Hi, my wife and I will be travelling to Rome for 5 nights in November. Arriving on 17th sunday and leaving on 22nd friday morning.

Will sky be dark after 5pm during that period?

Was wondering what to do on the first day as we will arrive at 2pm.

We would like to go to the following attractions but are unsure how to group them up nicely.

Proposed itinerary:

1) 17th Sunday - Orientation around Rome? Night walk across Rome?

2) 18th Monday - Morning -Vatican museums, sistine chapel, St peter's basilica, st peter's square. For the vatican tour, how long will it take? Afternoon - Jewish Ghetto, Trastevere

3) 19th Tuesday - Morning -Colosseum, Roman Forum, Palatine hill. How long will this take again? Afternoon - Capitoline Museums, Victor Emmanuel II Monument, Pantheon (churches around Pantheon)

4) 20th Wednesday - Morning - Ostia Antica. What should we do after coming back from there? Should we go to Borghese Gallery? I heard the evening view from pincio gardens is nice

5) 21st Thursday - not thought of yet.

Some of the other places we will also like to go are Largo Argentina (wife is a cat lover), Aventine hill, campo dei fiori in the morning to stock up some supplies, Baths of caracalla(is it worth going?) and castel sant'angelo in the evening. We are unsure where to slot these places into the itinerary.

Any suggestions are welcomed for us to improve on this itinerary. Thanks.

For sunrise and sunset times you can use this site

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldcloc...omy.html?n=215

The Vatican Museums are vast...allow 2.5-3 hours and finish at St Peters. You will leave through the Sistine chapel and you can go right into St Peters from there.

Trust me, you don't need to schedule a visit to Largo Argentina. You will come across it a lot as your travel through Rome. We ended up there almost everyday, somehow!

Definitely make a point of going to Borghese galleries. You need to reserve a time slot and it is for two hours only but don't miss it.

The Colisseum/Forum will depend on how much you want to see. We did a small group tour with Context that was 3 hours, but includes the Colisseum underground and top tier. The Forum would have been really hard to understand for me without a guide, so tie really depends on you. What you know and want to see and how long you like to linger around a particular ruin. We did not enjoy Ostia Antica as much because we didn't know much about what we were looking at...it is a huge site.

We didn't go to Castel Sant Angelo or the Baths, so I can't help there.

Not sure of your budget but on our first night we took a food tour with Elizabeth Minchilli at Campo die Fiori and a small but of the Jewish Ghetto. She offers groups and private options. We did a private tour, so it was more expensive but we really enjoyed it. It wa a good way to learn a bit, learn our way around a bit and a great way for us to stay up on our first day in town and fight the jet lag.

2. How long will the Vatican tour take? If you've booked a tour then the tour web site will say how long the tour takes. If you're going on your own then you can spend whatever time you like. Some people could spend all day. I would be tired after 3 to 4 hours.

This is a lot to do in one day unless you're very young and energetic and can handle hours of standing.

3. Again, it takes however long you want. It depends on the person and how much time they want to devote to each site. You could spend 15 minutes at the Colosseum or you could spend 2 hours. Same with the Forum (but longer times).

4. See St. Paul Outside the Walls either on your way to Ostia Antica or on the way back. I doubt you'll have the time to get to OA, see the site (quite large), get back and visit the Borghese Gallery. You would have to book the 5:00 tickets. You may be tired and not want 2 hours in a museum after OA.

I recommend visiting the Borghese Gallery in the morning and take a docent-led tour. English tours are only offered in the morning.

If you want to see the sights in any depth I think you are scheduling too much each day.

IMHO, Coliseum, Forum and Capitoline Museum are a very full day.

As is St Peters and the Vatican.

If you are willing to have a more cursory look thing can take less time.

But you also need to check opening hours - which may be shorter that time of year - and obviously you can;t see a lot of outdoor sights in the evening as you would in summer.

Thanks you all so much for the comments! I guess we will have to make some changes to our itinerary so as not to pack so much in a day.

There are nice views from the top of Castel Sant'Angelo, but you need to make sure how late they are open. It's pretty convenient to walk from St. Peter's to the Castel if you wanted to do that after the Vatican and move Trastevere and the Ghetto to another day.

Hi can I ask if I schedule the Vatican to Tuesday, should I buy the advance tickets for the Vatican Museums as I'm not sure of the crowd there during November on a Tuesday?

I spent 6 glorious nights in Rome this past May. I still never made it around to sharing my trip report but I can offer suggestions based on my experience.

We arrived in the early evening on a Monday so all we had time to do was eat dinner and walk around Piazza Navonna. The next morning we did the Colosseum, Forum, Palatine Hill tour with one of the popular tour groups. I think it was from 8ish am - noonish. That was plenty of time for us. I thought the tour was excellent and the guides very knowledgeable.

We had reservations for the 5p entrance to the Borghese Museum (without a guide). We thought we would be tired so we didn't plan anything between the 2 tours, but as it turns out we had plenty of energy so we walked and visited a bunch of churches - and the baths - on the way to the museum. We grabbed a quick lunch along the way.

After the museum, it was early evening so we enjoyed our walk through the gardens piazzas and back toward the P Navonna area where we were staying.

We enjoyed our stop at Largo Argentina although we did have to make a purposeful effort to find it.

I am glad we skipped Castel Sant'Angelo but it is beautiful from the outside!

We did the Vatican/Sistine Chapel with the same tour operator and it was from 7:30is to noonish. Again, this was plenty of time for us and I would definitely recommend using a guide to visit these locations.

Happy Travels!

Yes - but in May daylight hours are WAY longer than in Nov - and many sights are also open for longer hours.

I've been to Rome several times over the last 6 years during the latter part of November and yes, it does start to get dark between 4:30pm & 5pm at that time of year. This year, the time changes (clocks turn back) on Oct. 26th in Italy.