Another question – i have a flight sunday morning at 7am from Fiumicino airport. When do I need to leave my hotel in Piazza Navonna area ? Is their safe night transportation ?

As far as a tour guide, you might consider a tour of the Vatican to save time. Also, you might consider paying somebody a small fee for a tour of the ancient forum. Otherwise, you can see Rome just fine on your own without a tour.

As far as getting to Fiumicino early in the moring, I understand that there are some shuttles that leave from various hotels early in the morning. Not sure if the train from Termini runs that early. A taxi is another option.

Your hotel may be able to give you some suggestions.

Touristic places in Rome are mostly walking distance. I advise you not to go on a bus tour. You also have the metro just in case you would like to go somewhere out of the touristics spots. I did it and it was fine. Vatican museum = long queues all the time. Nothing to do about that. There’s the train from airport to Termini but I am also not sure if it runs that early. Check with your hotel!

I would HIGHLY recommend a group called context Rome. They were under a different name when I went but they are different tours of different placed led by grad students studying and living in Rome. We did the colleseum and I know people who did the Vatican and museum and raved about it. Very infromative and they also know lots of shortcuts around lines and the such. Totally worth the cost.

Make sure you buy your tickets to the Colosseum at the entrance to Palatine Hill, not the Colosseum itself. The ticket line is typically very long at the Colosseum, and very short at Palatine Hill. Once you have your ticket, there is usually little to no line to get in at the Colosseum.

When you go to the Vatican, get in the line for the Sistine Chapel first. Once you’re done admiring the Chapel, note that there are two exit doors at the back of the Chapel. The one on the right is marked for group tours only; take this door, even if you’re not part of a group tour. The path leads around and into St. Peter’s Basilica, with little to no line. You will pass the line for St. Peter’s. Note how long it is. :)

My favorite day in Rome was spent on a scooter rental – six hours getting lost and two finding my way back

I would suggest the walking tour and the city pass.

I would just get a guidebook and wander around. The beauty of Rome is the wandering IS the destination. It’s beautiful and there’s so much to see by just exploring on your own. Hit your high points and pay attention to what’s around you… it’s beautiful.

Get to the Vatican Museum (this includes that famous chapel and the Raphael rooms)early in the morning (7 or earlier) and you won’t have to wait too long in the line. I’m not sure there is a point in taking a tour guide. The hallways are jam packed, and you can take any tour you like for free once inside really. But there are so many pieces to see here, a little guide book is best. And you could easily spend the whole day here.

There was no line to get into the Vatican itself when I went. It also wasn’t nearly as crowded as the Museum.

I took a lot of printed off stuff with me from various internet sites that describe the forum and other big attractions. As with the museum, there are tour guides everywhere speaking many different languages as well, so If you don’t know what something is, you only have to hang around a bit to find out.

Beautiful city. have fun!

I prefer doing stuff myself, mostly because I like to stop and takle some time at places i really like, and tours won’t allow for that. Also, I find the best stuff I saw usually isn’t the stuff that tours cover (tiny hidden away churches, wandering around narrow streets etc.).

I didn’t go to the Vatican museum, because I’d been there before. But the queue at St. Peters looked long, but moved fairly quickly. I’m not sure if this is true for the vatican museum, but for a lot of Italian museums you can book tickets ahead of time to pass the cues. I just checked the site and it does mention online tickets: http://biglietteriamusei.vatican.va/musei/tickets/do?weblang=en&do

Have a lovely time in Rome, it’s a great city