The termini area is ideal for transport around Rome and to the Airports,

I don't know if it will come within your price range - but Hotel Canada is a lovely hotel within a 5 - 10 minute walk to Termini. I've stayed there about 4 times and have never been disappointed.

You can take the Leonardo Express train from Termini to FCO. It leaves every half hour, beginning very early in the morning (around 5:30, I believe). Tickets are about 11 euros, so the cost for the two of you would be about half the of what a taxi would cost.

Happy new year to you too!

Hi Baldeagle, we've just returned from "our big trip" where we spent 7 nights in Rome in early November. We stayed at the Continentale Hotel which we booked thorugh hotelclub.com and this hotel was about 4 blocks from the station. It included breakfast and we saw a few people make lunch with a bread roll and cheese - not sure it was "allowed" but people all over the world do this in various hotels. The receptionists were lovely and the hotel was cheap and very clean. I was suprised that the rooms were a reasonable size - I was expecting it to be tiny but it wasn't. It was also opposite a youth hostel (Yellow???) and that seemed very popular.

In the same street and more-or less diagonally opposite our hotel was a fantastic pizza place where they sold gorgeous pizza by the slice - the cost depended on how much it weighed and what the topping was. We always got two slices each and the most it cost for 4 large slices was just under 15 Euro and the cheapest for 4 large slices was under 10 Euro. We ate there every night for 7 nights as the pizza was fantastic - beautiful toppings and not at all greasy. A short distance down the block was a laundrette which also had about 6 PCs with internet - that was quite cheap. Back in the other direction and across the street was a supermarket so we bought our water there - more than 1 litre for about 50 cents, and various other goodies were also cheap.

Sorry, I forgot about your "itinerary". I think you'll be pushing it to see everything you want to see in 3 days - does your three days include the days you arrive and depart?

I think you need to allow for "Roman" time, ie, times that sites open, time to get from one venue to another, time to see what you want to see at historical sites etc.

You could easily spend a couple of hours at the Colesseum if you wanted to and then walk to the entrance to the Forum where you could easily spend 3 hours+ walking around the site which is huge. Get an audio guide and you'll spend longer. Take a guide book - there is little signage at these sites - and again you stop to read, and you'll take longer.

My recommendation to you is to find out the opening times/days of the sites you want to see - go onto the actual website to ensure that it will be open on the date you plan to see it. Then work out which sites are the "must sees" for you and the "nice to see if we have time" sites. When I planned our itinerary, to reduce wear and tear on us, I kept the site seeing to particular areas in a day so we didn't end up wasting lots of time travelling from one site to another.

We will be in Rome 3 full days. Perhaps you're right about pushing it. Like you suggested, we will try to see the sights by areas to save time. And we defintely want to include Pompeii. So if someone can come up with some suggestions on how we can fit Pompeii in a day's trip, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks!

Ostia Antica is similar to Pompeii and it is only about 30 min. away by train. You might consider trying it instead.

Baldeagle,

"Rick Steves"( www.ricksteves.com) 2009 Rome guide book has a full day trip to Naples and Pompeii..it states you can catch the express train from Rome to Naples then transfer to the commuter train to Pompeii.

He states that your day will start at 7:30am(catching the train in Rome)then arrive back in Rome by 10pm after your full day trip!

My husband and I are planning on doing this ourselves when there in May.

If anyone out there can offer a better suggestion I'm all ears!!!!

I actually thought about staying a night in Naples as we are heading to Sicily after Rome?? But I think that will have to be chatted about in the Naples forum!

Hi,

just came back from a week in Rome. stayed at the Gulliver's Lodge - www.gulliverslodge.com. it's a 7 minute walk from the termini, and the same time from the Coliseum. highly recommended !