Tell me what to do for two days in Rome

[Anonymous]

Tell me where to walk, what to see, etc. over the course of 2 days in Rome if the goal is more to soak in the sites and vibe, eat well, walk around and see things as opposed to waiting in long lines and spending the bulk of the day indoors/inside museums. In short: more of a mix of activities with the goal being to relax and have fun rather than sticking to a strict schedule and feeling pressure to see everything.

Traveling with a handful of older kids who love to travel but can't spend hours in museums. So, I need to balance everything in smaller doses.

[Anonymous]

You need to go to the beach then if your goal is to relax and have fun. If you want to see sights and eat in time then don’t expect to relax and not have some sort of schedule.

[Anonymous]

When are you going? If you are going in high season, there really is no uncrowded place. I’m asking my teenager what he liked, and he said the Coliseum and “the food”. We didn’t actually find any dud meals in Rome, from the touristy ones to some on a quiet side street. We stayed in a hotel near the Villa Borgese park area, and that was pretty quiet and wandering through the park was pretty calm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You need to go to the beach then if your goal is to relax and have fun. If you want to see sights and eat in time then don’t expect to relax and not have some sort of schedule.

We are going to the beach...elsewhere.

Let me put this in a different context?

You know how some people go to Disney World and line up before rope drop and have a plan for the entire day and don't leave until the park closes so they get their money's worth and feel like they can check a lot of boxes? That's not us. We approached Disney like this: let's have a nice breakfast and then have some fun today.

Our hotel is near the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore. It's a 15-20 minute walk to the Colosseum; a 15-20 min walk to Trevi Fountain. 30 mins to Piazza Navona. 25 mins to the Pantheon. An hour to Vatican City.

Any tips on walking tours I can find online?

Any off the beaten path places to check out? Any places you found more interesting? Or not worth it?

[Anonymous]

Rome is not condensed enough to walk around and see sights. They are spread out from one another. You could walk by the colleseum but won’t see what people go to see. Same with vatican, st Peters basicila, Sistine chapel, the forum. You have to go inside with ticket.
I guess you could walk by Trevi fountain if you can get up to it with the hordes of tourists and Spanish steps which is meh. But you can’t walk from one site to another throughout the whole city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When are you going? If you are going in high season, there really is no uncrowded place. I’m asking my teenager what he liked, and he said the Coliseum and “the food”. We didn’t actually find any dud meals in Rome, from the touristy ones to some on a quiet side street. We stayed in a hotel near the Villa Borgese park area, and that was pretty quiet and wandering through the park was pretty calm.

This sounds like my kids.

I honestly feel like my kids might be fine just seeing the outside of the Collosseum and then heading elsewhere to walk around, shop, eat, etc.

I'm taking a deep dive on less popular attractions that might be interesting.

I realize it will be crazy crowded. Our plan is to avoid public transportation and mostly walk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to go to the beach then if your goal is to relax and have fun. If you want to see sights and eat in time then don’t expect to relax and not have some sort of schedule.

We are going to the beach...elsewhere.

Let me put this in a different context?

You know how some people go to Disney World and line up before rope drop and have a plan for the entire day and don't leave until the park closes so they get their money's worth and feel like they can check a lot of boxes? That's not us. We approached Disney like this: let's have a nice breakfast and then have some fun today.

Our hotel is near the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore. It's a 15-20 minute walk to the Colosseum; a 15-20 min walk to Trevi Fountain. 30 mins to Piazza Navona. 25 mins to the Pantheon. An hour to Vatican City.

Any tips on walking tours I can find online?

Any off the beaten path places to check out? Any places you found more interesting? Or not worth it?

I never saw a walking tour when I was there. I don’t think I would do that either if you were familiar with Rome. I don’t see how that could be done. It’s too expansive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When are you going? If you are going in high season, there really is no uncrowded place. I’m asking my teenager what he liked, and he said the Coliseum and “the food”. We didn’t actually find any dud meals in Rome, from the touristy ones to some on a quiet side street. We stayed in a hotel near the Villa Borgese park area, and that was pretty quiet and wandering through the park was pretty calm.

