Vatican

You can take the Metro red line (line A) out to either the Ottaviano stop or the Cipro stop the former is closer
to St. Peters Basilica, the latter is closer to the Vatican Museums entrance. Even if you dont remember these
station names, youre in luck theyre labeled as Ottaviano-San Pietro and Cipro-Musei Vaticani, so
theyre hard to miss.
Both of these stations are about a 10-minute walk from their targets, but thats as close as youll get using the
Metro in Rome.
Rome's Vatican Museums encompass some of the greatest art in the
world, from Roman and Egyptian antiquities to paintings by Leonardo
da Vinci and Raphael, to the Sistine Chapel with its amazing ceiling
frescoed by Michelangelo
The intertwined conch-shell staircase at the Vatican Museums is now, since they
moved the entrance next-door,
merely the exit to the museums.
(The Vatican Map gallery.) =>
In fact, you should aim to do the Vatican Museums first, St. Peter's second,
since they start shooing you out the museum doors at 3:30pm most days,
1:30pm many Saturdays (and, on the last Sunday of the month when it opens
its doors for free, at 12:30pm).

There are four color-coded itineraries you can follow, depending on

your interests and amount of time (it would be impossible to try to see it all in one day).
Plan "A" takes about 90 minutesit shuttles you through the Raphael Rooms to the Sistineplan "D" takes
upwards of five hours and hits most of the highlights.
To any tour add 3045 minutes for waiting in lines.
My suggestion for the best short visit (2.5 hours total): Before you hop on the plan "A" route, head to the right
when you get to the end of the awning-covered corridor to run quickly (2030 minutes) through the Pinacoteca
(picture gallery), which isn't included on the short itinerary but really should be.
Here are the Vatican's top sections (roughly in the order you're likely to visit them):
Pinacoteca (Painting Gallery) - An all-star painting gallery with works by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael,
Caravaggio, Giotto, Titian, Fra' Angelico, and many more.

The Vatican Museum's Pinacoteca is the best painting gallery in all of Rome
One of the top painting galleries in Rome has so many masterpieces they nearly crowd one another out on the
walls in room after room of Old Master genius.

I'm serious; in the artistic overload of going from Giotto to Da Vinci to Caravaggio to
Raphael, you end up merely skimming over works by Pietro Lorenzetti, Fra'
Angelico, Titian, Pinturicchio, and Bellini, any one of which would be the prize of a
lesser collection.
Among the major masterpieces are Giotto's Stefaneschi Triptych (1320), a Perugino
Madonna and Child with Saints (1496), Leonardo da Vinci's unfinished St. Jerome
(1482), Guido Reni's Crucifixion of St. Peter (1605), and Caravaggio's Deposition
from the Cross (1604).
Caravaggio's Deposition

Paintings by Simone Martini, Benozzo Gozzoli, Filippo Lippi, Melozzo da Forl, Veronese, and Il Guercino
round out the A-list of top Renaissance and baroque artists represented here.
But the most famous name here has go to be Raphael, the subject of the Pinacoteca's
Room VIII, where you'll find his Coronation of the Virgin (1503) and Madonna of
Foligno (1511) surrounded by the Flemish-woven tapestries executed to the master's
designs.
All that is just set decoration around the main act. In the center of the room hangs the
young Renaissance master's greatest masterpiece, Raphael's Transfiguration
(1520).
This 13.5-foot-high study in color and light was discovered almost finished in the
artist's studio when he died suddenly at the age of 37, and mourners carried it
through the streets of Rome during his funeral procession.
The Pinacoteca should take 4590 minutes,

Stanze di Raffaello (Raphael Rooms) - The former private papal apartments of Julius II were frescoed by Raphael
and his assistants with some of the Renaissance master's best works, including the renowned School of Athens.
Also in the Papal Suites sector of the Vatican are the Borgia Apartments and the Chapel of Nicholas V...

The Vatican's Stanze di Raffaello (Raphael Rooms) are a series of papal apartments frescoed by Raphael
with the School of Athens and other masterpieces
Pope Julius II didn't like his predecessor's digs (the Borgia Apartments; we'll get to those), so in 1508just a
few months after commissioning Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel down the hallJulius
hired Raphael to decorate these new chambers.
As Raphael's fame and commissions grew, he turned more of his attention away from this job and his assistants
handled much of the painting in the first and last rooms you visit.
But in the Stanza della Segnatura and Stanza di Eliodoro (the first two actually painted), the master's brush was
busy.
Here are the rooms in the order (generally) that you visit them, with each one's relative interest indicated by the
number of stars:

Stanza dell'Incendio - Includes the Borgo Fire.

Stanza della Segnatura - Includes the famous School of Athens.

Stanza di Eliodoro - Includes the Expulsion of Heliodorus.
Stanza di Constantino - Includes the Vision of the Cross
Sistine Chapel

The iconic fingers-almost-touching detail of Michelangelo's God creating Adam takes up merely a few square inches of
ceiling in a chapel 132 feet long by 46 feet wide by 70 feet tall nearly every inch of which is swathed in some of the
greatest frescoes of the Renaissance.

