trips from rome for 3 days

For day trips from Rome with travel times not more than 3 to 4 hours: Ostia Antica, Tivoli, Orvieto If you want to go someplace within 3 to 4 hours travel time, and sleep there, instead of day trips from Rome, then Orvieto, Florence, or Siena. Tuscany hilltowns will require a car, which may not be worth the complications of car rental, since you have good choices (given above) that can be done by train or bus.

Thanks-this would be overnight-getting out of the city after a couple of weeks of busy! Open to anything!

The clarification on what you're looking for is helpful: Tivoli and Ostia Antica are only day trips, so you can scratch them from the list. We're left with Florence, Siena (travel time longer than the fastest trains to Florence), and Orvieto. Florence is looking pretty good.

I would go to Naples, although that is not exactly relaxing. But just a little further south is the Amalfi Coast, Sorrento, etc.

Thank you for all the suggestions. Any thoughts on the Adriatic?

Consider Sorrento. It's wonderful.

I vote for Sorrento. My favorite place in Italy!

Take an inexpensive flight from Rome to Catania and enjoy Sicily for three nights. You can stay in Taormina and see Mount Etna.

Hi Linda, I can give you some thoughts on the Adriatic coast. I spent a week there while my husband was on business in April and will be going back again in 2011. The water and sandy beaches are beautiful (I literally had them all to myself in April), but I've heard that the July and August crowds are madness. I'm told this is where the Italians vacation, hence there is very little tourist information online that I could find and very little English is spoken. If you're looking for a coast line, I'd go to Sorrento and the Amalfi coast.

I heartily agree with staying in Sorrento for three nights and exploring the Amalfi Coast. It's breathtakingly beautiful!