Perhaps this one?
I never made it to the cemetery, which I deeply regret. I did, however, make it to the Keats-Shelley museum, where Keats died, and El Grecko, where they enjoyed hanging out. The Keats-Shelley museum is not at all interesting unless you have an attachment to Romantic poets in general. It’s full of letters and books and if I had had the proper clearance to read those things, I probably would have spent most of my trip locked in that little house…
I disagree about waiting for “natural breaks” in the traffic. In Rome, they will stop for you, but not if they see you waiting. And there’s never a break in the traffic. I didn’t just start walking out in the street like I owned the place for fun–I literally did as the Romans did. After mimicking them and realizing I wasn’t going to die as a result, I shaved countless minutes off of my daily treks. Now, in Florence, they’ll run over your ass. So if you make it to Florence (And if you have the time, you should, it’s close enough to be a day trip by train. Seeing Michaelangelo’s David is an experience), please be aware that they’ll probably run you over if you cross against traffic.
Aside from the Keats and Shelly graves, it’s also right next to a Pyramide. Which is just cool.
I’d say a solid day at Pompeii, and a day for the Vatican. When you say 5 days in Rome, are you counting travel days in addition to those days? So you’d be traveling a total of 7 days, with 5 actually in Rome?
So a day at Pompeii
A day for the Vatican, including St. Peter’s, the Vatican Museum, and the Sisten Chapel. The Vatican Museum is huge, so you can spend a lot of time wandering around there before you even get to the Sisten Chapel.
I’d say a Day to hit most of the “Hot Spots” - The Coliseum, Forum, Domus Aurea (If it’s still open to the public). I’d suggest starting the day at those places, and exiting the far end of the Forum. That puts you right next to Capitoline Hill so you can look around the museums located there.(If you started early in the morning, you should be hitting lunch about now) Go down the hill, around the Wedding Cake ( I still can’t rememember what the damn thing is called, but you’ll have no trouble recognizing it) past Trajan’s Column and make your way to the Trevi Fountain. Have a gelato, toss your coin in, and head towards Piazza Colonna. Just past there, you’ll come to the Piazza where the Pantheon is. Keep going away from the Trevi Fountain, and you’ll come to the Piazza Navona. It should be getting towards evening now, so they’ll be some great stuff to look at in the market. Sure it’s all touristy stuff, but it’s still worth taking a look at. The performers there are also interesting. Note the Fountain of the Four Rivers by Bernini should be featured in the upcoming movie Angels and Demons. If it’s late enough, I always enjoy eating dinner at one of the resturaunts located next to the Pantheon. La Rotunda was good last time I was there. Sure it’s pricey, but the food was at least good, and you couldn’t beat sitting next to the Pantheon for a view during dinner.
So that’s a solid 3 days. If you haven’t done any walking, I suggest that you try and get yourself used to it. I personally enjoy walking someplace like Rome rather than trying to use the bus routes or take a taxi. Mostly because with the driving there, I get motion sick. You really can walk to just about all the high points.
Other odd points of interest.
Someplace along the Via dei Fori Imperiali is an old prison like thing where they used to just lower prisoners down through a hole into a natural casm. It was very creepy to go down there and see what it must have been like to be in that hole for years.
La Bocca della Verità …yeah it’s cheesy, but still kind of fun to visit and stick your hand in the mouth for a picture. More interesting is the The Mausoleum of Augustus down closer to The Piazza del Popolo (also featured in the movie) which is right at the entrance to the Borghese gardens. If you go see Castel Sant’Angelo, be sure and walk across the Ponte San’ Angelo to see the statues framing the Castle in the background.
As you can imagine, there is more to see in Rome than you could in a lifetime. I’ve been 4 times and haven’t even scratched the surface. Don’t try and squeeze too much in. Especially as an art student, you’ll want to spend time just enjoying the pieces you’ll see, not trying to see so many that they all run together. Take pictures…lots of pictures. Our first trip to Italy we took over 22 rolls of film and 200 digital pictures. If you can get a Gorilla Pod for your camera I’d suggest it. There are a lot of uneven surfaces there that make it hard to find someplace to stick the camera for when you want a picture of the two of you together somewhere.
Most of all…have fun!
The Scavi tour is awesome. If you can get in, go.
I managed to see most of the big things in 3.5 days (and one of those days was Christmas, with a mishmash of things closed.), but it took laser like focus and planning, and I did need to miss Pompeii (but that just means I’ll get to go back someday).
Take the bus whenever you can, the train goes places, but it goes there underground. There’s stuff to see if you can look out the windows.
Good walking shoes were a necessity and hotel concierges were always helpful.
My family went last year for about the same amount of time. I would have liked to stay there for a couple of years, but 5 days can be good too. A couple of pieces of advice:
Learn how to use the busses and subway. The subway is OK but very limited. Once we learned how to use the buses we could really move about.
