natc143

Hello,

I've staying in Rome arriving May 29th 11am on Monday, and will have Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday to tour the city before boarding a 10 day mediterranean cruise on Friday.

Can you please critique my eager itinerary?

Thanks.


Monday

2pm LUNCH
3:30pm Colosseum Daily/9-19:00
4-5pm Roman Forum
5-6pm Palatine Hill Daily/9-19:00
6-7pm Nero's Golden House opt./only can go today
Arch of Constantine opt./always open
Trajan's Column opt./always open
Mamertine Prison opt./9-12:30 or 14-17:00
St. Peter-in-Chains opt./7-12 or 15:30-18:00
9pm dinner

Tuesday
10-11:30 Capital Hill Museum T-Sun 9-20:00
12pm Capital Hill always open
LUNCH
2pm Pantheon M-Sat 8:30-19:30
3pm Trevi Fountain always open
4pm Galleria Doria Pamphilj opt.
TBD Catacombs
8pm dinner

Wednesday

12pm ARRIVE eat LUNCH
reservations Borghese Gallery T-Sun 9-19:00
5pm Cappuccin Crypt *might be closed? Check
5:30pm Villa Borghese opt./always open
6-7pm National Museum of Rome (near hotel) T-Sun 9-19:45
TBD Baths of Diocletian opt./8-19:30
TBD Santa Maria della Vittoria opt./7-12 &15:30-19
9pm dinner


Thursday
10-3pm Vatican M-F 8:45-16:45
LUNCH
3-4pm St. Peter's Basillica daily/8-17:45
8pm dinner

Pausanias

I believe the Golden House has been closed for restoration.

I note you're starting late for the Vatican Museums. I'd be there when they open. They just get more crowded as the day wears on.

Arch of Constantine is between the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill.

Catacombs are a bit out of town. You might want to schedule them for early in the day.

Most of the mosaics have been moved out of the Baths of Diocletion and into the national museum (name?) across the way. Reservations required.

natc143

Thanks for the tips, I really appreciate it.

tcreath

I think your itinerary would work, but I personally would hate to have a set schedule made out by the hour. One of the best things to do it Rome is to simply stroll through the streets and piazzas, stop for gelato, duck into interesting churches, etc. Your itinerary would leave little room for that, and its a shame. I also think that if you may want to give yourself some time in the evenings to rest or freshen up before dinner; otherwise you are likely to exhaust yourself.

Tracy

tcreath

One other thought; we enjoyed the Baths of Diocletian, but both DH and I liked the Baths of Caracalla much more. It's in a pretty park-like setting and gets much less tourists than the Baths of Diocletian, which are right across the street from Termini.

Good luck!
Tracy

DejaVu

FYI the catacombs are rather far out. I doubt you'll have time for them.

The area around Piazza Navona (near the Pantheon) is quite nice and worth exploring. There are some beautiful churches around there, for example.

I find your itinerary a bit tight, but I spend longer in museums and on sites than most people. The Museo Nazionale would take longer than an hour if you took your time through it; so too the Capitoline Museums. Both have a large collection. An hour is too fast through the Forum, IMHO, if you want to take your time and learn/study your way through it. And you can spend longer than a half hour in the Colosseum, again, if you're taking your time and looking at everything.

Santa Maria della Vittoria, with the wonderful Bernini, IMHO is a must since you're staying nearby (sounds like).

natc143

Thank you, I know what you mean about the tight schedule. I just wanted to be sure I saw the MOST important sites on this trip. I hope to come back someday, but you never know.

Thanks again for the advice =)

mel_hunt

This looks like a VERY ambitious schedule. Realizing that there are so many wonderful things to do in Rome, I'd either extend my stay so that I could enjoy all of them at a more leisurely pace, or take a few of them off the list to be enjoyed on a return trip.

