4 1/2 Days in Rome - what would you do?

With four and half days I would go sightseeing, eat gelato, and hit some great restaurants. A good guidebook such as Steve's Rome book will point you in the right direction. All list the must see sights from the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, Capitoline Hill, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain and on and on and on. O, ya, the Vatican. Over the years we have spent nearly a month in Rome and there are still things we haven't seen. Your four and a half days is barely a toe dip in the bucket.

Hello,
It seems we are in the same boat as you. After much research we decided to pick one major attraction for each day, leaving time each afternoon for further exploration if we still have the energy left. And I'm sure you know this already but book as much as you can in advance to save precious time. "Skip the line!!" Here's our basic itinerary.

Sun: 0730 arrival flight, pick up Roma pass, check in to hotel and stock up on goodies at the Sun markets! Recover from jetlag. Afternoon to explore Trevi Fountain, Spanish steps, etc. Nothing booked in case of flight delays so just exploring on our own.

Mon: 0900 Colosseum Underground and Belvedere tour booked through coopculture. Afternoon to explore Roman Forum & Palentine Hill using Rick Steves free downloadable audio guide! Reserve fancy dinner for my wife's birthday!

Tues: Day trip to Pompeii & Herculeneum on our own (no tour) if we feel up to it. Great guides online for how to get there because tours are way overpriced from Rome.

Wed: Vatican & Sistene Chapel "first entry of the day tour" booked through Expedia. Our biggest splurge $$$ because it gets you in before it opens to the general public. Afternoon for St. Peter's if it's open after mass and Travestere (Jewish Ghetto) for some artichoke & other good grub we saw on Rick Steves video

Thurs: Get up early... again... and catch our 1100 flight home!

Hope this helps... Good luck on your trip!!!

misterbassman, glad you have your trip planned out and I'm sure you'll have a good time but a couple of comments?

pick up Roma pass...

Your current itinerary has only one attraction that the pass will be good for: Colosseum/Palatine/Forum (they count as a single attraction). You've also booked a tour for part of that. The 48-hours pass is of little benefit for one attraction + paying for a tour, especially since you plan on leaving Rome the next day. You could have paid € 12,00 entry + guided tour €15,00 + € 2,00 reservation fee (€ 29,00) on the coopculture site versus €28.00 for the 48-hour pass + €15,00 for the tour+ € 2,00 reservation fee (€ 45,00). You could have purchased that € 12,00 entry ticket at the same time you purchased your tour.

With just 3.5 days in Rome (which is what you have by the time you get into the city and checked in on Sunday), I wouldn't advise taking a entire day of that for Pompeii. However you would do it, it would be a very long day and you'll miss SO much more of what Rome has to offer. Also, while we prefer to travel independently (did Pompeii from Sorrento) tours are not necessarily "way overpriced" from Rome once you factor in distance, guide fee and having the logistics taken care of for you. It's a personal choice.

Monica, for your interest in "Ancient Rome", I'll recommend a walk on the Appia Antica - our favorite day in Rome to date - as well as the Pantheon, Terme di Caracalla (Baths of Caracalla) , Baths of Diocletian, Forum of Trajan, Area Sacra di Largo Argentina, Castel Sant Angelo, and catacombs of San Sebastiano or San Callisto, Mausoleum of Cecilia Metella and Circus of Maxentius (these last 4 are out on the Appia Antica so all can be done on the same day as long as it's a day they're all open). Also the subterranean level of the church of San Clemente: there's a temple of Mithras under the foundations. If you have time left, Ostia Antica is a great day trip as it's much closer to Rome than Pompeii so doesn't take as much time.

The website for Parco Appia Antica:
https://www.parcoappiaantica.it

Ostia Antica:
http://www.turismoroma.it/cosa-fare/ostia-antica?lang=en

I have 2 days in Rome with Best of Italy in 17 days tour and 2 days on my own. Here is what I am planning so far.
1. (With RS) Arrive in Rome in the afternoon. Visit Colosseum, the Forum and Pantheon. Evening visit to Trevi Fountain.
2.Visit Vatican Museums and St. Peter's Basilica. Tour says afternoon free. I am planning on staying at the Vatican until I can't stand up anymore.
3. Tour is over. I have 9 am ticket for Galleria Borghese and a 1:45 meeting time for a walks of Italy tour "Crypts, Bones, Catacombs". The tour ends at 5 pm. Play it by ear. Have a nice dinner, wander a neighborhood.
4. Walks of Italy Hidden Gems tour (Appian Way, aqueducts, Jewish Ghetto, etc) from 8:30 to 12:15. Then at 3:30 Twilight Trastavere Food Tour.

