Rome Things to Do Tips by Lacristina

Avoiding the Long Lines at the Coliseum Colosseum Review

Il Colosseo! Everything glorious, and many things despicable, about the Roman culture of 2000 years ago can be found in its history. What an astounding pummeling of feelings hit me the first time I saw it.

But first, how to avoid the lines.

1. Buy your ticket at the Palatine Hill entrance. A ticket allows you entrance to both the Palatine Hill and the Colosseum. The entrance to the Palatine is only about 200 meters southwest of the Coliseum. Just follow the path, around the Arch of Constantine, buy your ticket there. Then walk back, past the line at the entrance (the line should form on the right, but often snakes over to the left). Walk up to the turnstiles, place your ticket in the slot, and voila, you're in!

2. There are actually 2 lines at the Coliseum - one for tickets, one for tickets plus audio guide (an extra 4 euros). The audio guide line is always much shorter.

3. Buy the Rome Archeologia Card which costs 20 euros and will gain you entrance to a number of archeological sites including the Coliseum, Palatine Hill, Baths of Caracalla, the National Museum of Rome, etc. You can buy this ticket at any of these sites all of which have a shorter line (most likely, no line) than the Coliseum, then just bypass the line as above. It's valid for 7 days.

4. Make a reservation by phone: 39 06 3996 7700. But I would wait to see what the weather is like. There is a special ticket window to pick up your reserved ticket, so again, no waiting in line.

5. Make a reservation on the internet. (read the fine print): http://www.pierreci.it/do/show/list/20

6. Take a commercial tour. There are a some cheesy "guides" hawking tours outside the Coliseum. Better to go with a reputable company.

Address: You CANNOT miss it!

Directions: Southeast end of the Roman Forum - next to Via dei Fori Imperiali

Phone: 39 06 3996 7700 reservations

Palazzo Massimo alle Terme Museo Nazionale Romano Review

UPDATE, March 2006

With most people heading off to the Vatican museums or the Borghese, this museum doesn't get seen often enough. It is one of several sites of the National Museum of Rome. It is filled with great sculpture (like the famous "Discuss Thower") but it's main claim to fame is its fabulous collection of mosaics and frescos, taken from villas in and around Rome. There are several entire rooms which have been preserved with all the original frescos, so you can step into and see exactly what the rooms looked like 2000 years ago. The mosaics collection is incredible.

When you buy your ticket, ask for a reservation for the next tour of the mosaics and frescos (it's included in the price of the ticket). You aren't allowed to visit them by yourself. An English speaking guide gives the tour in both English and Italian. Your ticket will show the time of your tour.

UPDATE March 2006: No tour. You get to see the frescos and mosaics on your own, whenever you like, for as long as you like.

The mosaics and frescoes are found on the top floor (this is the "second" floor in Italy, while Americans would call it the "third" floor. In the US, the ground floor is called the first floor, but in Italy, it is called "piantereno." The first floor above ground is called the first floor or "primo piano," and so on.)

There is a very nice gift shop.

Address: Largo di Villa Peretti, 1

Directions: Near the train station (Roma Termini). Find Via Viminale, and follow it toward the Piazza Cinquecentro, and you find the Palazzo Massimo. Not far from the Diocletian Baths.

Phone: 39-06-481-4144

Santa Maria degli Angeli - Diocletian Baths Basilica di Santa Maria degli Angeli Review

One of the amazing things about Rome is the way thousands of years of history appear in front of you, all at the same time – something from ancient Rome, something from the Renaissance, and something completely modern.

For a wonderful example of this instant time warp, go and see Santa Maria degli Angeli.

The history:
Baths of Diocletian – built in 305 AD

Santa Maria degli Angeli, the church – designed and built in the 1560s.

The glass celestial dome by Narcissus Quagliata (yes, what an interesting name) – installed for the Jubilee Year 2000.

The church was designed by Michelangelo out of part of the remains of the Diocletian Baths. The baths could accommodate 3000 bathers at a time. While Michelangelo designed and began work on the church, he died in 1564 before it was completed. Michelangelo must have admired the baths, as he changed so little of the interiors.

