First visit to Rome - advice please

[Beaupink]

We are off to Rome at the end of the month I booked it for hubbys 50th birthday present but that’s as far as I have got

Flying into Ciampino Airport staying at the Marcella Royal Hotel for 3 nights

Want to know about the following

Best reliable and reasonable way to get to and from the airport to hotel
Tickets for attractions (coliseum) is a definite and other places

Anyone have any knowledge or advice?

Thanks

[soooexcited!]

I've not been for a long time but I think we got a taxi to our hotel. Biggest tip from me if you want to go to the Vatican go on an organised trip even if you wander off on your own. The queue was massive all the way round the entire wall. It moves really quickly and much quicker if your with a group. Even if your not particularly religious it's an amazing place to see. I was a little deflated at the experience in the Sistine chapel. They herd you in shout at people to not take photos it's rammed. I had hoped to sit and marvel in a quiet corner. Have a plan of what you want to see. The trevi fountain area is always busy but great to see. Grab a coffee and sit and people watch.

[jengibbo]

Hi,
We went in October but flew into the main airport. We visited all the major sights and did a lot of walking. We queued for tickets for the Coliseum but they can be purchased through the official website. The only reason I didn’t buy them here was we had two children with us and I could work out how to get their tickets as entrance was free for them. We went in October half term and queued for about 40 minutes. We also saw the Pope at the Vatican during his Wednesday service. Very busy. On Wednesday if the Pope gives a service the Vatican opens later. We didn’t bother doing a tour again we just queued for about 45 minutes to get in and just looked around ourselves. We had a day trip to Pompeii which was great.
We didn’t visit the Sistine Chapel as we thought the kids would get a bit bored.
There are loads of churches and museums to see. A word of advice don’t eat near the Vatican it is extremely expensive. We had two coffees, two fantas and a small slice of Tiramisu and it was £30.
The best value food was in Trastavere area of the city. Lots of cheap authentic restaurants serving great food.
Hope this helps.

[cornishfrogboy]

Not sure if it affects you, but...
Most Rome sights are free admission on the first Sunday of each month.
The Vatican museums are free on the last Sunday of each month.

In the event that you do have to pay, then a Colliseum, Palatine Hill, Forum ticket is best bought in advance. If you have to turn up on the day, then you queue in order to buy your ticket before queue or again to present it... and these can be serious queues!

[wdw-wanderer]

Don’t bother with a river cruise on the Tiber. It’s nothing like the bateaux mouche on the Seine - instead you travel along a concrete canal with high sides which prevent you from seeing anything but rooftops!

[cartoonp]

Loved Rome we found the best way to get in to the city by train only 35 minutes . Have a look at my all sorts trip report day 6 7 and 8 might give you ideas . We did not bother to pre book collsem we just caught metro walk a cross way and brought the tickets . I loved the big red bus over 2 days we did everything we wanted to do all so there was a spar shop very near train staion and better price then the train staion .

[NewtoOrlando]

We booked the Vatican museum tickets on the morning we went, I booked them on my phone and then emailed them to the hotel reception and they printed them for us for free. I'm so glad we did as it was so busy, the queue went all the way from the entrance to the museum to outside the basilica!

I love Vatican City, its just beautiful. We got a train from the airport to out hotel which was by the termini, and then did a hop on hop off bus tour for 2 days, which was perfect for us. We found some amazing little trattorias around the back streets, I've not had a pizza like that since then (2015) It's a beautiful city, dh had been before when he was in the military so wasnt interested (I went with my mum and sisters) but i'm hoping to take the kids for a long weekend next year!

[DisneyF1rstT1me]

I don't know where your hotel is but on our last trip i googled how to get to our hotel and ended up getting one of the many, very frequent airport bus services into Rome centre and then a taxi from there to our hotel. On the way home we knew what tram to get to city centre and then got the airport bus. This way was more time consuming but it saved us at least €60 so we felt money well spent but it was just me and DH - if we'd had the kids with us we might have gone the easier (taxi) route.

I highly recommend booking things like colisseum and Vatican entry in advance to avoid the queues which can be horrendous. I'd personally avoid the Vatican on the free day (1st Sunday of the month) as it'll be even more rammed than usual.

I'm not sure but I think entry is free or possibly reduced if you go after a certain time in the afternoon. Google that though.

And final tip, make sure your flight home is from the same airport you flew into. My mate didn't realise his and wife's flight home were from Ciampino and they'd flown into the other one (Fiumicino?). They only found out at the airport and had a very stressful time trying to get a taxi to the right airport with little time to spare. They made it though.

[Beaupink]

Thanks for all the info I’ll have a look into pre booking tickets for the coliseum etc and I’ll google the transfer options from and to the airport