Sometime in there I want to visit Largo Torre Argentina to see the cats (and the ruins).

Hello again Kathy...

Thanks for the info about combining the Roma pass with the Colosseum tour. I didn't purchase one yet & but still might, mostly for transportation. My wife has somewhat limited mobility from past knee surgery so any walking i can save her is worth it. Also I agree the Pompeii trip is a bit over ambitious so if we stay in Rome i could use the Roma pass for other entries on that day. My opinion about the cost of a Pompeii visit is based on the fact that we don't want to spend 3+ hours each way on a bus to get there, A 12 hour tour is just too much. The high speed train supersaver ticket is only 40 euros each way through Trentalia, plus the Circumvesuviana and entry tickets... while the cheapest guided tour by high speed train was around 200 euros per person. And if we go I would prefer to do so at our own pace... with the help of the Rick Steves audio guide of course :-)

misterbassman, I don't want to send poor Monica's thread completely offtrack but felt it useful to point out the cost differences between Roma Pass+ tour and general entry+ tour for the Colosseum. I was assuming, because you are looking at Pompeii the day following, you were looking at the 48-hour pass. That one allows 1 "free" attraction entrance and small discounts on others within the life of the pass.

Understanding your wife's mobility challenges, you may benefit more from a multiday public transit pass instead? You could get 72-hour passes for € 18,00 each or a couple 24-passes for € 7,00 each and augment those if needed with single-ride € 1,50 BIT tickets. These will not work for transport to/from the airports (but neither do Roma Passes) but will get you around central Rome. Passes need to be validated the first time you use them; BITs need to be validated as well. The ATAC website is a little funky but here's the page on passes/tickets; use the dropdown for English in the upper right of the page if it comes up in Italian.

http://www.atac.roma.it/page.asp?p=229

Yes, Pompeii can be done less expensively on one's own, and quicker using trains versus buses so it's the way I'd personally do it as well. Was just pointing out that the COST difference of a tour is a human guide in addition to transit. It's also a solution for inexperienced travelers who are not yet comfortable with Italian trains, switching trains, touring on their own (which we did), etc. Some folks just prefer the one-stop, escorted route. :O)

Pompeii Scavi is a VAST site that involves lots and lots of walking on uneven surfaces so it could be a bit of a trial for your wife's troublesome knee. Do take care, if you go? And now, back to Monica's question!

If you like ancient stuff the temple of Mithras underneath the church of San Clemente was wonderful. Like going back 2,000 years as you descend the rickety steps.

...our interests lean more ancient rome…

While it is not Rome itself (it was Rome's port) consider a trip to Ostia Antica. It's easy and cheap to get there using public transit, and with an early morning start it should only take between one half and three quarters of a day. Totally different from Rome itself. Google it and see what you think.

Another vote for Ostia Antica. Fascinating and uncrowded and easy to reach by train.

Also, consider a food tour. Early in your trip.

This is the first time I've been back on this site since posting that question and, guys, I think I have Rick's book halfway memorized by now. Thank you everyone for all your suggestions. mrbassman it sounds like we are thinking very much along the same lines, I've got almost the exact same itinerary taking shape. And Kathy, in my short time on this site I have learned so much from reading your answers on various posts that I don't mind a bit if my thread goes offtrack. Vandrabrud, your Walks of Italy Hidden Gems tour sounds fascinating, I'll be off to research that next.

I've only booked 2 things so far, the Domus Aurea and the Colosseum After Dark, both on Saturday. Since we will be visiting in the rainy slow season of November (Thanksgiving week). I'd like to see the 10 Day Forecast before I lock us into too many other reservations. If I wait until 10 days out to book tickets/reservations for these places do you guys foresee problems?

1 Roman Forum/Palatine Hill /Colosseum (using RS audio tour and booking the plain combo ticket through CoopCulture)
2 Vatican Museum (using RS audio tour and reserving just a regular ticket thru the Vatican site)
3. Borghese Gallery (RS audio again)
4. A food tour of Testaccio or Trastevere.