The most famous fresco in the world: from Michelangelo's famous ceiling to his Last Judgment and the
sadly overlooked walls by Perugino, Botticelli, and Signorelli
The pinnacle of Renaissance painting and masterpiece of Michelangelo covers the ceiling and altar wall of the
Sistine Chapel, the grand hall where the College of Cardinals meets to elect a new pope.
Pope Sixtus IV had the Sistine's walls frescoed with scenes from the lives of Moses (left wall) and Jesus (right
wall) by the greatest masters of the early Renaissance: Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, Perugino, Pinturicchio,
Rosselli, and Signorelli.
Each of these would be considered a masterpiece in its own right... if they weren't literally overshadowed by that
famous ceiling.

Michelangelo's God Creating Adam on

the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

Perugino's Christ Handing the Keys to St. Peter

on the Sistine Chapel wall

The Sistine Chapel Ceiling

Pope Julius II had hired Michelangelo to craft a grand tomb for him, but then pulled the sculptor off the job
and asked him instead to decorate the chapel ceilingwhich at that time was done in the standard Heavens
motif, dark blue with large gold stars.
Michelangelo complained that he was a sculptor, not a frescoist, but a papal commission cannot be ignored.
Luckily for the world, Michelangelo was too much of a perfectionist not to put his all into his work, even at
tasks he didn't much care for, and he proposed to Julius that he devise a whole fresco cycle for the ceiling rather
than just paint "decorations" as the contract called for.
At first Michelangelo worked with assistants as was the custom, but soon found that he was not a good team
player and fired them all. And so, grumbling and irritable and working solo, he spent 1508 to 1512 daubing at

the ceiling, craning his neck, arching his back, and with paint dripping in his eyes and an impatient pope
looking over his shoulder.
When the frescoes were unveiled, it was clear that they had been worth the wait. Michelangelo had turned the
barrel-vaulted Sistine Chapel ceiling into a veritable blueprint for the further development of Renaissance art,
inventing new ways to depict the human body, new designs for arranging scenes, and new uses of light, form,
and color that would be embraced by several generations of painters.
The scenes along the middle of the ceiling are taken from the Book of Genesis and tell the stories of Creation
(the first six panels) and of Noah (the last three panels, which were actually painted first and with the help of
assistants).
In thematic order, they are:

Separation of Light from Darkness

Creation of the Sun, Moon, and Planets (scandalous for showing God's derriere and the dirty soles of
his feet)
Separation of the Waters from the Land
the fingers-almost-touching artistic icon of the Creation of Adam
Creation of Eve (enticed from Adam's ribcage by God)
Temptation and Expulsion from the Garden (notice how the idealized Adam and Eve in paradise
become hideous and haggard as they're booted out of Eden)
The Sacrifice of Noah
The Flood
The Drunkenness of Noah (ah, yes, mankind immediately falls back into sin, does he not?)

These central scenes are bracketed by a painted false architecture to create a sense of deep space (the ceiling
is actually nearly flat), festooned with chubby cherubs and 20 ignudi, nude male figures reaching and
stretching, twisting and turning their bodies to show off their straining muscles and naked male physiquesone
of Michelangelo's favorite theme, if you catch my drift.
Where the slight curve of the ceiling meets the walls, interrupted by pointed lunettes, Michelangelo ringed the
ceiling with Old Testament prophets and ancient Sibyls (sacred fortune-tellers of the Classical age in whose
cryptic prophecies medieval and Renaissance theologians liked to believe they found specific fortellings of the
coming of Christ).
The triangular lunettes contain less impressive frescoes of the Ancestors of Christ, and the wider spandrels in
each corner depict Old Testaments scenes of salvation.
A lengthy and politically charged cleaning from 198090 removed centuries of dirt and smoke satins from the
frescoes, although the merits of the restoration are still hotly debated. The techniques used and the amount of
grimeand possibly painttaken off are bones of contention among art historians; some even maintain that
later additions, detailing, or shading by Michelangelo were lost during the cleaning.

