Rome for a week

A week in Rome with a day to Florence is fine imo, Nice easy pace.

You could do Pompeii.
 
I'm just back from a week in Rome, absolutely loved it, walked 56 miles in 7 days!

Apart from everything mentioned, I also took a day trip out to Santa Marinella beach. It's just an hours train ride from Termini and tickets are only €4.80 single. Lovely beach and some lovely seafood restaurants, broke the week up nicely.

I also took the train to Naples and then on to Pompeii which was fantastic. There's an express train that'll get you from Termini to Naples in an hour at a cost of €70 return. I used the inter city which takes 2 hours but was half the price. From Naples take the Circumvesuviana to get to Pompeii, €2.80 a single.

My favourite places were Piazza Campo Di Fiorno and Traveste. I walked up the hill in Traveste to the Garibaldi monument, the views were breathtaking up there.
 
The Colleseum, The Forum, The Vatican and Castel Sant Angelo are all interesting. I was underwhelmed by the Spanish steps but Trevi fountain is beautiful. What I love about Rome is you can be walking down a fairly modern street, turn a corner and suddenly you're looking at something potentially thousands of years old!

If you have the time, check out Bologna. It's not close, and looking at the map not really feasible, but that's probably my favourite place in Italy for a weekend break. Eat food, drink espresso and repeat :)
 
Remember to be suitably dressed for the Vatican, no short shorts/uncovered shoulders or vests. They've become much stricter about this recently.
 
Maccy said:
Remember to be suitably dressed for the Vatican, no short shorts/uncovered shoulders or vests. They've become much stricter about this recently.
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I actually found that wasn't the case 2 weeks ago.

Not being a happy chap having to wear a pair of chinos instead of shorts in mid 30's , i did notice when we got to the Vatican museum that there were quite a lot of blokes wearing shorts, figured they would just be strict when entering the sisteen chapel, but no, when we arrived to walk through, i didn't see any of the guards stopping people from entering for not wearing suitable clothing.

I suspect when it's much less busy they're likely to enforce it, but when they're trying to rush through thousands of people, they probably turn a bit of a blind eye to it.
 
Depends on the shorts, I went in with shorts on but knee length. I think they're more concerned about uncovered shoulders, particularly for the ladies.
 
I went to the Vatican/Sistine Chapel/St. Peters last Monday in a pair of shorts which just covered the knee, no problems. It was 38c mind so maybe they'd made an allowance for the heat. I took a pair of pants along just in case I had to change but thought I'd chance it first.

There were hundreds of girls in mini skirts, low cut tops, bare shoulders and I didn't see anything said.
 
I went to Florence in May.
This is link to my photos, if you'd like to look.
www.marksykesphotography.co.uk/florence

The place is big building site though.
Lots of scaffolding on the exterior and interior of the Duomo and other churches/buildings.

I bought the FirenzeCard to jump the queues.

A few shots.
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Have a great trip :)
 
Gaverick said:
I went to the Vatican/Sistine Chapel/St. Peters last Monday in a pair of shorts which just covered the knee, no problems. It was 38c mind so maybe they'd made an allowance for the heat. I took a pair of pants along just in case I had to change but thought I'd chance it first.

There were hundreds of girls in mini skirts, low cut tops, bare shoulders and I didn't see anything said.
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Very strange, they're usually strict about this.
 
Maccy said:
Very strange, they're usually strict about this.
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Been a few times and we always cover up just in case, but yeah we find the same. Girls in skirts, vest tops etc. Actually found it to be more strict at the Duomo in Florence.
 
Might just chance carrying some chinos with me like Gaverick. Off to Rome for the week come Thursday :D thanks for the info guys!
 
I'm in Italy now, staying just outside Florence for.a week. If you have a hire car and the time, also consider Siena city (stunning), Lucca and a vineyard visit like Montepulciano.

In Florence, if.visiting a museum or inside any major place like the duormo, arrive before 8am to beat queue's. Consider the Academy Gallery to see David and book your tickets directly by phone. You'll only pay on arrival (and jump the ticket queue) so if your plans change you won't pay a thing ,as opposed to pre paying online.
 
Whilst in Rome we thoroughly enjoyed jumping on the Archeo Bus. We walked absolutely everywhere, seeing everything Rome had to offer (well, almost...) but the Bus was a fantastic addition. Nothing like your regular tourist trap; taking you out in to the more rural parts of Rome allowing you to wander around the catacombs etc getting a feel for some of the lesser disturbed history. Strangely the reviews for this are incredibly crap so be prepared to maybe experience something similar but my personal review - wicked!

Eating food slightly outside of the main centre is miles cheaper and but to be honest, the food standard was always fantastic! Stopping off several times for a nice pint of Birra Morreti sitting on a stool with a homemade fresh Pizza slice was superb ;)

Bare in mind the pick pockets (as already mentioned), in large built up areas they seem to operate without a care in the world, I even saw one taken out by a car after trying to run across the road with someones bag. Enjoy :)
 
We're off to Rome on Sunday. I've just booked two tickets on what seems to be the official Colosseum booking office. Just booked two general entry tickets but I was never asked what time or date I wanted. Does that seem right?
 
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