I understand some sites in Rome are open for free on the first Sundays. We will be traveling with kids and weren’t sure we’d be able to get them through the colosseum, forum, and palatine hill all in one day, so we were hoping to take advantage of the free Sunday to go back and see things we missed. Any advice on doing this? Do we need reservations or should we arrive early? Thank you!
Posted by
11647 posts
Everything I have heard about these free days is how crowded they are so have avoided them. Give it a try if you have the time.
Posted by
Citizen of the World
2143 posts
And "Crowded" might be understating it.
Posted by
Boston
1806 posts
The popular museums will be blitzed, and there are entrance quotas for some - such as the Colosseum. We went to one of the more specialized museums on the free Sunday - the Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia - and it was busy but not overcrowded. I highly recommend that museum and many kids would like it. https://www.imuseidiroma.it/musei-gratis-roma/
Posted by
390 posts
We did the Vatican museums on a free Sunday. It took 3 hours in a line to get in and it was elbow to elbow. I don’t recommend going anywhere near the museums on “free” day, especially with kids. The only saving grace while standing in line was the Rome marathon ran by.
Posted by
Minnesota 🎒
16655 posts
Angela, I wouldn't even THINK about trying to do the Colosseum on a free Sunday, especially with kids.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Yeah, we have tickets already to do the colosseum another day, but don’t think we’ll be able to get them through the forum and palatine as well all in 24 hours. We were thinking of maybe heading back to either the forum or palatine on the free Sunday if we ended up skipping one the day of our tickets.
I like the idea of exploring a less visited museum that day. Thank you for the suggestion.