Rome again

mygti

Hi all,
Happy New year to you all.
I'm planning on going to Rome in February with my son,he's 15.
I'm just looking for any advice from websites to book on towhere to get tickets for
Some of the most favoured attractions,
Is 3 days long enough to see mostly everything.
Many thanks in advance.

phog

Have a look at this post and thread.

You probably should try to get see the Colosseum, The Vatican, Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. Try getting to see them in daylight and night time.

BetsyEllen

I would recommend doing one of the free walking tours on your first day there, a great way to get to know your way around and the one I done included the Spanish Steps (it was the meeting point) and it finished at the Trevi Fountain.

I used these: http://www.newromefreetour.com/ and I can't recommend them enough, it was excellent. You give a tip at the end, there is no set price.

The highlight of my trip was the Colosseum.
I booked through the official website but a friend of mine recently went and done a night time tour through this group: https://www.walksofitaly.com/rome-tours and she said it was incredible.

DavyD_83

I really wanted to do the Fiat 500 tour. You're driven around with a guide who tells you about the sights.
Our booking fell through at last minute, due to the driver's family emergency, and ended up walking with guide instead. The tour was great; we went with Angel Tours.

I have heard that the free ones are brilliant, but it might be worth paying to get the smaller group and more personal guide experience

Oh, and for me, the pantheon is so worth a visit.

BetsyEllen

DavyD_83 wrote: »

I really wanted to do the Fiat 500 tour. You're driven around with a guide who tells you about the sights.
Our booking fell through at last minute, due to the driver's family emergency, and ended up walking with guide instead. The tour was great; we went with Angel Tours.

I have heard that the free ones are brilliant, but it might be worth paying to get the smaller group and more personal guide experience

I was reading about those, they look like so much fun! You can do a tour on a Vespa too but I would have been too scared to drive one :P

storker

The Pantheon and the Piazza Navona are also well worth a look.

We also stumbled on this gem, a few hundred metres away from the Piazza di Trevi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sant%27Andrea_delle_Fratte . The interior is amazing, shrines and altars all around the walls, not a blank bit of wall anywhere and two angels sculpted by Bernini.

BetsyEllen

OP I just remembered the Capuchin Crypt.

It's an underground crypt made entirely of human bones, I would imagine a 15 year old would love it!

https://www.tripadvisor.ie/Attraction_Review-g187791-d254786-Reviews-Museum_and_Crypt_of_Capuchins-Rome_Lazio.html

I thought it was incredible.

It's only about €8 in, you don't need to book. You'll only be in there for about 20/30 minutes but it's well worth a visit.
There is a very beautiful church built on top of it that I visited afterwards.
It's on a street lined with plenty of restaurants so you could grab some lunch whilst you're over that way too.
It's also only a short walk from the Borghese Gallery which has beautiful gardens; I hired a bike whilst I was there for a few euro (after visiting the gallery itself) and had a fabulous morning.

If you plan on visiting the Vatican it's worth looking up the Scavi Tour.
It's a tour of underneath the Basilica and is said to be the closest you can get to the bones of St Peter. You have to email the Vatican office for tickets, see here: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/institutions_connected/uffscavi/documents/rc_ic_uffscavi_doc_gen-information_20090216_en.html

Nalz

Hi folks,

My wife and I are going to Rome next week for 3 nights. Looking for advice / recommended tours for Vatican & Collosseum.

I see ones between 70-110 euro each which is a bit steep for us.


Thanks,
Nalz

BetsyEllen

Nalz wrote: »

Hi folks,

My wife and I are going to Rome next week for 3 nights. Looking for advice / recommended tours for Vatican & Collosseum.

I see ones between 70-110 euro each which is a bit steep for us.


Thanks,
Nalz

I got my Colosseum tour through the official website. However you may have left it a little late to book one now...a friend of mine tried to book the week before she went and it was sold out.
Give it a go though, you might be OK:

https://www.coopculture.it/en/colosseo-e-shop.cfm

As she couldn't book directly, she ended paying extra to go through a tour company and booked a night time tour. She said it was the highlight of their trip and well worth the money:

https://www.walksofitaly.com/rome-tours/colosseum-night-tour

I used this same company for something else and can't recommend them highly enough. Do a google search and you'll likely find a 10% off code somewhere.

Vatican tickets, again I got them through the official site:

http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en.html#lnav_shop

Hope you have a great time, it's my favourite city in the world and the Colosseum was the part I will always remember the most. Take a selfie stick with you, you'll need it to get good pictures as it's so big, you need to hold your camera up high. I got one off a guy outside for €5.

Nalz

Thanks Betsy! I booked the Colloseum without a tour.

Need to decide to do the Vatican with or without one now!

Hitman3000

Nalz wrote:

Need to decide to do the Vatican with or without one now!

Do the Vatican on your own, far better.

