A week in Rome....?

Question

At the beginning of March I'm thinking about going to Rome for a week. I've been once before and I fell in love with the city...but, I only got to spend 2 days there. While I saw all the major sights, I didn't get to really do anything obscure. Any suggestions? Any general advice? Thank you!

Answer 1

Hello,

If you have seen the major sites, you are in better shape than  most.  You can start by seeing some of the great churches in Rome.  There are so many churches in Rome but the few I would suggest would be:  Santa Maria Sopra Minerva (behind the pantheon), trinita del monte (top  of spanish steps), Santa Maria Maggiore, Saint Peter in vincoli,  Santa Maria in Cosmedan ( with the mouth of truth), Santa maria della vittoria, and the church of the capucchin monks ( at piazza barberini).  After seeing the churches you can see some of the other sites like: the circus maximus, baths of caracalla, Knights of Malta, keyhole, the alter of peace, castel sant'Angelo, The Borghese park and the via veneto.  Don't forget some of the wonderful museums and galleries like: the Borghese gallery, Campidoglio musuems, palazzo altemps, and the palazzo farnese.  

For daytrips outside of the city you can do Ostia Antica.  This is the wonderful seaside city from Ancient times.  It takes about half an hour to get there.  This is one of the easier day trips to take.  You can also go to Hadrians villa and tivoli.  Or if you want to spend the entire day, you can go to Naples to see Pompeii and Herculaneum.  Both of these cities were destroyed when Vesuvius erupted.  Both are wonderful sites and offer a lot to see.  The trip to Naples takes about an hour and a half, from there you must transfer to the commuter train to reach the two sites.  herculaneum comes first after about 15 minutes and 15 minutes past this is the pompeii stop.   This trip will take all day because of the travel involved, but it is an easy trip to make.  Just be sure to wear really good walking shoes.  

Donna

Answer 2

There are tons of lesser known, but interesting things in Rome. San Pietro in Vincoli displays the chains that St Peter was brought to Rome and the Moses of Michelangelo. If you didn't see Santa Maria Sopra Minerva the first time you were in Rome, it's worth a visit.

Some of the more obscure, but interesting, things are:

The view through the keyhole at the Consiglio di Malta on Aventine Hill. There's a picture here: http://www.theculturedtraveler.com/Archi... and others:

http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/photo23...

http://www.troise.net/photonikblog/2005/...

This is worth the effort to find (close to Circus Maximus) - relatively few do. This site give directions on how to find it: http://wikitravel.org/en/Rome/Aventino

The Crypt at Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini is also worth a visit if you're interested in seeing works of art made from the bones of .more than 4000 monks. http://www.cappucciniviaveneto.it/cappuc...

The Museum of the Souls of Purgatory is essentially a ghost museum.

Or you could go to the Pasta Museum or the Presepi (nativity scene) museum across the street from the forum. There's also a 2000+ year old pyramid but it's a little more out of the way.

There are also a number of day trips from Rome that are good: see Villa Adriana and Villa D'Este in Tivoli, spend a day in Pompeii or Capri, or go to Orvietto.

Answer 3

I doubt that you saw all the major sites in 2 days -the Vatican museums alone can take 2 days! Check out this link for lots of Italian travel tips http://hubpages.com/_yah/hub/Italy-Trave...