Rome in One Day?

Have you been to Rome before?

I did a real quick Italy trip a couple years ago to show someone who had not been. We really only had a day in Rome. I describe what we did that day in my blog report. You might get some ideas from that - https://andiamo.zenfolio.com/blog/2017/5/italy-through-new-eyes-part-3-rome

Hopefully I am wrong, but looking at your other posts, it appears you have an insanely frantic trip planned if you are going to all the places you mention.

For Rome you have do decide what 2-3 things are your "must do" things, and then put together your plan.

Staying in a more central location such as near Piazza Navona or the Pantheon would be much better than near Villa Borghese.

I would recommend checking out RS' Rome book from the library and reading his one day itinerary. He calls it the 'Caesar Shuffle'. Agree that staying up by Villa Borghese is not the most central place you could be.

There's a reason why Rome is the world's greatest city so you're going to have to be selective. I'd include confirming what you mean by "get in around 8am" - is that when your train arrives or when you'll drop your luggage at the hotel? Anyway, with your limited time, I would use half a day for the Colosseum and ancient surroundings and the second half for walking the historic area around the Pantheon, etc. Since you've already booked accommodation, I disagree with those suggesting you change - local travel is an easy matter by taxi and worrying about saving a few euros is silly given your limited time.

If you can get the first (9:00) or last (17:00) visit reservation of either day at the Borghese Gallery (closed Mondays), that would probably be your only real indoor sightseeing. You must arrive early to check in. If your walking route takes you past the Ara Pacis, it's easy to see through the windows without entering. Some people might also just enjoy the Roman Forum from the fence outside - you can see a lot but won't learn as much.

We've done Rome on day trips twice. I'll describe the second trip. We arrived on the train about 8:30 AM and taxied over to the Colosseum where we had tickets for the underground tour, seeing the underground, the floor of the Colosseum and then going to the upper level. We had a great guide and enjoyed it. The view from the upper level was great. Then went thru the Forum. Taxied over to the Vatican where we had tickets. Had lunch near the Vatican then taxied over to the Pantheon. After seeing it we shopped the area and had dinner. We visited Trevi Fountain on our first trip but it was being restored this trip so we skipped it. Back to the train station about 8:00 PM to catch the train back to our house in Tuscany.

It's a long day but we aren't big city people so one long day was fine with us. Both trips we took our grandson. First trip he was 9 and the second trip was his high school graduation present.

I'd say read Rick's book, pick your sites and plan your day. If Trevi had been 'open' we would have definitely visited there on the second trip since we enjoyed it on our first trip. Seeing a guy fishing coins out of the fountain was one of the interesting sights.

Hmmmm...no feedback yet from the OP to all the helpful replies.

It seems that happens. Don't really understand it.

Visiting for one day, planning with one post....too funny.
The Borghese followed by a spin through the Capuchin Crypts and then a quick walk down the hill.