Michelangelo's Last Judgment

Michelangelo's Last Judgment in the Sistine Chapel.
In 1535, at the age of 60, Michelangelo was called in to paint the entire end
wall with a Last Judgmenta masterwork of color, despair, and psychology
finished in 1541.
The aging master carried on the medieval tradition of representing saints
holding the instruments of their martyrdomSt. Catherine carries a section of
the spiked wheel with which she was tortured and executed; St. Sebastian
clutches some arrows
Look for St. Bartholomew holding his own skin and the knife used to flay it off. St. Bart's face (actually a
portrait of the poet Pietro Aretino) doesn't match that of his skin's. Many hold that the droopy, almost terminally
morose face on the skin is a psychological self-portrait of sorts by Michelangelo, known throughout his life to
be a sulky, difficult character (and most likely a severe manic-depressive).
The master was getting old, Rome had been sacked by barbarians a few years earlier, and both he and the city
were undergoing religious crisesnot to mention that Michelangelo was weary after years of butting his artistic
head against the whims and directives of the Church and various popes who were his patrons.
In the lower right corner is a political practical jokethere's a figure portrayed as Minos, Master of Hell, but
it is in reality a portrait of Biagio di Cesena, Master of Ceremonies to the pope and a Vatican bigwig who
protested violently against Michelangelo's painting all these shameless nudes here (although some of the figures
were partially clothed, the majority of the masses were originally naked).
As the earlier Tuscan genius Dante had done to his political enemies in his poetic masterpiece Inferno, so
Michelangelo put Cesena into his own vision of Hell, giving him jackass ears and painting in a serpent eternally
biting off his testicles. Furious, Cesena demanded that the pope order the artist to paint his face out, to which a
bemused Pope Paul III reportedly replied "I might have released you from Purgatory, but over Hell I have no
power."
Twenty-three years and several popes later, the voices of prudence (in the form of Pope Pius IV) got their way
and one of Michelangelo's protgs, Daniele da Volterra, was brought under protest in to paint bits of cloth
draped over the objectionable bits of the nude figures.
These loincloths stayed modestly in place until many were removed during a recent and, yes, controversial
cleaning that ended in 1994. Some critics of this restoration claim, among other things, that Michelangelo
himself painted some of the cloths on after he was done and that too many were removed; other wanted all of
the added draperies stripped from the work. It seems that the compromise, with the majority of figures staying
clothes but a few bare bottoms uncovered, pleased nobody.
One thing is for certain. Since the restorations of both the ceiling and the Last Judgment, Michelangelo's colors
just pop off the wall in warm yellows, bright oranges, soft flesh-tones, and rich greens set against stark white or
brilliant azure backgrounds.
Many still prefer the dramatic, broodingly somber and muddled tones of the pre-cleaning period. For all the
controversy, the revelations provided by the cleanings have forced artists and art historians to reevaluate
everything they thought they knew about Michelangelo's color palette, his technique, his painterly skills, and his
art.

St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's Basilica (Basilica di San Pietro) in Rome: Motherchurch of
Christendom

St. Peter's is one of the holiest basilicas in the Catholic faith, the pulpit for
a parish priest we call the pope, one of the grandest creations of Rome's
Renaissance and baroque eras, and the largest church in Europe.
(It was biggest church in the world until an ugly barn of a place was recently completed in Africa.)

The Piazza San Pietro

Fun fact
St. Peter's is not the cathedral of Rome. The pope's true title is Bishop of Rome, and as such his official home
churchand Rome's cathedralis actually San Giovanni in Laterano.You approach the church through the
embracing arms of Bernini's oval colonnade, which encompasses Piazza San Pietro (stand at one of this oval
piazza's foci to see the four-deep columns of the nearest colonnade suddenly line up to appear only one deep).
You approach the church through the embracing arms of Bernini's oval colonnade, which encompasses Piazza San
Pietro (stand at one of this oval piazza's foci to see the four-deep columns of the nearest colonnade suddenly line up to
appear only one deep).

The church itself takes at least an hour to seenot because they are too many specific sights; it just takes that
long to walk down to one end of it and back.
St. Peter's sheer dimensions are staggering614 feet long, 145 feet high in the aisle soaring to 435 feet
inside Michelangelo's dome (which is itself 139 feet across)but everything is done to scale. That means those
six-foot cherubs frolicking around the bathtub-sized holy water stoups do appear to be baby-sized until you look
more closely.
The most magnificent basilica on Earth is a late Renaissance/early baroque masterpiece of architecture and
decoration. St. Peter's was worked on by every great architect of Italy's 16th and 17th centuries: Bramante,
Raphael, Peruzzi, Antonio Sangallo the Younger, Michelangelo,
Maderno, and Bernini.
Admire Michelangelo's youthful masterpiece Piet in the first chapel on
the right, sculpted at the age of 25. The beauty and unearthly grace of
sweet-faced Mary and her dead son, Jesus, led some critics of the day to
claim the 25-year-old Florentine sculptor could never have carved such a
work himself.
An indignant Michelangelo returned to the statue and did something he
never did before or after: He signed it, chiseling his name unmistakably
right across the Virgin's sash.
The Piet has been behind bulletproof since 1972 when a crazed geologist attacked it with a hammer, hacking
off Mary's nose and fingers (since repaired) while screaming, "I am Jesus Christ!"
Follow the faithful to kiss (or at least rub) the heavily worn bronze nub of a foot on Arnolfo di Cambio's 13th
century St. Peter halfway up the left aisle.

