Where the Pope calls home and the Catholic religion’s ultimate headquarters, Vatican City boasts countless attractions worthy of an in-depth visit. Grab yourself a decent streetmap (one that marks the metro stops is best) and get going! Mega-sight one: Vatican CityĬlosest metro stop: Ottaviano-San Pietro or Cipro Musei Vaticani on the A Lineĭuration of visit: Approximately one to three hours But in this itinerary, the longest walk you’ll have is about a half-hour, and with the gorgeous architecture, quaint alleys and historic hotspots at just about every corner, walking the streets of Rome is no chore. While the metro is helpful in getting you around certain parts of the city, you’ll be relying on your two legs to get you around other areas. Your best bet is to pick up a daily travel pass for 4 euros, which gets you unlimited train and bus travel for a 24-hour period. If you still feel confused about where you’re going, following the crowds, in particular during the peak tourist season, will usually get you where you want to go. Under ‘Colosseo’, for example, is a wee pic of - you guessed it - the Colosseum. Especially helpful for the confused tourist are the little graphics accompanying certain stops that you’ll find on the route maps once on the trains. Keeping it nice and simple, there are just two lines, the A and the B (both of which intersect the central Termini station), and both have stops at or very near to most important historical landmarks. The Metropolitana, as it’s known by locals, is a fool-proof way of getting around some of the central Roman sights.
Remember to validate your ticket at one of the validation machines before boarding the train. Fares cost 14 to 15 euros, depending on where you purchase, and tickets are available at station ticket counters, automated ticketing machines, and some newsagents. Getting from the airport into the cityĬatch the Leonardo Express, which runs every 30 minutes and takes you directly from Fiumicino Airport to Roma Termini, the city’s central train station, in 31 minutes.
CONQUER THE DAY PLUS
Three of the big guns you can definitely fit into a one-day itinerary include all of the above, plus ample time for a nice lunch break and mid-afternoon gelato stop. But the trick with a quick stopover is to be selective. There are some sights that simply can’t be overlooked, unless you want to deal with the inevitable scoffing question: “You went to Rome and you didn’t see the Colosseum/Vatican/Trevi Fountain?” from others. With a few careful choices you can bask in the glory of this ancient city and make your connecting trip without breaking a sweat. Sure, you could easily spend weeks or more getting to know the ins and outs of Italy’s capital, but what if you’ve got just a 12-hour stopover and still want to cross a few to-dos off your sightseeing list? It can be done, trust me. It’s the city that famously wasn’t built in a day, but that doesn’t mean you can’t see the essential Rome sights in one day. It is the Eternal City, after all – it’ll be there when you return.
This itinerary is particularly useful for people who have a long layover in Rome en route to somewhere else, but it’s also potentially useful if you’re flying in or out of Rome but you’re concentrating your trip elsewhere in Italy and you only have a day to spend in the Eternal City.Īnd as for the rest of Rome? You’ll just have to come back and see it another time. While there are plenty of things to see and do in Rome that are left out of Lani’s itinerary, anyone who managed to accomplish the things that are included in the space of a one-day visit to Rome deserves high praise.
CONQUER THE DAY HOW TO
So when I got a note from today’s guest author, Lani Thorpe, about how to see the sights of Rome in a single day, I was intrigued. I always recommend that people allot at least three days for Rome, if not more. Even with a few days in the Italian capital, I feel like I haven’t come close to seeing everything and I’ve spent a lot of time just getting from place to place. I’ve said more than once that Rome overwhelms me.