This sounds like my kids.

I honestly feel like my kids might be fine just seeing the outside of the Collosseum and then heading elsewhere to walk around, shop, eat, etc.

I'm taking a deep dive on less popular attractions that might be interesting.

I realize it will be crazy crowded. Our plan is to avoid public transportation and mostly walk.

You better plan for public transportation at times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You need to go to the beach then if your goal is to relax and have fun. If you want to see sights and eat in time then don’t expect to relax and not have some sort of schedule.

We are going to the beach...elsewhere.

Let me put this in a different context?

You know how some people go to Disney World and line up before rope drop and have a plan for the entire day and don't leave until the park closes so they get their money's worth and feel like they can check a lot of boxes? That's not us. We approached Disney like this: let's have a nice breakfast and then have some fun today.

Our hotel is near the Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore. It's a 15-20 minute walk to the Colosseum; a 15-20 min walk to Trevi Fountain. 30 mins to Piazza Navona. 25 mins to the Pantheon. An hour to Vatican City.

Any tips on walking tours I can find online?

Any off the beaten path places to check out? Any places you found more interesting? Or not worth it?

I never saw a walking tour when I was there. I don’t think I would do that either if you were familiar with Rome. I don’t see how that could be done. It’s too expansive.

I want to add, although I did not see any walking tours, I have heard viator was good for other tours. Maybe look into them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rome is not condensed enough to walk around and see sights. They are spread out from one another. You could walk by the colleseum but won’t see what people go to see. Same with vatican, st Peters basicila, Sistine chapel, the forum. You have to go inside with ticket.
I guess you could walk by Trevi fountain if you can get up to it with the hordes of tourists and Spanish steps which is meh. But you can’t walk from one site to another throughout the whole city.

Why couldn't we walk 15 mins from our hotel to the Collosseum---maybe line up a tour ahead of time (we will take a vote on that)---and then walk back in the direction of Palatine Hill or Trevi or some such? I thought everyone walked around Rome?

Debating on how to handle St. Peter's and/or the Vatican. Most families I know who have been reported that their kids either felt overwhelmed by the crowd OR quickly lost interest. I'm wondering if there is a less hectic approach to just get a small taste rather than the whole enchilada?

[Anonymous]

RE: Walking tours - I met suggested walking tours that are self-guided. I suspect Rick Steves has one, and I've seen youtube videos where people map out routes that take you by sites and good streets with parks, restaurants, whatever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rome is not condensed enough to walk around and see sights. They are spread out from one another. You could walk by the colleseum but won’t see what people go to see. Same with vatican, st Peters basicila, Sistine chapel, the forum. You have to go inside with ticket.
I guess you could walk by Trevi fountain if you can get up to it with the hordes of tourists and Spanish steps which is meh. But you can’t walk from one site to another throughout the whole city.

Why couldn't we walk 15 mins from our hotel to the Collosseum---maybe line up a tour ahead of time (we will take a vote on that)---and then walk back in the direction of Palatine Hill or Trevi or some such? I thought everyone walked around Rome?

Debating on how to handle St. Peter's and/or the Vatican. Most families I know who have been reported that their kids either felt overwhelmed by the crowd OR quickly lost interest. I'm wondering if there is a less hectic approach to just get a small taste rather than the whole enchilada?

I cannot stress to you enough on how you absolutely should not just arrive at the collosseum and think you can just line up for a tour ahead of time. You will never and I mean never get in that way. There is no small taste of the Vatican or St. Peter’s that you can do.
You really are not aware at all. I don’t think you understand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rome is not condensed enough to walk around and see sights. They are spread out from one another. You could walk by the colleseum but won’t see what people go to see. Same with vatican, st Peters basicila, Sistine chapel, the forum. You have to go inside with ticket.
I guess you could walk by Trevi fountain if you can get up to it with the hordes of tourists and Spanish steps which is meh. But you can’t walk from one site to another throughout the whole city.

