Guide to Ancient Rome

[Gaius Valerius]

Do not know if this is the right place to post this, but I and my wife are going to Rome in early May. Does anyone know of a good guide we can hire for an informed tour of anient Rome? Any history professors out there doing this sort of thing part time?

[Bryaxis Hecatee]

I could have suggested you to hire me, but I'll be in Bulgaria instead, driving around from ancient roman place to thracian remains while going through some medieval ones... But what you must decide before going to Rome is : which Rome do you want to see ? Because no guide can show you well everything in the city. Some are better for Renaissance period, other for Baroque, other are obviously more roman oriented...

 

How much time do you have to spend in the City ? Museums or no museums ? Periods of interest ? Do you intend to go through Vatican ? Going into churches or not ? ...

[Gaius Valerius]

I could have suggested you to hire me, but I'll be in Bulgaria instead, driving around from ancient roman place to thracian remains while going through some medieval ones... But what you must decide before going to Rome is : which Rome do you want to see ? Because no guide can show you well everything in the city. Some are better for Renaissance period, other for Baroque, other are obviously more roman oriented...

 

How much time do you have to spend in the City ? Museums or no museums ? Periods of interest ? Do you intend to go through Vatican ? Going into churches or not ? ...

 

We will have five full days. My area of interest is the Late Republic and the early Empire. We do want to take some time to see the Vatican Museum. Churches, not so much. Thanks for your response.

[caesar novus]

This probably belongs in vacati section. I think grad students give tours of forum area. While waiting for answers here, you might try fodor travel forum which has mentioned guides with special permits and such. Be aware most sites are closed Mondays and the Vatican is jammed that day. You can get priority entrance to Vatican with tix and guide from Vatican web site. On a Sunday you shouldn't,t miss a walk down appian way - no guide needed. Consider Ostia antica which is only an extension from the subway and near the airport. Consider Hadrian villa excursion Pompeii, etc

[Bryaxis Hecatee]

Five days ? Ok. Your hotel is in the area of stazione termini or some place else ?

 

Must see places in five days, organised as full days, a suggestion for someone ready to walk a lot, see a lot (that's how I plan my own trips) :

 

1) Vatican : half a day at least, eventually conbined with Hadrian's mausoleum which is close by. From there you can walk alongside the Tiber toward Transtevere area and cross the bridge to the Tiberine island. From there you can also see the Largo Argentino Temples and, if you have the time and the energy, visit the Crypta Balbi museum which is the best one to see how Rome did evolve from Republican to Medieval time, with some nice posters showing the evolution of the area surrounding the Largo Argentina.

 

2) Forums, Capitol, Palatine and Colosseum : you might want to begin from the Via Nazionale, alongside Trajan's Markets : visit the markets and the museum installed in the former shops. Then you'll pass in front of Trajan's column, were you can take the Via de Fori Imperiali : no need to tell you what's there. Just take the time to go inside St Cosme and Damian church to see the roman remains in the back of the church. Go up to the Colosseum, but don't visit it yet : take the street to the right of the Ludus Magnus (with the colosseum to your back) and go to San Clemente basilica to go visit the underground mitraic temple there. Go out, and back to the colosseum that you can now visit, before taking a look at Constantine's arch. From there, go around the Palatin hill by going under the aqueduct : welcome to the Circus Maximus. Go along the Palatine's fa

[Gaius Valerius]

Five days ? Ok. Your hotel is in the area of stazione termini or some place else ?

 

Must see places in five days, organised as full days, a suggestion for someone ready to walk a lot, see a lot (that's how I plan my own trips) :

 

1) Vatican : half a day at least, eventually conbined with Hadrian's mausoleum which is close by. From there you can walk alongside the Tiber toward Transtevere area and cross the bridge to the Tiberine island. From there you can also see the Largo Argentino Temples and, if you have the time and the energy, visit the Crypta Balbi museum which is the best one to see how Rome did evolve from Republican to Medieval time, with some nice posters showing the evolution of the area surrounding the Largo Argentina.

