Flying into Rome, out of Milan
Some travel plans you just have to make far in advance – it ‘s a long flight to Italy from California and we wanted to use airline award miles to fly business class.
Tip: American Airlines releases award seats 331 days in advance and there aren’t that many! If you get up at midnight you might be able to book the seats you want. Our trip this year was based on our award flights into Rome and out of Milan.
Best things about the trip
Ancient Rome
It’s Italy! Every day is a walk in history
The special tours were a highlight of the day
Worst things about the trip
The herd mentality of tour groups – stand aside or get trampled
Hard to find anything other than Italian food
Crowded buses on the Amalfi coast
Would I change anything?
Venice was hot and humid when we were there May 22-25. I’d bump the itinerary up to avoid that
Rome
Sleep in Italy – Rondanini Apartment, Piazza Rondanini 29, 7 nights in an apartment in the historic center near the Pantheon. This is a fantastic location and having an apartment was a great option for a week versus a hotel room.
Tip: Get the 3 day Roma Pass and save time and money! The first 2 sites are free and other entries at a reduced rate.
Special Tour: Colosseum Underground and Upper Level tour
The upper and lower level tour is a limited entry tour to the hypogeum (underground) and the upper level of the Colosseum and you need a reservation – the tours are limited to 25 people. With our Roma Pass and reservation number in hand we walked right up to the group entrance to the left of the long ticket line, let the guard know we had a tour reservation and the Roma Pass, and were let in without a hitch. Believe me, you see that long ticket line and you know how GREAT that is!
Tip: Call Pierrici directly from the US to get your reservation number, no need to pay the huge markup to go through Ticketitaly.com. Pierrici is the Cultural organization that handles Rome’s museum and monument ticketing – I called after midnight Pacific time and was on hold about 15 minutes. Paid the 9.50€ tour price (each) with my no-foreign-transaction-fee credit card (Capital One) and got our reservation number.
It got better…the upper and lower level tour was great! The underground part is interesting even though you are only in a very small area. Part of the talk described how the system of pulleys and levers worked to raise the cages of the animals to the arena floor. The system was easy to imagine because the holes where the pulley was man-powered were intact – the elevator number still inscribed on the metal facing of the hole.
The way to the restricted upper level passes through the exhibit section of the Colosseum – interesting to explore on your own after the tour. Fantastic views from the upper level made this part of the tour even more rewarding than the underground.
Friday, Day 2 of the Roma Pass and …oh no – “sciopero” – a general strike
Thought we’d go to the Capitoline Museum instead of the National Museum at Palazzo Massimo, got there and were told the first floor was closed due to a general strike. The ticket agent didn’t know if the National Museum was affected so we walked up there, stopping at the Tourist Info office along the way. The TI guy said the strike would be over at 12:30 and the museums fully open at 1:00. Cool! While waiting for the National Museum to open, we went to the Baths of Diocletian across the street (the site is included in the National Museum Massimo ticket). This was our second “free” site with the Roma Pass.
Around the corner from the baths is the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli which was once part of the baths’ main hall. WOW – those immense columns from the baths are incorporated into the architecture of the church – and this was only a teeny part of the bath complex! Finished there, checked back at the National Museum and, bummer, still closed.
Palazzo Barbarini was our next stop in this area, a few blocks walk downhill and (yay!) was open. Then Capuchin Monk’s fascinating-creepy crypt of artful bones was a few blocks away.
Late afternoon and now what? … the Capitoline museum was open until 8 and with a short bus ride we’re back at the Capitoline. After a bit of explanation about the Roma Pass, the strike, and missing out on the Massimo Museum, the two agents agreed to give us a free entry – after all this day was a special day due to the strike and who would waste a free entry just to go to the Baths of Diocletian?
Borghese Gallery
If you have time for only one museum in Rome, make it the Borghese Gallery. I love the Caravaggio’s but the super standouts here were the Bernini statues. You have to have a reservation – only 360 people are allowed into the gallery at a time in 2 hour timeslots. Checking your purse/bag/backpack is mandatory, so if you want to maximize your time inside get here early for your timeslot before the other 359 people are in the bag check line.
Tip: You can use the Roma Pass for entry to the Borghese Gallery, but you still have to make a reservation. Call from the states and bring your reservation number with you when you pick up your ticket.
The Catacombs and Appian Way
It’s kind of a hassle getting out to the Appian Way and Catacombs, but we didn’t go the last time we were here and it’s all about Ancient Rome, right? After a couple of bus changes we got on bus #118 to one of the biggest catacombs – San Callisto. All the catacombs close between 12 and 2 which gave us time for a relaxing lunch on the shady patio of the Appia Antica Caffè before seeing the San Domitilla catacombs. If you have time for only one Catacomb tour, my vote is for San Domitilla – a much more intimate experience than busy San Callisto.
Tip: Walk back through the San Callisto site and take bus #118 back to town, we didn’t do this and ended up waiting an hour for bus #716 at the Piazza Navigatori stop down the road from San Domitilla.
St. Peter’s Basilica
The line to get into the Basilica looks daunting, but don’t let the people trying to sell tours talk you out of line – it moves very fast and in no time at all you are through the security check and inside St. Peters. We had a free Rick Steve’s MP3 audio tour to guide us around, but there is a tour desk (at the top of the stairs before you enter) if you want to pay 20€ for one of their guided tours.
The Vatican Museums
Highlights: Statue Garden, Rafael Rooms, Sistine Chapel.
