Rome for a week

Booked 8:30am tour of Colosseum (Colosseum ungerground tour with arena floor, 3rd ring, Roman forum & Palantine hill) and 8am tour of the Vatican with citywonders.com I got a 5% discount from live chat for the Vatican winning.

I seen it recommended elsewhere a lot of people were complaining about the tour guide with Walks of Italy.

Raymond Lin said:
My wallet was picked in the metro in Rome, I had it getting a coffee then we took the metro back to the hotel and then no wallet. Luckily only lost some cash of about £70, replace the cards and it was the last night before leaving next morning so didn't impact on he trip.

Florence seems more laid back and this trip I went by myself and the city as a whole felt safer too.
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Where was your wallet in front pocket?

I think I will take my money belt hide it under shirt and leave cards etc back at the apartment.

Florence I really want to see I will no doubt return there after sampling it unforunately I booked the apartment for a week in Rome so I have to return so next question is what are the must see in Florence?
 
The aforementioned basilica / duomo, Michealangelo's David and the view from Piaza de Michaelangelo.

You can deffo do that in a day. I did. If you stay for longer, which I have also done, you can get a bus north (fiereosle?) for great views of the city.
 
bingham67 said:
Booked 8:30am tour of Colosseum (Colosseum ungerground tour with arena floor, 3rd ring, Roman forum & Palantine hill) and 8am tour of the Vatican with citywonders.com I got a 5% discount from live chat for the Vatican winning.

I seen it recommended elsewhere a lot of people were complaining about the tour guide with Walks of Italy.



Where was your wallet in front pocket?

I think I will take my money belt hide it under shirt and leave cards etc back at the apartment.

Florence I really want to see I will no doubt return there after sampling it unforunately I booked the apartment for a week in Rome so I have to return so next question is what are the must see in Florence?
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I had a messenger bag, zip top. Same bag I used for NYC, Hong Kong, all of Europe really.

I had a spare £100 in the hotel safe for emergency so I got home with that. That's a tip too, don't put all your money in the same place.

The tour in the Vatican is more about history, less about art. If you walk around just reading the notes it'll take you forever and not as interesting.
 
Just got back from Rome & Florence last week.

You've not mentioned when you're going, it's currently very busy and very hot!

- Booking tickets for the Vatican is a must, it's an extra 2 euros to effectively jump the line, otherwise there's a 2-3 hour queue at the peak of times.

- Colosseum queues can also be pretty long, we arrived just before it opened and had about a 15 min queue, so if you plan to visit during the day, then book your tickets.

- The Pantheon is free to get into, queue lengths vary, we didn't have a queue at all early afternoon, but it can be quite busy, so just prepare for queues.

- St. Peter's Basilica is also free to get into, the queues were 1.5-2 hours long with no skip the line option, so we abandoned the visit here.


Florence is a beautiful city, and you'll wish you'd booked a few days there.

For a day trip there's not much worth organising, just spend the time exploring the city and admiring some of the sites.
 
Thanks for the information I will be going end of September for 7 nights

As for Florence do you have to pay to go into the sites? splurging abit in Rome on guided tours so dont fancy a guided tour in Florence on limited time just a quick stroll round for Photo captures will do me.
 
You need to pay to he museums and also the Statue of David. I forgot about the Domo but I believe you do, one for the Domo and a separate price for the tower next to it? It's like 3 years since I went.
 
Yeah you pay for the duomo.

We are heading back first week of October, staying in Florence and doing a day in Rome as we have visited a few times before.

We stayed in Florence and visited Venice the other year, I fell in love with Florence.

We are taking the in laws this time (they have never been abroad).

It seems you have booked what I'd of booked tbh, Florence is much smaller than Rome so a walk around the city is easy. Make sure to visit Mercato centrale, food market about 5/10 mins walk from the Duomo, can get a proper wood fired pizza upstairs.

Walking around Rome is best in my experience, the metro really is horrid and I've seen others get dipped. You will miss some little gems if you use the metro to get about imo, Florence doesn't have a metro for it to be an issue.