 

2) Forums, Capitol, Palatine and Colosseum : you might want to begin from the Via Nazionale, alongside Trajan's Markets : visit the markets and the museum installed in the former shops. Then you'll pass in front of Trajan's column, were you can take the Via de Fori Imperiali : no need to tell you what's there. Just take the time to go inside St Cosme and Damian church to see the roman remains in the back of the church. Go up to the Colosseum, but don't visit it yet : take the street to the right of the Ludus Magnus (with the colosseum to your back) and go to San Clemente basilica to go visit the underground mitraic temple there. Go out, and back to the colosseum that you can now visit, before taking a look at Constantine's arch. From there, go around the Palatin hill by going under the aqueduct : welcome to the Circus Maximus. Go along the Palatine's fa

[GhostOfClayton]

I'll bump this thread, as I intend to visit Rome in 2014 (50th birthday treat). It looks like I'll get 6 full days. bryaxis Hecatee has already outlined some excellent ideas for places to visit, but it has left me with a number of practical questions:

 

I'll either arrive by air or rail.  If I arrive by air, what

[Auris Arrectibus]

Hi Ghost,

 

I visited Rome a couple of times and I would recommend Hotel Hiberia. Located at the Quirinalis, right in the centre of Rome. Go left and within a few minutes the Trevi Fountain and go right and in no time at the Forum. See if there are any special price offers. For me, the best so far:

http://www.booking.com/hotel/it/hiberiahotelrome.nl.html  or  http://www.hotelhiberia.it/nl/

 

- Airport transfer: Ask the hotel if it's possible to pick you up. Easiest way.

- Hadrians villa: take the subway near the Colosseum and than a public transport bus (so you can experience everyday culture).
  Plan half a day, but maybe you want to combine it with Villa d'Este in Tivoli (16th AD). See what Renaissance did to the reborn of the classical architecture.
  Perfect bookshop at the entrance. Marvellous lemon-sorbet on the other side of the road.

- Ostia Antica: Plan the whole day. Take the subway and than a train.

- Capitolinus: Before you visit the museum remember that in the first years of Rome, enemies or convicts were thrown off the Tarpeian Cliff.

    See if you can find in the bushes a cage where until recent times a wolf was held, everytime the animal died they an other one in it. Now it's empty.

- A few minutes from the Colosseum, you will find the Church of St Clemente, beneath it you find a Mithraeum (worship place of Mithras).

    => and other 'underground' suggestions: http://www.tours-italy.com/rome-about-underground.htm

- At the forum, see if you could find the 'ara di cesari' (caesars temple, still in flowers) and of course the make sure to stop and think a bit at the Umbilicus or omphalos (navel of the city=world)

 

And there is more

[caesar novus]

The time of year would color many decisions. I visit in shoulder season and the hotel values tend to be awful for the price. Maybe try hotels owned by the church http://italytravelista.com/where-to-stay-in-rome-convent-and-monastery-accommodation-in-rome-travel-to-italy/ , but the Italian gov't may have revoked their bargain tax free status.

 

At the airport you can just show up at the kiosk for shared airport vans. It may appear chaotic, but soon you are flying like a racecar thru Rome with maybe a singing driver and won't mind the intermediate stops. I tend to take the overpriced train back just because there is more certainty about the schedule.

 

Or use the Naples airport for one end of your tour... there is actually an infrequent airport  bus direct to pretty Sorrento where you are in the backyard of Pompeii or Jovian palace of Capri... then you can train back to Rome. For the other end you could also avoid FCO if easyjet or whoever will take you to CIA. They have busses meet the planes and its a shorter drive than from FCO. Or land in Pisa, walk to town and sightsee before boarding the train.

 

Ostia Antica is big, but in kind of appalling shape (degraded even in past few years) and not worth a full day. Holy cow, with that time you could do Pompeii, Herculeum, villa Poppea (sp?) etc! But for Ostia combine things along the way. I guess you could take a taxi there from extremely nearby FCO if they would let you store your bag like Pompeii let me store mine, then train to Rome. Or hit spots in Rome southern outskirts like power station branch of capitaline museum, st paul vatican church, or better things that slip my mind. EDIT: baths of caracalla!