Lowlights: Getting run down by huge tour groups with video cams glued to their eyeballs. After all, they go through so fast they HAVE to video everything so they can view at home what they were supposed to be seeing in person!
Tip: We went on Tuesday at 11:15 and there wasn’t much of a line to get in, in fact we had to step OUT of line to finish our “wait-in-line” panini! Make sure you leave enough time for the Sistine Chapel, they start prodding people to leave about 5:10 and close the doors promptly behind you at 5:30. Yes, we were here all day.
In Search of Caravaggio
Bad boy Caravaggio is one of my favorite Renaissance artists and there a lots of Caravaggio’s in Rome. There are 6 (7?) in the Galleria Borghese and others in these galleries – Palazzo Barberini, Galleria Doria Pamphili, Capitoline Museum and the Vatican Museum. See them in the environment they were painted for in the these churches – San Luigi dei Francesi, Sant’Agostino, Santa Maria del Popolo. Can you guess which ones we saw? …Right – ALL of them.
Great Eats: Went to a great pizzeria near our apartment a couple of times – Taverna Le Coppelle. Several places off of Campo Fiori have “Happy Hour” with terrific appetizers for 10€. The best gelato: Gelateria Giolitti, Rome’s oldest Gelateria.
Travel: High speed train from Rome to Naples, with a change to the Circumvesuviana local train to get to Sorrento
The Amalfi Coast
Sorrento, Pompeii, Napoli, Herculaneum, Ravello
Hotel Palazzo Guardati, off of Piazza Tasso, the center of the city.
5 nights on the Amalfi coast with a base in Sorrento
Ancient Rome
Highlights: Pompeii – (1) Villa dei Misterie; (2) an impromptu behind the scenes tour with a local for the price of a pizza. Naples – The mosaics and frescoes in the National Archeology museum.
Lowlights: Naples – garbage piled high in the streets, the people can’t do anything about it because the mafia controls waste management.
Pompeii
Pompeii, that was the motivation for the Amalfi Coast part of our trip. After 5 1/2 hours we’d hit all the highlights of Pompeii that we could and still had energy for more – when along came a man who appeared to be looking for someone. “Francese?” he asked – no, Inglese. We went our way and ultimately ran into him again. Another brief dialog in Italian ended with “vedere il cavallo?” (do you want to see the horse?) Sì, Sì! – “Andiamo!” And off we went with him on our own little behind the scenes tour!
Tip: We ended up getting the 3 day Campania Arte Card pass and went to Herculaneum too. The Campania Arte Card pass saves money and hassle if you’re going to Pompeii and the Archeology museum in Naples – it includes transportation on the Circumvesuviana train and the Naples bus and metro. We got ours at the Pompeii site. With just those 2 sites you break even but save the hassle and lines to get site and transportation tickets. If you go to Herculaneum also you save money.
Prepared for a day of lines…Bus to Amalfi and Ravello, ferry back to Sorrento
No problem getting a seat on the 8:30am bus to Amalfi, but it was standing room only as more passengers were picked up along the route. From Amalfi we bought a round-trip local bus ticket to Ravello and had time to kill…and wait for the bus ride up the hill. Barely managed a seat on that bus – the aisle was filled with people standing for the 15-20 minute ride.
Ahh Ravello – it was worth it, lovely and no crowds. Walked around Villa Cimbrone gardens and had a pizza lunch with a gorgeous view on the terrace at Villa Maria nearby. Very relaxing.
Getting back to Amalfi was a different story! We queued up for the 3:05 bus and waited…and waited. Many people formed impromptu liasons and filled the 3 or 4 taxi vans that lined up near the bus stop – conveniently close to the time the bus was supposed to be there. Hmmm, methinks the bus delay is a common occurrence here. Eventually an open air tour bus came by and, being quick to spot an opportunity, I found our 7.20€ “Unico Costiera” ticket gets a ride on this tour bus! Hustled into the last seats on this bus and whew! We made it back to Amalfi in time for the 4:30 ferry back to Sorrento. Thank goodness, we were sick of buses at that point.
Tip:The Amalfi Coast local bus costs 7.20€ for an all day multi use transport ticket “Unico Costiera”, pick it up at the Tabacchi in the train station in Sorrento.
Tip: If you go to Ravello, either plan it for a weekday when more local buses are running (we went on Sunday), or save the ONE ride you get on the open air Amalfi tour bus in case you need it for a trip from Ravello back to Amalfi.
Gelato: Gelateria Primavera, gelato and… canoli! Gelato was good, but not as good as Giolitto in Rome. Canoli was GREAT, but I still like the canoli at Cafe Zucchero in San Diego with the little bit of orange on it.
Italy Driving Tour – Sorrento to Tuscany and on to Venice
View driving map of this route
Easy drive from Sorrento to Umbria
Travel: Taking the train from Sorrento to Orvieto looked like it would be more of a hassle than renting a car in Sorrento and just driving up. Besides, I wanted to see Hadrian’s villa and the A1 from Sorrento to Orvieto goes right by Tivoli. Our reservation was for a nifty Peugot 206 diesel, picked it up in Sorrento and dropped it off in Venice. Drove about 3 hours to Hadrian’s Villa on the way to the Orvieto.
Tivoli – Hadrian’s Villa
The gardens at Villa d’Este are closed on Mondays so missed that. Just as well, we were at Hadrian’s place for 2.5 hours! It’s a big place and we both enjoyed it a lot. Get the audio guide and follow the numbers on the map.
