How to go to Rome
How I did it: I flew from the US to Pisa and took the train from Pisa to Rome. Booked a hotel room in Rome and pretty much just showed up with a gazillion guidebooks.
Lessons & tips: Definitely plan out your trip.
My friend had planned out our days with some free time in between to change it up if needed (which we did a few ties depending on what we came across). There is just WAY too much to do and see there and if you just walk around aimlessly trying to get where you want to be, you may lose time to see the things you want to see at the times they're open.
Grab a good map.
Seriously. We used the map our hotel had provided for us and it ended up being a better map than any of the ones the guidebooks gave us because the hotel map had every little street on it which we needed since we got lost a few times.
Book a room in advance.
We loved our hotel (Yes Hotel in Rome near the Termini station - I left a review on tripadvisor.com around July 19th-23rd.) and it made life a little easier each night we had to get back to it because we felt safe and cozy in our rooms.
Book a tour.
We booked a tour before we left (Angels and Demons tour) and it was awesome. It drove us aound to a few locations to look at and since we enjoyed the book, it made it much more fun to read about it and then see the actual places and learn the truth from the real world compared to the fictional world. Basically find a day tour group and enjoy the tour!
Resources: Rome for Dummies, All of the Frommers books on Rome (we had 2 or 3 of these) - I think I used the Day by Day one more than the others, map provided by our hotel, Angels and Demons by Dan Brown.
