Visiting Rome; questions on what to expect.?

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Tara C

I would have to say that you will be able to see both of these in 1 day unless you plan on taking the tours. I didn't take the tours. We spend about 2 hours in the colosseum and 1/2 hour roaming the gardens of the Palentine Hill (buy your tickets at the Palentine Hill booth, you can buy tickts to both and then don't have to wait in line at the Colosseum). Then we went to the Vatican. That took a lot longer. We also sat for mass, roamed the catacomes, went up to the cupola. Regular stuff. Probably took about 5 hours in total. As for transportation we took busses. They were really crowded, but easy to navigate. The only time we took the subway is when we went to the Spanish Steps. For example, I don't think that you can get to the Campo de Fiore on a train. Another great place to check on sites and ideas for the trip is on TripAdvisor. They have blogs there I found very useful.

www.nonsolo.affari.to

I disagree regarding public transportation. As an Italian, I have been taught since I was very young to mock Italian public services. And some deserve it, like the postal system (compared to the British one, not with the US one ...), or the level of bureaucracy (again, compared to the British one; I now live in Atlanta, and bureaucracy is even worse than in Italy).
However, public transport and health care are unexpectedly good (Italian health care is #2 after France in W.H.O. rankings) ... sorry, enough of chauvinistic rantings.

Public transport, either by underground trains or by bus, is good and cheap. Bus stops are easy to spot, ATAC buses (the town-owned transport company) have a bright orange livery. And the alternatives to buses are:

- taxis: avoid them at all costs. In Rome much more than in the rest of Italy;
- walking: only for the skinflint, since you only have three days and - I guess - sweating your way across a fairly large city is not how you plan to enjoy your holiday...
- hiring a vehicle: Rome's traffic can be compared to ... no, I don't know. Atlanta's traffic is a joke, compared to the average Rome traffic jam... and the peace of not having to drive is priceless.

Vatican: most of the day. Climb to the top of the Sistine Chapel at all costs, the stairway in itself is a ... surprise. Once you leave, move to Castel Sant'Angelo, just before sunset if possible: great photo opportunities from there. On the other side of the bridge facing St Peter's square you will find a pizzeria with good food (no surprise so far) and wireless Internet connection: I giggled all the way through a Skype free call from my PDA to my US colleagues, there. And I had the food and the view...

Visit the Forum ("Il foro", not some Internet forum), after the Colosseum: they are close to each other. Walking through the Forum is like moving back in time: it will not be difficult to imagine life as it was almost 2,000 years ago.

Have a nice holiday!

lara

The tube in Rome is easy for tourist isn't for people who lives there because the tube has only 3 lines in central Rome. Tourists attractions are in central Rome.

Eri

The best way to travel within Rome is the tube (we say "la metro"). It's simple, there are only 2 lines ("A" or "red" and "B" or "blue") and the stations are near the most famous and beautiful monuments and places. Best to buy "all day tickets", so you can travel 0 to 24h by metro, bus and tram.
You can find detailed information in these websites:
http://www.metroroma.it/MetroRoma/HTML/EN/
http://www.tuttocitta.it/

danielb121

There is a lot of grafitti. But the city is very religious

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