Stand under the 96-foot-high baroque confectioner's-piece baldacchino (altar canopy) with its twisting
columns cast by Bernini using bronze revetments removed from the Pantheon.
The Treasury of St. Peter's
The tomb of Sixtus IV by Pollaiuolo.The small Treasury museum (entrance just before the left transept)
contains the usual embroidered vestments, gilded chalices, and other bejeweled accoutrements of the
faith.
Top billing in its collections goes to a marble ciborium carved by Donatello, and the enormous bronze slab
tomb of Pope Sixtus IV, cast by early Renaissance master Antonio del Pollaiuolo in 1493.
it's a true Humanist-era work, marrying sacred and secular aspirations. Around its edges are relief panels
personifying the seven virtuesFaith, Prudence, etc.and others depicting scholarly disciplinesAstrology,
Grammar, Rhetoric, Dialectic, Music, Geometry, Arithmetic, Philosophy, Theology, and Perspective.
The papal tombs: The Crypt and the Vatican Necropolis below St. Peter's
Note that there are two burial areas underneath San Pietro, and many people get them confused.
Crypt - The Vatican Grottoes

The retro-Byzantine tomb of Pope Pius XI (who only died in 1939) in the Vatican Crypt.Anyone who shows up
at the pier to the right of and behind the main altar can walk down a short staircase into the first burial level,
usually called the crypt or "Vatican Grottoes." (Note: sometimes they use the entrance by the rear left pier.)
Here some 90 popesplus Queen Christina of Swedenrest in peace under a low ceiling, including John Paul
II.
Visiting the crypt is free, but it's also a one-way experienceyou end up exiting into a narrow space between
the basilica and Vatican walls where your only choices are to get in line to get up the dome (see below) or head
back out into the piazza, so save the crypt for when you're done with the interior of St Peter's.
Not that the Tombs of the Popes close one hour before the St. Peter's itself.
Scavi - The Vatican Necropolis

Below the crypt is the the famous sub-crypt, or "Vatican Necropolis" (sometimes just called the scavi, or
"excavations") which contains tombs dating from the origins of Christianity.
This one is a pain to get into, and only available via a guided tour (which have gotten infinitely harder to secure,
ever since Dan Brown set part of Angels & Demons here; see the box on the right), but can be worth it.
St. Peter was probably martyred in the Circus of Nero, which lies under part of the current St. Peter's, but the
actual site of his grave was argued over for centuries. Most thought the stories of him being buried here were
apocryphal. It was just too neat and perfect.
After all, in giving his chief disciple Simon Cephas the new name of Petrus ("Rock"), Jesus supposedly said: "I
tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church." (Matthew 16:18) That's meant to be a
metaphor, right? Christ certainly didn't mean that Peter's bones would literally be in the foundations of the
motherchurch for all Christendom.

Then, in 1941, excavations in the Vatican Necropolis uncovered what many had thought was merely a medieval
myth: the Red Wall, behind which St. Peter was fabled to be buried and upon which early Christian pilgrims
scratched prayers, invocations, thanks, or simply their names in Latin.

An ancient mosaic of "The Good Shepherd" in the Vatican Necropolis.Sure enough, behind this wall in 1950
they found a small pocket of a tomb and a box filled with bones that church doctrine now holds once belonged
to Jesus' right-hand man and the first bishop of Romeand, by extension, the world's first pope and vicar of
Christ on Earth.
The remains were moved and are now reverently housed under the main altar of the church up above.
Of course, nothing exists independently in the historical or archaeological record to confirm any of thisjust
belief and a few Bible passages. Then again, the church is not actually built upon a rock or a man or a legend at
all, but rather upon faith, so proving such things is really beside the point.
Getting up on the roof of St. Peter's
The cupola of St. Peter's Basilica, designed by Michelangelo. You must pay to take the elevator then climb (320
steps) to the top of St. Peter's domebut it's worth it. (You can save a couple of euros by opting to climb the
entire way: 551 stairs.)
Michelangelo himself designed this dome to loft 135m (450 ft.) above the ground at its top and stretch 42m
(139 ft.) in diameter. In deference to the Pantheon, Michelangelo made his dome 1.5m (5 ft.) shorter across,
saying "I could build one bigger, but not more beautiful, than that of the Pantheon."
Carlo Maderno later added the dome-top lantern, which today affords visitors a fantastic and dizzying city
panorama.
How to get to St. Peter's: Ottaviano-San Pietro is the closest Metro stop (on the A line, about nine blocks to
the north at the intersection of Viale Giulio Cesare and Via Barletta/Via Ottaviano).
Dress code: St. Peter's has a strict dress code: no shorts, no skirts above the knee, and no bare shoulders. I am
not kidding. They will not let you in if you do not come dressed appropriately. In a pinch, guys and gals alike
can buy a big, cheap scarf from a nearby souvenir stand and wrap it around legs as a long skirt or throw over
shoulders as a shawl.
Drop your bags: They no longer allow you to take large bags or purses into the basilica. Luckily, they've
also arranged a drop-off point for all bags in a room just to the right of the steps leading up into the church. This
service is free.