Just my .02

Melissa

natc143

I'm arriving 11am and I'm wondering how I will feel during that day. I imagine I can sleep somewhat on the plane. Will I be stuck in the hotel room or will I be energized with some cappuccino?

wonderer

Having just returned from Italy and using so many suggestions from this board, I am returning the favor. The catacombs are far out and crowded. If you get in the middle of a group you may be okay but if you get in the front or back (which reverse) you will miss everything the guide says. There are no taxis there. You have to figure out where the bus stop is, wait and then take it back to Rome. I'm glad we went but I wouldn't recommend it. The best things we did were:
1. Context Rome tours (ex: first one we did was with a Phd in Archeology, lives in Rome but from the US east coast, walking us through the colliseum, palentine hill, forum, Trajans column, etc. Wonderful, first class tours. Only 6 people max. They give great restaurants ideas to you too.
2. Borghesse Gallery (the 2 hours they allow is you fairly sufficient but you can't stay longer).
3. Vatican Museum, St. Peters (go early, the line will be intimidating but moves fast once it opens. You could spend easily 4-6 hours here)
4. Capitoline Museum (great museum poorly laid out so it takes a while but we loved it)
5. Pantheon (the best!)
6. Pompeii Day tour
7. San Giovanni L. church
Waste of precious time to go to Trevi Fountain and fight the crowds. Waste of time to see the Spanish steps. I heard the baths were great but we did not have time to see them. Wish we had gone there instead of Trevi or catacombs.

natc143

Thanks Wonderer! I appreciate the tips.

franco

Hello,
I don't love to discourage you, but have to do it nevertheless: it's impossible to see the most important sights of Rome in four days, so you have to make a choice anyway (which you did, but please don't believe these are the most important sights).
I don't dare saying that I have more important sights for you than (some of) those you have on your list, but I do dare saying that your list lacks variety, given the enormous variety of Rome's sights.
Let's do it day by day:
Monday - Colosseum, Forum, Palatine, ok (Arch of Constantine and Traian's Column included). The Domus Aurea is closed for restoration (yes, yet again!!). Forget about the rest. You won't see S. Pietro in Vincoli, no chance (1st you simply haven't time enough, 2nd you'll be tired after your flight, too, 3rd it's quite a distance to walk from the Forum, 4th the church is closing too early). If you want to include something else, consider S. Clemente (obviously, you have a good source for opening hours, check if it's open till 19 or 19.30), excellent example of what Rome is like - built in layers, one age over the former.

Tuesday
Trevi Fountain - the one and only point in your schedule with TOO MUCH time assigned - way too much. Consider including S. Ivo alla Sapienza - baroque architecture almost, and Borromini's works totally missing from your itinerary. Love it or hate it (I love it, but that says nothing about your response to it), Borromini is one of the most important figures in Rome's artistic history, and I don't think a "most important sights of Rome" itinerary could do without Borromini. I vote for including the Doria-Pamphilj, IMO Rome's best museum (didactically, and they have splendid works on display, too). Forget about the Catacombs - it would be well after dark till you get there, and they'd be closed for long.

Wednesday
I don't understand this day - what about the hours before noon? If you have no other plans, you could make the journey to one or two of the Catacombs now; or else, consider visiting more of baroque Rome, which is the blank space of your itinerary. Congratulations to not including the Spanish Steps (highly overrated), but what about a short Caravaggio tour? (Another of those super-important Roman artists.) I'd propose S. Maria del Popolo (not quite surprising), S. Luigi dei Francesi and S. Agostino, that's a tight but extremely delightful schedule for a half-day.
In the afternoon, I don't understand why you want to go for the Galleria Borghese, then for the Padri Cappuccini, and then back to Villa Borghese park?? The Galleria Borghese is actually inside Villa Borghese. No chance to see the National Museum in one hour, but if you're feeling bored, you could add S. Maria degli Angeli instead (just around the corner from that museum) - a Renaissance church fit into the Baths of Diocletian by nobody else than Michelangelo.
Thursday is reasonable; somebody here recommended recently NOT to come early to the museum, since the lines were even longer then, so you might stick to your 10 a.m. schedule (I must admit that I've never seen any long crowd in front of the Vatican Museums, and I've been there quite more than once. ??? Just good luck? Or a result of my strict refusal to get up early when I'm on a holiday?)
Still, you haven't seen the world's first baroque church, Il Gesù - certainly a candidate for your "most important sights" list, and near to the Capitol; and you have nothing of medieval Rome, highly underrated and often overseen (by you as well, seemingly). To catch at least a glimpse of it, you could include S. Marco, inside Palazzo Venezia, at the foot of Capitol hill, with a splendid 9th century mosaic in the apse.
Else, there is S. Maria Maggiore (terrific mixture of Roman antique and Romanesque medieval mosaics, with a baroque exterior), not far from Stazione Termini (thus a possible substitute for S. Maria degli Angeli/Baths of Diocletian). I could go on and on, but unfortunately, haven't more time left right now...

