Booking tickets in advance (not Colosseum/ Vatican Museum)?

We are heading to Rome in September and would like to get a combo ticket that includes Colosseum/Forum/Palatine Hill. Is it best to do these self-guided or guided? We know some things have changed due to Covid and so we are wondering if anyone can offer help on the best combo ticket, guided or self-guided, that is currently available for these places.

Just looking for some additional advice or recommendations - here is what we have so far;

8/26 - Arrive at FCO 745am, will take car service to our hotel (Hotel Martis Palace) to drop luggage and start exploring Rome.

8/27 - Rome. Vatican museum.

8/28 - Rome. Colosseum tour.

8/29 - 710am Fresciarossa train to Milan. Arrives 1050am. Already booked the tickets. Pick up car rental and drive to Lake Como. Staying in Diamond Apartments in Bellagio.

8/30 - More Lake Como. Staying same place.

8/31 - Driving to the Dolomites. Staying at the Hotel Angelo Engel in Ortisei.

9/01 - Dolomites. Won’t bore everyone with the list of hikes, but the hikes and scenic pass drives are the main reason for coming to the area. That and some of the lakes in the area.

9/02 - Dolomites

9/03 - Dolomites

9/04 - Dolomites, then driving back to Milan, staying at the Sheraton airport hotel that is literally in the terminal.

9/05 - 1020am flight back to US.

I think having basically 3 full days/nights in Rome is this plenty. Not sure that a day and a half (2 nights) will give us much time in Lake Como, but we’ve never been and would like to check it out unless someone has a better option. I think our time in Dolomites will give us enough time to do some hikes and explore the area. Obviously I’d rather have weeks to spend in each area, but unfortunately that isn’t an option haha.

Any suggestions or recommendations for these areas?

We are traveling to Italy for our 25th Wedding Anniversary - we will be going from Rome, to Cinque Terre, to Florence, to Venice and Milan. We plan on traveling exclusively by train. Is there a need to buy any/all tickets in advance? Is a pass worth considering or do we by individual tickets for each journey?

Thanks in advance!

Thank you for your advice on my previous post. We have changed our travel plans a little bit and plan to spend 1 full day in Rome before heading down south and would love advice on how to perfect our first time in Rome. We will be arriving at Fiumicino at 5pm on July 28 and will get our rental car at the airport. We will be then driving to Rome and staying at a hotel about a minute away from the Colosseum and plan to leave the car at an overnight car park. Unfortunately, Colosseum will be fully closed on July 29, so we plan to visit on July 30 before leaving, hopefully. Here is what I have planned so far for the day of July 29 (hopefully everything is within a walking distance)

-Starting off our walk from our hotel near the Colosseum to the Piazza Venezia

-Trevi Fountain

-Pantheon, Piazza Navona

-Spanish Steps

-Castel Sant’Angelo

- Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel

-St. Peter’s Basilica

I have a few things we need advice on:

1) What is the best way to get around Rome, should we stick to walking? Should driving around with our rental car be avoided at all costs?

2) Please suggest any restaurants or cafes that you have beloved on Rome trips that we must absolutely visit.

3) Any other tips or places we should include on our itinerary.

We plan to leave Rome in the morning of July 30.

I am a bit lost to what we should do as my parents are not avid walkers but it is very difficult to decide what to do in the limited time we have there. Any advice would be appreciated.

We were notified today that we were able to get a reservation for a scavi tour on Friday, September 3! While excited, because the time is assigned by the excavations office, it has impacted the schedule originally planned. Originally we had a large gap between basilica and museums to return to hotel and rest a bit/eat but now the schedule is tighter.

Scavi tour is at 12:30 - so we need to be to excavation office by 12. Tour lasts 1.5 hours which takes is to 2:00 pm

We have Happy Hour tour tickets for the museums at 5pm, so need to get there ~4:30pm.

Question 1 - That means we have a 2.5 hour gap. Weighing going back to hotel (campo d’ fiori) to rest/eat vs finding a restaurant around the Vatican - recommendations?

Question 2-4 - we had planned to get to Basilica before 8am to get in. Do the Dome climb first and then self tour of basilica. With the lines - anticipate this take us until 11 (depends on lines)? Leaving a small gap between that and scavi tour.

- recommendations for a restaurant to have a snack/sit in?

- more a comment/question - I assume the lines (including dome climb) would be too long to do basilica between the scavi tour and happy hour?

- we planned trotting basilica ourselves with audio guide, but give. The scavi tour, would we be better to book a tour (ie walks of Italy) to guarantee quicker access

Thanks for your thoughts on the above

Where do we buy tickets?

Currently tickets are only available through Sept 30, 2021 on the Vivaticket website. Does anyone know if, and when, tickets will be available for Oct?

We will be traveling to Italy in August and are planning to take the train from Milan to Vicenza.

After staying in Vicenza for 5 nights we want to go to Rome from Vicenza by train again.

From what I understand I should reserve these tickets in advance and I don't know which website to use to do so.

Can someone tell me the right website? Do I use the same website for both these tickets?

Thank you very much for your help

After cancelling our 2020 Italy trip, I've just booked a trip for spring 2022. We fly into Venice in late April and will be in the country for 21 nights before leaving from Rome. I've booked accommodations online but everything is cancellable so I'd love to know you suggest any changes to my itinerary. And I have a few questions. Any input would be much appreciated as I've never been to Italy!

Here's what I've booked:

3 nights Venice - Wander, see Doge's palace & St. Mark's Square

3 nights in Sirmione, Lake Garda - explore Roman ruins, drive around lake, maybe boat trip to Isola del Garde

3 Nights in Florence - Museums & sights. Rent car when leaving & drive to Montepulciano via Chianti.

3 Nights in Montepulciano - Wine tasting, explore hill towns in Tuscany (& maybe hot springs?)

4 Nights in Sorrento (day trips to Capri & Amalfi Coast & maybe Pompeii, but that would be all the days and I want to just relax & wander in Sorrento too)

4 Nights in Rome - Colosseum, Vatican, and maybe day trip to Tivoli or Ninfa Gardens (though my husband won't be that excited about the latter so may skip it)

Does this look like a good number of days / nights in each place?

Also, I have a few other questions... From Venice to Sirmione - Would I be better off to simply take the train from Venice to Desenzano and rent a car there, meaning I could drop it at the end of my Sirmione stay and not pay one-way charge? Or rent a car in Venice and drive to Desenzano? And when we leave Montepulciano to go to Sorrento, am I better off dropping the car in Chiusi and taking train from there to Sorrento, or driving back to Florence & dropping it there, taking the high-speed traing?

Or should I re-order the whole trip, driving from Venice to Sirmione and then to Montepulciano, then take the car back to Florence, spend 3 nights there and then train to Sorrento?

I've noticed that a lot of accommodations are booking up already for next spring so if my itinerary isn't logical, I want to switch it around now while there's lots of options. I know there's plenty of time for booking cars & trains, but does the order make sense? Thanks in advance for any input!!

I am the proud new owner of passes to the Colosseum/underground/English tour with Palantine hill, etc. Thanks, Trip Advisor Forum super-helpers!

Now - as for the additional 'S.U.P.E.R.' sites which are also included in this ticket; the Parco Colosseo app says that many are 'closed to the public'. Does that mean - they're still closed on account of covid? Or that they are, as usual, closed to those who don't have tickets?

I also found a list of the sites included and compared it to the list of those closed. It would appear to me that the House of Livia and the House of Augustus may be open. But - there's no way of booking times for them, so I'm not sure.

Thoughts on this interesting topic?