Castel Sant'Angelo
Lungotevere Castello, 50
00186 Roma
How to get there:
Castel Sant' Angelo is located on the banks of the Tiber close to the Vatican.
Bus service 40 (express) from the main railway station.
Metro - Lepanto (Line A)
website: www.castelsantangelo.com
contact: info(-at-)castelsantangelo.com

The Pope's private castle and personal stronghold in times of trouble, and a museum of arms and armor
in times of peace
By the AD 2nd century, the Imperial tomb that Augustus had built along the Tiber was nearly full of emperors
and their families.
The Emperor Hadrian decided to start over and build himself a grand new tomb across the river in AD 130.
Every emperor from Hadrian himself down to Septimius Severus was interred inside.
Today, you enter the site via the ancient mausoleum deep in its heart. You then follow a sloping, curving
corridor that slowly brings you into the fortress that, in later centuries, was built in top of the tomb.
From tomb to fortress
The tomb was a massive round structure, which it turned out made a great base for fortifications, and by the
Middle Ages the tomb had gradually become Rome's greatest castle, and eventually, the papal military
stronghold.
This massive brick cylinder is connected to the Vatican by a raised viaduct called the passetto, a tunnel once
used by troops and the pope to spirit back and forth in secrecy and safety.
Although it got its name in 590 when St. Gregory the Great had a vision of an angel sheathing its sword atop the
ramparts to predict the end to a plague sweeping the city, the castle's most colorful episode occurred in 1527.
Cowardly pope; brave artistThe invasion of 1527
The pope and the German emperor were at war.
When Charles V's imperial troops entered Rome and began to sack the city, Medici pope Clement VII
hitched up his robes and scurried down that passetto viaduct to the safety of Castel Sant'Angeloleaving threequarters of his elite Swiss Guards behind to die covering his escape.
Defending the Castle
"I seized one of the fuses and lined up some heavy pieces of artillery and falconets... firing them where I saw the need.
In this way I slaughtered a great number of the enemy.... I continued firing, with an accompaniment of blessings and
cheers from a number of cardinals and noblemen.... Anyhow, all I need say is that it was through me that the castle was
saved that morning."
Benvenuto Cellini, on defending Castel Sant'Angelo

Benvenuto Cellini, Florentine goldsmith, talented sculptor, and insufferable braggart, happened to be on hand
and wrote about the ensuing battle in his swashbucklingly entertaining Autobiography (see sidebar for an
excerpt).
If he's to be believed, Cellini single-handedly saved the pope, castle, and indeed the city of Rome itself that day,
taking control of the cannon and firing away when he saw that the Roman bombardiers, fearful they might hit
their own homes, were cowering and sobbing.
Castel Sant'Angelo as modern museum
Castel Sant'Angelo now houses museum exhibits.Today the castle is a museum, and you enter through
Hadrian's tomb itself to climb the original, 2nd-century brick-walled spiraling ramp. The ramp becomes a stair
and then a catwalk as it passes through the travertine pocket of Hadrian's burial chamber.
The castle is slowly being transformed into a space for temporary exhibitions, so the layout is a bit muddled
as they move the old, more permanent exhibits around. There are lots of good views of the Tiber and the statuelined Ponte Sant'Angelo from the ramparts.
The eclectic collections tucked away in rooms throughout the complex range from an AD 2nd-century bust of
Hadrian and 16th-century ceiling frescoes of the emperor's exploits to majolica dating back to the 1300s, a
17th-century painting of a Bacchanale by Poussin, stacks of stone cannonballs, and even an enormous
wooden crossbow that fired javelins.
Also still here are several rooms filled with arms and armor ranging from 6th-century BC Etruscan gladiator's
helmets to an officer's uniform of 1900, with some deadly swords, daggers, spears, guns, pikes, halberds, and
the likes in between. Be on the lookout for the pair of enormous, 16th-century inlaid ivory-handled revolvers.
Unfortunately, the bulk of the collections that once made up this impressive military museum has found its way
to semi-permanent retirement in a basement storeroom to free up more temporary exhibition space in the castle.

Ponte Sant'Angelo
The statue-lined "Bridge of Angels" across the Tiber River in Rome, Italy
The bridge across the Tevere (Tiber River) to the Pope's private castle (Castel Sant'Angelo; it's round because
its built atop the Hadrian's tomb) is lined with statues of angels in flowing baroque robes. These were designed
by Bernini, but likely were executed largely by his studio and assistants.
It's a pedestrian bridge today, lovely for strolling and for Tiber views.
There are some great sunlight effects on the marble at sunset.

Trevi Fountain
How to get there:
Trevi Fountain is situated in the Trevi square (piazza di Trevi), within walking distance from the Spanish Steps and Piazza
Navona.

