I will be in Rome in July for first time and was wondering

1) What is the best way to visit tourist attractions - by subway or rental car ?

2) Where can I find a day trip to see Pisa leaning tower ? Florence ? and Venice ?

Thanks for the help.

lax 100K

(1) You won't want to drive in Rome. Public transit is much easier on the nerves (usually).

(2) You're talking more than a day trip. Venice is 7-8 hours away by train (example: I'm planning a train trip from Rome to Venice that leaves around 10:30 PM and arrives at 6AM), Pisa is 3 or 4, Florence is about as far away as Pisa. Certainly you can travel up to any of these cities for a day or two (Pisa is worth a couple of hours) but I wouldn't think of them as "day trips."

Taxis are relatively inexpensive within the city. Make sure they are licensed cabs! Public transport is okay but pickpocketing is rampant on city buses and subways. And watch out for "gypsy" kids at tourist sites. Several will crowd around you and before you know it, they'll clean out your pockets and purses.

Otherwise, Rome is a pretty compact city and fine for walking. Make sure you don't get runned over. Wife and I stayed there several years ago at the Sofitel Hotel off the Via Veneto and walked all over - Spanish Steps, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona, Colosseum, Roman Forum. We did take a cab across the Tiber River to the Vatican.

Near the Spanish Steps is an American Express office that arranges bus tours - I think they have day tour to Florence, not sure. We took the day tour to Pompeii and will never do that again - 16 hours from pick-up to drop-off with 2 hours actually spent at Pompeii. Next time we'll take the train to Naples, spend an entire day at Pompeii and check into a hotel overnight before returning to Rome the followng day.

If you're looking for actual day trips from Rome, heed the above advice and stick to places nearby.

Ostia Antica, the ruins of an ancient port city, is a good day trip from Rome. Unless you want to spend the time required to visit Pompeii properly on your upcoming trip, consider Ostia Antica as a worthy substitute.

In Rome itself, I agree that by far the best ways to get around are walking, subway, bus, and taxi. You have to learn a new way of crossing the street as a pedestrian though. Different driving habits and those pesky Vespas (motorbikes) throw your timing off when you try to cross!

Kathy

I like taxi and walking. Make certain it is a metered cab.

When I visited the Vatican museum & Sistine chapel, the hours were 8:45am to 1:45pm. If still so, plan accordingly.

Beware the pickpockets. Pin your valuables to your underware, and use a hotel safe. They take everything they can grab, not just valuables. Great way to loose your extra pair of glasses.

If you are only there a week, forget side trips that take more than an hour or so of travel. FLR is over two hours travel time each way. From the time you start toward the train to the time you get back, you will spent upwards of 8-10 hrs in travel and wait time.

[This message has been edited by slawecki (edited 04-17-2002).]

Rome is very walkable, don't use a taxi unless you need to get from termini to the vatican and don't want to take public transportation.

Daytrips from Rome include ostia antica, frascati (villa aldobrandini), viterbo (villa lante), ninfa (near norma), sperlonga, hadrian's villa (near tivoli) and Bomarzo (cool stuff).

However, in saying this, you are better off going up to frascati or viterbo in June/July. Its hot and unpleasant to be in Rome and places like hadrian's villa and ostia lack shade. What we have done is get up early in the AM, hit the market, do some walking and sight seeing, get a nice panini for lunch and then siesta for the afternoon.

Lots of museums have late hours in the summer, so you can do something cultural in the am and then again in the pm.

Longer trips, such as florence, pisa,siena and venice should be overnighters, you won't get alot out of a day trip. In saying this, I am making my poor parents do a day trip to Florence in two weeks. Hmm. maybe I'll reconsider.

lala

We just returned two weeks ago. Our situation was a bit different. We took 35 people from Church for Holy Week services. We were able to use the Metro to get around the city and see all the sites we were interested in. There is also a "tour" bus run by the city bus system. It has a guided commentary along the way. The benefit is that you can get off and on to actually visit the places you want. It's also airconditioned.
I echo the suggestion not to get a rental car. You can easily get to Florence and Pisa via train.