Why couldn't we walk 15 mins from our hotel to the Collosseum---maybe line up a tour ahead of time (we will take a vote on that)---and then walk back in the direction of Palatine Hill or Trevi or some such? I thought everyone walked around Rome?

Debating on how to handle St. Peter's and/or the Vatican. Most families I know who have been reported that their kids either felt overwhelmed by the crowd OR quickly lost interest. I'm wondering if there is a less hectic approach to just get a small taste rather than the whole enchilada?

No, you cannot line up and hope to get in the collosseum. People are walking around Rome but within an area. You are talking about walking from one sight to another which is not doable in that city.

[Anonymous]

I disagree with PP and think you can't see a ton by walking around, and/or can combine with a short cab ride. Rome is actually one of my favorite cities for this, as there's a ton or stuff that is quite close together and basically every corner you turn has some super famous church/piazza/art/roman history.

For instance, you could do this easily in one day walking tour, stopping for lunch and gelato and/or pastries:

Trevii Fountain
Pantheon
Piazza Navona
walk along the river and cross the bridge
Castel Gandolfo, which has beautiful views of the city
There are also a number of churches along that walk that you can pop into if you want to see the art/culture. The big church at Piazza Navona is definitely worth going into.

Rick Steve's has a walking tour that we used -- there might be a better one though, I didn't think it was perfect for the purpose.

For the second day, you could do something like the Colosseum and Roman Forum/Palatine Hill. There is a church near there called San Pietro in Vinculo that has the famous Michelangelo statute of Moses. Tickets for Colosseum sell out early so buy those in advance if you want to do this. Also relatively close to that is a main street with the fancy shopping stores in Rome, if you're the kind of family that wants to do that.

ALternatively, you could get an early morning or late evening skip the line Vatican tour for your second day. If you do that, I would do Castel Gandolfo on that day because it's close/on the same side of the river, and add in something else to the first day -- you could do Roman forum/Palatine Hill as part of the first day (maybe take a cab between Piazza Navona, where there are tons of cabs and Palatine Hill). Campo Fiore is another option for that first day, but note that the market is day/time dependent--I kept missing it. There are some really nice pastry shops and pizza takout places between Piazza Navona and Campo Fiore. THere are also excellent pastry places in the neighborhood around the vatican.

For what it's worth, my least favorite touristy area was the Trevi Fountain. It's very crowded and feels like the kind of place you are apt to get pickpocketed. The food places near there were overpriced and not as good (although we had good gelato there, but I think it was double what we paid at Piazza Navona, which you would also think would be really touristy, but somehow felt much more like there were actual Italians just hanging out there.)

I appreicate the idea that sometimes you want to spend a week or two in a city and really soak it up, and for other trips you may just be using hte city as a base to fly into/out of and want to just have a day where you see some stuff without trying to see everything. We did that in Paris, where we just saw the Eiffel TOwer, Arc d' Triumphe, and had two meals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rome is not condensed enough to walk around and see sights. They are spread out from one another. You could walk by the colleseum but won’t see what people go to see. Same with vatican, st Peters basicila, Sistine chapel, the forum. You have to go inside with ticket.
I guess you could walk by Trevi fountain if you can get up to it with the hordes of tourists and Spanish steps which is meh. But you can’t walk from one site to another throughout the whole city.

Why couldn't we walk 15 mins from our hotel to the Collosseum---maybe line up a tour ahead of time (we will take a vote on that)---and then walk back in the direction of Palatine Hill or Trevi or some such? I thought everyone walked around Rome?

Debating on how to handle St. Peter's and/or the Vatican. Most families I know who have been reported that their kids either felt overwhelmed by the crowd OR quickly lost interest. I'm wondering if there is a less hectic approach to just get a small taste rather than the whole enchilada?

You better let someone else take over because you are in over your head and very unaware of Rome. This is the one city where you should have tours and tickets ahead. I’ve been to over a dozen European countries and this is the one city where I purchased tickets for nearly everything. I am not exaggerating.