Rome in a day

The Sistine Chapel is accessed via a Vatican Museum tour.

If you have found a tour that can take you all these places and include reserved tickets for the Colosseum and Vatican Museum, then it might work. Otherwise I think you will just be doing a 'run through/run past' trying doing it all on your own.

I am in the "just crazy" camp, but if you find a tour that does all that, go ahead. It will be much more difficult to accomplish on your own.

You will need advance-purchase timed-entry tickets for the Forum/Colisseum/Palatine and the Vatican Museums/Saint Peter's. I would get an early-entry tour to the Vatican that includes Saint Peter's (meetup is at 7:30), grab a bite on the go and see the other sights in the afternoon.

Hopefully you are going at a time of year with lots of daylight hours, that will extend your sightseeing hours.

Edit: I see joe was typing at the same time.

I'm in the "just crazy" camp too and don't think there's ANY worthwhile way of doing all that in just six hours. Even eight is a big stretch. Some more information would be helpful?

Why do you only have 1 day? This is relevant as if, say, it's arrival day prior to heading elsewhere or you're trying to do this independently on a cruise stop in Civitavecchia, there are potential pitfalls which need to be weighed.

Are you staying in Rome on the evenings prior to and day of your one day?

What date/day of the week?

When are you traveling (winter, summer, etc)? Ability to handle heat + crowds can be a factor.

Who are "we" (number in your party and approx. ages) and are all of you able to manage long distances/many hours on your feet? It's another relevant question as I would not attempt this with children or anyone unable to walk a minimum of 7-8 miles on varied surfaces.

We took a cruise that put us in the port near Rome for a day and we were able to tour everything that you have listed except for the Colosseum. (We're touring that next year in our RS tour-yay!) We did the Forum and a driving tour in the morning with an awesome lunch (not included), followed by an afternoon at the Vatican with a private tour guide. We used Rome in Limo http://www.romeinlimo.com/. I really can't recommend them enough. Their drivers do not come into the different stops with you as they are not technically guides but the ones that we had (one in Rome and one in Naples) were amazing!!! A private tour guide in the Vatican is also necessary so that you can skip the line there and get the highlights of the museum and the Sistine Chapel. All that being said, I think that we had more like 8-9 hours to work with. Have fun!! No matter what, you will see some great sites.

If you kept your wits about you and kept a cracking pace, but make sure you allow enough time to get from venue to venue.

09:00 Vatican Museums & St Peters
12:00 Pantheon
13:00 Lunch on Piazza Navona
14:00 Spanish Steps
15:00 Trevi Fountain
16:00 Colosseum & Forum (closes 19:00)

A private tour guide in the Vatican is also necessary so that you can
skip the line there and get the highlights of the museum and the
Sistine Chapel.

Deb, that's not really true, assuming you mean a truly "private" guide. The Vatican offers group tours (for a reasonable price) which accomplish the same. Very good group tours are also available through some other resources, and skipping the line is possible for ANY visitor simply by pre-purchasing entry tickets on the Vatican museum's website.

But it would help to know more exactly what sort of situation the OP is needing to manage? If they are staying in Rome the night before - and their budget can handle it - it may be to their benefit to look at Walks of Italy's "Pristine Sistine" small-group tour, or similar, which would get them into the chapel/museums before the general public and maximize the amount of time they'd have left for the Colosseum/Forum/Palatine. That tour also covers St. Peter's.

WOI has a "Rome in a Day" tour which includes the Colosseum, Vatican Museums, St. Peter's and some other landmarks but does not include the Forum/Palatine.

The Vatican/St Peters + the Colosseum/Forum/Palatine are as demanding a 1-day itinerary, time and crowdwise, as anything I can think of in Rome.

It wasn't built in a day, and I doubt very seriously one can "... experience all that Rome has to offer" in a day. Having said that, however, one can quickly see those places in a day if one is young, energetic, and is ok with going full speed all day. Even then you are only going to get a once over lightly taste of Rome. There isn't, in my opinion, a way to do it entirely on your own if you've never been there so plan on using a tour service or guide. I don't mean to sound like gloom and doom, just trying to offer a little shot of reality.

We did it! Minus the Pantheon and we did the Vatican in the AM and the rest after lunch. Were exhausted but when you only have one day you do what you gotta do!

