drop off/pickup locations for ship's excursions to Rome on your Own?

[RBD]

Does anyone have any info they could share for where the drop off and pick up locations might be for ships excursions "Rome On Your Own"?, so we can plan our day in Rome.

[nelblu]

If it's only transport, it's usually near the Vatican. We took a similar tour a few years ago and it was about a block away. I have "Passage to Rome" booked on our upcoming Brilliance Aug. 29 cruise. I was planning on a Viator Vatican Museum/Sistine Chapel tour, but our bus does not depart until 8AM and their latest AM tour leaves at 10AM which is cutting it close as the trip from the pier is at a minimum 1.5 hours.

 

On the cruise planner, they've added a train which should be faster and not worry about traffic. Very little info on the train, so I have to call them with specifics.

[okeytaco]

Something to consider if this will be your first visit to Rome: We just returned from a week there. What an amazing city! We've visited most of the "main" European cities but Rome really blew us away with its antiquity and the enormous size of its monuments. The biggest problem was the crowds. We've never experienced anything like those crowds. We were told by locals and tour agents that this has become the norm. Even with pre-purchased "skip the line tickets" on-line, the line to get into the colosseum was over 2 hours long, same for the Roman Forum so we ended up just seeing them from the outside. We had a small tour (10) for the Vatican Museum which required a short wait until it opened at 8:30. By that time those without tours were lined up all the way around the block. The tours were let in first and there were literally hundreds of folks on tours. The museum is so huge and even at that early hour was so crowded inside that my claustrophobia kicked in and we left after 2 1/2 hours. The exit was so complicated it took over 30 minutes and up and down 4 flights of stairs multiple times just to get out! But, just seeing the Sistene Chapel made it all worth it. All this is to say that Rome is amazing and so totally worth seeing but you may not be able to see all you might like to see if you are doing it on your own. One day we tried the HOHO bus but, other than the colleseum, it really didn't get us very close to any of the major sites. If I were to have only part of a day and was dropped off near the Vatican I would visit only the Sistene Chapel, take a cab to see the outside of the Colleseum and a cab to Trevi Fountain (so much larger and more beautiful than photos). You can also see the Pantheon which is within a few blocks of the Trevi Fountain. This is just our experience last week. Others may have had a completely different one. Good luck and have a great time!

[nelblu]

This will be our 4th trip (cruising) and we've selected certain areas to tour each visit. The 1st time it covered antique Rome which included the Colosseum, etc. This was some almost 11 hours from beginning to end and tiring. However, we never made to the Sistine Chapel due to a variety of reasons, eg: Sunday's, etc. We usually sail in mid-August, but this time we'll be in Rome on Sept. 1 (lesser crowds?) and hopefully this time we'll be lucky.

[okeytaco]

nelblu, I do hope you'll be able to see the Sistine Chapel this time. I think what we found so fascinating, that is not evident from photos, is that everything absolutely looks 3 dimensional because Michelangelo was not a painter. He was a sculptor and painted from a sculptor's point of view. We also learned that it took him 4 years to paint it and he was paid today's equivalent of $2,000 US which was a pittance even at that time.

[nelblu]

nelblu, I do hope you'll be able to see the Sistine Chapel this time. I think what we found so fascinating, that is not evident from photos, is that everything absolutely looks 3 dimensional because Michelangelo was not a painter. He was a sculptor and painted from a sculptor's point of view. We also learned that it took him 4 years to paint it and he was paid today's equivalent of $2,000 US which was a pittance even at that time.

 

 

Looking forward. There was a wonderful movie with Charlton Heston who played Michelangelo In "The Agony & the Ecstasy." Rex Harrison played the demanding Pope.

[RBD]

If it's only transport, it's usually near the Vatican. We took a similar tour a few years ago and it was about a block away. I have "Passage to Rome" booked on our upcoming Brilliance Aug. 29 cruise. I was planning on a Viator Vatican Museum/Sistine Chapel tour, but our bus does not depart until 8AM and their latest AM tour leaves at 10AM which is cutting it close as the trip from the pier is at a minimum 1.5 hours.

 

 

 

On the cruise planner, they've added a train which should be faster and not worry about traffic. Very little info on the train, so I have to call them with specifics.

 

 

Thank you so much for the info about the bus from the port. We checked the cruise planner and just saw the train option.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums