Talk to me about Rome

[NeonK]

Going to Rome in July (yes, yes, I know, we'll spontaneously combust in the sun) with two teenagers. What do I need to know about the 'big' attractions - coliseum, Vatican - do I need tickets in advance, where do I get them?

Also any ideas for something a bit different? Catacombs? Ideas for evenings?

Thanks v much

Yes, you do need to buy tickets for everything in advance, especially in July (are you crazy!) as you will all die of heatstroke if you have to queue. The queues are also mammothly long.

If you go to the Coliseum, either go on a tour which are great, or expect to be disappointed as on your own it's a bit dull. The Forum is much much more interesting - and has shorter queues.

All water in Rome is drinkable and there are fountains everywhere so you can just top up your water bottles all the time. Some places make you empty your bottles before you go in for security - but there will always be free water inside.

What are your teens interested in? Typical suggestions for teens are often the Capuchin crypts and the Catacombs. If you do the Catacombs, 2 is enough - I am crazy interested in history and early Christian art and even I got fed up.

Evenings are probably when you will do everything as it is when life is bearable - Italians don't go out to eat til late when the temperature comes down.

The Ara Pacis is a really beautiful Roman temple and completely intact, well worth it.

Plus of course there is the Cat Sanctuary based in the ruins of another temple

Thanks @AnnaMagnani

Will definitely book tickets in advance. I was thinking just doing the one Catacomb - they do quite like historical stuff (Rome was DS idea) but yeah I'm aware I don't want to overdo it.

Hadn't heard of the Ara Pacis so will look that up. And DD is hugely excited about the cat sanctuary. She may well end up staying there, living amongst the cats for ever and she'd be quite happy

We've done crazy hot places in July before. They cope with it far better than me!

Trip Advisor is good for tips on this kind of stuff. Top tips I got from there were:

• colloseum, forum and palatine hill are all in one combined ticket, so you can buy your ticket at the palatine hill entrance in the morning and then skip most of the queues for the colloseum. Definitely double check, but I think the tickets are valid for two days as well, so you could do the hill and forum one day and the colloseum the next (although we did them all in one day, just went for lunch before going to the colloseum).
• if you get to St Peters early (like just before it opens) then the queue isn't very long
• don't even bother trying to go to the Vatican museums without pre-booking (we did and gave up). You don't have to book far in advance - we just did it one evening in the hotel room for the next day and were able to just show the booking on the phone, no need to print anything.

A few others

• the Baths of Caracalla are well worth a visit, much quieter than the better known attractions and enormously impressive
• the Capuchin crypt might be good if your teens aren't too easily disturbed. Still not sure how I feel about that place!
• the so called 'lasagne church' was on my list (cannot for the life of me remember it's actual name) but we didn't get a chance to go. There are several churches that have been built on top of each other over centuries - sounded pretty interesting!
• if you don't want to be paying for tours everywhere, I'd recommend downloading the Rick Steve app. He has loads of audio tours for various places in Rome and they definitely help you get a bit more out of the things you're looking at.

All the churches are free, as is the (IMO unmissable) Pantheon.

What ever you do, wear comfortable footwear. You will do a lot of walking.

The Colosseum tickets for the night time, underground and panorama views sold out in 6 hrs. Need to buy from resellers who up the price.

Vatican City has multiple ticket options. We’ve booked breakfast at the Vatican at 7:15am to ensure peace and quiet to view the Rafael rooms & Sistine Chapel.

Other places of interest:
Galleria Borghese
Sant’Ignazio di Loyola (fake dome) look down
Piazza di Pietra (Hadrians temple)
Palazzo Spada (fake perspective)
Palazzo Valentini (multimedia trip) *
San Luigi de’ Francesi (near Piazza Navona, Caravaggio paintings)
National Museum Modern Art (futurist paintings)

Also 1 1/2 hrs away Sperlonga for a most excellent day trip

Do 'the Roman food tour' - you'll find it by googling. I did an evening one. Was brilliant

We did a free walking tour which was fab. You just pay whatever tip you want to at the end.
The tour guide was excellent and we learnt so much factual and trivial information.
For the Vatican, we bought tickets straight off the Vatican website so no queuing.
You’ll need comfy shoes for all your walking you’ll do.

Also identified 12 pieces to see in the Vatican as wanted to keep child & Grandma focused:

12 best art Vatican City

Pietà Michelangelo (St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City)

The last judgement Michelangelo (Raphael Rooms)

The Annunciation, Raphael, Pinacoteca

Transfiguration, Raphael (Raphael’s last piece)

Caravaggio’s The Entombment of Christ (The Pinacoteca)

Leonardo’s St Jerome in the Wilderness

The school of Athens Raphael (Room of Segnatura, the papal apartments)

Sistine Chapel Ceiling Michelangelo

Sphere within sphere Arnaldo Pomodoro

Laocoön and his sons (pio-clementino museum (octagonal courtyard, sala rotunda, hall of chariot), ancient Greek)

Belvedere Torso

The Maps Hall (look up at the ceiling)

Being ‘The Vatican’, it’s all pretty religious but the Ancient Greek works & references offer an alternative perspective.

