Rome Travel Question
 

Is two days absolutely not enough to see the key points of Rome? Also, how far away is the Leaning Tower of Pisa from Rome?

Thanks!

Nicole

In two days you COULD see SOME key points but you should have a very tight sightseeing plan: starting in the early morning and walk a lot.
IMO this is what you could do:
day 1: start from Sistine Chapel, stay about 2 hours to visit it and have a general tour, then head for St Peter's and from there take a bus to Piazza Venezia, see the Vittoriano, Piazza Navona, Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps and Piazza del Popolo.
day 2: Colusseum and Forum included the Palatine.
In this way you will be able to compact the essentials in 2 days .

Pisa is about 2 hours by train from Rome, and if you are thinking of squeezing it inside these 2 days... forget it! Too much of a hassle.

Its a start!

If you have a choice, consider giving Rome another day.

Also, if you have a choice, think about a hotel in Centro Storico where you can easily walk to the Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, Spanish Steps and Piazza del Popolo.

If you have a tight budget I suggest Eva's Rooms as a place to stay in Rome, which is extremely central (near the Spanish Steps and Piazza Barberini). It is a Bed and Breakfast. If I am not wrong it has had good reviews in this thread.

Thank you everyone for your help. I think I am going to extend the trip to add a day to Rome and I am going to continue investigating hotels at or under the $200 US range in price.

try www.eurocheapo.com for cheap hotels

Pisa is 3 hours by train from Rome. If you take and ES train you have to change in Florence.

Let me ask you this, am I better off visiting Pisa leaving from Rome or Florence? I will be spending time in both cities and want to make sure I save as much time as I can.

Thanks!

nicoleg,
You will have a lot easier time planning your trip if you look at a map of Italy while figuring out your itinerary.

Try this one:

http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/country/italy.html

Pisa is much closer to Florence than to Rome.

Thanks Marcy.

I would do this....

Fly into Florence and go to Pisa from Florence and then go to Rome. We drove from Florence to Siena and then Siena to Rome. It took about 30 to 45 minutes from Florence to Siena and then it took about 3 to 3.5 hours to get from Siena to Rome. I have to say it was amazing driving through Umbria and some of the other areas. You have never seen anything until you seen hundreds and hundreds of sun flowers in a field. My only advice is if you drive be prepared to drive fast or get honked at...I was doing 140 to 150 kph and people were honking at me....and they do that in a roller skate with a motor.

I would spend more time in Rome...it is far more amazing than Florence and the streets are like one big museum.

You may even be able to get a cheap flight from Florence to Rome and save a few hours.

try these...
http://www.easyjet.com

http://www.ryanair.com

A cheap flight from Florence to Rome would cost a lot more hours than a train. It's only 2 hours by train. It's 30 minutes from Rome just to the Airport!

Go to Pisa from Florence. It's one hour by train.

Whastever you do, don't go to the Spanish steps and Plaza de Spagna. Complete waste of time.

Pisa and the Tower are good, but hardly worth a 6 hour round trip from Rome. Or even a 3 hours side trip. Go to Venice instead. It's not much further.

Just a differing opinion from the one expressed above....

I've stayed in the area of the Spanish Steps in Rome, and liked the area very much. There's lots of good shopping, restaurants, and great people watching, IMHO.

Thanks to all of you, I didn't even think of the car option and driving to Rome from Florence, but I LOVE that idea, and sunflowers, my absolute favorite flower in the world! I think I am going to have to take that recommendation and rent the car from Florence to Rome. Do you have any recommendations on where to pick up a car and where to drop off once we arrive in Rome. Also, is it safe to say that we will be doing mostly walking in Rome and not have a need for a car?

Thanks,

Nicole

You definitely do not need a car in Rome.

We dropped our car off at the airport but I believe there are dropoffs in the city. Check with the auto rental company you will be using.

Definitely pick up and/or drop off the car outside either city. Driving into either city would be a huge mistake and a mess! After seeing some of the crazy drivers around Florence, you couldn't pay me enough to even attempt to drive around that city myself!

If you do some research, I'm sure there are plenty of places to pick up and drop off outside the cities somewhere. Good luck!

Tracy

Thanks to all of you for your help! I appreciate it.

Nicole

You definitely do not need a car in Rome and parking is impossible. You can use hertz or budget to rent a car in Europe.

Just make sure to specify automatic if you do not drive a manual shift well. Even if you are ok with manual you may have problems in italy...there are a ton of hills and if you get stuck in traffic (you should not) but if you do then it can be a pain.

As for Florence, you do not need the car there or would you want to deal with it.

As for Florence to Rome, it is pretty easy just driving along A1 but if you are not planning to stop along the way the train will get you there much easier. We stopped in Siena for a few days so the car was the best option for us. You can pick up the car in Florence at Hertz a few blocks away from Ponte Vechhio and drop off the car not to far from Villa Borghese. The rent a car plce in Rome is a tough spot to find so make sure you have detailed directions or you may get lost. Driving in rome was like going through a neverending maze in the dark.

Along the route from Florence to Rome you can go through Tuscany and Umbria and make quick stops in each if this is something you want to do.