Well, I'm back in Bilbao after 4 exhausting and delicious days in Italy.
Just a tip: if you are in Rome and have a day free for excursions, you must try this:
It's possible to spend a day in POMPEII.
I took the 6:45 EuroStar train at Rome - Termini.
It takes 2 hrs 15 min to Pompeii.
The return EuroStar train stops at Pompeii 20:57 after 2 hrs 45 min arrives to Rome - Termini.
Pompeii is the most impressive place if you love Ancient Rome's arquitecture and art like me.
The round trip costs 42€ and the archaelogical site entrance is 10€.
Reservations can be made in:
TRENITALIA

Hi deibid! Thanks so much for the trip report to Rome/Pompeii! I've talked to SO MANY Spaniards who have gone or are going to Rome this spring. Must be THE place to go. Hopefully I'll get the same opportunity in the future now that I'm here in Madrid and access to Italy is easy and relatively cheap. At what hotel did you stay? Do they have a website? Would you recommend it?

I've been to Rome, Florence, Venice all one time on the same trip, my only visit to Italy. We always stayed in pensiones. At that time, I think it was in 1991, we were traveling with our Let'sGo book under our arm. I was so poor then.

I look forward to more details about your trip to Italy, deibid, and invite others to share their Italy-related trip experiences here in this thread too.

¡Ciao! MadridMan

Pompeii, I have found memories when I visited in 2000.

One was when I enter the coliseum. For those who never have visited it is completely intact. I was the only visitor, due to it was a hot sunny day and there is no shade anywhere in Pompeii so many of the tourist departed early.

Walking into the coliseum’s arena through one of its two main gates, I could actually come close to what the gladiators saw and heard when they entered. I could actually see in my mind the crowds sitting on the stone slab, cheering the gladiators before they fought to the death. I could actually see my opponent as he enter to the other gate.

The other was seeing some murals and realizing you are looking at they way they look right up to the second Vesuvius erupted. The details of the murals were impressive, rich in detail. What was more impressive for me at least seeing the murals in the actually building where they were painted instead of a museum.

Bill

In 2002 we were in Rome for a conference and did a day trip on Gray Lines to Pompeii via a Naples bus tour. Was relatively inexpensive (sounds like not much more than deibid paid for train and entry fee). We left about seven in the morning and got back to Rome around midnight.

Can't give you any help MadridMan on places to stay. We were at the conference hotel next to the US Embassy (very pricey) and then stayed with a friend.

Near the US embassy! yeah, that HAD to be pricey! was it the Majestic?
My hotel (Hotel Noto) was a 3* near Piazza dei Cinqueccenti.
Not very expensive, but not cheap either. I spent too much, not a good deal. There are cheaper options, pensions...CONVENTS!
I'll report the full trip more calmly, I don't have much time right now...

Yes deibid, it was the Majestic. We didn't have any of the big rooms shown on their website, just a tiny little closet sized room. Still, was bigger than the rooms we had in Paris for a different conference.

How many have been to Rome and have thrown a coin into Trevi Fountain?

I have been to Rome twice. Once in 2000 and went back again in 2003. Each time I stayed in Rome for over week and passed Trevi almost every day and never once did I thrown in coin into the fountain.

I know I will go back to Rome and still will “refused” to throw a coin in the fountain, that way I will insure I will visit Rome again.

Just call me the un-tourist!

Bill

I, too, have been to Rome twice but didn't throw a coin in the Trevi Fountain! (I did act touristy the second time and took pictures, though!)

Pompeii is wonderful! Has anyone been to Ostia Antica, outside of Rome? I've heard good things about it, and hope to visit one day. The ruins of Hadrian's Villa, also outside of Rome, (by Tivoli) are impressive. (So is Italica, outside of Sevilla.) But there's nothing like a volcano overlooking the scene! What a story Pompeii has!

The very first time I went to Rome I threw the coins in the fountain. I returned a few years later and resided there for a few months. I have returned to Italy multiple times (my husband is from the region called Molise) but not to Rome. We usually go to his home area...no...no relatives live there...they are all in the States, Canada, or Argentina. The region is beautiful and, frankly, scarcely known. It's like stepping back into time...

So, this summer, after a trip to Genova (I have a conference there), a jump to Torino, and then a week in Molise...we'll spend the last week in Rome.

Do the coins work? As I say... this is the first time in nearly 30 years that I am returning to Rome...but to Italy...over and over again.

Sheryl

Sheryl...I have to say that the coins worked very well indeed ...because the complete "legend" is that if you throw ONE coin you return to Rome...but:

"Throwing one coin in will ensure that the thrower will return to Rome. Throwing two coins ensures that the thrower will fall in love with a beautiful Roman girl (or handsome boy), and throwing three coins now ensures that the thrower will marry that girl or boy in Rome."

Does it sound familiar?