Ahh!!! Only one week until Rome!
After all the planning I've done, and how long it's been since I bought tickets, it almost doesn't seem real that my trip is nearly here. (I actually bought my tickets way back in October - so this trip has been a long time in planning!)
I've had my itinerary pretty much locked down since about December. I've made a few minor changes since then - I found a few little things I'd like to see or restaurants I'd like to try. And because I'm that girl, I even have a color-coded itinerary made.
(Hey, I'd rather be over-prepared than winging it!)
So, want to know how to plan an itinerary? Read on!
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| made in BeFunky |
Step 1: Do some research.
Buy a guidebook. Do some Googling. Find pins on Pinterest. Figure out what sights sound interesting and which ones...not so much. I personally used Rick Steve's guidebook - which has his rankings for sights and about how long it should take you to see/tour them.
Step 2: Rank the sights you want to see, most to least.
Sounds common-sense, right? Figure out what sights you have to see, what sights you'd like to see, and what sights you'd see if you have time, but they're not a have-to.My have to see sights: Borghese Gallery, St. Peters, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and the Fountain of the Four Rivers.
My like to see sights: Colosseum, Spanish Steps, Capuchin Crypts, and the Protestant Cemetery.
Step 3: Consult your map.
See what sights are close to each other, or within walking distance of each other. You can see a lot more if you travel to a specific metro or bus stop and see everything by it rather than criss-crossing over the city all over the city randomly.
Step 4: Check the calendar.
Most museums are closed on Mondays, and obviously you can't go checking out the churches on Sundays. So make sure that whatever you're planning to see that day is actually going to be open to the public!
Step 5: Consider day trips.
If you're going to be based in one city for an extended period of time, consider day trips as an option. What's within a train ride from the city? Are they any tour groups doing day excursions? I'm taking a day trip from Rome to Pompeii and the Amalfi Coast with Walks of Italy.
Step 6: Fill in the gaps.
So you've got you're have-tos and like-tos on your itinerary. Now go back to your map and see what's around those sights. For example, Castel Sant'Angelo is maybe a 10 minute walk from the Vatican Museum, so I could easily go see them on the same day. Also, check out what restaurants are around that area, especially if you've heard of any you'd like to try.
Step 7: Leave some down time.
Leave yourself some free time - you may find that you're enjoying a museum more than you thought and need more time there than you allotted. Or you may want to just spend an afternoon wandering around a neighborhood. Or - shopping! Leave some free time to just slow down and enjoy the city itself.
Voila! You've made an itinerary.
Now it's a lot easier to figure out which metro/bus stops you need to go to, what kind of tickets you need to get, etc.
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