Welcome to "just crazy". In 2003, my husband and I had the same circumstances. We were not planning on going south of Orvieto, but when we realized we were a short train ride away from Rome, we couldn't resist. We changed some things around and "eked" out one full day for Rome. To complicate matters, the day we could come was some "special" day. Every site was free, which meant huge crowds .While it has been a long time since then, I think it can still be done. Europe is probably busier now than it was 2 years after 9/11...but the "special day" made that particular day quite busy. We had an amazing time and have never had any regrets. I have been asked, chastised, inquired by people: Why didn't you stay longer? Was it worth it? etc. My reply: We may have only had one day in Rome, but it was an awesome, fun day and well worth it.

What we did:

If you only have one day, it has to be well planned out. We were staying near Orvieto, so we caught the earliest train to Rome that we could. We immediately bought 24 hour transportation passes and used the metro and walking to get around (The metro is limited, but is good to get from the one major site to the other) We were at St. Peter's and in line when it opened. Then we went to the Vatican museum. Because of the free day, it was packed. We really just wanted to the see the Sistine Chapel, but you couldn't even walk through the museum. Fortunately, a private tour guide was able to talk to the guards, and they took down some ropes and let her couple through. Since she had been visiting with us, she let us tag along to the chapel. My journal shows we left the museum about noon.

We rode the metro to the Spagna stop and got off. After a quick lunch at McDonalds (Eating quick was part of the plan) we visited the Spanish Steps. Then we bought a gelato and ate it on our way to Trevi Fountain. After seeing the fountain, we walked back up to the Metro and rode it to the Coliseum. Coming up from the Metro and seeing it for the first time was a real wow moment. After visiting it, we walked across to the Forum and explored that area. We spent most of the afternoon in this area. We walked out of the Forum area by the Emmanuel monument. We walked from there to the Pantheon exploring the area and seeing the sites between including Trajan's column. After visiting the Pantheon, we walked back by Trevi Fountain and then took the Metro back to the train station. We were back to Orvieto by 9:00 PM.

Some advice:
One of the hardest things to go through in a timely manner will be the Vatican museum. You might consider trying to arrange a guided tour of that it either first thing in the morning or last thing at night. Then you could do the rest on your own and at your own pace. Also, know what you want to see in the museum and let the guide know. Due to the crowds, the only thing we saw was the Sistine chapel, but we were OK with that.

Prepare, prepare, prepare. Ir you really want to see all these sites, you have to have an idea of when you need to be moving on, the operating hours of each site, and have the order laid out. This was the one day of that trip that we knew exactly what we were going to be doing when. We knew which Metro stops we needed for each site and located them on a map (this was before we had a GPS on our cell phone).

As I said earlier, with one day something had to be sacrificed. We chose food. Other than our quick stop at McDonalds, we did not eat any meals in Rome. (We ate breakfast and dinner on the train. (yogurt, fruit, granola bears, a sandwich, nothing fancy)

Overall, we felt like we enough time at each site. We actually finished earlier that we had to, which left time for the relaxing walk back through the heart of Rome (Pantheon, Trevi, etc). We returned to Rome in 2008 and spent several days there. While we had more time, I am not sure we had more fun. There was something about that one day "blitz" tour that was just so enjoyable.

I ran out of space when I was almost done. (I must be "oversharing") In closing: Could you use more time? Of course. Is there more to see in Rome than these sites? Yes. Should you do it? YES YES YES. That day is in the top 10 of days I have spent in Europe (and I have spent 262 days in Europe since 2001). Go for it and enjoy every minute!

My husband and I just spent 3 days in Rome in March of this year and we managed to visit both the Colosseum and the Vatican in the same day. At the time, lines were short and it was easy to access several sites, even without advanced tickets. Our hotel was located directly between the Colosseum and the Vatican. We woke up early, ate breakfast, walked a mile to the Roman Forum, walked up the Palatine listening to the Rick Steves downloadable tour, then walked down to the Colosseum. We spent about an hour walking around and through the Colosseum. We did not spend quite as much time as we could have at the Roman Forum, but it was more important for us to see more at the Colosseum and the Vatican. After this, we caught a cab to the Vatican to save time. By this time the lines were VERY short at the Vatican. We walked through the Vatican Museum, which is long, but incredible. We followed Rick Steves' suggestion to exit through the group exit for a shorter entrance to St. Peter's, which saved quite a bit of time. Then, we spent quite a bit of time at St. Peter's before walking the mile back to our hotel (the INCREDIBLE Boutique Hotel Campo de Fiori - I will always plug this hotel because the service, quality, and terrace view were all astounding).

