Rome In A Day (or less)
 

Yes, I know it is very ambitious to even put it lightly, but we will be attempting to 'do' Rome in about 12 hours. I know this is a very optimistic schedule, but please bear with me:

Monday, 6:00am - Arrive in Rome via overnight train from the Cinque Terre
 Sequence of events in tentative order:
  Store bags at Termini
  Imperial Forums
  Vittoriano
  Capitoline Hill
  Roman Forum
  Colosseum
  Late breakfast in Campo de' Fiori
  Vatican Museum
  St. Peter's Basilica
  Castel Sant'Angelo
  Late lunch in Piazza Navona
  Pantheon
  Trevi Fountain
  Collect Bags at Termini
20:35pm - Depart Rome from CIA airport

Based on this itinerary, I reach out to all you Rome travel experts with the following questions:

1. Which sight is not worth our time?
2. Is there a sight we are crazy to have forgotten?
3. Are the infamous Vatican lines at the entrance of Vatican City itself, at the Vatican Museum entrance, or both?
4. What time should we be at Termini station in order to catch some public transport and arrive at CIA airport the requisite hour before our flight?

Any other constructive advice is appreciated as well.

Forget the Vittoriano; whatever you see as you go by it is more than enough.

But how are you going to do anything before 9:00 a.m., which is when both the Colosseum and the Roman Forum open?

The first mass at St. Peter's Basilica is at 8:30; I don't know whether it opens any much earlier.

You won't have much of a line to get into St. Peter's early in the morning, but the Vatican Museums only start admitting individual visitors at 10:00, unless you book with a "non-tour" tour such as www.rome-museum.com.

Getting to Ciampino is not the easiest thing in the world, unless you are flying with one of the discount airlines that has a contract with Terravision:
http://www.terravision.eu/rome_ciampino.html

Storing and retrieving luggage at Termini can be time-consuming, although probably somewhat less so at 6:00 a.m.

I'm by no means an expert, but were I to do a day in Rome, I'd group the activities as 1) ancient Rome, 2) central sights; 3) Vatican.

Ancient Rome -- walking around the Forum, Colosseum, and that area; break at Campo di Fiori; over to Pantheon and perhaps Trevi Fountain nearby (Pantheon a much higher priority IMO); coffee break or lunch, then a cab to the Vatican and see St. Peter's -- doubt you will have time or energy for museums at that point, but who knows. Or reverse order if your priority is the Vatican; I'm not sure about dining options near the Vatican. Some lovely and reasonable places for lunch around Campo di Fiori. Also, as I recall, the Vatican museum is crowded early in the day and empties out late in the day.

Slow Travel it's not, but doable. My priorities would be ancient area, Pantheon, St. Peter's.

By CIA do you mean FCO?

WOW

That is one heck of an ambitious itinerary.

I'd cut out the Imperial Forums except for walking by them on the way to the Colosseum. Walk by them, and by Trajan's Markets (Trajan's Column). Stop and look around for a couple minutes and continue heading to the Colosseum and Ancient Forum. Skip the Palatine Hill. Buy one of the flip books with transparencies that flip over pics of the ruins - that way you can ID what you are looking at in the Forum.

Are you aware the line just to get into the Vatican can be hours long? Just so you know. I'd skip touring the inside of Castel Sant'Angelo on such a short trip. Do a walk-by, admire the angels on the bridge, and keep moving.

There are some things that open as early as 7am.

This church is fairly near the Termini:

Santa Maria della Vittoria [contains Bernini's St. Teresa in Ecstasy] (free, open daily 7am - 12pm and 3:30pm - 7pm)

Near the Pantheon (opens at 8:30am during the week and 9am on Sunday), the following churches are open if you want to switch up your itinerary some.

Church of San Luigi dei Francesci (open 7:30am - 12:30pm and 3:30pm - 7pm, free)

Church of St. Ignazio (open 7am - 12:30pm and 4pm - 7pm, free)

Santa Maria sopra Minerva (Rome's only Gothic church, has a less visited Michelangelo statue) - free, open 7:30am - 7pm



Good Luck with this!

