I only have 10 hours in Rome, what can I do/see?!?

Question

I will be flying to Egypt in October and I have 10 Layover (12:10pm-10:15pm) in Rome on the way there and about 13 on the way back (8:05pm-9:20am). I would like to see as much as possible but I'm planing on giving myself give or take 5-6 hours so I don't miss my plane, I hear the Rome Airport (FCO) is pretty busy. And on my way home it'll be late, I'll probably have enough time for dinner and a possible night cap. IDEALLY I'd like to do the following:

Eat authentic Italian food (Pizza and Pasta)

See (not necessarily tour) The Colosseum

See (not necessarily tour) as much of the Vatican as possible...

my friend wants me to see the Sistine Chapel.

And any thing else super cool, what am I looking at paying for transportation and food etc.

Answer 1

All in all, you're not going to be there long enough to see too much if you're going to get back to the airport in time.  

You can either go see the Vatican, which will take all your time, or a couple of the other sites.  

My particular choices would be the Colosseum, the Forum (right next to the Colosseum) and then walk to the Trevi Fountain and have dinner on the way.  Unfortunately, if you see the Forum without a guide, it ends up looking like a bunch of broken down buildings.  A guide brings it to life.  Maybe you can attach yourself to one of the tours going through when you are and catch a few interesting things OR get a book about it before you go.  

It's easy to find somewhere to eat that's good and we usually like to take some of the back roads while we're walking and go to a restaurant that the locals frequent rather than the touristy ones.  However, since this is your first visit, it's fun to sit in one of the piazzas and people watch while you're eating.  Make sure to get a gelato after dinner.  That quickly became one of our favorite things to do after dinner while strolling around.  

Have fun and don't cram too much in.  You'll spend too much time running from here to there to enjoy yourself.  Make it as leisurely as you can and throw a coin into the Trevi Fountain to make ensure your return to Rome.

We've been there seven times and plan to go back because we love it so much!

Answer 2

You can actually see quite a bit of Rome, at least from outside the buildings, in the time you have.

The Leonardo Express (11 euro) is a direct train between the airport and Roma Termini station - it does not stop at Ostiense as suggested by the other answer. There is a train that stops at Ostiense (30 min) if you take the line that runs from the airport to Roma Tiburtina station.

I would go from the airport to Roma Termini. The travel time on the Leonardo Express between the airport and the train station is 31 minutes. The train website is here: http://www.trenitalia.it/en/index.html Use Fiumicino Aero for the airport stop. Trains back to the airport leave Roma Termini at 22 and 52 minutes past the hour.

At Roma Termini, I would suggest that you buy a ticket for the hop-on, hop-off sightseeing bus for Rome. This covers the major tourist attractions. The bus leaves from the area in front of the train station every 25 minutes and you can get off there when you're ready to go back to the airport. The entire route takes 90 minutes to 2 hours.  Along the route, you can get off at any of the stops and walk around and then get back on a later bus. In addition to specifically covering the tourist areas, an advantage of the bus over the metro is that you can see the city while you're in transit.

If you get off at the Ponte Sant'Angelo stop, you'll be very close to the Vatican. You don't have time to get into the museums and Sistine Chapel, but you may have time to go into St Peter's depending on the line there.

There's a map of the route on the 1st link below:

http://www.romeguide.it/romeopentour/rom...

http://www.city-discovery.com/rome/tour....

http://www.viator.com/tours/Rome/Rome-Ho...

The bus costs 18 euro for the day. Food prices will depend on exactly what and where you eat. It's generally cheaper to eat away from the tourist attractions. You should be able to do quite well for under 25 euro for lunch.

Answer 3

Take the FM1  (11 euros) to Ostiense. Get on the subway (1 euro) in the direction of Rebibbia. The second stop is the Coliseum. From the Coliseum take a cab (6 euros) to the Pantheon and take pictures of the Wedding Cake from your cab. From there walk 0.5 kilometers east to the Trevi Fountain. One half block West of the Trevi Fountain is Planet Pizza - eat there (10 euros). When done, walk another 0.6 kilometers north to the Spanish Steps. From there walk 0.2 kilometers north to the the Spagna metro station. Take the metro (1 euro) towards Anagnina. The third stop is Termini Station. Get off there and switch metro lines (1 euro) and go toward Laurentina. The fourth stop is Pyramide. Get off there and walk over to the Ostiense station where you will take the FM1  (11 euros) back to Fiumicino (Rome) Airport.

I'm sorry, but you aren't going to make it to the Vatican which will have a line 5 hours long.