The Fontana di Trevi just may be the world's most famous wishing wellcertainly one of the most
lucrative, what with every tourist tossing "three coins in a fountain"
The famous Trevi Fountain is a huge baroque confection of thrashing mer-horses, splashing water, and striding
Tritons presided over by a muscular Neptune.
It was sculpted in 1762 by Nicol Salvi to serve as an outlet for the Acqua Vergine aqueduct, built in 19 B.C.
and still running (it also supplies the fountains in Piazza Navona and Piazza di Spagna, a.k.a. the Spanish
Steps).
Trevi Fountain traditions
Tourists and teens throng the cramped little piazza's curving steps from early morning until well after midnight
while immigrants selling plastic-wrapped roses thread through the crowds.
Legendand a host of silly American movies (especially Three Coins in the Fountain)hold that if you toss a
coin into this fountain, you're guaranteed to return to Rome.
Some say you must lob the coin with the right hand backward over the left shoulder. Others insist you must use
three coins.
Historians point out the original tradition was to drink the fountain's water, but unless you enjoy the taste of
chlorine, I'd stick to pocket change.

Piazza Navona
How to get there: bus n. 87 (from stop Colosseo Metro line B Colosseo), n. 492 (from Piazza Barberini), n. 70 (from
Termini Station)

Street performers, Bernini fountains, cappuccino cafs, and a carnival of life crowd Rome's famous
Piazza Navona

Closed to traffic, studded with fountains, lined with cafes, and filled with tourists, street performers, artists, kids
playing soccer, and amorous Roman couples, Piazza Navona is one of Romes archetypal open spaces. Its also
one of the best places to kick back and relax in the heart of the city.
The piazza owes its long, skinny, round-ended shape to the AD 86 Stadium of Domitian (see sidebar below),
which once held chariot races to entertain up to 30,000 screaming fans in the bleachers and even threw mock
sea battles with scaled-down ships (how they managed to fill the space with water, I've no idea).
These days, the oblong square still drams the crowds with a play of water in the form of a trio of statue-studded
fountains. The Fountain of the Moor on the piazza's south end was designed by Giacomo della Porta (1576),

the Fountain of the Neptune at the north end by Antonio della Bitta and Gregorio Zappal (1878), and, most
famously, the soaring Fountain of Four Rivers in the center by Gianlorenzo Bernini (1651).
The Fountain of the Four Rivers
The figure of the Rio Plata on Bernini's Four Rivers Fountain on Piazza Navona in Rome, Italy.
This Fontana delle Quattro Fiumi is a roiling masterpiece of rearing mer-horses, sea serpents, and musclebound figures topped by an obelisk, which, in a feet of engineering, is supported by corner buttressing so that
the space directly beneath it could be hollowed out.
(Interesting aside: though the obelisk is, as are most in Rome, cut from Egyptian marble, it does not date from
the age of the pharaohs. The Emperor Domitian himself had the obelisk crafted and shipped from Egyptby
then, part of the Roman Empireand covered with "hieroglyphics" naming the emperors Vespasian, Titus, and
Domitian.)
The giant figures at the fountain's four corners represent the world's four great rivers (or at least those known in
the 1650s): the Danube (Europe), the bearded Ganges (Asia), the bald Plate (Americas), and the Nile (Africa,
shrouding his head since the source of the Nile was unknown at the time).
The church of Sant'Agnese in Agone

The church of Sant'Agnese in AgoneBorromini's curvaceous facade of Sant'Agnese in Agone (tel. +39-066819-2134, www.santagneseinagone.org) church rises next to the fountain, and tour guides love to tell the
(false) legend that Bernini carved a slight to Borromini in the figure of Plate, rearing back and throwing his arm
up as if to guard against the church facade falling on him. While it's true that the two men were arch-rivals in
the field of Roman baroque architecture, the facade was started in 1653two years after Bernini finished the
fountain.
Echoes of Antiquity
Today, the remains of the Stadium of Domitian lie mostly unexcavated underneath Piazza Navona's palaces, but
you can see one travertine entrance arch from the stadium's north curve buried under a modern bank building on
Piazza di Tor Sanguigna, just outside the north end of the piazza (peer over the railing and down; pictured
below). The ancient stadium also survives in the piazza's very name. In ancient time, the stadium was home to
the popular "Agoni Capitolini" athletic games. By the Middle Ages, Romans were still calling this space
"Campus Agonis," which became agone, which the Roman accent eventually rendered n'agona, and finally
navona.

The church itself is lovely insidethough rather plain (compared to most art-stuffed Roman churches), but its
titular saint was not.
Sant'Agnese is the patron saint of girls and virgins in general. She got the gig in the worst possible way: the 13year-old girl was forcibly engaged to marry a Roman in AD 304, but since she was Christian and he was pagan,
she refused. She was summarily sentenced to die, but the problem was that, under Roman law, you couldn't kill
a virgin.
Their solution? De-virginize her.

