Visiting Rome.

[Dagann]

Hello all.

I'm going to Rome for one week in August.
Wich places (in Rome and aroud the city) would you advise me to visit?

[Jona Lendering]

The usual highlights are the Forum Romanum, the Vatican, Pantheon, and the Catacombs.

If you are interested in Antiquity, try to buy a discount ticket for the combined sights of Colosseum, Palatine, Baths of Caracalla, Museo Massimo, etc.

My favorite museum is the Centrale Montermartini (ancient sculpture in an old power plant), Via Ostiense 106, metro Garbatella.

The floor mosaic on the Santa Prassade has recently been cleaned.

The Synagogue.

Don't ignore Ostia and/or Hadrian's Villa: quiet places. Pompeii is possible in one day; there are organized tours (your hotel tells more) which are, for a first introduction, usually quite good.

Food: it is a well-kept secret that Rome has some excellent Chinese restaurants, one of them being kosher as well. The Roman McDonald's sell excellent salads.

[Dagann]

thanks for your help

[Jona Lendering]

Enjoy your stay!

[Dagann]

thx, i'can't wait to go to Rome

[tlclark]

Off the beaten path but really good side trips:

SS. Cosmas and Damiano. A Byzantine church built into the old Temple of Romulus, accessible from the Via Fora Imperiale (spelling?) Santa Sabina on the Aventine (great early Christian Church BTW) has great views of the city from its orange grove and the state rose gardens are nearby. Spent lots of time there!

Also, the Circus Maximus is really good but for a better view of a circus, check out the Circus of Maxentius on the Via Appia, Also the tomb of Cecillia Metellus, both are on the way to the catacombs of Callistus.

Don't miss the baroque gems either. Borromini's St' Ivo's is open to the public and it hasn't been that way for years so take advantage of it. Also St. Charles Borromeo's alle quatre Fontaine. Great miniature baroque masterpiece. Duck into San Luigi alle Francesi for the great painting of Matthew's calling by Caravaggio.

Also consider S. Maria del Popolo. Lots of great masters there including another caravaggio and also the only gothic church in Rome, Santa Maria Sopra Minverva, just behind the pantheon, with great frecoes by fra-filippo lippi. A great chance to see real florentine painters in Rome.

Day trips to both Ostia (accessible by Public Transportation, a theater, insula, forum, baths and a dozen mithraeums!!) and hadrian's villa at Tivoli are well worth it too. I actually like Ostia better than Pompeii and Herculaneum, fewere frescoes but neater buildings.

Also, for eats, Try Gran Sasso di Danilo on the esquiline just off the via emmanuelle filiberto. GREAT PLACE! and Danilo serves just about everyone.

Also Giolitti's near the pantheon is everyone's favorite for gelati but check out Palazzo di Fredo, not far from Termini (not the best of neighborhoods but far better than it was 12 years ago!!) Great fruit flavors, especially pineapple and coconut! Also it gives you an excuse to see the Servian wall, Porta Maggiore, (FANTASTIC Aqueducts!) tomb of Euryaces the baker and the pavilion of Minerva Medici, all free and accesible Roman remains in the Termini area. OH! and S. Maria Maggiore is there too, great 5th C. mosiacs.

(Sigh.)

Ok, there's more to see than just the forum and the Vatican, which is what most people go to see and be sure to save time to hang out in one of the piazzas all evening long. Piazza Navona is popular but my fav is Piazza de Santa Maria Trastevere. In fact, the whole trastevere region is neat.

Ok, now I'm getting homesick and I'm not even Italian!!

Travis

[tlclark]

The Roman McDonald's sell excellent salads.

LOL!

Actually a trip to Rome is never complete without a side trip to MacDonald's for two reasons. For Americans, it's just weird to see a MacDonald's that sells beer, and they let anyone use their restrooms a must if you spend all day walking around the city. There is a shocking lack of public facilities.

Travis

[Felix Agrippa]

Another reason to go to McDonalds would be where else in the world can you sit eating a big Mac, while look across the street at the Pantheon.

[Dagann]

Thanks for your help.

Day trips to both Ostia (accessible by Public Transportation, a theater, insula, forum, baths and a dozen mithraeums!!) and hadrian's villa at Tivoli are well worth it too. I actually like Ostia better than Pompeii and Herculaneum, fewere frescoes but neater buildings

I'm planning to vist this site.
I'm not sure to understand what you mean by neat. Do you mean "clean"?


Is there a good webiste where i can find a map of Ostia.
it seems so big, and i don"t know what to visit in the city.

By the way is the beach of Ostia nice?

[Kate Gilliver]

[url:1z3qyiwd]http://www.ostia-antica.org/index.html[/url]
It may be over-kill but there's some excellent stuff on it. Check out 'visiting the ruins' for really basic stuff. The best bit as far as I'm concerned is the clickable Plan of Ostia that you get from 'plans and 3d reconstructions'. Click on an area of the town map and you get detailed maps showing building usage (more or less certain), so if you're looking for something specific (if want to visit every Mithraeum or brothel (!) in Ostia, for example), you can find them very easily.

[Kate Gilliver]

oh, and beaches - a must! You have to get back on the metro and go further down the line. Most of the beaches are privately run (you pay for access), but there's a small section of public beach at Stella Polare which had its own lifeguard last time I was there. If you exit the metro station and walk down to the sea-front, turn left and it's a few hundred metres along on your right.

[Dagann]

Thx the website is very useful.

But i didn't think Ostia was so big.

[Kate Gilliver]

Ostia is big - and it's not even all been excavated. It's definitely a full day-trip, and then head off to the beach for a late afternoon swim and a gelato!
But it's well worth the effort; I prefer it to Pompeii, but that may just be because I did my undergraduate dissertation on Ostia, but you can go up several of the insulae as well which adds to the fun.
Do visit the Mithraeum in the Baths of Mithras - really atmospheric.

[Cleopatra]

hi,

it doesn't matter, but just in case you are not convinced yet: Do visit Ostia!!! I fell in love from the first moment I arrived. It is so beautifull... Walking trough the streets you can imagine yourself a true roman!
Enjoy your vacation!

Cleo

[Ebusitanus]

When I visited last year I did a one day trip to Pompeii. Toke the earliest train to naples out of Termini, was there at 9:30 AM, toke a local train to Pompeii and started the tour around 10AM. Marathon through most of the place (where I was taken aback by realizing just how much is still not excavated) and around 18 hours when the place closed right back to Naples and from there to Rome. Great one day trip!