When you enter, you’ll be amazed at the height of the original tepidarium, now the transept of the church – 29 meters, or 95 feet. The floor you stand on is about 30 feet above the original baths floor.

A north-south meridian (a brass strip) crosses the floor on the right side of the transept. An opening high up on the southern wall (in a coat of arms) allows a beam of light from the sun to fall on the floor, lining up with the brass meridian at exactly true noon (which is about 12:15 in Rome).

Using this theme of a celestial sundial, Quagliata designed a masterpiece, the glass dome called “Divinity in Light.” It is spectacular. There are three lenses in the dome designed and built by the Institute of Astronomy of the University of Mexico. The lenses project an image of the sun on the church floor, which also serves as a sundial.

For more information on the glass dome, see http://www.nquagliata.com/

For more information on the church, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Maria_degli_Angeli_e_dei_Martiri

Address: Piazza della Republica

Directions: Near Termini, the main train station

Phone: 06 48 80 812

Tips on Visiting the Vatican Museums Vatican Museums - Sistine Chapel Review

Update, Apr '08. New extended entry times at the Vatican! Your guidebook is probably out of date. Even better news! Lines may become a thing of the past. Starting June 1, tickets for the Vatican Museums will be available for purchase online at www.vaticanstate.va. WOW! If this is true, I am delighted.

The new hours: The museums are now open all year from 8:30 to 18:00 (6 pm) (last entry 16:00 (4 pm), including Saturdays!

For now, if not booking a tour, best to go around noon (winter) or later (as early as late March), when the line is shorter. I've taken the Vatican's own tour, and although you skip some collections, the tour was good. You can go back to see whatever you missed after the tour. Book a tour or check the schedule here: http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/MV_Info.html

The last Sunday of the month, it's free but packed! Mondays are crowded because most other museums are closed. See my tip here: Free Sundays at the Vatican.

Helpful, but not necessary to rent an audio guide; many exhibits have English signs. The Sistine Chapel is a long way from the entrance. If you rent an audio guide, you'll have to go all the way back to return it & retrieve your ID. Otherwise, you can exit right onto St. Peter's.

With your back to the altar in the Sistine Chapel, exit via the right hand door instead of the left.

On the way to the Sistine Chapel, you can visit several museum collections (Egyptian, Etruscan, the Raphael Rooms, etc.) or you can skip them. It's up to you. But these collections are truly wonderful. Note that the Painting Gallery, the Pinacoteca, is the opposite direction at the museum entrance.

The cafeteria has decent food at reasonable prices. Bathrooms are nearby and also near the Sistine Chapel.

Do yourself a favor with a bit of research on the Sistine Chapel before you go. Otherwise it's so overwhelming you won't know what you're looking at. Buy or borrow a book, or try a website like: http://www.christusrex.org/www1/sistine/0-Tour.html

Address: Entrance on Viale Vatican near Via Santamaura

Directions: Vatican City, Metro stop Ottaviano Line A. Walkable from many locations, or take a taxi

Phone: 06 - 698 - 833 - 33

Website: http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/MV_Home.html

The Roman Forum Roman Forum Review

You all know the history anyway. No need to repeat it.

A jumble of thoughts the first time I see it. I walk down into it, down the Via Sacra toward the Rostrum. As I touch the stone and the marble around me, thoughts swirling: Julius Caesar might have leaned against this. Cicero's hand might have touched this spot. Marcus Aurelius, Augustus, Scipio, Nero......

Suddenly these people seem very real to me, no longer comic book characters.

I've touched what they touched.

The Forum used to be free, now sadly, you must buy a 10E ticket. (This makes me sad, as I used to walk through the Forum almost every day when in Rome.) The same ticket is good for the Colosseum and Palatine Hill as well. Open every day, from 9 to an hour before sunset.

Address: On Via dei Fori Imperiali, near Via Cavour

Directions: Between the Colosseum, Palatine and Campidoglio

Phone: 06-699-0110

Free Sundays at the Vatican Museums? Don't do it! Vatican Museums - Sistine Chapel Review

Or go VERY early.