nini

We were in Rome recently and the Cappuchin Crypts are open--allow 30 minutes at the most--this is a rather macabre place to say the least. Don't bother to see the Diocletian Baths that are in the church near Termini though the church is interesting--dome designed by Michelangelo. The Borghese is a place where you may want to visit in the morning rather than late in the day when you may be too tired to enjoy it. The Context Rome Tour of Palatine Hill, Coloseum, and Forum is fantastic--allow four hours. We took the metro to the Pyramid and here you can also see remains of the ancient Roman wall and there is a beautiful cemetary there which is interesting and free--very garden like. The Coloseum and Forum are not places to visit when you are jet lagged. Nero's Golden House is definitely closed. As touristy as it is, you may want to see Mouth of Truth. Have a great trip!

nessundorma

I think the Trevi fountain is best seen at night, and then not for very long. See it as a nightcap after dinner before heading back to your hotel -- and if somehow you never make it, don't think you've missed a lot.

tcreath

I think the trevi fountain is beautiful lit up at night, but it is such a tourist trap filled with people, and there are men that always harrass us to try to get us to buy roses or have them take our picture for money or sell us stupid toys....it gets annoying after awhile and takes away from any ambience. We visited on our first two trips to Rome, but skipped it last time with no regrets. There are beautiful fountains all over Rome...trevi is not necessarily a "must see".

Tracy

Eloise

As a Borromini fan, I have to add that seeing Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza is not that easy; it's only open Sunday morning, but during half that time thete is a service going on, so you can't really view the church. On the other hand, his tiny San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (and its tiny adjoining cloister) has regular hours. And just a few hundred feet from San Carlo is Bernini's Sant'Andrea al Quirinale, also small, but how different! Bernini and Borromini were rivals; everyone knows how that ended: Borromini committed suicide relatively early, while Bernini lived to a ripe old age, enjoying papal patronage.

SusanP

You've received some good advice. I don't think there's any way you will get all that done on the first day unless you are very high energy, have no adverse effect from jet lag, and move very quickly. Doesn't sound like fun to me! I also wondered about Wed. How are you arriving at noon when you already arrived on Monday?

missypie

If you stick to your Monday schedule, we'll be at the Colosseum, Forum, etc. at the same time! Look for a family of 5, with two red haired kids!

jules4je7

I wouldn't characterize your itinerary as "a bit tight". It's outrageously tight.

There is no way you'll see the Colisseum in an hour, then within the next hour see the Forum, then another hour to see Palatine hill. Unless you're walking straight through and not paying any attention to what you're looking at, it could take the better part of a day to see those three things.

Several items you have are quite some distance apart -- if you're walking from one to the other, it could take at least a 1/2 hour to an hour to get to many of them.

I'd suggest putting the "must see" stuff near the beginning of your day, and put the stuff you're less worried about fitting in near the end. That way you see what you really came for, and can add on whatever you have time for.

Also, I'd suggest seeing St. Peter's right when it opens (usually at 8 a.m.), do a walking tour (I strongly recommend Rick Steves, as he has some really outstanding advice on how to see the best of the Vatican in a 3-hour tour), then on to the Cistine Chapel and Vatican Museum from there. You could be done at the Vatican in a matter of 4 or 5 hours (Make sure you climb the dome, it's on the "Best list" of Rome views. You might still have time at the end of the day to add some other things.

Also, watch out at the eateries around The Vatican. They're notorious for ripping off tourists.

Happy travels,

Jules

kswl

Are you sleeping until noon on Wednesday? If you begin earlier than 12 pm on Wednesday you'll have more time, although I agree that your schedule is just too tight.