2nd trip to Rome, looking for ideas for activities

Hi Carolyn,

I would head to the catacombs of Priscilla. They are fabulous! Also, love the Jewish Quarter, San Clemente, wandering through the Quirinale area, going to the top of the Gianicolo hill for a wonderful panorama of the city, taking some cooking classes, eating porchetta in Frascati, heading out to other towns as part of the Castelli Romani, looking thru the keyhole on the top of the Aventino hill, and exploring Rome at night.

Truthfully, after living here for 6 years my favorite thing to do is get on a bus, get off somewhere random, and just get lost.

Enjoy and bentornata!

I'm so glad to see the Appian on your list as that one was one of our very favorite days in Rome. Catacombs are easily seen along the way: we did San Sebastiano plus the ruins of Villa of Maxentius and the excavation of Capo di Bove. It can be an all-day affair!

Some other ideas would be Portico d'Ottavia/Teatro di Marcello near the Jewish Ghetto - which is well worth exploring to begin with - the Baths of Caracalla, and there are tons of other gorgeous and interesting churches besides the basilicas. Take a walk up the Aventine for a nice view of Rome plus a stop into old Santa Sabina and a peer through the keyhole at the Priory of the Knights of Malta. The rose gardens up there may also be in bloom, and there's a very nice view of the backside of the Palatine from there. Gesu is one gorgeous church with a mid-blowing ceiling, and Santa Maria del Popolo is lovely as well. So many more…

Take a stroll through Cimitero Acattolico (the Protestant Cemetery) to visit Keats and Shelley, and admire some of the cemetery sculptures.

Trastevere is also a nice wander.

With the time you have, you might consider day trips to Ostia Antica and Orvieto?

One day in December 2012 we visited the Villa Farnesina (http://www.villafarnesina.it/?lang=en), on the Trastevere side of the Tiber River. It's an impressive building on impressive grounds, and has magnificent frescoes by Raphael. Later that day, we took the Metro to E.U.R., and although the Museum of Roman Civilization had already closed for the day, so we couldn't see its model of ancient Rome or the up-close copies of panels from Trajan's column, it was interesting doing the E.U.R. walk described in Rick Steves' guidebook and seeing the "Square Colosseum."

In addition to the 7 pilgrim basilicas, check out the Basilica of San Clemente (Basilica di San Clemente al Laterano). It's an 11th Century basilica built on top of a 4th century church, built on top of a 2nd Century temple to the Roman god Mithras and other ancient Roman buildings. So it's a church and an archaeological site in one, and is also well-described in Rick's guidebook.

Rome has so much to offer that even after four visits, I still have no trouble coming up with interesting things to see and do. (I'm planning our fifth trip for next spring.) One thing that's fun to do is to pick a topic that relates to Rome and then come up with an itinerary that focuses on that.

One such possibility is looking at paintings by Caravaggio. They're sprinkled around Rome in very interesting sites.

Another one that I did was to visit churches with early Christian mosaics. Again, they're sprinkled around Rome. (If you do this, be sure to include San Prassede and it's tiny Chapel of San Zeno. It was a highlight.)

Other off-the-beaten path options that you can google for more info are:
The under-appreciated museums such as the Capitoline and the Museo Nazionale di Roma in Palazzo Massimo
Villa Torlonia
Trastevere and the Janiculum
Taking a cooking class
Going to concerts

There's also a good resource at http://romethesecondtime.blogspot.com/

Happy travels.

Galleria Colonna only open Sat mornings; Palazzo Farnese English tour by appointment a couple of weeks in advance; Villa Medici often overlooked; Palazzo Valentino, Roman ruins beneath a city building now viewable thanks to a glass floor and multimedia presentation. (The latter sounds schmaltzy, but it is fabulously done. ). Ostia Antica, Scavi Tour of St. Peter's, Villa d'Este at Tivoli. Enough?

Absolutely wonderful, I look forward to sorting through all these great suggestions!

And Domus Romane. I forgot about them. Very cool multi-media experience.

Churches of Santo Stefano Rotondo and Santa Costanza (near catacombs of Priscilla), Sant'Ivo alla Sapienza (open very short hours, near Piazza Navona), Castel Gandolfo, elevator to roof of Monument of Vittorio Emanuele Ii (good cafe there).

Everything else mentioned.

Last time we visited St. Peters we climbed the dome (inside) to get to the little observation platform on the top. The view was fantastic :-)

On the way down we stopped on the flat roof and had a cup of coffee in the cafe there. I don't know if it is still there (and the coffee was nothing special), but being able to tell people we had had coffee on the roof of St. Peters was fun :-)

I enjoyed the ruins of Ostia Antica. Easy trip on the train to the suburb of Rome. No ropes like at the Roman Forum.

My wife and I found this little known gem during our last visit. The Galleria Doria Pamphilij is on the Via Del Corso, just north of Piazza Venezia ... you've probably walked by it without realizing it was there. Read about it on Tripadvisor. Like you, we've been to Rome many times and I still think of the Pamphilij as one of my favorite hidden finds.