It sounds tempting, doesn't it? The last Sunday of the month, the Vatican Museums are open - and free! Saves you 14 euros per person; if you have a large group, it can add up. Well, that's exactly what all other budget-minded tourists and locals are thinking, too.

Click on the photo and see what awaits you! My traveling companion had no other time but Sunday morning available to her. This is the Gallery of Maps around 11 a.m. on a Sunday, on the way to the Sistine Chapel. It is a RIVER of people. . . .no, a TORRENT of people headed to the Sistine Chapel. Occasionally you can work your way to an eddy on the edge so that you could actually stop and look at something, but it isn't easy. (The Egyptian Museum and Pio Clemente sculpture museum were a bit less crowded; the Etruscan Museum was virtually deserted.)

If you're still determined to go, here's my suggestion.

The Museums open at 8:45. Get in line by 7:30. No, I'm not kidding. I thought 8 a.m. would be early enough, but luckily Rome VT friend Abarbieri suggested earlier, and he was right. At 8, the line was huge, we couldn't see the end of it. At 7:30, we were only about 75 meters from the entrance. We actually got in around 9 and took two hours to see the other museums before I took the photo.

Address: Entrance on Viale Vatican near Via Santamaura

Directions: Vatican City, Metro stop Ottaviano Line A, walk or take a taxi

Phone: 06 - 698 - 833 - 33

Website: http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/MV_Home.html

Vatican - Tour the Excavations Under St. Peter's The Vatican Review

A tour of the scavi (excavations) of the ancient necropolis under St. Peter's is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have in Rome, whether or not you are Catholic.

Why is it important? For one thing, it shows that the reason the original church was built at that spot (by Constantine, first Christian Emperor, in the 4th C), was because the original tomb of St. Peter was (most likely) located there. The current altar (directly beneath Bernini's baldochino and Michelangelo's dome), is directly above the marble box Constantine built over the original 1st century altar.

Constantine must have thought it important to build the church there, because there probably couldn't have been a worse choice for a building site - on a hill, over an existing cemetery. Burying the necropolis was undoubtedly seen as sacrilegious. He must have paid a fortune to the relatives to destroy the tombs found on the upper part of the hill, and bury the tombs on the lower half. This was done to flatten the hill creating a plane on which to build the church.

The underground (primarily pagan) necropolis is absolutely fascinating in its own right . There is a touching inscription written by a man about his brother, who died in his 30s. ("He never quarreled and had a joke for everyone.") The sad, carved portraits of a man and his wife on a tiny sarcophagus holding their child. Even something wonderfully funny - you know how when you run out of room on a piece of paper, your writing get smaller and smaller, to make it all fit? Well, you'll see the same thing, only it's an inscription in stone! And you'll see the original foundations of the dome designed by Michelangelo.

I used to recommend that you email at least 3 weeks ahead of time. Now, it is more like 3 months!

You might be able to get a last minute reservation if someone has canceled. I once begged the director in person, and he relented and gave me a reservation a few days later.

Leave enough time to get through potentially long security lines at St. Peter's. Also, there are no bathroom facilities at the tour office or on the tour.

Address: Vatican - St. Peter's

Directions: As you face the church, approach the Swiss Guards on the left at the Holy Office Gate. They'll point out the way.

Phone: +39/06/6988-5318

Website: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/institutions_connected/uffscavi/documents/rc_ic_uffscavi_doc_gen-information_20040112_en.html

If you don't have time for Pompeii... Ostia Antica Review

I loved my visit to Ostia Antica, Rome's ancient port city. (The Latin "ostium" means "mouth" and Ostia was at the mouth of the Tevere - the Tiber River, which flows through Rome.) After the fall of Rome, it was deserted, and the river flooded again and again, burying the city in layers of mud (just as happened to the Roman Forum.) The mud protected the site, much like the layers of ash protected Pompeii. Now, it is uncovered - the amphitheater, statues, mosaics, apartments, temples, roads, frescoes.