Jack
I wish you well, but I simply can't begin to give advise on how you can enjoy what you plan in such a short time.
I'll try and help, but what you propose is really a bit "crazy" IMHO.
You arrive at 6,so say you are at a taxi stand at 6:30.
As Zerlina says,most everything is closed.
I'd reverse your plan. Taxi to the Vatican and eat breakfast there.
Try and prebook an 8:00 am tour.
Although paying for the tour, you will have to leave it early to stay on schedule. But,if it's all about the schedule,you must.
You will not be out before 10am in any event.
From there go to St'Angelo. I rarely recommend this on first trips with people who have 3/4 days. However, you can get an audio tour and be out in an hour. Taxi to navona and lunch nearby. de'Fiori is nearby you can walk there and then to the Pantheon.
It's an easy walk to Trevi/Spanish steps.
If your lunch didn't take long (the opposite of an Italian lunch), figure it's now 3pm.
Taxi to Vittoriano nd get your pictures, walk to the Forum via the Capitoline Hill. Here get tickets to Coloseum.
Possibly do an audio tour of each,paying attention to your time.
You are close to the Termini and should leave the forum by 19:30 (Colosseum closes then). This give you time to get your bags,grab a gelato and finally take a breath.
I assume that you are going in high season. If not,all bets are off.

As far as:
"2. Is there a sight we are crazy to have forgotten?"
-To misparaphrase Forrest Gump:" Crazy is as crazy does."
And this schedule does seem crazy,adding more only compounds it.
Hopefully,you'll hit no traffic,weather is perfect and you don't get lost.

Here are my thoughts:

Capitoline Hill - you can at least walk around this in the morning, and then walk past the Roman Forum on your way to the Colosseum

Vatican Museum - you'll spend most of the morning waiting to get in, drop it.

St. Peter's Basilica - most likely the same thing, not quite as long of a line but still daunting. If this is really important to you, you should work around this.

Castel Sant'Angelo - I haven't been inside yet so I can't opine.

Late lunch in Piazza Navona - if you are only doing this to say you've been there... why not walk through it to say you've been there in case some other restaurant you pass strikes your fancy (in other words don't be wedded to this for lunch since you may be someplace entirely different at that time). I' dsay the same for breakfast unless you have a place picked out.

Pantheon - easy enough to get into. If you have time, Santa Maria Sopra Minerva is just behind it, and has a Michelangelo inside.

Trevi Fountain - DROP. ugh. It's beautiful, but the crowds are worse than any bar I've ever set foot into. At least you won't be in danger of having someone spill beer on you. If your trip is in the winter, maybe, but otherwise - DROP.

Collect Bags at Termini - given traffic I'd be in a taxi no later than 6 PM to head to the Termini and then on to Ciampino. This means barely 11, 12 if you really stretch it... hours on the ground in Rome... good luck!
20:35pm - Depart Rome from CIA airport

It sounds ambitious but doable if you plan it to be "geographically logical" or don't mind paying for taxis (given the amount of walking, you will be better served to do that anyway...)

Jack, please share with us your teleportation technology so we all can benefit! ;-)

Seriously, I absolutely love Rome and I wouldn't want you to come away with a bad impression just because you tried to "do" all this in 12 hours. (There are several threads on this forum about why people hate Rome and I honestly think a big part of it is that people don't "stop and smell the roses" so to speak.) I'm not against ambitious schedules but what you've listed is more than crazy - it's impossible.

I agree with annw's breakdown of the sites into 3 categories (which are more or less geographically clustered). In my mind you need to decide which of the following two clusters is the highest priority for you:

- St. Peter's and the Vatican museums (with meals that's easily a full day right there, possibly with Castel Sant Angelo thrown in too). There will be long lines for both.

or

- Ancient Rome (you could walk by Il Vittoriano and the Imperial forums, then tour the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, and Colosseum, in that order, and maybe visit a nearby church or two). Buy the joint ticket for Palatine Hill & Colosseum at Palatine Hill and tour the hill first, then you avoid the long lines at the Colosseum. The view of the Roman Forum from Palatine Hill is awesome.

You might be able to get over to the Pantheon and Piazza Navona, depending on how you time things. You don't say when you're going; be sure to check opening days and times for everything.

I would skip Capitoline Hill, Trevi Fountain, and Campo de Fiori altogether on this trip.

Best of luck!

Keep in mind a couple of things.

1. This is all after a train that departs La Spezia at 1:30am! Hardly an 'overnight' train.

2. This is Italy. Things work at a slower pace, even if you want to go faster. You can't instantly zip from point a to point b - I think you've way underestimated the time it takes to get around. If you are taking taxis you need to find one first. There are taxi stands around town, but you have to figure out where they are as it's not always obvious.

3. Since time is of the essence don't plan on any sit-down meals. There are food shops (small & med sized), bars, and many other places that sell take away food. If you sit for a meal wave 1hr goodbye.

Trevi, Pantheon and Piazza Navona are all right near each other. If you're at one you should walk by the others.

sounds like an adventuresome trek. Figure out what are your must do's and which are nice to haves, else you'll waste a lot of time seeing things of lower priority and miss others.