Nalz

Hitman3000 wrote: »

Do the Vatican on your own, far better.

Really, why? Would you not miss out on context etc?

Hitman3000

Nalz wrote:

Really, why? Would you not miss out on context etc?

No, have been to Rome 3 times. Bought a guide book. Planned where I wanted to go and did that and used the book on my own tour for context. I always find tours are time managed which I intensely dislike but I do understand why.

phildub

Hi, reviving this thread to see if anyone has been to Rome recently and can make recommendations. Il be there for 4 nights in March. I know I want to do the colloseum arena tour, Vatican city and I would like to do a pasta making class.

Any recommendations for things to see off the beaten track?

Would appreciate any tour guide suggestions as there are so many

Thanks!

phog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120131418#Comment_120131418

Visit the Roman Forum - the same ticket allows you into the Colosseum, the queues for the Roman Forum are shorter so go there for you ticket and after you're finished there then cross the road to the Colosseum and you can bypass the ticket queue there. The Roman Forum is really worth a visit in it's own right and you can spend hours there.

Personally, I like to visit the places in daylight and in the dark to see them lit up too. Some recommendations but it's down to personal choice and interests - Trevi Fountain, Victor Emmanuel (go to the top and view out over the Roman Forum), Piazza Navona, Caracalla Baths (a bit out of Rome but something different), Castel Sant'Angelo, The Mouth of Truth (made famous by Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn) for the novelty but be prepared to queue as everyone seems to want to take a group and individual photos.

JohnCleary

http://www.scavi.va/content/scavi/it.html - Ufficio Scavi, an absolute MUST if visiting the Vatican. Just Google 'Ufficio Svaci' of 'Excavations Office Vatican' if you've no idea what it is. Booking an absolute must, pre-COVID was booked months out, we went just after lockdown and got a slot with about 3 days notice.

Also, as mentioned above, returning to Roman Forum at night to view it lit up is a must. Grab a bottle of wine and sit on this wall: https://goo.gl/maps/ZjKLd24yPrwR8mpy5

Also, go back to the Colosseum at night. Go to this bar, sit out on the terrace and enjoy the view: https://goo.gl/maps/gZQuXVTvri93HvQx7

dizzydoll

Hi everyone,

Hope you can help, hoping to head to Rome for my 40th next year with the other half, plan to spend 3/4 nights in Rome (hoping that is enough to see the sights) then would like to visit 2 other cities but not sure where, we have never been to Italy before. I would like to do a food tour one day and maybe a wine tasting.

We are hoping to travel by train rather than hiring a car, really we are open to travelling anywhere and looking for a few recommendations, thanks!

phog

You'll definitely need the 3/4 nights in Rome to see it all, I've never done another city along with Rome so I'll leave that to someone who could recommend a multi city tour.

We did do a day trip to Pompeii from Rome (by train) so maybe Sorrento could be with a few days.

JohnCleary

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120829344#Comment_120829344

We spent 15-16 nights between Rome / Florence / Venice. We needed every bit of that time! Think Rome was 5-6 nights, with 1 full day training down to Naples (Pompeii).

We travelled by Train (flew into Rome, flew out of Venice) and it was great - book as much in advance as you can!

In Florence, there was an organised day trip to Pisa / Vineyard.

We'd do it again in a heart-beat, it was wonderful.

The Nal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120829344#Comment_120829344

3-4 days in plenty. Would advise to stay in or near Trastevere. You could walk from there to the Circus Maximus, to the Colosseum, The Forum, The Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain and Spanish steps all in one day. Including a nice long lunch. About 90 minutes walking all in.

Another half day is the other side of the river. St Peters, Vatican etc.

If you want to go into the Colosseum Id go on a weekday. Same for the Sistine Chapel. Buy tickets ahead or go really early or really late.

Some incredible pasta in Trastevere. Nannarella, Tonnarello, La Canonica Roma, Otello. Get the carbonara.

After that, you could make it to Bologna in 2 hours on the train. A day there eating is plenty. You can fly home from there too. Or stop off in Florence en route which is 90 minutes. Once in that neck of the woods, you're close by train to Modena, Reggio Emilia, Parma. The centre of the food universe imo.

TaliyahGarrett

3-4 days in Rome gives you a good amount of time to see the major sights, but definitely not "everything." The city is packed with history, so you could easily spend a week there and still not see it all.

Here's a quick suggestion:

• Day 1: Colosseum, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill
• Day 2: Vatican Museums, Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica
• Day 3: Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, explore a neighborhood like Trastevere

The Nal

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122163694#Comment_122163694

You could easily do 1 and 3 in the same day.

I walked from Trastevere to Circus Maximus, Colosseum, Forum, Palatine Hill to the Victor Emmanuel II monument, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps and back to Campo di Fiore for lunch last time I was there.

Didnt go into the Colosseum granted.