Tours of Nero's Palace in Rome opened back up yet?

[wantocruisemore]

I know they shut down visitors about a year or so ago due to a cave-in. The latest article I could find (from last April) indicated they would be re-opening Nero's Palace for limited tours to small groups this Sept. I can't find anything recent about it. I imagine it would be handled similar to the way they do the Upper levels/underground tour for the Colosseum.

 

Finally talked DH into Med for next summer and we'll have several days pre-cruise in Rome again. We've seen the main things, now want to see the stuff we didn't, ie. Scavi tour, Borghese etc., and Nero's palace across from the Colosseum interests us.

 

Also, we didn't get as much out of our DIY visit to the Forum and missed Palatine Hill due to time, so we'll be looking for a walking tour of those that can hopefully also include Nero's palace remains.

[cruisemom42]

I just saw this asked on Tripadvisor a few days ago -- still not open and no date given for probable reopening anytime soon. Sorry!

 

Some other sites that are great for repeat visitors to Rome:

 

San Clemente church (with ruins of Roman apartment and mithraeum underneath)

 

Ara Pacis (Altar of Peace, from time of Augustus)

 

Capitoline Museum

 

Trajan's Forum and Market (entrance through the Museum of the Imperial Fora).

[wantocruisemore]

Thanks. I'll try to follow Trip Advisor too, I had not checked with it about Nero's yet. Maybe by next summer.

 

And Trajan's Forum and Market are high on the list. We also did not get to see inside of Castel d'Angelo, got there right after it closed, so that's on our list. We may take the train out to Ostia Antica depending on whether we will stay 4 or 5 nights pre-cruise.

 

I promised DH I would keep museums to a minimum after I overdid him with the Vatican this past summer, but maybe we can split up and I can head to the Capitoline with the one DD who also loves museums.

 

One of the things DH really wants to see is the Appian Way. I've been researching the various sites on it, days of week they're closed and ways to get there. We might end up with some type of private tour since we likely will not be in Rome on a Sunday and I understand traffic and transport can be an issue.

[cruisemom42]

Transport isn't bad to/from the Via Appia, but traffic -- except on Sundays -- can be problematic if you really want to walk along the old section. The best bits are farther out than where the catacombs are located.

 

I was planning to do this on my own on my upcoming trip, having done the Archeobus a few years back (unsatisfactory), as well as one of the catacombs on a different trip. However, I've just found out that a place which is rarely open will be open for a (very limited) tour on the Sunday when I'm there, so I'll likely do that instead. Choices, choices..... :(

 

The Capitoline isn't an overwhelming museum like the Vatican. In addition to some great sculpture (and the beautiful original bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius), you also get to see the huge foundation stones of the grandest of all Roman temples of the Forum -- Jupiter Optimus Maximus (Jupiter Best and Greatest), and the Tabularium, where copies of all the ancient laws were kept.

 

Then again.....not everyone may be as interested in this kind of thing as I am.

[ksps cruise fan]

I know they shut down visitors about a year or so ago due to a cave-in. The latest article I could find (from last April) indicated they would be re-opening Nero's Palace for limited tours to small groups this Sept. I can't find anything recent about it. I imagine it would be handled similar to the way they do the Upper levels/underground tour for the Colosseum.

 

Finally talked DH into Med for next summer and we'll have several days pre-cruise in Rome again. We've seen the main things, now want to see the stuff we didn't, ie. Scavi tour, Borghese etc., and Nero's palace across from the Colosseum interests us.

 

Also, we didn't get as much out of our DIY visit to the Forum and missed Palatine Hill due to time, so we'll be looking for a walking tour of those that can hopefully also include Nero's palace remains.

 

If it will make you feel any better about missing Nero's Palace, in the months the palace was open, the experience for English-speaking visitors was deeply unsatisfactory.

 

Within weeks of its opening, my husband and I toured there. Visitors, regardless of language, walked in grops of approximately 20 participants, led by an Italian-speaking tour guide. Visitors without adequate Italian fluency were given head sets with a tape recording. However, the tape recording was not a native language version of the guide's talk. It was a detailed description of the painted wall decorations. There was no general commentary about each room and its function. And this general information is essential since the decorations are detailed and small and best seen up close. Understandably, for conservation purposes, the rooms are kept quite dark so you can't see the decorations much higher than head height. Between the lack of information and the darkness, this was a less-than-satisfactory experience.

 

A year or two later, I went back with an Italian engineering professor. This gentleman had permits from the Archaeological Superintendent of Rome to take our group all over Rome himself -- except at Nero's palace. We were forced to take the tour given in Italian to the general public. Any time, the professor would say something to our group -- and we were the only participants in the group -- the guide would go into a tirade in Italian, the gist of which was "You are not allow to give lectures here." The professor ended up shouting hurried commentary as we moved between rooms. Different from the first visit, but no more meaningful.

