I am sure you will not miss this!! and other Rome, Italy Things to Do Tips

Get the tickets at the entrance of the Palatine Hill located on Via di San Gregorio, very close to the Colosseum itself.

There is also another ticket office in the middle of Via dei Fori Imperiali, on your right hand side going from Piazza Venezia towards the Colosseum. This would actually be the entrance to the Roman Forum.

With the same ticket(9 euro + another 3 euro for exhibition cost if taking place) you visit Palatine Hill, Roman Forum and Colosseum. It opens always at 8.30am but the closing time varies during the year.

It will be closed on the following days:
December 25th
January 1st
May 1st

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Phone: 06.7005469
Address: Piazza del Colosseo N°1
Directions: from Piazza Venezia take Via dei Fori Imperiali till the end.

If you wish to Visit the Vatican Museums & Sistine Chapel and you are not willing to be on a long line to get in, you have two options:
1) go there at lunch time 1-2pm when big groups are normally having lunch.
2) book a guided tour arranged directly by the Vatican Museums with highly professional guides.
Once you get to the museum(15 min. earlier) tell the sicuruty at the exit gate on Viale Vaticano, that you have the tickets booked and they will show you where to pay for the visit.
The visit cost 23.50 euro per person and group will be of about 30 people.The visit will last 2 hours.
Make sure you send the request well in advance (only by fax):
+39.06.69885100; You can also give them a ring to double check: +39.06.69884676 (with out +39 if you are already in Rome!!)
If you are going to visit the museum on your own I suggest to check the official opening times and closed dates on the Vatican Museums web site. Here is the link:
http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/MV_Info.html
I have seen many wrong information on several guide books and other web sites.

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Phone: +39.06.6982 Vatican Operator
Address: Viale Vaticano
Directions: This area is called Prati and the entrance to the museum is not that close to St.Peter's Basilica(it takes about 5-10 min. by walk).
The nearest metro stop is Cirpo/Musei Vaticani or you can get off at Ottaviano Stop if you wish to visit Basilica first.
Website: http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/MV_Info.html

More info are available on the provided web site.

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Website: www.romanaqueducts.info

Mr. Veltroni (Major of Rome) had a great idea to refrain tourists from drinking the water at Trevi Fountain. Recent test has proved that water carried by the Virgin Aqueduct is highly polluted.He is really a great smart guy and we need him to lead our country towards a brighter future. He will be our next new Prime Minister!!

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Website: www.comune.roma.it

On January 16th, 2008 Graziano Cecchini (Mr), self-considered futurist artist , covered the steps with hundreds of thousands of multicolored plastic balls.
Soon after many of those balls were avalable on ebay!!

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It is temporary closed for restoration but it should be ready by the end of 2008.
The Accademia di San Luca, (the "Academy of Saint Luke") was an association of artists in Rome, founded in 1593 with the directorship of Federico Zuccari, with the purpose of elevating the work of "artists" above that of craftsman. Also involved in the founding were Girolamo Muziano and Pietro Olivieri. Over the first centuries after its inception, Papal patronage and control dominated the institution. The academy was named after the evangelist Saint Luke, who, legend has it, made a portrait of the Virgin Mary, and thus became the patron saint of painters' guilds. It has for its modern descendant the Accademia Nazionale di San Luca
In 1605, Pope Paul V granted the academy the right on the feast of St. Luke to pardon a condemned man. In 1620s, Urban VIII extended broad rights to the academy to decide who was considered an artist in Rome. The academy came under the patronage of his nephew, Cardinal Francesco Barberini. It was he who installed Giovan Francesco Romanelli as Principe in 1638. In 1633, Urban VIII gave the Accademia the capacity to tax all artists as well as art-dealers, and monopolize all public commissions. These latter measures raised strong opposition and apparently were poorly enforced.
The Academy is still active. From the very beginning the statutes of the Academy directed that each candidate-academician was to donate a work of his art in perpetual memory and, later, a portrait. Thus the Academy, in its modern premises in the sixteenth-century Palazzo Carpegna has accumulated a unique collection of paintings and sculptures, including about 500 portraits, as well as an outstanding collection of drawings.

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Phone: 06.6798850
Address: Piazza Accademia di San Luca 77
Directions: Near the Trevi Fountain
Website: www.accademiasanluca.it

The Doria Pamphilj Gallery is a large art collection housed in the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj in Rome. It is situated between the Via del Corso and Via della Gatta. Like the palace, it is still privately owned by the princely Roman family Doria Pamphilij.
The large collection of paintings, furniture and statuary has been assembled since the 16th century by the Doria, Pamphilj, Landi and Aldobrandini families now united through marriage and descent under the simplified surname Doria Pamphilj. The collection includes paintings and furnishings from the Innocent X's Palazzo Pamphilj (in Piazza Navona), who bequeathed them to his nephew Camillo Pamphilj.

