Rome and Florence Questions

[Jfultz81]

Hi all -

 

This will be our second time to the Med and its been so long, I feel like a newbie.

 

Anyway, our ship overnights in Rome, is it possible to stay at a hotel that night so we're not wasting time going back and forth? We're planning on taking the train back and forth.

 

Also, we hope to have people on our roll call to share tours with (but its dead right now)... but if we can't, we're thinking of doing the Florence On Your Own through the ship. We've seen everything there but David (made the mistake of picking a cruise that stopped there on a Monday). Is it feasible to walk from Santa Croce to Accademia and then maybe over to Ponte Vecchio (and back to Santa Croce) in 6 hours?

 

And lastly, are we nuts for going in Jan? Will we have awful weather? Will the shorter lines make up for the cold? Thanks!

[euro cruiser]

I think it makes a lot of sense to stay in Rome and save yourself three hours of back-and-forth. Generally all you need to do is tell the line that you won't be back that night.

 

Central Florence is completely walkable and actually quite small. Many of the streets are pedestrian zones now which makes it easier. For example, from Santa Croce to the Ponte Vecchio is a half mile, from Santa Croce to the Accademia is about three quarters of a mile.

 

We spent the week between Christmas and New Years in Florence a few years ago and didn't mind the weather at all. There was an extremely unusual snow storm while we were there - people actually came out of their homes and shops to stare at it and play in it - but the rest of the week was cool but not cold.

 

Obviously your hours of sunlight will be less but, other than your overnight in Rome, you'll be back on the ship by the time the sun sets anyway.

[Jfultz81]

Thanks euro cruiser! Do you know how long we should allow to see David? I don't think we're looking to spend 2 hours going through the museum, mostly just want to see him and breeze through the rest.

[euro cruiser]

An hour, tops, I'd say.