Heart of Rome Walk

Hi bjd,

I didn't have Rick's book when we'd visited Rome in 2011. But our walk was very similar to his route.

Campo de Fiori: If you enjoy food and the Italian culture, you may take an hour or more to walk around and take-in all the sights, smell and colours. The fresh fruit stands, and eateries are great.

Pantheon: If you're planning to go inside the Pantheon, you may take more than 1/2 hour. You may wish to enjoy and learn about the architecture inside the Pantheon. If you enjoy taking pictures, than you may need more time. But again, depending on your interests, it may take over an hour to appreciate the architecture both from inside and outside (also depending on the crowd inside the Pantheon).

Piazza Navona: The fountains in Piazza Navona are gorgeous. There are numerous cafes, shops and restaurants in Piazza Navona. It is beautiful and picturesque! (roughly an hour...more if you decide to stop and have a gelato :) )

Trevi Fountain: This place is very crowded. Depending on the time of the year, you may have to squeeze your way down to the fountain area. Be sure to throw 3 coins in the fountain over your left shoulder for good luck... Take your photos and leave. You don't need more than 1/2 hour.

The Spanish Steps: It is also very crowded. But if you choose to climb to the top, the view is gorgeous. Spend some time on the steps to take in the surroundings and enjoy the view. It would be about an hour or so.

So...you could do all that in a day without much hassles at all. Be sure to stop along the walk and enjoy the scenery (whatever it catches your eye). There are always some hidden gems along the streets of Rome!

McLau

Thank You

We were staying right near Campo de Fiori, we left, pretty much followed the heart of Rome walk, stopped for gelato in the Campo, went in to the Pantheon, and walked back to the apartment. It couldn't have been longer than 3 hours, maybe closer to 2 1/2....

Well, it took us about 6 hours with lunch. I may tend to linger...

We did it yesterday afternoon and it was brutally hot (Sunday). In late afternoon -early evening the whole area became much more pleasant.

One advantage of all those churches is to allow us to escape that heat.

The Trevi fountain is currently under renovation, so that will reduce your visit time there. Some people may spend 5 minutes in the Pantheon (it's just one big room) and others 15 or 20. If you can get inside the Pantheon before it closes, the rest of the walk is nice in the evening.

If you need to pick one walk, it's Campo di Fiore hands down, day or night. The ONLY time to do the "Heart" walk is at night when they shut down vehicle traffic. My wife and I did it in the day when it was hot, construction work, auto pollution - it felt like downtown LA and there's not much to see unless you like shopping while you're in Rome! The Campo walk is divine - we did it day and night - breakfast at the Campo open air market is a real kick. Then it's Piazza Navonna, the Pantheon (this is my favorite sight on Earth - get RS's Rome "Pocket" book which is your tour guide giving you condensed detailed info on the significance of what you're observing. You will never have a better $10 investment in your life! When you spend a ton of money to get to Italy why waste time trying to figure out what your looking at until after you get home). There's a couple of churches to pop into and we always ended at Trevi with a gelato. Too bad it's under restoration. Enjoy!