We are traveling to Rome in late March and will have 5 full days (7 total— but not counting our travel days).
Wanted to plan at least one day trip. Leaning towards Florence. Would Venice be better?
While we love history and sightseeing, I do feel we need at least a half day of downtime/shopping/etc. Any suggestions?
Thank you so much for your help
Welcome
With only 5 days I would stay right in Rome. Venice is much much too far for a day trip- 4 hr train ride each way-
Florence more doable- 1.5+ hour train- but honestly just 1 day there is almost not worth it.
If you really must get out of Rome look a bit closer- Orvieto is just over an hour train ride away and will give you a nice taste of a medieval hill town. Or consider Ostia Antica- very easy to get to.
Agree with Christina, Venice is not a day trip. Florence or Naples/Pompeii can be but those will be long days. Tivoli and Ostia Antica are much easier day trips. Five days is not a lot of time in Rome. And if you are there over a Sunday spend some time on the Appian Way and the catacombs.
Also agree that Venice is too far and you would be doing Florence an injustice. Orvieto would make a great day trip as it is small town compared to Rome.
I also agree with the idea of Orvieto as a day trip. It is so different from Rome, which is a modern, vibrant city absolutely full of history. Orvieto is really like stepping back into another time. It is small, and you can walk from one end to the other easily. Vehicles are limited, so it is very pedestrian friendly. Visit the Duomo, both outside and in, and then just wander where you will.
Teens might enjoy a food tour. I went on a tour run by Eating Italy: https://www.eatingeurope.com/rome/
Young, lively guide. A little history as we walked from place to place. Yummy tastes of food at several locations.
Been to Rome with teens. We were there for 4 ½ days, and thought we'd take a day trip to Ostia Antica but ended up not (too much to do in Rome). We did spend an afternoon in the Borghese gardens/park after our morning tour of the museum. We ate a picnic lunch that we bought at a restaurant there, and then rented segways for the first time (purely with the kids in mind), and also bikes. This was our sort-of non-touristy day where we just did things we thought the kids would like. Other hits were the underground and third tier tour of the Colosseum (we did the one through coop culture), and an abbreviated (2 hours instead of 3 maybe, but our youngest kid was 9 then) tour of the Vatican museum, St Peters and dome climb. We visited the Capitoline museum on a whim and all liked that. We stayed in the Trastevere neighborhood and really liked that. We did spend a separate/additional 3 nights/2.5 days in Florence, which we also loved (so 8 nights total between the two), and there we visited the Uffizi, and Academia (to see David), among others and walked extensively.
I like Orvieto too. It's a 70 minute ride on a local train--no reservations required.
You might look into taking a tour of some of the sights in the Rome suburbs. There's a bunch of gardens and palaces south of there. We were taken to the top of a 1,500 foot mountain outside of Zagarolo, and walked down 1500 year old walking paths to the pagan temple called Palestrina. It had been forgotten and built over but appeared in the rubble when Allied forces bombed the town in WWII.
To do a 'day trip' and have a 'downtime/shopping' time, your could do Ostia Antica in the AM and have time to relax/shop later in the day.
Venice is crazy far and Florence would be a BUSY day trip.
Stick to Rome, you don't have time to do Venice properly or Florence.
With only 5 days, I'd stay in Rome. But, I like the idea of Orvieto, as well. It's so very different from Rome, and would be a nice break. Rome can be overwhelming.
We spent 8 days in Rome. We planned on one day to Florence but never got there for two reasons - didn’t prebook train tickets and price jumped from $26 when we started looking a few months before, to $86 for the week we were in Rome. Second reason? We were having too much fun in Rome. Still missed many sights on our list, but saw many at a leisurely pace.
Thank you all for your help! I'm obviously trying to jam too much into our 5 days — I will definitely take your suggestions.
Since this is our first time to Rome, if there are any "must do" tours, etc, please let me know. I was hoping to do the Vatican "happy hour" tour but unfortunately that doesn't start until April (we are there last week in March)
