What to do in Rome in a n Afternoon?
 

Hi, I will be in Rome during the first day of my trip arriving around 1pm and I will be back in Rome during my last day of my trip also arriving around 1pm. I will be staying by the Spanish Steps. I was wondering if there are any sights or museums to visit during that time.
MS

Since you have so little time there, I would suggest hiring a private guide to tour you around. There's so much to potentially see in Rome, a guide would be helpful to get the most out of the time you have.

If you choose not to go the guide route, I would recommend using the subway. Each stop represents a major landmark in rome (ie: Collusium, Vatican etc...) It's quick, accessable, safe by day and gets you to all the hotspots. Note that if you go to the Collusium the wait can be an hour and a half. You can avoid this by paying 4 Euros to a tour guide who will take you directly in and explain what you're looking at. It's worth it.

I'd also recommend going the guided tour route - there's so much to see in Rome that I think it would be somewhat overwhelming to try to take in as much as possible by yourself - besides which some of the highlight spots can be a bit tricky to find in a hurry - took us a while wandering aroung to find the Trevi Fountain for example. One of my personal highlights of Rome was the guided tour of the Coliseum and Palantine Hill - you could probably figure out most of the coliseum by yourself, but trying to work out what's what at the forum would be a bit of a challenge. Most of it I was thinking "A ruined bit of a building with some columns out front" until the guide would explain that in fact it was the hippodrome, or a fountain in the palace etc...

It may sound 'hokey', but I see there is now a 'hop on/hop off' bus--that also allows on/off boat trips on the Tiber. It appears to go around the major sites and is one of those double decker affairs:
http://www.affiliate.viator.com/broc...&AUID=1627

Hi Maria,

You could walk down to the Trevi Fountain and throw a coin in, so that you will return to Rome.

How many hours do you have?