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Three hours in Rome...

After much deliberation we have decided to bite the bullet and go with our ship's excursion from Civitavecchia to Rome for the day. Due to my husband's need for a scooter we are limited to what we can get through all sites so we took this one. After a drive past many of the "best" of Rome it will give us about three hours on our own. We will be dropped off at a central location (I am guessing near Ponte Umberto) and will be picked up after about 3-3 1/2 hours. We both decided getting a taste of Rome was better than sitting on the ship!
We are planning to walk across the bridge and head to Piazza Navona and then on to the Pantheon. Will this be doable in our time frame and give us the flavor of the city we are hoping for? We plan to return to this beautiful city on another trip to Europe so this is not our only chance to see the sights (we hope!)
Any other suggestions? Places to sit and people-watch?

Elin

Posted by
23178 posts

Is it a electric scooter? It should be enough time. It will be slow going since the sidewalks, etc., can be very rough and, of course, the crowds can slow you down. You will pass lots of sidewalk cafes so pick one. And there is a couple of good gelato shops in the area of the Pantheon. See Rick's Rome book for the locations.

Posted by
4105 posts

Easily done if that's your drop off point. Are you meeting up with the tour at the Pantheon?

I don't recommend trying to throw in the Trevi Fountain, it's always extremely crowded.

Posted by
9 posts

Thanks, everyone. Yes, he uses a mobility scooter and we figured the walkways would be a bit bumpy so we shortened our expectations to allow for slower speeds if necessary. We haven't been given a drop-off or pick-up point yet but are basing our trek on what we have read from others who have taken this tour and others that are similar.

I'm glad to hear we haven't bitten off more than we can chew with our plan. No desire to go to the Trevi fountain this trip, feeling the crowds would be a bit much the time of day we suspect we will be there.

We will check out a spot or two near the Pantheon for a snack and people-watching and just soak up the feeling of being in Rome! Based on what you have suggested and confirmed I feel that we can put together a short, but memorable, first trip to this lovely city.

Posted by
4526 posts

The Pantheon is beautiful. There is a ramp, so you can get inside. We actually sat on the steps eating pizza from around the corner, but that was a number of years ago and I think that is now frowned upon. There are restaurants with outside dining in the Piazza in front of the Pantheon, but you will have better people watching in Piazza Navona. The down side is that there may be more tricksters hanging around there too.
Right near the Pantheon is the Temple of Jupiter and around the corner is the Basilica di Santa Maria Sopra Minerva with the carving of the elephant with the obelisk on its back in front of the church. The basilica is a major church, so one would hope there would be an accessible entry....but if not, the statue is worth the trek.