Roma Pass and event tickets

The Roma Pass is good for most museums and sights but not those that are operated by the Roman Catholic Church (such as the Vatican Museums). Churches (unless they have been turned into museums) are free, except for non-worship places like bell towers, roofs, domes, crypts, treasuries.

I would buy one 3-day pass and make sure you concentrate the sights covered on those days. Note that the first two sights are free, others have a discount. Your guidebooks will tell you how to get tickets or reservations if you need them for the most popular places, so you can avoid the lines for buying tickets.

Buy your Roma Pass when you get to Roma, no,point in having it shipped. You can get it at the train station and at Tourist Info places, as well as the sights covered, but you may have to stand in line to buy it there.

Note that the clock starts when you validate the Pass, so don't use it for transportation until you are ready to start using it for sightseeing.

1) there is no need to buy the pass before getting to Italy. You don't get any discounts for pre-purchasing it so just get it when you get into the city.

2) You need to see if this plan will be of value to you. Make a list of what you want to see that is covered by the pass/passes. If it will save you money to get the two passes then you should. You may find that neither pass will save you any money. Remember, you can book skip the line entry tickets to the colosseum at the official site. This is the only site covered by the pass that will have a long line. You can buy transportation tickets as you need them but most people find they don't use public transport as much as they think they will.

3) I don't know as I've never ordered on site for home delivery. Just pick it up in Rome

The only things you may want to book ahead of time would be tours. Those tend to sell out quickly at certain venues. You haven't mentioned which sites you want to see so it's impossible to tell you which you should try to book ahead of time.

Donna

One other location you will need to set up ahead of time is the incredible collection of Bernini sculpture (and other art) at the Galleria Borghese.

Look it up in the book.

Because of few admission times during the day and that all admissions are by reservation, you need to reserve ahead.

If you just have normal tickets you can get them on line.

If you use the Roma Pass for admission the only way to arrange it is by telephone. You telephone the number in the book and tell them that you will have a Roma Pass. You don't need to have the Roma Pass yet, just when you show up to claim your reservation.

As noted, reservations for the Borghese MUST be made in advance, and over the phone if using a Roma Pass. Otherwise, reservations can be made online. This is a VERY popular attraction, though, and it's possible tickets may already be sold out.

For reservations online if not using the pass:

http://www.tosc.it/tickets.htm?affiliate=T2C&sort_by=event_datum&sort_direction=asc&fun=erdetail&doc=erdetaila&erid=912678&language=en

If intending the use the Roma Pass:

"For reservations to the Borghese Gallery and/or Domus Romane/Palazzo Valentini, please call +39 06 32810 (open Monday to Friday, 9:00 am to 6:00 pm – Saturdays, 9:00 am to 1:00 pm). Bookings can be made directly from the visitor’s home country, even before purchasing the card."

You should also make reservations for the Vatican Museums as queues will be long there. The Roma Pass doesn't apply to this one:

http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/MV_Home.html

The other one with really long queues is the Colosseum but it you're buying the pass, I assume you'll use it for that one (also covers Palatine Hill and the Forum).

I bought our Roma Passes at Tabachi shop. (Newsstands). Much easier and no lines.

We were in Rome for 5 nights and wanted to hit all the major sites as you planned. We did, but planning ahead allowed us to have a relaxing time and not waste time waiting in lines.

This is what we did... (we were 3 adults and two teens under 18). We only bought 3 for the adults.

Though the Roma Pass would cover Borghese Galleria we decided to reserve tickets online to ensure we'll have them and to avoid the hassle of an international phone call. Even with Roma Pass, I would not wait until you arrive to make reservation.

We booked a tour for the Colesseum/Palatine Hill/Forum so didn't need to use the Roma Pass for this, and we also booked a tour to the Vatican Museum/St. Peter's Basilica.(not covered by Pass)

We did those the first 2 days and walked or paid for metro ourselves. (We took one RT a day, walked the rest to enjoy the city!)

For the last 3 days, we bought Roma Pass and used it for Capitoline Museum (15 Euro per adult otherwise (more than what listed on guidebook because of temporary exhibit) and teens got in free with proof of their passports) and the National Museums... and since our legs were tired we used the Roma Passes for transportation on metro and buses around town to check out churches (free) and other sites on Pass... We did have to pay for metro tickets for the teens.

Thank you for all the suggestions. I'm still trying to decide on events for Rome. Trying to pick favorites without cramming each day too full where it isn't relaxing. We are in favor of walking except when it saves significant time. I like the Roma Pass suggestion to help on those last days. There is such much to choose from and decide on that I'm back to the overwhelmed feeling I had when I first heard of the train/bus system.

Does anyone have any suggestions about the Vatican night openings on Fridays? I noticed that mentioned when I went to the site for reservations and would like thoughts if that is preferred or in addition to a day tour?

You won't need to do both the night visit and the day time visit. I like the night visit because it's much less crowded and you can spend a lot of time exploring. Just be aware that not all of the galleries are open on Friday nights.

Donna

Sheila, you don't need to feel overwhelmed! If it makes you feel any better, we've walked ALL over Rome and only taken public transit (metro; very easy) a couple of times. We've also never purchased the Roma Pass as we preferred to leave our sightseeing schedule as flexible as possible rather than plan-and-cram around the time constraints of a pass, and never felt like we needed one for the transport piece.

Individual BIT tickets (1.50 euro apiece) are easily purchased at newsstands and tobacco (tabacchi) shops and tucked away for that quick jump on transit if desired. There is also a Roma 24-hour tourist pass available for 7 euro you can purchase if you know you're going to have a day that involves sightseeing locations that are some distance apart.

I also don't recommend buying the pass just to skip queues. For instance, we've gotten around that long ticket queue at the Colosseum by going to the Palatine ticket kiosk just before the opening hour. Once you have that ticket - which covers the Forum and Colosseum as well - you can get right into the security line at the Colosseum. The Vatican Museums - the other nasty queue - are, of course, not covered under the pass, and is gotten around by booking reservations on their own website or through private tours.

IMHO, that pass should only be purchased if you know you can make it pay off in free/reduced tickets fees or combo of those plus number of transit trips. Many, many attractions in Rome - such as the glorious churches - are free, and just as many with entry fees will not have long queues.

There's no right or wrong; it's whatever works personally for you.

I did the Vatican Friday night tour 4 years ago. It was very nice, not too crowded. We were able to move around in the Sistine Chapel without any trouble. Friends of mine said when they were in the Chapel it was so crowded they were pressed up against other people. The temperature was also nice at night for the walk there and back. We Did do two trips to the Vatican. A morning booking of the Scavi underground tour was a highlight for us, then we spent time in St. Peters, leaving around lunch to go back into Rome. We saved the museum and the chapel for the night tour. We are going back to Rome this fall and plan on booking a Garden Tour, going to the top of the Dome and then an independent visit of the museums.