Still, I don't think I would recommend a visit here to someone who had only 3 or 4 days in Rome - unless this is exactly the kind of thing that excites you.

People often ask me whether they should go to Ostia Antica or Pompeii. As usual, when asked a question like this, I have to say, it depends.

In general, I would encourage you to go to Pompeii - but it will be an exhausting day - because I'll insist that you go early so you can also see the fabulous National Archeological Musuem in Naples, where they brought all the treasures of Pompeii and Herculaneum. Count on 12 hours, 6 of them traveling!

Ostia can be done in a half day, which makes it easier to do (though a visit could easily occupy a full day if this is your kind of thing.) It's an easy Metro ride (with a change of trains) taking less than an hour.

There are an amazing number of beautiful mosaics still in situ. Still, perhaps just because of the history and the plaster casts of people who died in Pompeii, you don't come away from Ostia with the same intense experience of Pompeii. At least, I didn't.

Closed Monday, Museum closes early (1:30 p.m.) on Sunday. Decent cafeteria on site.

Address: Ostia (the town) west of Rome

Directions: Metro B to Pyramide. Exit the station, turn left, take the Lido train, get off at the seventh stop, Ostia Antica. Cross the blue pedestrian bridge, continue straight ahead, then follow the signs. Less than 10 minute walk.

Phone: 06-5635-8099

Website: http://www.ostiaantica.net/index.php

Largo Argentina - Cats, Temples, Julius Caesar Area Sacra Largo Argentina Review

Until the 1920s, the Area Sacra di Largo Argentina was undiscovered. Now, an entire square is open to us, several meters below the current ground level - the ruins of four temples are exposed and have become home to the city's largest cat sanctuary. Explanatory signage is available on all sides of the site in Italian and English.

We have Mussolini to thank for preserving this site. Really. If not for him, new buildings (which he was originally planning) would have been erected on the site when it was first excavated. But Mussolini was trying to align himself with Imperial Rome (specifically, Augustus) and so insisted on preserving the site when it was discovered, It turns out that the temples were all pre-Imperial, dating from the 4th to the 2nd century BC, when Rome was, more or less, a Republic. Thus, these temples are among the oldest in Rome. There are also the remains of an ancient public latrine.

While not much is known about these temples (hence they are labeled merely A, B C and D), they were located next to the Teatro Pompei (Pompey's Theater). Pompey was a Roman general and Julius Caesar's primary political opponent. He built the theater, partly to enhance his standing among the public. Because there were restrictions on the building of public theaters, Pompei combined the theater with a temple. The complex included covered loggias and gardens which extended to very near the Largo Argentina temples.

Ironically, Julius Caesar was murdered in his rival's monumental complex, quite near Largo Argentina, (not in the Roman Forum as is often assumed.) The Curia, in the Roman Forum, where the Senate usually met, was under reconstruction after a fire.

Address: Corso Vittorio Emmanuele at Via Torre di Argentina

Directions: Walk west from Piazza Venezia on Corso Vittorio Emmanuele for less than 10 minutes.

Piazza Campidoglio - Part 3 Campidoglio - Capitoline Hill Review

When you are standing on the pavement of the Piazza del Campidoglio, you don't get a real appreciation for the captivating, enveloping, eliptical star pattern Michelangelo created. Though he designed it in the 16th century, it wasn't completed until 1940.

But from the windows of the second floor (called the first floor or "primo piano" in Italy) of the Palazzo Nuovo of the Capitoline Museums, which is filled with ancient sculptures, you can see the beauty of the design. Unfortunately, the windows are usually only open on warm days.

Another way to see the pattern is to use GoogleEarth or GoogleMaps in the sattelite view. It's great for an overall view of the city layout, which can be confusing.

The Palazzo dei Conservatori can be seen behind the copy of the guilded bronze of Marcus Aurelius on horseback. The original of this sculpture is on display in that building, also part of the Capitoline Museum complex.

Address: Northwest end of the Roman Forum