Roman soldiers dragged her to this site, which at the time housed a popular brothel, and stripped her naked. But
St. Agnes had a secret weapon: prayer. Her hair grew, Rapunzel-style, to cover up her nakedness. Frustrated,
the soldiers used their swords to hack off her hair, but through divine intervention every letch who looked at her
was suddenly struck blind.
Angered, they next tried burning her at the stake, but she continued to pray and the wood refused to catch fire.
The soldiers couldn't take it anymore and, virgin or not, they resorted to simpler measures: they struck of her
head. That workedbut it also made a martyr and a saint out of her, and she has looked after he fellow little
girls and virgins every since.

Piazza di Spagna (Spanish Steps)

How to get there: Metro line A stop: SPAGNA

The Spanish Steps, Piazza di Spagna, Scalinata di Trinit dei Montiby

whatever name you call it, this is one of Rome's prime outdoor living rooms,
an elegant gathering place for locals and tourists alike
The graceful off-center curves of the Scalinata di Trinit dei Monti (a.k.a. the
Spanish Steps; see sidebar below to right) rising from the hourglass Piazza di
Spagna are covered with bright azaleas in spring, a life-sized nativity scene in
winter, and teem with visitors, Roman teens, poseurs, Italians meeting for the
passeggiata, and tour groups year-round.
The steps were built in 172326 by Francesco De Sanctis, not on behalf of the Spanish, but for the French as a grand
entre to their twin-towered church of Trinit dei Monti at the top. At the foot of the steps burbles the beloved Barcaccia
("Ugly Boat") fountain, a sinking and leaking marble boat sculpted by a teenage Bernini along with his father, Pietro
Bernini.
Other sights on and around the Spanish Steps
What's in a Name?
One of the most famous and visited sights in all of Rome is the Stairs of Trinity of
the Mountains. Never heard of it? That's because you know them as "The Spanish
Steps," a reference to the fact that they rise from the Piazza di Spagna ("Spanish
Square"), whereas Italians call the stairs after where they lead: up to the church of
Trinit dei Monti. So, why Piazza di Spagna in the first place? The Spanish
Ambassador to the Vatican lives on the square.
Piazza di Spagna has long been the Anglo-American center of Rome; the British Consul used to have his office here, and
the brick Anglican church lies just a few blocks down Via del Babuino.
In 1985, crowds thronged the piazza to protest the opening of Italy's first McDonald's here (as a teenage ex-pat living in
Rome, I showed up excited to get my first burger fix in more than a year; it was awful).
Shopping around the Spanish Steps
La Barcaccia ("The Ugly Boat") fountain on Piazza di Spagna at the foot of the Spanish Steps in Rome was done by a
teenaged Gian Lorenzo Bernini and his dad.
Leading out from the bottom of the steps is the berfashionable Via dei Condotti, the centerpiece for Rome's toniest
fashion boutique shopping scene which fills the streets radiating from Piazza di Spagna.

Generally speaking, the streets to the north of Piazza di Spagna toward Piazza del Popolo specialize in art and antiques,
while the streets to the west and south focus more on clothing, leather, and jewelry, with names like Gucci, Valentino,
Benetton, Ferragamo, Bulgari, and Buccellati.

Roman Pantheon
The Roman Pantheon is the most preserved and influential building of ancient Rome. It is a Roman temple dedicated to
all the gods of pagan Rome. As the brick stamps on the side of the building reveal it was built and dedicated between
A.D 118 and 125.
The emperor Hadrian (A.D 117-138) built the Pantheon to replace Augustus friend and Commander Marcus Agrippas
Pantheon of 27 B.C. which burnt to the ground in 80 A.D.
When approaching the front of the Pantheon one can see the inscription above still reads in Latin the original dedication
by Marcus Agrippa. The inscription reads:

"M. AGRIPPA.L.F.COSTERTIUM.FECIT
Marcus Agrippa son of Lucius, having been consul three times made it.
Despite all the marvelous building projects that the emperor Hadrian produced during his reign, he never
inscribed his name to any, but one, the temple of his father Trajan. That is why the Roman Pantheon bears the
inscription of Marcus Agrippa, and not the emperor Hadrian.
The pediment,(the triangle section above the inscription) is blank today, but there would have been sculpture
that acted out the battle of the Titans. Great bronze doors guard the entrance to the cella and would have been
covered in gold, but it has long since disappeared.
The original use of the Pantheon is somewhat unknown, except that is was classified as a temple. However, it is
unknown as to how the people worshipped in the building, because the structure of the temple is so different
from other traditional Roman temples such as in the Roman Forum.
The Pantheon exists today in such amazing form because the Byzantine emperor Phocas gave it to Pope
Boniface the VIII in A.D 608 and it was used as a church ever since. The Pantheon has been in use since the
time it was built.
Architecture of the Pantheon
Probably one of the most fascinating features of the Pantheon is the Architecture. The structure of the Pantheon is
comprised of a series of intersecting arches. The arches rest on eight piers which support eight round-headed arches
which run through the drum from its inner to its outer face. The arches correspond to the eight bays on the floor level
that house statues.
The dome itself is supported by a series of arches that run horizontally round. Romans had perfected the use of arches
which helped sustain the weight of their magnanimous buildings.

