We leave in a little over a week!!! I was just looking at our schedule and it looks like we'll have a few hours to kill near Rome Termini while waiting for our train up to Tuscany. Anyone have any ideas what to do with our time? We will have our bags with us so I'd prefer something close.
Walk out of the station and across the prospicient square. Right in front of you you will be able to see some ruins. That's Terme di DIocleziano, which also host a museum.
I'm a little bit puzzled by this: Trains leave from Roma Termini for Tuscany at least twice an hour. Why do you feel you have to stay around Termini for a few hours? Are you going somewhere with a particularly difficult connection?
I would suggest that you go to www.trenitalia.com and look at the schedule for the day you are traveling. You may find a more convenient train.
One suggestion is to check your bags in the lockers at Termini (on the main street side by the end of the tracks) and walk down Via Cavour to the Coliseum. You can also take a short walk from there to the Forum, Palentine Hill, etc. It's not across the street, but a nice walk if you do have several hours.
I just put in a random date - May 27 - at www.trenitalia.com for Roma Termini to Firenze.
There are ES trains at 10:30, 10:55, 11:30, 12:30, 12:55, 13:30, 14:30, 14:55, 15:30. Most of the time there are two per hour. There is one per hour between 11:30 and 12:30 and between 13:30 and 14:30.
Even if it's only once an hour, I still don't quite understand the need to spend "a few hours" around Termini.
If all you have is one hour, I suggest you jus stay in the station and have coffee at some of the bars on the upper level. Even if your train from the airport pulls in on time, in about 40 minutes the train to Siena will be waiting for you, and since on this train you will have no reservation I suggest you board the train as early as possible to secure seats.
Near temini there Dagnino's Chocolate. it is the mall (I forget them name maybe I can find a link). Chocolate is great and they take credit cards for mass amounts of chocolate for gifts. then there is the bakery. Every flavor of canoli that you can imagine. The deli is great also. Great antipasto bar, and Sicilian Ham balls.
There is the baths of Diocletian. The best part is the free part that is part of the Church of santa Maria dei Angeli. The Octagon room of the terme used to have this neat Boxer statue, but It is being restored and maybe my grandchildren will get to see him someday.
There is Palazzo Massimo dei Terme, but you need more than an hour to check out the exquiste statues and the mosaics.
Posts: 3781 | Location: St Paul, MN | Registered: 10 February 2006
If you have the time, and an interest in Bernini, you could visit S. Bibiana, a very small church behind (sort of) Termini.
Come out of Termini and go left to the street that skirts the southern edge of Termini, I think it's Via Giovanni Giolitti, and follow it to the left where Termini ends, and there is S. Bibiana.
It was Bernini's first commission, and he remodeled the ancient church in the Baroque style. The interior contains a sculpture by him as well as being mostly designed by him also.
You can't get lost, and it was a safe feeling area at 9am in the morning when I was there.
Posts: 193 | Location: Derby, NY | Registered: 03 July 2005
I'm with you Alice - I'm still talking about those orange glazed donuts we had at the Rome railway station a few years ago on the way south. We had mounds of luggage and instead of trying to move it around, we had a good cappuccino and those incredible donuts. Really, they were that good! They were better than Sara Lee chocolate cake. It's a very good idea to be early to get on your train.
We don't have good donuts here in Australia, so I particularly remember the last really good one I had 5 years ago. But then, I remember the taste of a superb from Cecina in 1992 as well.
OK, I have to acknowledge the Krispy Kremes that are being introduced into Australia (in Sydney and maybe other big cities) but I live in the bush capital, and ours are pretty ordinary here in Canberra.
I am so impressed with your putting up that site. I hope there is some way we can get a link to it put on the Slow Travel site as I am sure it would be really valuable to anyone planning to use the Rome railway station. Good on you and thank you!
SJ, that is a wonderful site - note also that it links at the bottom to all the other major stations in Italy - "grandi stazioni".
I remember Termini in the 1980s before the reno - it was a dismal, dodgy place, and the surrounding area was much worse than it is now. There were junkies sitting on the floor looking spaced-out, ill, some with blood spots from injections. I've always lived in central cities and am not easily frightened by urban grit, but I was certainly not at ease until my Roman friend showed up to retrieve me.
Yes, these sites on railway stations certainly deserve a link on Slow Travel main site. They are a very useful resource.
Posts: 868 | Location: Montréal | Registered: 29 January 2006
Depending on when you are in Termini there is a great art space IN termini. Two years ago there was a phenomenal Guerencino exhibition. We didn't even manage to make it to the current exhibition.
Useful, attractive site; thanks. And Campy if you still feel the need to amuse yourself in Termini, the MacDonald's in the basement has a piece of the Servian Wall to match the larger chunks just out the front door.... There's also a very large bookstore in the station as well, and several smaller ones.
I feel useful!!!!! It is a great site, isn't it. Only 4 and a half months till WE leave for Italy, not that I'm counting. By the way, here's another great site: this time about the world's airports and airlines. Some info about FCO. www.airlinequality.com
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from Cecina in 1992 as well.