Condensed Moses’ 10 commandments down for non religious child too (Rafael rooms) 1. God (not gods) 2. Be Polite 3. Take a rest once a week 4. Family 5. No Killing 6. Be good 7. No stealing 8. Tell the truth 9. Don’t be bothersome 10. Be thankful

• The last judgement Michelangelo (Sistine Altar wall)

I found the Sistine chapel underwhelming and hideously overcrowded. You shuffle through (you can't walk at normal speed due to the crowds) what feels like miles of ornately decorated galleries before reaching the chapel, and it looks so drab compared to the galleries.

We never went into the basilica as the queue was two hours long.

Watch out for pick pockets as well. I wore a cross body bag and kept my hand on it in crowded areas.

We did Rome in July, very hot but not unbearable. We walked the whole thing every day.

My tips/thoughts....

Colloseum queues weren't actually that bad. There were enough tours around that you could hear what they were saying without joining one yourself.

Capuchin crypts were fantastic and a hidden gem, although a bit creepy if you are squeamish.

When you go to St Peter's Basilica, there are two queues to get in. One for the church and one to go to the dome up the top. We accidentally joined the latter. Fab views of Rome and you get very close to the artwork on the ceiling, but one of the most terrifying climbs of my life. Windy narrow steps with only a rope to hold on to. I had a panic attack on the way up and the way down, and discovered I am claustrophobic. But St Peter's itself is amazing.

The Sistine Chapel - incredibly underwhelming and overcrowded.

Evenings, we found eating on quieter streets and at trattorias to be the best value. Rome at night is beautiful and a different ball game to during the day.

If you have time, a trip to Capri is worth it. It's a bus and then boat journey but such a beautiful place. You can also do Pompeii on the bus. We were there for a week so this was well worth doing for us.

I personally found exploring Rome and not just the big attractions was nicer. Eating where the locals ate, people watching on the big squares, enjoying street artists and performers. Wine was lovely and cheap, and it turns out if yourself a vodka and lemonade, they think it's a cocktail...comes in a pint glass and you'll be legless after two!
Worth trying out the different ice cream shops as well. We found one that was really popular with locals. A fire engine blocked a main road just so the fireman could go and get an ice cream. We actually kept a napkin so I will see if I can hunt it down, it's 5 mins from the Trevi Fountain and not one of the touristy ones signposted as 'the best ice cream in Rome' but I've honestly never tasted anything like it. There is another one which is actually sign posted as such.

Oh and we didn't buy any tickets in advance at all. The only one I wish we had done was the Vatican Museum. We were waiting for about 2 hours.

But the rest of the wait times were not long, I think the second longest was the colloseum at maybe 15 minutes.

If going to religious places, you'll need to cover your shoulders and knees. Some places will give you scarves to use, others will turn you away.

Definitely find the cat sanctuary. It's the location where Julius Caeser was stabbed, so the teenagers will like that.

When we went to Rome we took a day trip to Pompeii and I loved it as
a teenager

We went to the coliseum at 4 o’clock and the normal queue was faster than the fast queue, all the boats dock and bring tourist in for the day but by late afternoon have gone- so a great time to visit major attractions

We stayed in Italian quarter and eating and drinking here was great with really lovely atmosphere. Well worth a visit is Enzo but you’ll need to look at booking now for an evening meal, not expensive and full of Romans

Enjoy

Would definitely recommend Pompeii if you get the chance to go

Oh loads of stuff to look through - that's my evening sorted. Thank you all 

@Bumpdebump I found a Roman food tour led by locals, wonder if it's the same one you did?

I'd really like to go to Pompeii but we've only got three full days so not sure if we should give up one day to go there.

I wouldn't. You really need three days at least to enjoy Rome. I would save Pompeii for another trip. We had three full days there and felt that we hadn't even scratched the surface. Knowing what I know now I wouldn't have bothered with the Vatican museum or the Sistine chapel.

Seconded - The Pantheon amazing!

Be very careful if you use the underground, my husband got pickpocketed, he had put his valuables away safely so they only got pennies.

It’s a fantastic place spoilt by too many tourists, the best time we went was November, we had the whole place to ourselves.

Agree the Sistine Chapel is not worth the queue!

We did a tour of the archaeological dig of Nero's golden palace. It was very good (and nice and cool).

This one op foodtourrome.com/the-roman-food-tour-by-night/

I've recently been for a 3 day trip. We had planned to go to Ostia Antica but didn't get time as there is so much to do in Rome itself over 3 days.
Agree lots of walking! We clocked up nearly 20,000 steps per day!
Definitely recommend a guided tour of the Collaseum, afterwards you are free to walk around the ancient forum as much as you like. You need to book in advance.
We did the Vatican and Sistine chapel at night and there wasn't much queuing at all. To be honest I wasn't that bothered by it, apart from the chapel it was a bit of information overload and not sure kids would find it that interesting.
Just walking around is amazing, wandering past so many ancient buildings and fountains, stopping for drinks and lovely food. Perfect. Actually I would plan one or two tours and then just spend some time exploring and wandering around.
Queues for pantheon were long - we got there for 7.45am and there was already a queue so arrive early. It's free.
We found lots of lovely places to eat that weren't that expensive, avoid the big tourist places. There is a district called Monti close to the collaseum that is quite bohemian and has lots of smaller, quieter bars and restaurants.
Enjoy!