Ideas for a day outside Rome

Appia Antica (the old Roman Appian Way) - WONDERFUL day we had there.

We enjoyed a day trip to Orvieto which is a beautiful hill town in Umbria about 1 hour by train from Termini.

We loved Hadrian's Villa. Close to Rome, a well preserved site, not crowded at all and lots of shady area to hang out. We especially loved his moated "Mini Villa" within his big Villa. Also, about 1 hr and 20 mins north of Rome is Tarquinia. It is amazing Etruscan tombs that are very well presented and you can go into most of them. They painted their tombs with scenes that reflected what they loved in life. The audio guides were great- the look on my son's face when he was listening to the one for the Tomba della Fustigazione (tomb of the Flogging/whipping) will stay with me forever. We have older kids. Bypass that one if you have younger kids you do not want to explain that to! Both Hadrian's Villa and Tarquinia are Unesco World Heritage sites.

I think the Via Appia Antica is closed to traffic on Sundays, but you can park nearby.

The lake and town of Bolsena might be a nice change, also Castel Gandolfo or the town of Tivoli. But Bolsena has the best artigianal gelato on the via Santa Cristina.

Ostia Antica is very nice, especially on a sunny day.

I also suggest Orvieto. It's a great town offering several interesting things to see and do. We really enjoyed the underground tour and the Duomo is beautiful when the sun illuminates the facade. You could also visit St. Patrick's Well or climb the torre (tower) for nice views of the town.

Lago di Bracciano, near the town of Bracciano, has nice sandy beaches and a couple of decent restaurants for Sunday lunch. There's the Odescalchi Castle, too Not far from there is Parco dei Mostri di Bomarzo. The town of Viterbo is also nearby and quite lovely.

I can also agree with above posters. We enjoyed the Appian Way and interesting tour of the catacombs. Ostia Antica is an easy trip from Rome on the train and very interesting & Orvietio is very nice!

Villa Adriana is a wonderful ruin and would be a fabulous day trip. If you saw the television version of Angels in America heaven of the gods was shot at the large pool there. Tivoli nearby also has the Ville d'Este which has interesting gardens with complex and beautiful fountains. Parking is easy at Hadrian's Villa; I don't know about it at Ville d'Este.

Just north of Rome are Tarquinia and Cerveteri which have huge Etruscan Tomb sites which are quite different from each other and worth a trip. There are many Etruscan sites in the area north of Rome so you could also find tombs in the hills e.g. near Sovana there are several and you can get maps to drive there in the town.

Orvieto which has pretty good parking is a good day trip. If you go there be sure to do the tour of the underground cavern network and of course the Cathedral is lovely.

Another simply amazing spot is Saturnia. Here is a link that shows the outdoor hot spring waterfall which is free to visit in a local park. No changing facilities when we were there years ago -- but worth changing by the car just to experience this amazing place. http://www.discovertuscany.com/maremma/thermal-baths-of-saturnia.html

We also heartily reccomend Villia Hadriana. It was a slow, shady, interesting place and not at all crowded. We then drove up a ways to Tivoli and had a picnic lunch on the wall overlooking the route back to the villa and Rome. It remains one of our most pleseant memories of that trip.

What Sheron said, word for word.