Rome for 3 days - itinerary?

coopersim

coopersim

coopersim

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Can anyone suggest a good run down on what to do in Rome for 3 days, arriving Friday evening, leaving Monday lunchtime, we're staying in the centre of Rome, but don't know what order to see the sights in - there's so much to see!
 
In general, take lots of bottled water if its hot. The street vendors charge a fortune. I found the cistine chapel underwhelming but the colliseum is nice. Lots to see tbh.
 
I'm prepeared for it to be a rip off, Paris and Venice both were, what is it with Europe these days?!

Yeah, I thought we'd be busy, I just wondered logistically what the best order was to see the best sites
 
Colosseum & Roman Forum will take like 1 day
Vatican City with the museum and Basilica will take 1 day

The rest can be pretty quickly navigated :) Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain etc.

Your problem is that you are going at a weekend which is the busiest days for everything :(
 
Smit said:
Colosseum & Roman Forum
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You think? Personally I wasn't all that impressed by the Colosseum in terms of things to see. Queue up to get inside and there's nothing much extra in the inside that you can't see outside.

Found the Vatican City and the most interesting part and would recommend you did allocate a whole day to that.

Trevi Fountain is more impressive at night so pass by that whilst going out for dinner etc.
 
There's a lot to see, certainly more than you can in 3 days. My folks went earlier this year for a week and saw just a fraction.

Far to many to list but some deffo visits imho include;

Pantheon - built by an unknown Roman architect it had the largest dome in the world until relatively recent times, was built of a technology that was then lost for centuries. Will bend your mind.

Piazza del Campidoglio - Michelangelo

S. Carlo Alle Quattro Fontane - Frencesco Borromini

Piazza di Spagna (Spanish Steps) - Alessandro Specchi

Sforza Chapel - Michelangelo

St. Peter's of Rome - Giacomo della Porta

Piazza of St. Peter's - Bernini

S. Ivo della Sapienza - Frencesco Borromini

Tempietto of San Pietro - Donato Bramante - Wren was so obsessed with this little temple he rebuilt it in London and is one of my all time favourite renaissance buildings

Tbh though, the list is endless, its a wonderful city, only bettered by Florence imo.
 
GeX said:
get one of these too; http://www.romapass.it/p.aspx?l=en
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Do this!

The pass gives you metro travel and entry into a couple of sites of your choice (means you do not have to queue in the same line as everyone to buy ticket), I suggest itinerary as follows...

Day 1:

- Buy Roma pass at central train station
- Use pass to travel from station to the Colosseum metro station - this will be the ONLY time you will use the metro as Rome is tiny.
- Colesseum, skip the ticket line as you have Roma pass and there is a different queue...nifty. Hum Gladiator sound track and shout "single column" with appropriate arm movements.
- Forum - use the pass again at the Forum which is right next to the Colesseum. This is a large site and takes some navigating to make sense of it. You'll literally find yourself walking over Roman mosiac flooring thinking "is this legal".
- Once finished at the Forum walk towards what I would call Rome's centre make a b-line for the Trevi fountain. It is just a fountain on a back street and takes no time to see.
- Walk to the Spanish steps (TBH this is nothing special at all, I would say skip this)

Day 2:
- Vatican city and Cistine Chapel and St Peters....basically WOW on these. You'll need 0.5 to 0.75 days to do these.
- Head for the Pantheon - stopping off at Piazzo Navona for an ice cream and look at the fountains.
- Pantheon - must see. Amazing building.

Day 3:
- You'll have a good feel for Rome now, so take a little more leisurely pace and have a walk to some of the many churches which are very impressive in themselves.
- Go to the Museum - you'll see many sculptures (ancient Greek ones - such as one of Apollo - that is the earliest sculpture in EXISTENCE that depicts movement).
 
On the first evening walk down to the Vatican City and have a look at St Peters Square lit up at night and have a meal around there. I would certainly devote a day to the Vatican City and do that on the Saturday. You may find that you have time to explore a little further.

The Forum, Coliseum, Pantheon, Trevi fountain, etc on the Sunday. Get a few guide books and work out a walking itinerary with a decent stop for lunch. On the Monday morning do some shopping. There are also quite a few suggestions online. The secret to a short weekend like this is some forward planning. Make sure that you check opening times to avoid any disappointments.
 
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Zipped pockets, zipped purse, zipped bag, and anything of value in your front trouser pocket, preferably zipped, so you'll feel your tessies being rumbled if anyone tries to nick it.
 
A fir bit has already been mentioned already. You are going to miss a lot of things so just pick out those things you really want to see. I went for 10 days and still missed some.

Visit the Forum/Palatine Hill/Colosseum/Trajan's Market/Column the same day. They are all right next to each other (I was lucky that our hotel was literally around the corner from Trajan's Column). Top tip is to go to the Palatine Hill early, there is usually little no no queue and you can buy your ticket for the Colosseum at the same time as your ticket for the Palatine Hill. Then when you go to the Colosseum you can bypass all the queues :)

St Peters and Castel Sant'Angelo are worth doing at the same time due t their proxmity. I went into St Peters and right to the top, the views are spectacular. I didn't go into the Sistine Chapel as we got there at about 7am and already the queues were huge and were taken up with guides forming groups and charging you over the odds to effectively jump the queue.

Villa Giulia and Villa Borghese Museum and Gallery are definitely worth a visit too. If you go to the Spanish Steps and fancy a touch of the old 'grand tour' feeling you can go to Babington's tea rooms right next to the steps.
 
Regarding the above post by Hikari Kisugi, my parents came back from Rome on Thursday. Unfortunately they were targeted. They were waiting for the metro, train turns up, the doors open. 3 women behind PUSH my parents onto the train. My dad had to remove his hands to stop him from falling into the crowd on the train. In that time, one of the women managed to snap his wallet out of his pocket and then all quickly get off the train. Just as the doors close, a passenger says to my Dad "I think they took your wallet". Big fail - had ALL the money in there as they just arrived and it was the first day of holiday, so they were left with nothing. Luckily, Western Union is a big saviour - managed to send them money in 10 minutes. These women looked like gypsies and had a baby - very deceiving with a child.

When they went to a Police station, there were hoards of people with similar stories. OP, please be extra extra careful. My dad is so careful with his money, but that situation where he was falling, they managed to get all the money and a card =/
 
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prolly worth checking before you go but the Sistine chapel was under restoration work when my folks went earlier this year and thus entry was very limited and lots of it was covered up.
 
Theres a lot of nice parts all close together in Rome.
3 days in the city centre?

If so I'd say get yerself one of the tour busses, think it was quite decent for a 48 hour pass. on/Off as much as you want, stops at all the main sights.

Wherever yer staying, put bottles of ater in the freezer overnight, street Vendors charge around €3 for a 300-500ml bottle for water :eek:

Theres a fantastic ice cream shot to the left of the trevi fountain, amazing ice cream :)

Pick pockets and beggars are rife apparantly, keep yer wallet in front pockets and invest in a chain if needed to keep it attached to yer person.
 
Head off the beaten path for food, most of the "good" restaurants won't be in the main tourist areas but be prepared for a feast. Italian's like to have 4 courses for dinner. Starter, 1st Meat/Fish Course, 2nd Meat/Fish course and then Dessert.
 
One of my to dos in life is to go and see the works of Caravaggio at the Galleria Borghese in Rome. There's something about his art that is utterly mesmerising, take a look and see for yourself - I'm not into art either.

I've been to Rome before, seen the Colosseum, St. Peter's etc, but still regret missing the Borghese.
 
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