RomanRorum

Get the Roma pass (about 20 euros) and your first two sites are free (Palatine Hill/Forum/Colosseum count as one site). You also get unlimited metro usage for three days. Buy it at the sites or at a TI kiosk.

If you're on a tight budget you can still see a good part of the forum from Via Dei Fori Imperiali. Trajan's forum is at the north end of this street across from the "Wedding Cake" (the monument to Vittorio Emanuele II). Besides Trajan's column, it also has some great ruins from recent excavations to feast your eyes on for free.

The Spanish steps are overrated, by the way.

This year, due to increased expenses, the Forum became part of the "package" (Palatine, Colosseum, and Forum). Rumor has it that once the season is over, it will go back to being "free." Most tour guide operators I talk to DO NOT think so. The additional costs of upkeep, and the opening of the house of Augustus led to these price hikes. The tickets you buy are good for the date of purchase and through 1:30 PM the NEXT day in case you want to return. The best entrance to buy tickets - at the palatine hill entrance on Via di San Gregorio; always the shortest lines in season.

Unfortunately the Church of Trinità dei Monti, at the top of the Spanish Steps, has been under restoration for years. Now, work on the church is completed but they are STILL restoring the obelisk in front of the church. Hopefully this work will be done in the next few months.

In Navaona, the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers) is about halfway completed. They started late last year and have finally removed the front half of the scaffolding. That part looks GREAT! So it may be a few more months. We're not sure how they filmed the "Angels & Demons" scene in Navona with all that scaffolding???

Ciao,
Ron

We had a running joke that everywhere we went, there was scaffolding! There must be great job security in the scaffolding business.

That's the problem with Italy: everything is so old.

Hi George - we were there in June 2008, too, and I was nearly heartbroken that I could not see the Four Rivers fountain in the Piazza Navona. I couldn't even imagine it because it was completing hidden despite the attempts to use scratched, dirty, plexiglass viewing windows. Even in Florence, scaffolding everywhere! The worst disappointment in Florence was the Medici Chapel which is perfectly illustrates the insane extravagance of the Medici family and the monuments they erected to themselves - at least the later generation Medici's. But it was covered with scaffolding . . . a crime for a Renaissance art/history junkie like me.

Oh, well . . . I'll just have to go back!! :-)

The 4 Rivers Fountain was covered when I visited last year. I've got my fingers crossed that they finish by mid-November for my upcoming trip, but if not...that's just a good reason to come back yet again!

We also had a lot of scaffolding around the obelisk in St. Peter's Square because they were setting up the Christmas Nativity scene. Unfortunately we were too early to see the final result.

The Forum was free to us in May. We just walked right in. And after wandering around there, we stumbled across the path that bypasses the Palatine Hill entrance where people were paying for tickets for that. I wonder if we accidentally bypassed something.

Michael - they began charging for the Forum in March... so yes, you owe the Italian government money!!!!

;-)

Ciao,
Ron

Yes - restoration is a never ending process in Italy... too bad - but necessary. Once they finish - it's time to start again.

We saw the Bernini Fountain in 2004, and were slightly disappointed to see the scaffolding and plywood last year. But we all must be glad that the Italians care enough to keep up with the cleaning and the maintenance!!!