We did NOT do the Pantheon in the same day, but we would have still had time to at least go see it and eat gelato in front of it if we had caught a cab rather than walking back to our hotel. I doubt we would have had time to explore the inside fully with enough daylight, though.

Ultimately, as long as you aren't at a super busy time of the year, I definitely think this is doable, especially if you are catching a cab to and from sites. You will not be able to stop and look at every piece of artwork in the Vatican Museum, of course, AND if you have any mobility issues you will likely run into issues at the Forum, especially. I have heard that the lines can be quite long during the summer, which would make it difficult to fit everything in. In March, however, we had a busy, but fulfilling and incredible day exploring the Colosseum and the Vatican! I would relive that day a million times!

I'm in the crazy but also doable camp. Here is some timing info that might help:

Vatican: I did the Walks of Italy tour of the Vatican that started at 7:30. Worth getting up for. We lingered at the Sistine Chapel and then breezed through the highlights of the rest of the museum, with only a couple brief stops. Then cut through to St. Peters where there was only one stop that I recall because there were too many other tour groups in front of Michelangelo's Pieta. Keep in mind that even if you want to only see the highlights of all this, so does everyone else. It was busy and crowded. Fast is not always an option. Then we were outside to see the changing of the guard at 11am. The guide says she tries to time it like this, but it's not a promise, so figure this tour might not end until 11:30. (I went back in and to the cupola, which you probably wouldn't have time for). The guide did point out the line to get into the church via their security line. It was 2 hours and this was a Monday in November after the All-Saints holiday, so start of the slow down season. If you do this in the morning, maybe hit the church first and then the museum? But a tour might be the way to go. If you're doing transit, allow about 10 minutes to get from the church to the main street and take a couple quick pics on the way.

Colosseum: I think the afternoon tours of these places start earlier than you could get there, unless you taxi directly from the Vatican and skipped lunch. I did a tour here as well (Roman Guy), and spent about 3-3.5 hours. I thought we spent plenty of time at the Colosseum and could have used more at the Forum/Palatine, so if you go on your own without a tour, still budget minimum 3 hours. (Roman Guy recommended Pizza Boccaccia for lunch. It was a really good, stand up and eat pizza place, but allow 10 minutes walk from the Colosseum).

Pantheon: I'm not sure how close taxis can get but I think main streets for transit are only about 5 minutes away. Here or Piazza Navona might be good for lunch. This, depending on what day you go, should be open until 7 or 7:30, and night is actually a good time to see it. Then you can find dinner to linger in one of these plazas and rest your feet after a long day.

Spanish Steps/Trevi Fountain: I didn't get the Spanish Steps. I'm sure I'm missing something but they are just steps. Trevi Fountain is a nice visit, and still pretty at night when everything else is closed. Still crowded though!

But most important to remember is that tourists walk crazy slow and spread out on the sidewalks, so allow plenty of time for walking between sites. I found that the time allowances at the sites that you'll find here or other travel sites are pretty reasonable, but the time to get from site to site is always more than I think it will be. Strolling is great, but you may have to bring out your inner New Yorker to do all this.

Thank you for all of the great and insightful responses. I will ponder everything you said and come up with a plan. Thanks again for all of your ideas. They really helped.

dmsupino1, as asked above, how well this is going to work for you is highly dependent on your personal situation. Some folks who've visited on the off-season have encountered shorter lines but if you are traveling during high season, it's a different situation. If you are traveling with kids, it's a different situation. If you can't manage the hours/miles on your feet, it's a different situation. What day you have to do this matters as the Vatican museums are closed most Sundays, and the "free" Sundays of each month are usually mobbed: not a good time to do it. Same for "free" Sundays at the National Museums (the Colosseum is one of these) each month.

So could you please help us with some insights about your group and what season you'll be visiting Rome?

I will be doing this on a Monday (October 22, 2018) We port in Civitavecchia from 7am-8pm. Somehow, I have to get to Rome, the earliest I can. We are two able bodied, mid 50's husband and wife. We can walk alot and if we had to miss a meal to see once in a lifetime things. We don't mind the heat, but I don't think Oct should be bad. I will take any explicit advice that might help :-) Thank you everyone! I am looking to as much as I can, especially the Vatican, Sistine Chapel, St Peters, etc.