Read the DIY sticky topic at the top of the forum for info on doing Rome on the cheap.

luci

Is that for the guided tour? - our ship (Thomson Spirit) ran a coach only trip to Rome which was cheaper (can't remember how much) - not as cheap as DIY, but good for the less adventurous amongst us.

Gill

Colin, I've already posted this in the "no fly" thread, but this is our plan for Thursday fortnight -

Boat docks 7am, leaves 7pm.

Train from Civitavecchia - Roma San Pietro

Dep 7.37 - Arr 8.25
Dep 7.59 - Arr 8.54 - Most likely
Dep 8.41 - Arr 9.24

Walk from San Pietro to St Peter's Basillica (Leave 10.30)
Walk from St Peter's to Castel Sant'Angelo
Cross Tiber at Ponte Sant'Angelo
Cross road, then turn left along Via Del Coronari to Piazza Navona (Arrive 11.15, leave 11.45)
Just above fountain, bear left onto Via Giustini towards Pantheon (Leave 12.15)
Right along Via Del Muratte to Trevi Fountain (Crossing Via Del Corso) **
Back to Via Del Corso, left to Vittoria Emanuelle Monument (Arrive 13.00)
Roman Forum (Arrive 13.15, walk through)
Colosseum (Arrive 13.45 Leave 14.30, metro to Termini)

** Another alternative we're considering (and it was Hamrag that out this into my head) is to walk from Trevi to the Spanish Steps, then get the metro from Spagna to Colosseo (via Termini), walk to the forum entrance and the do forum and colosseum.

Trains from Termini to Civitavecchia
Dep 15.09 - Arr 16.17
Dep 15.49 - Arr 16.57
Dep 16.09 - Arr 17.13

Obviously, the timings are approximate, but the plan allows us miss two trains and still get back. Hopefully, this will allow us see what we want (except the Vatican museum which would be nice but too time consuming), and give the kids a comprehensive picture of Rome. Colosseum / Forum tickets can be booked online, allowing us to skip the queues at the ticket booth).

Here's the best thing. The Taste of Rome tour on the ship, which includes St Peters and an outside Coloseum visit, as well as St Pietro in Vincili and two and a half hours free time would cost €63 each (about £40), our plan will cost €60 for all four of us, including Colosseum admission.

Thanks donalk
Very detailed. This would save me some beer money.
Enjoy your Cruise.
We dont go until 17th Jul on Destiny.

Regards
Colin
Northern Ireland

My pleasure Colin. We're back on July 8th, so I'll report on how the plan went well before you leave.

Donal, Donegal.

Donalk,

When you say walk from station to St Peters etc etc.
And eventually end up at the Colosseum.
R We talking a long way. ???
And would these locations b easy to find ??
Have an 8 & 9 year olds which could pose a problem walking.

Thanks
Colin B

We did a lot of walking, but also used the metro, which is very simple to use as there are only a few lines which cross through the city - eg we started our tour having been dropped off at St Peters by getting the metro to the Colliseum.

Gill

Colinbredin, walk from San Petro rail sation to St Peter's square is 5-10 minutes depending on walking speed. The rest is walkable for fit adults and whilst we did, and have before, all and more that Donalk listed certainly would not recommend it with children at age they are! The other problem is that in July/August particularly the heat is stifling. We walked for 6 hours with a 30 minute break for gelato/drinks, legs were weary but we just love walking in Rome.

St Peter's/Vatican etc. will be fine, but strongly recommend Metro to Coliseum and also do the Forum, Trevi fountain and Pantheon from there. All locations are well signed and easy to fund using the statutory tourist maps which you will get everywhere. Also suggest you return from same rail station as you begin because you will have your bearings. If you have never used the Terminii station before would not recommend trying to get there if you began at San Petro.

