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Tours - Excursions |
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Walking
tours
Rome
Walks offers a wide variety of group tours. With english speaking
guides who are experienced in history of art. Departure will points
vary, depending on the tour. They also can arrange personalised
tours covering ‘off the beaten track’ sights.
Group tours are offered several times a week and include the ‘Vatican
City Walk’, which takes four-and-a-half
hours and costs €35 (excluding €10 museum entrance fee)
also the highly informative ‘Colosseum and Ancient
City Walk’ at a cost of €25 excluding
€8 Colosseum entrance fee. They can also arrange a variety
of private tours (for groups of one to four), including the ‘La
Dolce Vita’ in Rome, the catacombs or Nero’s
Golden Palace.
For those wishing to sample some Roman nightlife, the ‘Colosseum
Pub Crawls’ leave every night from both the Colosseum
Metro and the Spanish Steps at 2000 hrs.
The €15 ticket includes free shots, drinks and entrance to
a disco-bar at the end. Also Enjoy Rome (see Tourist Information)
offers a number of walking and bike tours around Rome which start
at €13.
Boat Tours
Tourvisa Italia, Via Marghera 32 (telephone
number : (06) 446 3481), provides a 100-minute round trip boat tour
from the bridge Ponte Umberto 1 (Piazza Navona) to Ponte Duca d’Aosta.
Boats depart at 1100 hrs and 1630 hrs Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday
(March to October), depending on the weather conditions. The air-conditioned
Tiber II sails past the Vatican, Castel Sant’Angelo and under
Rome’s bridges. The cruise costs €13 per person.
Bus Tours
The number 110 ATAC bus (telephone number: (06)
4695 2252, bookings and information) departs every half-hour (daily
0900 hrs-2000 hrs April-September or 1000 hrs - 1800 hrs October-March)
from Piazza dei Cinquecento for a two-hour tour (with commentary
in English) around Rome’s main sights (with 11 stops en route).
Tickets and a leaflet outlining the itinerary are available in English
at any tourist information office. The tour costs €7.75 or
€12.91 if you want to get on and off the bus. There are also
night tours.
Other Tours
Rome
Duck Tours (tel: (020) 7928 3132) runs unconventional tours
on an amphibious craft, which depart from County Hall and rumble
through Rome’s streets, taking in Whitehall, Trafalgar Square
and Buckingham Palace, before plunging into the River Thames for
a 30-minute cruise. Single tickets for the 70-minute tour cost £16.50,
concessions are available.
Excursions
for half day
Ostia Antica
A 40-minute train journey from Piramide station or a pleasant drive
along Via del Mare, is Ostia Antica and Imperial
Rome’s main port from the second to ninth centuries AD. It
was founded in the seventh century BC, by King Ancus Marcius, and
lay abandoned until excavations in the 19th century.
The shoreline has now withdrawn three kilometres (two miles) away
to the present Lido di Ostia and, at first glance,
all that can be seen is a network of thoroughfares with the odd
upstanding column. A few hours spent in this quiet spot and the
imagination will conjure up the former thriving town and the day-to-day
lives of its inhabitants. The main artery, the Decumanus
Maximus, leads to an amphitheatre with fantastic acoustics,
which is a perfect location for a peaceful picnic. Mosaics at the
Forum of the Corporations depict the produce sold
or trade practised, while the bar, Thermopiliu, with its wide marble
counter and lively fresco, evokes leisure time. Temples to a host
of deities summon up the religious life and the homes of Ostia’s
inhabitants reveal mosaic interiors, while communal latrines are
testament to more mundane activities. The museum displays coins,
glassware and statues. The site (telephone number: (06) 5635 2830)
is open daily 0830 hrs-1930 hrs (April-October) and daily 0900 hrs
-1700 hrs(November-March). Admission costs €4.
Excursions
for a whole day
Tivoli
A 30km (20 miles) drive east of Rome along the A24 lies the hilltop
town of Tivoli. Alternatively, travellers can take
a COTRAL bus from Ponte Mammolo metro stop or a
train from Termini or Tiburtina stations (direction Avezzano). Both
stop at Tivoli.
Conquered by the Romans in 338BC, the town became the prized spot
upon which to build luxurious villas and homes for wealthy families.
The Villa d’Este (telephone number : (0774)
312 070) is one such folly, built in 1550, according to the whim
of art patron Cardinal Ippolito d’Este (son
of Lucrezia Borgia). The state apartment is decorated with the swirling
frescoes and paintings of Correggio, Da
Volterra and Perrin del Vaga, while outside
are the vast Renaissance gardens. Their fountains
can only be described as kitsch and the Owl Fountain which was designed
to echo the owl’s hoots and Fontana dell’Organo
Idraulico, which imitated the organ’s burblings.
More imagination went into the construction of the Villa
Adriana or Hadrian’s Villa (telephone
numbers: (0774) 382 733 or (06) 3996 7900, information and bookings),
which has been included on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.
Enough of the Canopus fountain – with its sturdy columns and
statues overlooking a central pool – remains to evoke the
peace of this domain and country retreat for Rome’s great
military campaigner. It is thought that his favourite spot was the
tiny island, cut off completely from the surrounding man-made pool
(Teatro Marittimo) by an ingenious retractable bridge.
The standard opening hours for both Villa d’Este and
Villa Adriana are 0900 hrs -1930 hrs (ticket office closes
at 1800 hrs). Admission to each site costs €6.50. |
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