I've never once even had a police officer look twice at me, so not sure what these people needing a passport for ID are doing? We were in Rome last year for a week and only thing I noticed with police was they were now using bikes to chase the lucky lucky men away (which is a good thing!)
 
ZG002 said:
Yeah you pay for the duomo.

We are heading back first week of October, staying in Florence and doing a day in Rome as we have visited a few times before.

We stayed in Florence and visited Venice the other year, I fell in love with Florence.

We are taking the in laws this time (they have never been abroad).

It seems you have booked what I'd of booked tbh, Florence is much smaller than Rome so a walk around the city is easy. Make sure to visit Mercato centrale, food market about 5/10 mins walk from the Duomo, can get a proper wood fired pizza upstairs.

Walking around Rome is best in my experience, the metro really is horrid and I've seen others get dipped. You will miss some little gems if you use the metro to get about imo, Florence doesn't have a metro for it to be an issue.


I've never once even had a police officer look twice at me, so not sure what these people needing a passport for ID are doing? We were in Rome last year for a week and only thing I noticed with police was they were now using bikes to chase the lucky lucky men away (which is a good thing!)
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I will never use a train unless I go from another town or city to another I love just walking around and no chance I will be touching the metro in this place horror reports everywhere.

My airbnb is 100 steps from the Pantheon so perfect location I picked it was recommended to get this area on Tripadvisor forums.

Here the post in question regarding Passport on tripadvisor

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowT...Which_identification_to_carry-Rome_Lazio.html

I would have thought a UK driving Licence would be acceptable or a copy of the passport but people saying you must have the original.
 
Just have your driving licence on you, I'd not carry a passport about.

The Pantheon is my favourite building in Rome and that area is indeed the best in Rome imo.

You will likely love it.
 
ZG002 said:
Just have your driving licence on you, I'd not carry a passport about.

The Pantheon is my favourite building in Rome and that area is indeed the best in Rome imo.

You will likely love it.
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https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/italy/local-laws-and-customs
By law you must be able to show some form of identification at all times. In most cases a photocopy of the data page of your passport should suffice, but you may be asked to accompany the police to collect the original document, or to produce it within 12 hours. The police will normally ask for your full passport if you are stopped while driving.
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Thats from our Government site it really hard to get a straight answer on this though as people say different things.

As said on Tripadvisor the police can do random checks
 
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You're over thinking it, You're not driving. They may at the very worst ask you to go get it from your hotel, but they are way too busy chasing imagrants around the city to randomly spot check a Englishman lol.
 
ZG002 said:
You're over thinking it, You're not driving. They may at the very worst ask you to go get it from your hotel, but they are way too busy chasing imagrants around the city to randomly spot check a Englishman lol.
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Well this is what I thought Im just going to do what I do in most europe citys I have been to and carry driving licence heading to Florence though I might take my passport but in the money belt tucked away.

Anyone got any good restaurants in Rome to go to?
 
Rome is great to walk around, it's very easy to navigate and in September it shouldn't be too hot.

It's easy to overthink eateries in Rome. You'll never eat badly, you'll just be overcharged. If it looks busy with Italians then you'll be well fed. Blue Ice gelaterias are a good chain and there's one next to the pantheon. My advice would be to steer clear of the main tourist squares unless you want to people watch. Piazza Navona is amazing and there are good restaurants there but they're expensive. Ask the people running your Airbnb for their advice. Everyone has different opinions in Rome about the best and worst places to go!
 
rIcK said:
Rome is a nice place, but a week there? I was spent after 2 days, hop on the train and explore a bit!
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As said will be going to Florence and might even go to Pisa for the leaning tower it also seems quite a few people say they have not seen everything after one trip and keep going back two or three times.

Which is surprising for a city usually you can do it in 3 to 4 days and that about it.
 
bingham67 said:
As said will be going to Florence and might even go to Pisa for the leaning tower it also seems quite a few people say they have not seen everything after one trip and keep going back two or three times.

Which is surprising for a city usually you can do it in 3 to 4 days and that about it.
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Pisa is a half a day place, the town itself is a dump, only go there for the tower and the buildings adjacent.

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