Rome and Venice in a Week is it Worth it?

Can you really get the most out of cities by spending only 3 days in each?

Rome and Venice are a common item on peoples bucket lists and ours was no exception, but seeing both in a week, is it worth it? We had heard the tales of a smelly and crowded Venice in the height of summer, the beggars and street sellers in Rome but that didn’t deter us one bit, as it shouldn’t. For this is all part of experiencing what these places have to offer. With only a short time in each, we were going to find out is it Worth it.

How Easy is it to get there?

As a lot of people do I get emails from voucher companies and whilst most get a quick scan and then binned there was one that caught my eye. Six nights stay in Rome and Venice. Two birds with one stone I thought.

As anyone knows who has booked a trip through one of these voucher sites the price on the web is the starting point. When you call the affiliated tour company to book said trip they always find a few upgrades that you may be interested in. Normally I would say no to these but the original flight times would have meant us getting to Rome very late at night on the first day and leaving early back to London on the last. For a cool £65 extra we were able to change that around and get a full extra day so we had three days in Rome, three days in Venice and one travelling between the two.

How Easy is it to get around whilst there?

Normally in a new place, we drop our bags off and then take a walk to see where the local amenities are. As the hotel booked was on the outskirts of the city we needed to find the best way around, and that was the tube.  A ten-minute walk from Marconi tube station meant that we were within approximately 20 minutes from the Colosseum and the heart of Rome. Once we found how easy it was to move around using the tube, the city was our oyster! With a change a Termini it was only a short distance to the Vatican.

As we only had three days we did the tourist thing and visited what would be presumed the main attractions and found a few hidden gems along the way. Rome’s public transport card cost us 18 euros per person and we certainly made the most of it.

For Venice again we were located outside of the main area of Venice in Mestre (approx 5 miles from Venice itself). The hotel was surprisingly easy to find from the train station and once there found that a bus ticket for three days would get us on the water bus too. These worked out about 40 euros per person and the bus stop situated outside the hotel had regular drops into the heart of Venice every 20 minutes.

Without stating the obvious Venice itself is a minefield of little streets and canals and we found it best to keep a map about us at all times. Wandering aimlessly without one would be like walking blindfold around Hampton Court Maze. But as easily as you could get lost on the street you can get lost in the wonder of how magnificent this place is.

How expensive was it to get there and when there?

The trip in total included flights and accommodation with the transfer from Rome to Venice by train was a little under £400 for two people which considering the experience had was amazing value. Once there we decided to go on the guided tours for most things as we had been told by many people that for your first time to Rome and Venice this was the best way to view it. This was quite a costly exercise but good advice, we felt we couldn’t have done much better. Guided tours of the Vatican, Colosseum, Venice’s walkways and Doge’s Palace. Even a bespoke night tour arranged by one of the Colleseum tour guides.

The Food and drink much like any other major city and varied to whatever restaurant or bar you went to.  London prices would be a good estimate though.

What was the quality of the Transport and accommodation?

Whilst the accommodation in both locations were out of the main area what we had was 4 star and comfortable. Enough for what we needed as a base and above all clean. The breakfast in the Rome hotel was your basic pastries, cereals, toast and cold meats and in Venice with a much bigger dining area, we had the added luxury of a cooked breakfast if we desired.

But we were there to get out and about and doing so was easy. Coming from London where there is a huge underground system with 15 different lines, the Rome system, by contrast, has four lines and much more simple to use. Walking out of the Colosseo station to find the Colosseum standing right there in front of us in all its glory was a sight to behold. Even the Vatican and Saint Peters Square was only a short 10-minute walk from the station and very well signposted.

Venice was obviously a different proposition. Once we had found the bus stop outside of our hotel took us to the terminal in Venice and the passes also allowed us to use the riverboats, all we had to do is plan what we wanted to see.

The private river taxis and Gondolas are separate from this ticket and are expensive, but it would be rude to visit Venice and not take a ride in a Gondola wouldn’t it now.

Our Tips or what is worth experiencing whilst there

Rome blew us away, I was prepared for it to be good and it was always somewhere high on my bucket list. But we found this city was something else.

Yes, we could have saved some money and not done the guided tours, but we felt we got so much more out of our stay doing it that way.

Our trip was in April which meant both Rome and Venice was busy but not overly so as I would expect it to be in the height of summer. Possibly the perfect time to go.