Foe cities I am not familiar with I have started using

maps.google.co.uk

Zoom in using the street maps then go to satelite/hybrid image and you can see the land marks and get feel for a place

I've actually plotted out our itinerary using Screenshots from Google Earth. With the exception of the walk from St Peter's to Piazza Navona, which is one mile, the rest is in half mile segments. If anyone wants a copy of it (in a Wordpad document), e-mail me on madrasneachta at gmail dot com.

Hi all

I am going to Rome in September. I have been before with Island Cruises and it was priced at approx £50 each, this included everything exept Cistine Chapel and inside the Collosseum (my spelling is bad I know!). We had luch also in that price.

This year we thought we would try a Royal Caribbean cruise and am horrified at the price compared with Island Cruises for daytrips etc.
The trip more or less the same as what we did is £110 each! So I am in need of your help once again!!

We wanted to go from the dock in Cittitevechia to the Sistine Chapel and then a spot of lunch Collaseum and back to the ship.
Any ideas of costs & timings etc? Any help is appreciated.

Hello hamrag thanks for help with bookings in the past, you really know your stuff!

Bye for now

Liz

Liz

If you read the DIY sticky topic at the top of the forums you should get an idea of prices. The train should be about €9-10 return.

luci

Good idea to plan route,only fly in the ointment is if you want to go into St Peters you could be in queue for 2 hrs.this is because they have installed airport style scanners + security.This happened to us last year.
Did not wait but got in taxi to Colesseum then walked back to St Peters.
If you walk from Colesseum through Forum then on map follow Via del Corso off the left you have the Pantheon then Piazza Navona which are quite close.
Make way back to Via Corso + off the right you have Trevi Fountain. then back to Via Corso + a bit further up off right the Spanish Steeps.
Then follow map back to St Peters + see if queue has gone down.
Luckily i am off to Rome on Sunday (29th) for 4 days,love the place.
I have booked timed tickets for Vatican Museum on-line,you could do this as when you exit Sistine Chapel you can walk strait into St Peters without queing.
P.S Queue for Vatican is worse than St Peters.

Johnny C

Having presented my plans in an earlier post, it's only right that I post a review of how the day went. We were slightly delayd leaving the ship and missed the 7.59 train, so caught the 8.40 instead. We were in St Peter's Square an hour later, where the security queue was just 8 minutes or so. The walk to the end of Pont Sant'Angelo went as planned, but a whopping great big crane in front of the Castel itself took the shine off the photographs.

Then things went a little pear shaped! We took the wrong road off the bridge, and instead of going to Piazza Navona, we walkd around it, eventually getting to the Pantheon via a back street. After a half hour in the Pantheon, we went to Trevi Fountain, decided to skip the Spanish Steps, and went straight to Vittoria Emanuelle and the Forum. The forum entrance is 200 metres or so to the rear of the VT monument, and the tickets there also cover the Colosseum, if you haven't already booked online. A word of advice - bring some form of ID, as prices are lower for EU citizens, but they insist on proof.

The forum was exellent as was the colosseum, but I must say while I wasn't too bothered by the heat, my wife and daughter did suffer a bit. It was 32 degrees celcius and unrelentingly humid.

If you are taking the walking route, when you get to the end of Pont Sant'Angelo, make sure that you take the road which veers slightly left rather than the one that goes straight. However, I would endorse the metro suggestion that others have made, and in hindsight, would agree that we should have taken the metro from Ottavanio to Spagna (Spanish Steps), and recommenced walking from there. The BIRG tickets were 9 euro each, and as others have said, if you are getting the return train from Termini, the train left from platform 28, a very long walk. We got the 3.40 back, and while I acknowledge Hamrag's suggestion that you leave frm San Pietro, our train was full by the time we got there, and anyone who got on the train there was standing.

I'll post a full cruise review in the next few days, but I would like to thank all those on this board whose previous posts and advice helped me plan this trip, the shortcomings were mine, not theirs!!!!

Thanks for the update Donalk. Useful information.

If you have any further tips on doing excursions DIY perhaps you could post them in the DIY Med topic at the top of the forum.

luci