 

Villa Hadriana is a must-combine with the lesser Villa Este, but takes careful homework to schedule. There is an oft mentioned way you can find on the internet that uses a northern subway station/bus hub. It used to be the northern end of subway, since extended. The advantage is it has a manned window to buy all your bus tix (cotrel?) to a stop near Hadrian, onward to Tivoli for Este, then back. On the return get off the bus a stop or 2 early where 80% depart for the new subway end station.

 

You can get all details on the web from casual and official web schedules with exact stop locations. It should become apparent that you don't want to use the closest stops to Hadrians place which would require complex transfers and bad scheduling. Use stops a half mile away with much more traffic, and be prepared to navigate the quaint neighborhood maze on the ground. There is a train between rome and Tivoli which I might consider for the return... I think you would walk down a virtual mountain to the north side of Tivoli for a rare, slow train or something.

 

In any case, start super early and be prepared for overload at Hadrians. Like any sprawling place, you can attack it clockwise or the reverse. I wish I went clockwise because that left side starts with dense jumbles of famous stuff that got disorienting when I was tired near the end (was sick anyway). The other side is more serene and  quietly monumental. But that right side does have a little museum with the usual ridiculous hours... closing for lunch or the day at practically half past dawn. I was annoyed that the guards were trailing great streams of breadcrumbs from eating their overflowing sandwiches among the exhibits, well before their ultra generous lunch closing time. I guess gov't workers there feel less obligated by their job because it is ruthlessly taxed, whereas private employees have great latitude to evade income taxes?

 

Anyway pay close attention to days of the week closures... usually monday. Sunday pedestrian day is heaven for an Appian way walk... I might try a bus or archeo bus for that rather than the Tericola train next time. It is horrible to walk from Rome, not due to the distance but the extremely narrow roads and fast cars. Except if you take a roundabout path to include the really nice WW2 massacre commemoration site... that has a walkable shortcut to the racetrack/villa/temples part of appian way. There is a deli or two here for a nice carryout snack... i can still taste their nice eggplant sandwich and fruit juice.

 

Use some planning to at least recognize the near-impossible constraints of opening times. For example the racetrack closes extremely early. The fantastic Q. Bros. villa complex may claim to open early but may not open their appian back door til quite late. These exhibits have shared tickets (aha... including caracalla baths in southern rome which you must see) and good bathrooms which are sparse further down the road (I complained earlier here about repeatedly seeing women apparently going to pee on the back of nice roman tomb markers, leaving piles of tissue and corrosive ammonia... yes, you mingle with the dog walking rich local mansion residents in early morning here).

 

Don't miss the national museum branch near the train station and the baths near there which are particularly rich in Roman stuff and not as crowded as others. I think I already discussed getting in the great Roman-only section of the vatican, possibly bypassing the horrible mile long monday lines (4 or 5 people wide!) by getting an online ticket for garden or other vatican tour.

Edited August 16, 2013 by caesar novus

[GhostOfClayton]

Thanks very much, Guys. You've given me quite a lot to process, research and itinerise (is that a word?) Everyone else can feel free to add their pearls of wisdom, by the way.

[guy]

Sounds like a wonderful trip.

 

I was in Rome seven years ago and my only regret was that I didn't take a tour to see Rome at night. (I was jet lagged from my flight from California and too tired from my walking during the day.)

 

With any kind of planning, most sites could be seen independently without a formal tour. A tour bus, however, might be worth a treat to see Rome after dark. The city lights up so majestically. The Ancient, Renaissance, and Modern monuments and architecture come alive as the night lights reflect off the water, marble, streets, and ancient concrete.

 

Good times.

 

guy also known as gaius

Edited August 24, 2013 by guy

[guy]

Here's a (virtual) tour of Ancient Rome:

 

 

 

 

guy also known as gaius