 

In addition, the professor who could understand everything being said on the tour explained that a lot of the information was simply wrong. In an attempt to obliterate Nero's memory, subsequent emperors built baths and temples on top of Nero's palace and the guide was routinely confused by which walls were which.

 

Here's where Cynthia's preference for personal research in advance really would pay off. Unless something changes, that will be the only way to have a successful visit to the Golden Palace whenever it opens!!!!

[euro cruiser]

I had essentially the same experience when I toured Nero's Palace. I didn't know I was going to be able to get in so I hadn't done any prior research ... and didn't speak any Italian at the time. It was, as ksps says, deeply unsatisfying.

[ksps cruise fan]

Finally talked DH into Med for next summer and we'll have several days pre-cruise in Rome again. We've seen the main things, now want to see the stuff we didn't, ie. Scavi tour, Borghese etc., and Nero's palace across from the Colosseum interests us.

 

Also, we didn't get as much out of our DIY visit to the Forum and missed Palatine Hill due to time, so we'll be looking for a walking tour of those that can hopefully also include Nero's palace remains.

 

On the Palatine Hill, I can recommend two places little visited by folks with limited time in Rome: the Hut of Romulus and the House of Livia. Both are located very close to one another although separated in history.

 

There's actually not so much to see at the hut; you'll primarily see a shed built over an excavation site of a stone building. However, I enjoyed seeing the archaeological proof that the founding legend has some basis in reality.

 

Incidentally, I visited this site with the the Italian professor I mentioned earlier. He explained that the "suckled by a wolf" legend has its basis in the Latin slang word for a prostitute: lupa (wolf). Apparently, Romulus and Remus were wet nursed by a prostitute, but since Romulus went on to found Rome, the origins story needed to be upgraded. I can't recall anything about the signage at the hut, but here's a link to a good site with the founding story:

 

http://www.mariamilani.com/ancient_rome/Romulus_and_Remus.htm

 

The House of Livia is the home the Emperor Augustus shared with his wife. The steps down to the house are a reminder of how much the ground level has risen over the centuries. Excellent frescoes.

 

Definitely not first-time destinations, but well worth a stop.

[wantocruisemore]

Thanks for all the advice. The House of Livia is something we would definitely be interested in. Is the the Livia who was married to Octavian (& changed his name to add Ceasar etc.)? My husband was a fan of the HBO Rome series and he would find that very interesting.

 

And thanks for the insight from those that did Nero's Palace tours when they were doing them. If they start them back we may go ahead and try to get one since we will be up there with more detailed tour of the Forum and Palatine anyway. If not, I can relay your experience to my husband so he will not be disappointed about having to miss it.

 

We're still a long way away, trip is next June, but I am already fitting together what we really want to see to determine how many nights in Rome pre-cruise and whether we will need to do Appian Way on a Sunday and need to stay a couple of nights post-cruise.

[ksps cruise fan]

Thanks for all the advice. The House of Livia is something we would definitely be interested in. Is the the Livia who was married to Octavian (& changed his name to add Ceasar etc.)? My husband was a fan of the HBO Rome series and he would find that very interesting.

 

I think you're right. Since I didn't know the answer to your question, I looked it up and discovered the following: He is called Octavian when referring to events between 63 and 44 BC and he is called Augustus when referring to events after 27 BC.

[cruisemom42]

Thanks for all the advice. The House of Livia is something we would definitely be interested in. Is the the Livia who was married to Octavian (& changed his name to add Ceasar etc.)? My husband was a fan of the HBO Rome series and he would find that very interesting.

 

 

I think you're right. Since I didn't know the answer to your question, I looked it up and discovered the following: He is called Octavian when referring to events between 63 and 44 BC and he is called Augustus when referring to events after 27 BC.

 

Yes, that's right. The reason being that before 44 BC he was Gaius Octavius (only in English is he called Octavian), the name he was born with. His grandmother was Julius Caesar's sister. Julius Caesar adopted him as his heir in his will, having no son or any closer relative, so he then became Gaius Julius Caesar. Adoptions were common among aristocratic families in Rome, who didn't want their prestigious family names to die out. In 27 BC, after consolidating the Roman empire and ruling it more or less as emperor without the title, the Senate awarded him the honorific title of Augustus, making him officially Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus.

 

You can also see Augustus' house on Palatine Hill, if it's open. (Like Livia's house, the opening schedule is a bit unpredictable.) Augustus and Livia liked to live simply and unostentatiously. It was only later emperors who built huge palaces like Nero's Domus Aurea.

[Tulsa Cats]

Been to Rome and did all the "must do" things. This trip, we want to do things "outside the box". Any ideas?

[euro cruiser]

Been to Rome and did all the "must do" things. This trip, we want to do things "outside the box". Any ideas?

You might want to start a new thread, rather than hijack this one. Also, it would help readers to offer suggestions if you could specify what you've already seen as well as the kinds of things you enjoy (museums, churches, archeology, shopping, physical activity, etc.)