Trips in Rome

[Patchworker]

We are visiting Rome in June on Britannia. I realise the day trips to Rome are all dat affairs, any recommendations for which is the best P&O organised trip, mainly want to see the sights, not over keen on wandering round on our own too much & getting lost!

[barney]

We did one called Essence of Rome, although that was a few years ago.

It was an all-dayer and was pretty hard core but brillaint and worth every penny

Left ship early and did Forum, Colleseum, Trevi, lunch, Vatican inc Sistine.

Got back about 6.30 and both flaked out.

Best trip I've ever done.

[Onelife]

Hello patchworker,

Unless you are really confident about finding your way around Rome you are doing the right thing in choosing an organised tour....we did the P&O diy tour but were so frightened we wouldn't get back to the pick up point in time we arrived back an hour early. Sorry can't advise on specific tours (Moby should be along shortly)

Unless you are loaded do try and take your own drinks and snacks as they charge the earth around the major tourist attractions.

Enjoy

Regards

OL

[Manoverboard]

' Classical Rome ' is also a good starting point but I suggest that you buy Thomas Cook's Traveller's Guide, or similar, for a few £££s on Bay, to then read about the various highlights to help you decide what's best for you.

P&O offer the following excursions ...

http://www.pocruises.com/cruise-destina ... xcursions/

... but not always, your Cruise Personaliser will have the actual list of available tours.

[oldbluefox]

It all depends on many factors - whether you would like an in depth tour of a couple of sites, a general whisk through all the main attractions, a long full day or a more leisurely half day, whether there are sites you are particularly interested in and not others etc, etc. The good (or not so good if you have been a few times) thing about Rome is that there are plenty of cruise itineraries which go there so you could choose to see some sites on this cruise and others on later cruises. If this is going to be your one and only cruise/intended visit to Rome you may want to cram in as much as you can.
My advice would be to take a P&O tour based on what attractions you really want to see, The full day tours are very long and tiring so we have done the half days and chosen different excursions on each cruise.
PS Welcome to the forum!!

[Patchworker]

We did one called Essence of Rome, although that was a few years ago.

It was an all-dayer and was pretty hard core but brillaint and worth every penny

Left ship early and did Forum, Colleseum, Trevi, lunch, Vatican inc Sistine.

Got back about 6.30 and both flaked out.

Best trip I've ever done.

Just been looking at P&O link & worked out we will be in Rome on a Sunday so Essence of Rome trip doesn't run, sounded like our sort of trip too, ah well back to the drawing board! Trying to suggest to hubby to go on the F1 trip in Monaco ( as it's his b'day that day), whole cruise is going to be an experience 1. Only done smaller ships before & 2. Usually head north to the fjords!

[barr0ld]

I've spent a fair bit of time in Rome, but was last there in 2003.

I can say with some confidence that it's not too difficult to get around; the major sights are reasonably close to each other, perhaps with the exception of The Vatican, but even that can be easily reached via the Metro. The Metro is fairly straightforward, unless they've extended it over the last decade as there are only two lines; one runs more or less North / South, the other East / West.

But if you want to take in The Forum, Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, The Wedding Cake, Pantheon and Spanish Steps to name but a few, then they are all easily reachable on foot. A day is clearly not enough to do it justice, but I would recommend taking "Rome on Your Own" (or whatever the trip is called that just drops you off early and picks you up late) so that you can make the most of it.

We had thought about taking the train from the cruise terminal when we're on Britannia in a few weeks time, but to get the best value from the Italian railway network, you need to book seats well in advance, and know the time of the trains you plan to catch. In the end, we decided the P&O excursion would be less stressful, and well worth the money.

Everyone who has already posted has offered sound advice. I would just say that regarding prices of drinks and eats, you only have to go a street or two back from a major tourist attraction to find much better value, but that's the same with many capital cities. And as ever, check the price before you buy.

Buying a guidebook and doing a bit of online research before you leave home is an absolute must to make the most of whatever time you decide to spend in this fabulous city. You're barely out of the shadow of one attraction that is to die for before you find yourself gazing in awe at another, so if you have a particular desire to spend considerable time in one or two of them, it's best to plan your day ahead.

You may have guessed from my inane ramblings that I love the place!

[Mervyn and Trish]

Just back from Britannia, they now do a trip in Rome which is similar to "Rome on your own" but the transfer is by train - great if like Trish you're not a great traveller on coaches. A guide takes you on the train and gives you tips during the journey. The train goes to Rome Ostiense station, which is just two Metro stops from the Colosseum. We then walked all the main sites and had lunch and were back to the train in time for the return trip. In a day you won't have time to go inside unless you concentrate on one or two attractions because the queues are long (2 hours to get into the Vatican in March!) but it's great for an overview if you've not been before. We reckon we walked about 6 miles!

The train trip wasn't on sale before we departed so we had booked the "Rome on your own" on line, but we were able to upgrade (about 4 euros each) on board with no penalty.