Arriving either at 8:50 am or 9:50 am (depending on what train i can catch)and leaving on the 5:05 pm train back to the port of Civitavecchia...

Please help me figure out how i could see as many sites in Rome as i can..

I have a 2:15 pm reservation for the Scavi tour...

I'd like to see:

-Trevi Fountain
-Piazza Di Spagna
-Piazza del Popolo
-St Peters and the Vatican
-The Colosseum
-The Pantheon
-Sistine Chapel

other sites also thought about are:
-The Vittorio Emanuele Building in Piazza Venezia
-Capitoline Museum
-and any other site that i have forgotten

Now, i know its impossible to see all of those.. But out of the list, what would be a good combination that would not have me crossing town several times.. Can someone by chance helpe me with a possible layout of how to hit the sites in a good order? (and include if i need to take the metro etc to get from point to point)

thanks so much

I hope you are able to get on the earlier train. Once at Termini station, take Metro line A to the Flamina stop. Exit there and you will be just outside one of the main gates in the Aurelian Wall. Enter that and you are in Piazza del Popolo. Peek into Santa Maria Del Popolo as there is a Caravaggio and Raphael to see. Walk down Via Babuino to the Piazza di Spagna and see the Spanish Steps. Continue out of the Piazza on Via Due Macelli, cross Via Tritone and turn right on Via Arcione. Continue a couple of blocks to the Fountain of Trevi. Exit the fountain area by taking Via Muratte. Cross the Corso and continue on Via del Seminario to Piazza Rotunda and see the Pantheon. Continue westward and cross Corso Rinascimento and enter the Piazza Navona and see Bernini's Fountain of the Four Rivers. Exit at the southern end of the Piazza, cross Corso Vittorio Emanuele and enter Campo dei Fiori. Look around at this great market. Should be about lunchtime. Lots of places to eat around here, but you have limited time so find a place to grab a sandwich and drink. After lunch, walk back up the Corso Vittorio Emanuele, cross the bridge and walk to St. Peter's. View the Basilica, and if you have at least an hour before the Scavi appointment, quickly walk over to the museum and see it and the Sistine Chapel. After the Scavi Tour, it's going to be about 3:30 or later. I'd take a cab to the Colosseum. If there was still time after viewing the Colosseum, I'd walk up Via Fori Imperiali, see the Forum from above and walk in front of the Monument to Vittorio Emanuele. You are now in Piazza Venezia, major bus hub so look for a bus back to Termini.

the bit about quickly walking over the Vatican Museums/Sistine Chapel worries me a bit--there could be a very long entrance line.

Get a good map and take a look at distances between sites, metro stopos, and do some careful planning. A couple of things to consider:

Check to make sure that the day you are visiting is NOT a public holiday in Italy. If it is, some sites may be closed, or if they are open, may be mobbed. If it is a religious public holiday (many in Italy) St Peters, Santa Maria Del Popolo or the Pantheon may be having masses and you won't be able to visit. Bear this in mind.

If your one day is in July or August crowds and heat will slow you down. Bear this in mind. Also, you will not be admitted to St Peters wearing shorts (long shorts on men are OK) or bare shoulders. You may also be challenged at the Vatican Museums as well if you aren't properly attired.

If your only day there is a Sunday, you will not be able to see the Sistine Chapel as the Vatican Museums are closed. (They are open the last Sunday of each month, but admission is then free and the museum is mobbed.) Also, you will have trouble seeing St Peters, Santa Maria Del Popolo and the Pantheon in the morning, as there will be masses. To the best of my recollection, the Pantheon is closed on Sunday afternoons after the last mass.

The Sistine Chapel is part of the Vatican Museums, and you must enter via the Vatican Museums and walk a good way through the museums to get to the chapel. There are often long entry lines at the museums, so if you really want to see the chapel, go to the Vatican Museum first. I have seen references on this site to the possibility of buying entry tickets on line, but have not been able to confirm this on any Vatican website. If this is possible, this would save you waiting in the long entry line. It would be a shame IMO to miss some of the rare and beautiful paintings and sculpture in the Museums themselves, but you can run through them to get to the Sistine Chapel. (The entry to the Vatican Museums is quite a long walk, 15-20 minutes, from St Peters, so if you are trying to do both, bear this in mind.)

The Spanish Steps and the Trevi Fountain are within walking distance of one another. It is also not a bad walk to the Pantheon from either place. A good place for lunch (and one of the prettiest squares in Italy IMO) is the Piazza Navonna. There are many outdoor cafes here for lunch.

It is not possible to purchase advance tickets to the Vatican Musuem. You will need to stand in line, and of course, if the line is very long, you are going to have to make the decision to proceed to the Sistine Chapel based on what time is left to you. I advised not doing the Museum first due to the fact that you have an afternoon appointment with the Scavi and requested a route that minimized backtracking. I don't think you will have trouble seeing the churches due to masses. Mass takes place in the Basilica all the time, but in a side chapel. However, if you are going on a Wednesday and the Pope is giving his audience in the Piazza, you won't be able to enter the Basilica until after it is over, around noon, which is no problem with the schedule I described. As to Santa Maria di Popolo, morning mass there takes place very early, around 8 am and should be over by the time you arrive. The Pantheon does not have a regularly scheduled morning mass and any mass for a special feast day in the morning would be over by the time you get there. If after you see the Pantheon, you see you are running short of time and you really want to see the Sistine, skip Piazza Navona and lunch and take a cab right to the Museum, do that first, then walk over to the Basilica and see it before your Scavi appointment.

If you have time to see the Vatican Museums, including the Sistine Chapel, before your appointment for the scavi tour, you can save some backtracking. The walking tour I took always begins at the museum after noon because lines are usually shorter then. When I went in March, there was no line at that time.

Take a cab or metro to the museum entrance so you will start at the Vatican Museums instead of at the basilica. The Sistine Chapel is at the very end of the museums toward the basilica, but signs direct the public to an exit which backtracks through the museum, which is a very long walk, and then even longer to get back to the basilica and the scavi tour. There is a separate exit (on the right as you are leaving the Sistine Chapel) with a sign indicating it is for guided tours only. This exit leads directly to the basilica, not far from the entrance for the scavi tour. Several people have reported here that they have followed tour groups leaving the Sistine Chapel and were able to use this exit. Just wait for a group to approach the door and blend in.