countryside.

you could combine a trip to the amalfi with Rome in March.

or stick to rome with a few day trips as Ack suggests.

In March the weather is still chilly and can be rainy. Just be prepared and you will be fine.

We were in Rome in mid-March a few years back. It was sunny and in the high 70s/low 80Fs during the day. The weather is really unpredictable, like it is in many places that time of year. Rain is more likely September through February (see average temps and rainfall: http://weather.yahoo.com/climo/ITXX0067_f.html)

Orvieto is a charming little hill town in Umbria, worth visiting and even spending a night. Another possiblility is staying in the Sorrento area, and visit Pompeii.

The region around Rome (called Lazio) is one of Italy's lest visited, and while it's sometimes less than charming, there's no reason at all to avoid it - sights are plenty and great, and some parts of it ARE charming indeed, so I would never go as far as Orvieto or Sorrento, but stick to your plan and stay in the region: you won't regret it. The most beautiful corners are between Viterbo and Sutri in the north, and the area between Anagni - Alatri - Arpino - Segni - Cori in the south-east. If you want to stay closer to Rome, consider Palestrina, which is great, or even Tivoli (for all the visitors Villa d'Este and Villa Adriana get, nobody ever seems to visit the town, which is a shame!).

Thanks so much for the feedback, guys! I appreciate your help!

Travels w/ M&J http://web.me.com/jvscully

Don't forget to get up to the Aventine Hill. It's one of my favorite spots.
Happy trails,
Janet

franco - Why would you never go as far north as Orvieto? It's a reasonable 60 miles from Rome and looks charming. Would it be particularly cold in March, due to its altitude?

March is a fine time to visit, as long as Easter doesn't fall on the period that you are planning.

You may want to visit my website, it has lots of free info, guidebooks, my own freely downloadable audio and print guides and more...

www.passagetoroma.com

dave

If you have 4 or 5 days, I suggest Florence and the Tuscan countryside. There is little less appealing than a seaside resort if the weather turns out to be chilly and rainy so I'd avoid the Amalfi Coast this early in the year. Florence is great both in the sun and the rain - there is so much to see and do.

Rome should be great in March - the later in themonth, the better.

Orvieto is a delightful town however it has a very strict siesta time between 2-4pm and some places 1-4 pm.So when you go up there on a daytrip go very early as you are really "picking your nose" when everything in town closes for those 2-3 hours. The cave trip is very interesting and I would highly recommend that during your visit.
However, if you only have a week in Rome and then just a few other days I would probably bypass it for something else as the town didn't hold enough interest to me to warrant staying a day and a night?
I love Rome in late February and March-just be aware that most hotels in Rome start moving into higher season rates after Feb.15th.

bradshawgirl, I wouldn't go as far as Orvieto since there is simply no reason for it. Of course it's beautiful and interesting, but there is a plethora of places that are at least as beautiful and interesting in Italy, and I don't see any reason to pass by several charming towns without visiting them just to reach another charming town that is no more or less worth visiting than the others, just farther away. What sense would it make, in a country where there are certainly 50 towns that are as interesting as or more interesting than Orvieto? Just because some guidebooks (and following them, zillions of tourists) have picked Orvieto, of all those beautiful, interesting and charming towns, as a "must see" destination, not having even the faintest idea about most of the 49 other "must sees"? For me, that's one more reason to go anywhere but Orvieto: I shun tourist crowds. So I'd prefer to see one of those other great towns (mentioned above) that are less distant, and where I'd most probably be the only tourist.

These are all great tips! We are going in late March, so we will miss Easter by about a week and a half.

I'm thinking no more than three days outside of Rome, and we could do those all in one trip or break them up into a couple of day trips.

Though Florence has alot to offer, one of the reasons we'd like to get out of Rome is to visit some places that are smaller and slower-paced, with less pressure to do, go and see everything. Make sense?

I'm not really feeling the seaside, but I like the idea of hill towns/Umbria.

Any other suggestions you would make, based on the info above?

If you want a 2 day trip that very few make, but takes you back to a time long before Rome existed, go to Paestum. It is about an hour south of Naples. Pasteum holds arguably the most pristine doric GREEK temples in the world. A great B&B there is Casa GianCesare.

dave

Of course, as early as March, there won't yet be any crowds, so that's certainly a point in favour of Orvieto, if you really want to go to Umbria. But keep in mind that in order to see Umbria, you'd need two weeks minimum, so all you could see in three days is a small portion of Umbria.

As far as moving from Rome to another base for those three days vs. daytripping from Rome, you couldn't see the same sights. Three daytrips from Rome to Umbria, Viterbo, Sutri, or the Anagni-Alatri-Segni-Cori area (the so-called Ciociaria) wouldn't make sense since it's so time-consuming to go out of and back into Rome by car (and if you go by public transport, that's slow anyway). So daytripping from Rome, you'd go to Tivoli, Palestrina, Ostia Antica, Cerveteri; moving, you could either do the Ciociaria, or northern Lazio (Viterbo and so on), or the southern tip of Umbria (Orvieto, Todi, Lago di Piediluco, Ameglia, Lugnano in Teverina).

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Bradshawgirl1-I don't know what country you are coming from but going the week and a half before Easter it will be packed in Rome. I work for an airline and the month of March is when we change to bigger equipment as the tourist season is in full swing. I live in Chicago and most of the midwest of the US is on some type of spring break during March.All of our flights particularly to Rome are always full so expect crowds as that is not the "shoulder season" anymore!

dutyfree - Eeek. Well, it's a bit late for that, as we've just booked our airline tickets! I guess we will be waiting in line!

Considering your advice, we will be booking our lodging SOON.

bradshawgirl1 - sorry to intrude on your thread. We are visiting next april and i was also under the impression that it would be an off-season.

Can anyone tell me how's April like? We are visting Rome for 5 days in the third week of april....a week after Easter. Can we expect some discounts on hotel bookings?