Italy (Rome, Florence, Venice)

Travel junkie

Earning My Ears
Joined
Mar 15, 2018
We are headed to Italy with ABD -July 2018. We have a free day before the trip starts and are trying to see if there is anything we should do on our own, something that ABD doesn’t cover? They seem to hit most of the important historical spots, but I know from prior ABD trips the time at each location is brief. Anyone who did this trip, did you feel rushed covering the sites of Ancient Rome? That’s what’s of most interest to me in Rome. Thanks!
 
We are headed to Italy with ABD -July 2018. We have a free day before the trip starts and are trying to see if there is anything we should do on our own, something that ABD doesn’t cover? They seem to hit most of the important historical spots, but I know from prior ABD trips the time at each location is brief. Anyone who did this trip, did you feel rushed covering the sites of Ancient Rome? That’s what’s of most interest to me in Rome. Thanks!

We did this trip last August and I personally did not feel rushed, nor did my family or the friends that went with us. If I could do it again, and it is one of the ABD trips I'd happily repeat again, I'd add an extra day or two in Rome just to explore and do walking food/wine tours and visit the catacombs. I'd also add an extra day or two in Venice. If ancient ruins are important, I'd suggest doing a separate visit to spend more time visiting The Forum. Here is a link to my trip report from last August which should give you a general idea of what we saw and did.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/italy-adults-only-august-2017-trip-report.3626917
 
I did Rome on my own, and I hired a local guide for us who was also a local guide for ABD in Rome.
It strikes me that if you were to hire her, (she is quite reasonable), she could give you an in depth tour of Rome customized to you, and she would likely know the ABD itinerary so that you would not necessarily repeat attractions (unless you wanted to). She has all the “skip the line” superpowers that ABD has. Having said that, ABD generally does an amazing job of showing you the highlights, so you will see plenty if you just stay with ABD. PM me if you want her name.

Another thought is that Rome is an incredible city for pedestrians and for restaurants, which you can generally find just by walking around. You can easily spend a day or two just walking around and enjoying the shopping and the city.

I spent a week in Florence (not ABD) and there were still interesting things and museums that we did not get to. I would happily go back there. It sounds like it would be in the middle of your trip, so maybe not easy to add days there. Although there is a high speed train from Rome.
 
We did this trip last August and I personally did not feel rushed, nor did my family or the friends that went with us. If I could do it again, and it is one of the ABD trips I'd happily repeat again, I'd add an extra day or two in Rome just to explore and do walking food/wine tours and visit the catacombs. I'd also add an extra day or two in Venice. If ancient ruins are important, I'd suggest doing a separate visit to spend more time visiting The Forum. Here is a link to my trip report from last August which should give you a general idea of what we saw and did.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/italy-adults-only-august-2017-trip-report.3626917
Thank you for all the info!
 


We are going this June but my 10 year old wants to see pompeii so we are taking the train to naples in the morning and meeting a tour guide outside the station for one of our pre trip days.
 
We are going this June but my 10 year old wants to see pompeii so we are taking the train to naples in the morning and meeting a tour guide outside the station for one of our pre trip days.
That sounds like a great idea! Keep us posted. . Pompeii is on my bucket list as well...maybe in a few years I’ll go back and do the ABD amalfi and get to Pompeii.:)
 
We did a hop on/hop off bus on our pre-day and that worked out well to give us a nice over-view of the city. The other really fun thing we did was a twilight food tour through the Trasteveri distictrict. http://foodtourrome.com
 


We are going this June but my 10 year old wants to see pompeii so we are taking the train to naples in the morning and meeting a tour guide outside the station for one of our pre trip days.

Which trip are you all going on? We are going on the 12th.
 
I did Rome on my own, and I hired a local guide for us who was also a local guide for ABD in Rome.
It strikes me that if you were to hire her, (she is quite reasonable), she could give you an in depth tour of Rome customized to you, and she would likely know the ABD itinerary so that you would not necessarily repeat attractions (unless you wanted to). She has all the “skip the line” superpowers that ABD has. Having said that, ABD generally does an amazing job of showing you the highlights, so you will see plenty if you just stay with ABD. PM me if you want her name.

Another thought is that Rome is an incredible city for pedestrians and for restaurants, which you can generally find just by walking around. You can easily spend a day or two just walking around and enjoying the shopping and the city.

I spent a week in Florence (not ABD) and there were still interesting things and museums that we did not get to. I would happily go back there. It sounds like it would be in the middle of your trip, so maybe not easy to add days there. Although there is a high speed train from Rome.

What company/guide did you use? We are trying to decide if ABD is worth the price - looking at 3 day pre-cruise trip June 2019. Family of 6 so the $ is big with ABD. I want the VIP tours just not all the extra Disney stuff for Rome
 
We did this trip with ABD several years ago. We never felt rushed and it was a great trip. I do remember when we got there they gave us tickets for the hop on hop off bus which we used to see some sights. Funny because we both had jet lag and fell asleep on and off while on the bus.
 
We are headed to Italy with ABD -July 2018. We have a free day before the trip starts and are trying to see if there is anything we should do on our own, something that ABD doesn’t cover? They seem to hit most of the important historical spots, but I know from prior ABD trips the time at each location is brief. Anyone who did this trip, did you feel rushed covering the sites of Ancient Rome? That’s what’s of most interest to me in Rome. Thanks!


Here is an Idea Look into a Day Trip to The Isle of Capri

A bus collects you from your hotel which links up with other tourists & then takes you to Naples

& the Jet Foil boat to Capri where a guide does a tour of this historic Island .

Then back to Naples & bus back to Rome .
 
I did this trip several years ago and we used our pre day to tour Ostia Antica, a site just outside of Rome that is similar in character (but not size or scope, I don’t think) to Pompei. I booked a day tour through Context travel; we had a fantastic guide, and I think the tour was about 5 people. Really worth it, and my daughter (who is more of a history person than me) loved it.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top