When you visit the Forum (which you must) don’t neglect the Palentine hill. That’s the hill beside the Forum with all the ruins on top and it is where all the rich folks lived, back int the day. In fact, I made a point of trying to see all of the seven hills to get a feel for the place in the old days (The Capitaline hill is at the head of the Forum) and my family enjoyed it all even though they aren’t history buffs.
Some say the catacombs are great; I didn’t get the chance. If you like dark, strange places I would recommend them. I did a similar trip in Paris and was amazed and I can only guess that they would be even more amazing in Rome.
Lastly, if you like history, read Steven Saylor’s book ROMA. It’s a novel with stories about historical events like the founding of the city and the sacking of Rome by the Gauls. It describes a number of locations that I thought were fun to envision.
I’d be afraid to put my camera down to get a photo with both of us in it… I’d be afraid that someone would run off with it!
We’ll have to walk some of the time, obviously, but I have really, really bad knees and if we walk everywhere vs taking a bus, train, or taxis, I will be in agony and unable to enjoy anything.
Not really so much, no. In fact I’d have to say that I *dislike *dark, enclosed places quite a great deal.
Oh, and plan to at least spend a couple of minutes cat-watching at Largo Argentina–ruins from the Roman Republic and a pretty neat cat sanctuary! Like the Forum, it’s a good stop on a I-have-five-days-and-want-to-see-a-lot-of-things-tour-of-Rome:
Hey Opal the reason I asked about the hotel is cuz I wanna recommend the one I used…
By no means do you have to or anything but look into the Hotel Parco Tirreno. It is a little “out of the way” of downtown Roma, but it’s relatively close to a subway station (which is always important), it’s also only about a half hour walk from the Vatican city (and it’s not a bad walk either), and the rooms are HUGE for the price. The one I stayed in had 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, a balcony, bathroom, living room, and dining area. The price wasn’t too bad either (especially for the size of the room and location) and the view from the balcony is really pretty as well.
Actually, this is a very cool place all around. You can become a member by the donation of some money (in various major currencies) or merely by donating a book to their library. In addition to managing the cemetery pretty much single-handedly, Sr. Holloway (who is delightful) also works with the local Gypsies, helping them find ways to negotiate life in modern Italy while preserving their culture. Most Italians (and tourists in Italy) have pretty negative impressions of the Gypsies, and it’s sort of a Catch-22 at this point.
There are a lot of people preying on the hapless tourist but it’s not like thieves are just grabbing things from people right and left. Simple basic caution should take care of most situations. We asked other tourists to take our pictures and had no trouble although we should have used a disposable for that now that I think about it.
Rome isn’t a huge city so far as the sights go, but if you walk from site to site that can add up to a huge amount of walking. There is just so much to see just a short walk away! And then another short walk, and another. As I said, the subway is very limited and taxis are expensive. Take the bus, travel like a native. Even so, there’s going to be some walking.
A lot of folks are mentioning the Coloseum. Is that worth going into? The lines were huge when I was there and I had a good enough view form the outside thank you. I had been inside 25 years ago when there were no lines at all and wasn’t all that impressed. If you must go inside, note that there are huge lines to buy the tickets. It’s hard to tell what’s going on with the huge crowds so you should plan ahead. You can buy tickets at other places and they are good for multiple locations (like the Palentine). I can’t remember the details but guide books and/or hotel staff should be able to help.
Also, has anyone mentioned Gelato? Your second step (after figuring out the bus schedule) is to find to good gelato place. There are tourist traps that sell small scoops for large amounts and there are places that sell huge scoops of great gelato for small amounts. Find them.
My answer is “depends”. Opal doesn’t tell us (or maybe she does and I missed it) when she is going.
For various reasons, all of my trips to Italy have taken place in either May or December.
On one December 24th, my family and I made it to the Coloseum at opening, and there was no line for tickets, and no line to get in. It was awesome, for the first thirty minutes when we all but had it to ourselves. Once the crowds showed up, it was time to leave.
In May, the lines for tickets are long, the lines to get in are long, it’s hot, and it is absolutely packed. It’s not worth it. It’s spectacular enough from the outside, that if you go in under these circumstances… it is kind of a let-down. And with only five days to spend in Rome (assuming a May-August trip), being IN the Coloseo simply isn’t worth the time and effort and crowds, IMHO, especially when there’s just so much to see and do (and since a side-trip to Pompeii only gives one four days in Rome).
I went to Rome when I was 16 with my school. We saw Pompeii and Herculaneum in one day, with, as I remember, a stopoff at the Isle of Capri. I’d imagine you’d need the better part of a day to see the two sites properly.
My memory of that time, though, is a little questionable since it was at the end of a three week trip.