Entrance to the Gallery has been moved to Via del Corso and it is now open every day (including Thursday) from 10am till 5pm (last entrance 4pm).

Entrance fee Euro 8

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Phone: 06.6797323
Address: Via del Corso 305
Directions: Not far from Trevi Fountain and Pantheon.
Website: www.doriapamphilj.it

Rome's new Planetarium was opened on May 26, 2004 inside the Museum of Roman Civilization (EUR), 20 years after the city's previous planetarium, in the Hall of Minerva, had been closed.
This modern "machine of space and time" brings the sky to everyone, condensing the centuries and light years above our heads for the benefit of the public. A perfect reproduction of the constellations shines underneath the 14 metre wide dome, showing the movements of the sun, the moon and the planets against a backdrop of the Zodiac, the Milky Way and more than 4500 stars. Three digital projectors make it possible to navigate deep space in three dimensions and real time. It is now finally possible to touch the sky with your fingers: thanks to spectacular simulations and all-sky projections, celestial bodies, nebulae and galaxies can all be held in the hand.
The planetarium of Rome offers a wide program of live astronomical shows, lectures, events and observations of the sky for all audiences, allowing everyone to approach the wonders of the heavens and unveil their secrets, in a fascinating mix of emotion, technology and rigorous science.
The nearby Astronomical Museum takes visitors on a journey from Earth to the universe, through the grand themes of space, time and the origin of the elements. It offers an interactive experience, involving giant models of the planets, dioramas and interactive multimedia stations with astronomical videogames.
The planetarium of Rome has returned to open a window onto the sky: an astronomical theatre to rediscover the natural show of a starry night, a chance to jump into the depths of space and explore the cosmos that surrounds us.

Opening hours
Tuesday-friday 9.00am-2.00pm Saturday and Sunday 9.00am-7.00pm.
Performances: Tuesday-Friday 9.30am, 11.00am, 12.30am; Saturday-Sunday 9.30am, 11.00am, 12.30am, 3.00pm, 4.00pm, 5.30pm.
Opening hours may be subject to variation (the ticket office closes an hour in advance)

Closed Monday, 1st January, 1st May and 25th December

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Address: Piazza G. Agnelli 10 (Eur district)
Directions: The Planetario is situated into the same building that accommodates the Museo della Civiltà Romana

The MACRO - Rome's Museum of Contemporary Art - came into existence due to the reorganisation of the structures on the Capitoline devoted to the promotion of contemporary art. It is spread over two sites. The first is the old Peroni factory, which, until 1971, was in active production for the Peroni Beer Society . It was designed at the beginning of the twentieth century by Gustavo Giovannoni and is one of the few examples of industrial archaeology in the capital.
The first phase of the reconstruction and conversion of the site finished in 1999. It involved the recovery of the main building, which is composed of two parallel factory units, connected by a construction which corresponds to the front facade. The work was finished as part of Odile Decq's Sensual Territories project, following an international competition held by the Municipality of Rome in 2000.
The other site is split across two pavilions in the building complex of the old slaughterhouse in Testaccio, which was built between 1888 and 1891 to a design by the architect Gioacchino Erosch.

Opening hours
Tuesday-Sunday 9.00am-7.00pm; 24th and 31th December 9.00am-2.00pm (the ticket office closes half an hour in advance)
Closed Monday, 1st January, 1st May, 25th December

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Phone: 06.671070400
Address: Via Reggio Emilia 54
Directions: It is not very central but it will not take more than 10/15 minutes by taxi from any Rome central location.
Website: www.macro.roma.museum

Rome’s ex-Mattatoio (abattoir) complex is now an active site for cultural happenings and artistic events. Situated on the edge of the Tiber River in the recently gentrified and decidedly hip Testaccio neighbourhood, the MACRO Future is an ideal site for a community of cultural experimentation.

Built between 1888 and 1891 by Gioacchino Ersoch, architect emeritus of the City of Rome, the pavilions of the Mattatoio illustrate the transition from classicism to modernity and provide an important historical example of the monumentality and rationale of turn-of-the-century industrial architecture. For many years, Rome’s Mattatoio was considered among the most advanced industrial designs for the modernity of ingenuity of its organization and architectural tenacity.

In 2003, two pavilions from within the Mattatoio complex, comprised of 105,000 square metres (43,000 of which are covered), were assigned to MACRO for use in the development and dissemination of Contemporary Art.

In keeping with the bistros, clubs, and nightspots that surround it, MACRO’s space at the Mattatoio is open from 4pm until midnight. The scope and layout of the space make it particularly conducive to grand multimedia explorations. In this context local, national, and international artists from the visual and other arts interact and generate a reconfiguration of the Arts through the fusion of different modes of creative expression.

Arousing a vast and diverse public, MACRO is a dynamic and progressive institution emerging as a multifaceted cultural polestar within which the value of contemporary artistic expression asserts itself.

Free admission

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Address: Piazza Orazio Giustiniani 4 (Testaccio Area)