Rome - Friday through Monday in October

Most of the museums have a closed day and the Vatican also has Mass that that can congest St. Peter's. if you are visiting all over Italy, I highly recommend you get the guide book (we also arrived in Venice and left from Rome), as it has all of that info as well as the places where you should book advance reservations. The latter alone saved us a lot of time from having to stand in lines.

Rick Steves has an excellent list of what is open ..and not... in his Rome guidebook. Highly recommend! Also, the Roma Pass will allow you to skip the line at the Colosseo and Forum.

The Vatican museums are closed on Sundays and very crowded on Mondays. Thursday and Friday would be your best days to visit. If there are other museums you want to visit, check to see if they are open on Monday as many aren't. If you want to visit the Borghese Gallery, you will have to make a reservation.

While it is touched briefly above, make sure to check open schedules since many sites tend to close on Monday. There is a phrase heard occasionally about "Blue Monday" in Europe because of high percentage of closings.

Since you are travelling in October, the crowds will be much lighter than in June/July for example. So I think you only need to pay attention to business hours.

Thank you, all! We will plan on the Vatican Friday and just go by hours of operation as our guideline for other attractions. We are fans of getting reservations (i.e. avoiding lines) when possible. Fingers crossed that crowds won't be too bad in early October.

On the Sunday the traffic is restricted on the Appian Way which is the perfect time to see the catacombs and stroll or better, bike the Appian Way. Unfortunately crowds are always bad. Just a question of how bad. We were there last Oct and thought it was very crowded although a little less so than the previous May.

Much appreciated, Frank. This is helpful, especially since we love to tour by bike. These little tips can make all the difference.