5 hour Vatican Tour

[cleobella]

I am looking at the 5 hour Vatican Tour with Through Eternity. It starts at 10am and ends at 3:30pm. This really looks like a fantastic experience-a little more to offer then the typical 3-4 hour afternoons. However, we would also like to see a few other sites in the city (colisseum, trevi fountain, maybe a bit of shopping) and I am concerned that if we do the 5 hour tour we will not have time to do anything else. Our ship departs at 10pm, we would like to be back by 7pm, which means we should leave Rome around 5:30pm at the latest. Would 2 hours be enough to get a look around after the Vatican?

[letsgo39]

I am looking at the 5 hour Vatican Tour with Through Eternity. It starts at 10am and ends at 3:30pm. This really looks like a fantastic experience-a little more to offer then the typical 3-4 hour afternoons. However, we would also like to see a few other sites in the city (colisseum, trevi fountain, maybe a bit of shopping) and I am concerned that if we do the 5 hour tour we will not have time to do anything else. Our ship departs at 10pm, we would like to be back by 7pm, which means we should leave Rome around 5:30pm at the latest. Would 2 hours be enough to get a look around after the Vatican?

 

No, It is not. 5 hours at the Vatican is a really long time. We toured it in 2008 and our 3 hour tour was more than enough.You really do want to see the other sites in Rome.JMHO

[euro cruiser]

we would also like to see a few other sites in the city (colisseum, trevi fountain, maybe a bit of shopping) and I am concerned that if we do the 5 hour tour we will not have time to do anything else. Our ship departs at 10pm, we would like to be back by 7pm, which means we should leave Rome around 5:30pm at the latest. Would 2 hours be enough to get a look around after the Vatican?

It depends on what you mean by "see". If you mean walk around the outside of the Colosseum and the edge of the Forum, yes, there is time to do that within two hours. You will not, however, have time to go inside the Colosseum.

 

To accomplish this, you'd need to grab a cab when you leave the Vatican; I'd go from there to Trevi, then walk from Trevi to the Colosseum. You can do some shopping along the walk, and see (by walking through) Campidoglio and the excellent view of the roman forum from the top of the hill. From there, continue walking along the forum (along Via dei Fori Imperiali) to the Colosseum. After seeing it, from the outside, you can jump on the metro and go two stops to the Pirimide station to catch the train back to Civitavecchia.

 

The big question for me is why you want to race back to the ship by 7 PM when you have the great luxury of a 10 PM departure?

[CruzSiren]

Years ago on a trip to Rome my husband and I spent about 5 hours (we arrived around 11 and left around 4) inside the Vatican Museums to see as much as we could, including the Sistine Chapel. At the end of the day we were totally exhausted - physically from being on our feet and walking for so long, and mentally from information overload because there is SO much to see! I think in reality, about 3 hours is all we were able to handle, but we were determined to try and see everything - which of course, is impossible in one day! Good thing we didn't plan anything else active (like more walking) after the museum...we made that the 'St Peter's Basilica and Vatican Museums Day', and I'm glad we did because it was all we were able to handle in one day. Maybe if we were in our 20's, it would've been different ;)