Rome, Travel Advice
 

My husband and I are planning a trip to Rome next month - February. We decided it would be better to go at an off season so we don't have to fight with the tourist crowds. The other reason we decided to go next month is Continental is running a special from our home city to Rome for $375 roundtrip.<BR><BR>If we purchase the Continental package, we decided we would like to stay at Parco Dei Principi. Has anyone stayed there before? I have had a hard time finding reviews on this hotel.<BR><BR>My second question is about day trips. I've read a lot of mixed reviews. We would be spending seven days in Rome. I think the one day trip we are mose interested in would be Pompeii. The three hour trip each way has me concerned that we won't have enough time to spend there. Has anyone day tripped from Rome to Pompeii? Did you use a tour company? We were also tossing around Venice or Florence. I'm not sure if a day trip would do either of these cities justice.<BR><BR>We had also planned on visiting the normal tourist sites such as the Colosseum, Vatican, etc. Neiter my husband nor myself speak very good italian. We would like to work with a tour company. I've read several good reviews for Enjoy Rome. They also seem very flexible on their tour times. Does anyone have any input on this company or others that I should review?

Good morning. Meg<BR>Have day triped to Assisi, Firenze,<BR>Orvieto, Pompeii, Capri and Sorrento<BR>aoso Villa D'Este and Tivoli, all are<BR>in reasonable rail distance, however<BR>would consider Venice a place a bit too<BR>far would be about 5 hours.... The trip to Pompeii is about 2 1/2 hours to Naples, there changing to the Circumvesuvia RR to Pompeii about another half hour. Guides can be<BR>hired at the main entrance also there<BR>was a fairly good ristorante within the<BR>grounds. Richard of LaGrange Park, Il..<BR>

Pompeii and Florence are very doable day trips. Venice would be a stretch. Years ago I took a bus tour to Florence, I thought it was fine at the time. Transportation and tours of major sites and museums were included. I think if I were to do it today, I'd take a train. We did a day trip to Pompeii by car but we already had the car. Without a car I would take the train. There's much info on this board about taking the train. It sounds very doable in a day.

Hi Meg<BR>If you do a search on this message board for Pompeii you will find many postings that include very specific info on how to daytrip there, and pros and cons of the bus tours (which generally allow 2-3 hours at the site because they all include some other stops or detours).<BR><BR>If you can't find the info, I'll be happy to send you my Rome file if you email me.<BR><BR>The walking tour group I used for the Forum and Colosseum was Scala Reale, also much-praised by others on this board (you can search for previous comments on that, and on Enjoy Rome-in fact, if you scroll down, I believe there was a thread on this earlier this week). They have websites.

I was in Rome for seven days the first week in December. I had planned on taking a day trip also, but discovered when there that there was just so much to see in the city, I didn't want to leave. But if I had, I think I would have taken the train to Ostia Antica, on the coast not far from Rome. It's much closer than Pompeii but has some very interesting ruins. I'm sure you can get information on it from a Rome guidebook or on a search engine. I had also considered a trip to Orvieto, a relatively short train ride away.<BR><BR>As for tour guides, I had a good experience with Enjoy Rome, much cheaper than Scala Reale.

You can definitly do Pompeii in a day (including the Archeological Museum in Naples). We did this and it was great, however, I would do it differently next time. I think I would go to Naples the night before, then have a full day to explore Pompeii, etc. before returning to Rome in the evening. We were at Pompeii for three hours and I didn't even get to the opposite side of the city! If you are booking hotel rooms on your own, this might be an option to consider.<BR><BR>John<BR>Rome Travelogue at www.appleberryroad.com