As for experiences, definitely, Saint Peter’s Square and the Vatican are a must. Even if you are not Roman Catholic this has a wow factor like nothing I had seen before. With so many statues, painting and ancient artefacts you get a real sense of the history and the importance that Rome commanded. Be warned though, if you don’t get a ‘Skip the line’ guided tour you need to start queuing at sunrise to make a full day of it.

The Colosseum was combined with Roman Forum and Palatine Hill tours. We had one guide for the first part and a second for the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill with some confusion about the changeovers with people that had paid good money being left to meet in a designated place and wait for another guide. We didn’t have a clue what they looked like and could have been anywhere in a 200-metre radius in a crowd of people, but it must work as we found him and started on our way.

The Roman Forum tour led to one of the trips impromptu highlights. The English tour guide also did a tour of Rome at night outside of the tour companies remit. After overcoming the ‘Is this a scam?’ debate we decided that he was genuine and to go for it. We met the guide with around 20 others at Colonna Traiana early evening and began the back streets tour of Rome.

We visited churches and had access to areas normally off limits to tourist, some highlights were Saint Peter’s hiding place before he was taken by the Romans and the Jesuit church of Saint Ignazio with its 3D painted dome which until it was pointed out to us we would have never known.

Taking in a few of the local shops as well this guide seemed to be good friends with lots of local and we got to sample cheeses and meats as well as a bar that does a help yourself to a glass of wine for three euros which we could take away. What could be better!

Venice was a totally different feel. There was no smell as I had always heard about and the streets were small and gave a sense that nothing had changed since it was one of the most important cities in the world and a big part of the European renaissance periods.

We took in a guided tour with a shared Gondola ride, bucket list item checked! The guys that manned the Gondolas were excellent with their singing, the pointing out landmarks and all-around good humour, but not one Cornetto in sight.

Saint Mark’s Square seemed to be the place to be, with its expensive cafes and designer shops. I must mention though the oversized seagulls, hundreds of them and if you didn’t watch what you were eating, they would!

Located in the train station with Venice we found a shop where you could book tours, plus a handy self-service machine that allowed us to browse and book these online. I must say that this also was very easy to use but did find it said a lot of tours for the following days fully booked. Although we found that this wasn’t the case when we walked up to the line at Doges Palace. We paid on the door and went straight in.

Saint Mark’s Basilica we thought was also worth taking the time to go inside. And from the first look, it didn’t disappoint. You just have to look at the 8000m² gold glass mosaic ceiling which tells the stories of the old testament to get a feel for how powerful Venice was.

People, Food and Drink

No trip to Italy would be complete without sampling some of the food and drink that they have to offer. I’m not a big coffee drinker but if I lived in Italy I may find myself becoming addicted. I’m sure you can get great coffee almost anywhere but the Italians just seem to make is stronger and smoother. The Pistachio Ice Cream outside the Vatican and Saint Peter’s square, so good we had to have seconds.

All in all the food is probably as expensive as the UK and in many cases the quality was the same, but where they do excel they do it in style. Although we have to say that on Saint Mark’s square in Venice everything is pricey with a cup of coffee between 16 and 20 euros. Not surprising that we didn’t stay and found a quiet little place just around the back (Gran Caffe alla citta di Torino) with a great coffee for around 2 euros, with the saving we also treated ourselves to a cake.

The Italian people are very welcoming as you would expect but there is a problem with persistent beggars and street sellers which you don’t see a great deal of in the UK. We found that politely saying no and walking away was enough.

Was it worth the spreading our time across two cities in one week

In a word Yes, although the guided tours, food and drink pushed the final cost up the experiences we had was far beyond expectations. Even though there are so many other places in the world to visit I would make sure that we go to Rome and Venice again. The contrasting historic scenery in both cities, culinary delights and never tiring list of things to do make these cities places that you will want to return to again and again.

Are three days in each city enough? probably not but we packed a good amount of experiences into the 7 days and never rushed to get from one place to another, making sure we enjoyed what we see. Definitely, if you are tight on time and only have a week we would whole-heartedly recommend a not so whistle-stop tour of two amazing cities.

Leave a comment below if you disagree with any of the above or if there is something we should have done but missed out.

If you would like to follow in our footsteps try the tour centre UK or if it is available at the time, try the travel deals at Wowcher

The I-MustDo team