I went in June (back in '99) and I don’t remember exactly what time of day we went (early, I think), but it wasn’t very crowded at all. Maybe we just got lucky. If there’s not a long line, I think it’s worth it to spend 20 minutes to see the inside. The floor of the arena is excavated so you can see some structure that was beneath ground level when the Colosseum was in use, and you can get a spectator’s view of everything. It’s very cool to have that viewpoint and imagine the sights and sounds from thousands of years ago.
But I agree that I wouldn’t wait in a long line to see the inside. Whether you go inside or not, be sure to do the touristy thing and get your picture taken with one of the ‘gladiators’ who are roaming around outside. They are fun chaps–IIRC, you use your own camera and just pay them a few bucks to be in your picture with you.
What to see with 5 days in Rome? Depends on what your interests are.
If you’re interested in the ancient history, there is, of course, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Circus Maximus, the Palatine, the Capitoline, the various fora, etc. I wholeheartedly second (third) the Scavi Tour under the Vatican. Get in while you can, because once Angels and Demons comes out, tickets will be impossible to find.
The Vatican itself and its museums is an entire day unto itself.
There’s the other usual touristy stuff. Don’t miss your chance to have your hand bitten off by the Bocca della Verita, toss your coins at Trevi, cool your heels with a gently dripping gelato at the Spanish Steps, and admire the view from the Vittorio Emanuel Monument (which the locals call “The Typewriter”, among other uncomplimentary nicknames).
Art lovers shouldn’t miss Michelangelo’s Moses at St. John Lateran, Bernini’s Ecstasy of St Teresa at Santa Maria della Vittoria, Caravaggio’s Conversion on the Way to Damascus at Santa Maria del Popolo, and the Borghese Gallery. If you’re into architecture, there are numerous exquisite churches (usually lurking behind a drab facade) just in the immediate area of the Piazza Navona. In fact, it is said that if you visit one church a day in Rome, you’ll be there for over a year.
If it’s shopping you’re after, hit the Porta Portese market on Sunday morning. You’ll find anything and everything on sale there…I think I saw someone offering up Jimmy Hoffa’s remains for a pretty decent price. There’s also the famous Gucci boutique at the base of the Spanish Steps, where tourists from the world over flock to be sneered at by the sales staff.
There is no exaggerating the persistence of pickpockets. Money belts and neck pouches that are kept underneath your clothes will protect you from most attempts, but do not underestimate the ingenuity of the determined. A friend of mine was distracted for just long enough when a very attractive young lady strolled up to him with a seductive leer and whipped open her blouse. He didn’t see her accomplices closing in from both sides until after they’d already plucked his passport from his inside jacket pocket. I myself witnessed a pair of women, each suckling a baby at the breast, attack a man on the Metro platform – using their respective free hands, they pulled open his jacket and went for his pockets, holding up their children as shields each time he raised an arm to strike. It was over in about fifteen seconds. Those who wish to keep their cash and other important documents, as well as ladies who are squeamish about the possibility of being shamelessly groped by grandfatherly-looking gentlemen, would do well to avoid the buses altogether.
This being said, there is more to see and do than a post ten times as long could possibly touch on. Buona fortuna!
I recommended Ostia too. Ostia doesn’t have people frozen in motion, but neither does Pompeii now.
Pompeii is cool, but it would mean spending more of the day travelling than seeing the actual site. When you only have five days, why spend one of them mostly travelling? (And paying more for that travel, too). There’s enough to see in Rome itself. Up to you, of course, Opalcat.
BTW, Yossarian, has your son read the Roman Mysteries books? A bunch of Roman kids solving crimes together like the Famous Five BC. 
The first one’s set in Ostia, and the others are partly set there.
What age range would you say is good for these books scifisam? My son is 16 but a very reluctant reader who dislikes long books.
Nope, no shopping for us. We’re paying for the wedding and the honeymoon; that doesn’t leave us anything to shop with, financially.
As for when we’re going May 25.
Anything from 8 up. I read the first two and enjoyed them, but they’re not the kind of YA fiction that is equally enjoyable by adults. The main characters are all fairly young - 11 or so, IIRC. The central character is also female, which puts some boys off. However, the books aren’t patronising at all. They’re probably worth a try.
Has your son read the Anthony Horowitz books about boy spy Alex Rider? They are perfect for teenage boys who are reluctant readers. Charlie Higson writes similar books. The Artemis Fowl series is popular with such boys too.
Extra costs might make Pompeii less of an attractive proposition, too. Maybe someone else on here can say how much it costs to get from Rome to Pompeii.
In case it got lost in the slew of posts, you really must get that Roma Pass - it does save you a fair amount of money.
Yeah I already bookmarked that Roma Pass link and emailed it to my fiancé. Good stuff! 