Help! Rome!
 

Hey there x
I need some quite (for me an epic planner) last minute trip planning help.
We are off to Orlando in Feb, so hubbys 40th early sept was going to be a quiet, ie cheap affair. Well the blokes a living legend, the best a wife could ask for, and who needs money anyway? :blush::blush:
It will need to be fairly budget aware though so any ideas that way would be great.
I have done some research today but can not pin point a good location. We are only going two nights (sandwiched between my loooooong days at work (see, I really haven’t planned this well! ) :mad: so we want it in a central location, close to the main sights.
We will do the coliseum, Vatican, sistine chapel etc. Anything else? Any free stuff :cool2:
Heck, we choose our holiday locations based on food :D so will mainly be eating, eating and eating, so hit me up with those ideas!
Thanks in advance

Try the Mecure Centro Colosseo, a reasonable 4* about 300m from the colosseum and the metro station, from which you can get anywhere relatively cheaply (although it is all walkable).

I'm going to Rome in February with my son for 2 days too. I went with hubby 13 years ago and remember that many attractions were within walking distance of each other but you'll still walk for miles - take your comfiest shoes! Trevi fountain, colosseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon and Spanish Steps all fairly close. We used the metro to get to the Vatican. I don't remember it costing a huge amount to get into the Colosseum and Forum. The Pantheon is free. Try to get to the Vatican fairly early to miss the crowds. St Peters is awesome - and I'm not religious - it's just stunning. We stayed close to the Spanish Steps last time but this time we're staying elsewhere.

An Italian friend of mine told me that Trastevere is a good part to stay in - she says it has 'proper Italian' restaurants (her words!)and it's where the locals go in the evenings, so we're staying in a B&B there which we got on Hotels.com and I've used my Tesco points towards it which has helped massively with cost. She advised us to buy drinks at the supermarket as she says they increase the prices for tourists in the cafe's in the main parts of the city (£5 Plus for a coke!). Water is free from the public water fountains. I remember from the last time I was there that you can pick up slices of pizza fairly cheap on the street - some were pretty greasy though! Gelato is amazing :-)


Hope you have a great time!

We went in 2017 and stayed near the central Termini, it was a 10/15 min to the Colosseum, and we booked the open top bus from the hotel desk & picked it up and the start point by the terminal. It takes you all
over the city and it’s really easy to use, we paid for 3 days I think. We also booked Vatican tickets online as the queues were huge and we walked straight in. We booked with BA holidays and went in the feb, paid £700 for flights and hotel for 2 nights inc breakfast for 4 adults.

Make sure you pre-book Vatican tickets on their website, and Coliseum tickets as well would be a good idea. The queues for the Vatican can be absolutely huge but if you've pre-booked you just walk past them all right up to the entrance (then it takes a while to get through the security checks).

I'd recommend going to the Vatican in the afternoon. It'll be busy when you arrive but the organised tours finish mid-afternoon. After walking round once we went out into the garden for a bit then went back in and walked round the circuit again. By that time it was almost empty, so different from the crowds an hour or so earlier. We were there until it closed and almost had it to ourselves at the end.

We stayed in this AirBnB apartment just round the corner from the Trevi Fountain - we could hear the fountain from the window. Once we went through the door it was so peaceful, but it was really central and we used the Metro and also walked for miles, there's so much to see everywhere you go.

We've been to Rome a few times and can highly recommend both of these places to eat...

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restau...ome_Lazio.html

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restau...ome_Lazio.html

Thanks everyone, all very helpful in deciding!
Robbotoo, those restaurants looks Devine! That’s our two nights sorted already! Thank you x

Those restaurants look amazing, wish I’d know about them when I went. We had lots of mediocre meals and had a nice pizza and spaghetti and meatballs by The Trevi fountain but my kids said mines better! :)

We were in Rome this past April and were surprised not only by the crowds but by how disorganized the lines were (we had prepurchased all our tickets).

I was traveling with my 4 and 3 year old grandchildren so we tended to eat casually. All our meals were good and the hardest thing was to not over order (portions were large).

We had breakfast at the Vatican, which afforded us early entry to the museum. Biggest problem was it was over a holiday weekend and the crowds were ridiculous.

The most difficult thing for me as an American, was how prevalent smoking was -I am just not used to people lighting p in public places.

My son and his family staying in an air bnb in the Jewish Ghetto. It was easy walking distance to most everything while also in a quieter, motre peaceful area. My Dd, her DBF and I stayed in a Crowne Plaza on the outskirts. I found the hotel pleasant, clean and a quick taxi ride to almost anywhere. The hotel had a paid shuttle (1.5 euros) but we preferred a taxi (usually between 10-15 euros).

We were there 5 days which was too little although I much preferred Florence (and will return as soon as I can)

Go early or be prepared to wait, but both we think are worth it!

Other tip ... comfy flat shoes! Those higgledy piggeldy cobbles everywhere are a killer on the feet!

Have a great time!