After a busy Day 1 and sleeping hard we were ready to start Day 2 early. The great part about Rome is that there is so much to see and do that you can easily pick and choose what works best for your family. We are not museum people in general so the only museum we visited was the Vatican Museum.
Our Day 2 Itinerary:
Vatican City Museum
Sistine Chapel
St. Peter’s Church
St. Peter’s Square
USO Rome
Lunch at Da Vito E Dina
Castel Sant’Angelo
Long scenic walk back to hotel
Dinner
We walked from our hotel to the McDonald’s at the Termini, about 2 mins, to eat breakfast. There were a lot of sketchy people hanging out here so I can’t say I’d recommend stopping here. We then took the Metro and got off at Ottaviano, it as about a 15 minute ride. From the Metro station it’s a 10 minute walk to the Vatican area.
I had reserved our Vatican museum tickets ahead of time online. You have to pay a fee of €4 per person but it’s well worth it to skip the long lines and still cheaper (and for us better) than using a guided tour. We arrived at the Vatican museum around 8:40 am and the line was so long, we saved ourselves a 2-3 hour wait by having our tickets already bought.
Our reservation was for 9 a but they let us in when we got the group casse office around 8:45 am. There are restrooms in this area before entering the museum as well.
We used Rick Steve’s book to do the self guided tour and his short cut to St. Peter’s from the Sistine Chapel is priceless, if your brave enough to use it. It saved us a 15-30 minute walk and going through security which can take 1-2 hours. Although to do this you cannot be using the audioguide, which we were not.
The museum is quite large with lots so see. We’re not huge museum people so we hit the highlights using the RS tour. We were there for probably 2 hours, I’m sure you could spend a whole day if you really wanted to. I’ll have a separate post with more pics & info since it’s so much to cover. I’ll do a separate post with more info & pics as well.
We stopped into the museum cafe to grab a water, it was €2,10. We then continued on the long walk inside (it’s a good 5 minute walk) to the Sistine Chapel. View from a window.
No photos are allowed in the Sistine Chapel but you pass through this amazing map room on the way.
After touring the Sistine Chapel we used the shortcut and quickly arrived at St. Peter’s church. Which saved us the long haul back to the front of the museum, then walking to St. Peters, and then going through security. No photos are allowed in the Sistine Chapel but you pass through this amazing map room on the way.
We spent about an 1 walking around checking out St. Peter’s church and finding clues for Bea’s scavenger hunt. We also went down to the basement to see the crypt. I’ll do another post on this one as well with more photos.
We then hung out in St. Peter’s square for a bit to rest our feet and gain our bearings.
Then we headed to the USO. The USO was ok, nothing special. We got free sodas, us the restrooms, and they had free wifi. They did not however have the advertised Friday pizza, which was fine since we wanted to eat in a restaurant. We did get a great lunch recommendation that is just around the corner from the USO. We ate at Da Vito E Dina, it was was delicious although it did run us a bit more than our dinners at €44/$48. Service was great as well!
We stopped to get Gelato on the USO street for our walk to Castel Sant’Angelo. It was a 15 min walk from the Vatican area.
We did not tour Castel Sant’Angelo. We just viewed it from the outside and took some photos of the river area and people watched for a bit.
We then crossed the bridge and headed back towards our hotel. We could’ve walked 15 mins back to the Metro to take it back to the Termini area. But we thought we’d walk for awhile and then if we got tired we’d catch a cab. Sadly we underestimated how hard it would be to find a cab for 5 people! We ended up walking the whole way which was 40 mins but on the cobblestone roads our feet were ready to be done! We did make a few pit stops along the way we caught the end of the Campo Market and stopped at a large grocery store and got some goodies.
It was then time for a nap before we headed out to dinner next door to the hotel. The food was great, the service was great, and the price was even better costing us a whopping €32,50 for our family of 5.
The next morning we walked to the Termini to catch the shuttle bus back to Ciampiano Airport, we already had the tickets since we had bought them round trip on the flight.
Expenses for Day 2 for a family of 5 (3 adults, & 14 & 11 years):
Metro tickets (5) €7,50/$8
Sights
Vatican Museum €76/$83
Sistine Chapel (included in price above)
St. Peter’s Church FREE
St. Peter’s Square FREE
Castel Sant’Angelo FREE, as we did not tour it, just viewed it from the outside
Breakfast €20/$22
Lunch at Da Vito E Dina €44/$48
Gelato €14/$15
Dinner €32,50/$35
Grocery store for sodas/snacks/water €7,61/$8
Misc (water) €2,10/$2.28
Total €203.71/$221.28
Have you visited these places in Rome? Any tips or experiences to share?
Wow what a fun trip!!
What does RS’s shortcut from The Sistine Chapel to St. Peter’s entail? Why do you have to be “brave enough”? Thinking of going back to take my Mom and last time we were there we had a guide, trying to figure out how to do it on our own…
You take an exit in the back that the guided tours use, his book explains it in detail.
Thank you SO MUCH for your posts on Rome. I read EVERY one and snapped pics on my iPad as I read of things we want to do just as you did. We also have 2.5 days in Rome, we’re not museum people, and a family of 5, so PERFECT! You do a VERY nice job with your pictures and descriptions. Much appreciated!
So glad you found the Rome info helpful! I hope you have a fantastic trip! Would love to hear how it goes 🙂 You can also message me on my FB page as well!
We will be visiting Rome over Thanksgiving. I am hoping that it won’t be too crowded or cold. I am trying tickets for the Vatican from your link, but there are so many options, I am not sure what to pick. Also, I am interested in the shortcut- how does it work, where is it located, and how do we get to it? Any help would be much appreciated!
Hi there!
For the shortcut you need Rick Steve’s Rome book, the library should have it. We just did the basic entrance without the audioguides because you can’t use the shortcut if you have an audioguide.