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4 days in Rome

I’m traveling with my parents to Rome over Thanksgiving weekend. We’re planning on doing a walking/food tour of Monti (where we’re staying on the first afternoon we arrive (Thurs). Day 2 (Fri) we’re thinking of seeing Old Rome (Colosseum, etc.) and the Vatican before doing a nighttime food tour. For Days 3 and 4 (Sat and Sun) we were thinking about going to Tuscany for a day (Montepulciano and Pienza) and then doing a day trip to Pompeii/Sorrento/Positano. Any thoughts on this itinerary and what days to do Rome vs Tuscany vs Pompeii & the coast? Thanks!

Posted by
1025 posts

This is waaaaaaay too rushed. Rome deserves all 4 days without venturing out to the hinterlands. If your goal is a flyby that will enable you to tell your friends about all the things you saw, then I guess it is okay, but you won't enjoy or remember the trip very much. Stay in Rome; forget Tuscany and Southern Italy.

Posted by
11247 posts

The day trips will leave you exhausted and wondering why you stretched yourselves so far. Rome has enough for a lifetime so spend your 3 full days (plus arrival day) there. Maybe a 1/2 day to Ostia Attica instead? Or the Appian Way on Sunday?

Hers’s some help in considering how to spend your precious time in Rome https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/italy/rome-itinerary.

Posted by
23178 posts

... Any thoughts on this itinerary .... Ya -- it is crazy. Doubt seriously if you could accomplish half of what you have planned. The exception might be if you are currently living in Europe and will not have to deal with jet lag. But if coming from the US or Canada, it is far too much. You have not even begun to scratch the surface of Rome and you are scheduling two day trip that are nearly impossible to do because of logistics. You really need to rethink this plan.

Posted by
11033 posts

Day 2 (Fri) we’re thinking of seeing Old Rome (Colosseum, etc.) and the Vatican before doing a nighttime food tour.

By "Vatican" do you mean the Museums, or just St Peters Basilica? Most here would suggest doing 'Ancient Rome' one day and the Vatican another. If all you want is St Peters it will be a busy but doable day. Doing a food 'tour' afterwards is a wonderful ambition. By then just finding a nice restaurant may be better.

then doing a day trip to Pompeii/Sorrento/Positano.

While many advocate against doing a day trip to Pompeii from Rome, there are tours or DIY options to do so, but it is a really busy day. Trying to add Sorrento and Positano to that is straying into padded cell territory.

Also keep in mind the daylight hours are much shorter in late November.

Overall looks more like an endurance challenge than a vacation--- thats my $0.02

Posted by
1103 posts

Here is another vote for spending all four days in Rome. We spend 10 days in Rome on our first visit, and could not wait to return for more.

See the following thread about a short visit to Rome:
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/italy/rome-smaller-must-sees-hidden-gems

Here are some thoughts about Rome:

From the introduction to The Smiles of Rome: A Literary Companion for Readers and Travelers (Ballantine books 2005 - Susan Cahill, ed.)
Rome has the power to blow your mind and heart, delivering man, woman and child from small-mindedness, bestowing a much larger capacity for the beauty of the world than you started out with… it’s the accumulation of pasts in Rome and one’s consciousness of those layers - in the city and in one’s self - that can make Rome a life-changing experience. Once Rome enters your consciousness, your perspective on human time may change, deepen, mellow… Everywhere, something invisible makes itself felt in the visible, making the whole city seem to pulsate with hidden presences, a register of the human psyche and of twenty-eight centuries of history striated by horror, by thrilling legends, and anonymous kindness. Getting to know Rome, we come home to ourselves…

Posted by
15679 posts

The day trips will leave you exhausted and wondering why you stretched
yourselves so far. Rome has enough for a lifetime so spend your 3 full
days (plus arrival day) there. Maybe a 1/2 day to Ostia Attica
instead? Or the Appian Way on Sunday?

Very good advice indeed. You will barely scratch the multi-layered surface of Rome in 3.5 days - the minimum I advise for a first-timer to Rome - so save other parts of Italy for other trips. Also, planning ANY scheduled tours for arrival day isn't usually recommended should you experience a travel delay, and you're apt to be so jet-lagged anyway that paying attention could be difficult.

Day #2 is seriously overloaded. Doing the "Colosseum, etc." + the Vatican will be exhausting so those should should be split over two separate days. Pompeii/Sorrento/Amalfi Coast requires 3-4 nights to do any justice and without spending more time on transport than actually seeing/experiencing anything. It's also nicer, IMHO, to do during the season the ferries are running, which they won't be (except to Capri) in late November.

And a good point from Joe about daylight being short that time of year.