The Romans were aware of the heavy nature of their building materials. So they used lighter materials toward
the top of the dome. \ On the lowest level travertine, the heaviest material was used, then a mixture of travertine
and tufa, then tufa and brick, then all brick was used around the drum section of the dome, and finally pumice,
the lightest and most porous of materials on the ceiling of the dome.
This use of lighter materials on top alleviated the immense weight of the dome. The Roman Pantheon was
probably constructed by using an elaborate setup of wooden scaffolding, which in itself would have been costly.
The elegant coffers on the dome were likely struck with a device that was exacted from floor level.
The detail of this building is extraordinary. If the dome of the rotundra were flipped upside down it would fit
perfectly inside the rotunda. When approaching the Pantheon from the outside it appears rectangular in shape.

But it is only the first small room (cella) that has corners. The rotunda is completely round. The small entry
room would have been entered by climbing a staircase that is now entirely under modern ground level.
Also, in antiquity there would have been a large colonnaded enclosure in front of the building making it almost
impossible for one to glimpse the dome at the back.
The statues of Augustus and Agrippa stood in the apse at the end of the colonnaded side aisles of the entrance.
The interior design of the Roman Pantheon is a striking synthesis of tradition and innovation. The dimensions of
the interior height and the diameter of the dome are the same (145 Roman feet., which is 141 feet. 8
inches;43.2m).
The architect, who is unknown, did this on purpose to show the harmony of the building. The marble veneer
that we see today on the interior was for the most part added later.
However, the Roman Pantheon in its present state allows us a glimpse into the marvelous and stunning world of
Roman architecture. The dome would have been gilded to look like the heavenly sphere of all the gods that the
name Pantheon evokes. The oculus was an engineering gem of the Roman world. No oculus had even dared
come close in size to the one in the Pantheon. It is still lined with the original Roman bronze and is the main
source of light for the whole building. As the earth turns the light flows in to circle the interior making the
viewer aware of the magnificence of the cosmos. The oculus was never covered and rain falls into the interior
and runs off the slightly convex floor to the still functioning Roman drainpipes underneath. The Pantheon has
since antiquity been used to inspire artists during the Renaissance as well as become the tomb for important
figures in Italian history.
The Italian kings Vittorio Emanuele II and Umberto I as well as the famous Renaissance painter Raphael and
his fiance are buried in the Pantheon. It is a wonderful example of second century Roman architecture. It
boasts mathematical genius and simple geometry that today still impresses architects and amazes the eyes of
casual viewers.
Location:Piazza della Rotonda, Rome

Fontana delle Tartarughe

Address: Piazza Mattei, Ghetto,
The source of the water - the Acqua Vergine Aqueduct
A copy of an engraving of the fountain made in 1664. It does not show the turtles,
which were added in 1658 or 1659 when the fountain was restored.

The Fontana delle Tatarughe, like all Renaissance fountains, was designed to
supply drinking water to the Roman population. It was one of a group of
eighteen new fountains built in Rome in the sixteenth century following the
restoration of a ruined first century Roman acqueduct, the Acqua Vergine, by
Pope Gregory XIII.

Piazza della Repubblica

Fontana delle Naiadi
This is the most beautiful of all the modern Roman fountains. Built in 1888 following the designs of Alessandro Guerrieri who placed
four chalk lions around the large circular basin. These were then replaced in 1901 by four bronze groups by the sculptor Mario Rutelli
which represented the Lake Nymph with the swan, the River Nymph riding a river monster, the Ocean Nymph, known as "Oceana",
on a wild horse which symbolises the breakers, and the Underwater Nymph, lying on the back of a dragon. In the centre is the
"Glauco" group, carved by the same Rutelli and added in 1912 substituting another sculpture, and representing the dominion of man
over the forces of nature. It was moved to the gardens in Piazza Vittorio Emanuele because it did not please its purchasers.

Piazza del Popolo

Trasporti: Metro: linea A, fermata Flaminio

Piazza del Popolo is a harmonious oval square situated near the Borghese Park. Three churches border the
square but the eye-catcher is an ancient obelisk from Heliopolis, Egypt.
Piazza del Popolo
On the north side the square is dominated by the Porta del Popolo, which leads to the Via Flaminia. The Via
Flaminia was built in 220 BC to connect Rome with the Adriatic coast and was one of the most important roads
leading to Rome. Hence many travellers entered the city from the Via Flaminia, passing through Piazza del
Popolo.

Santa Maria del Popolo

Rome's church of Santa Maria del Popolo is like a primer on the development of art and architecture
from the early Renaissance through the baroque
This church of "St. Mary of the People" was original built to evict Nero's ghost. By the Middle Ages, locals
were complaining that the shade of the hated emperor was haunting his grave, in a grove of walnut trees on
what was once his family estate at the very northern edge of the city center.
In 1099, church officials exorcised the specter by razing the trees and building on the site a church dedicated to
"St. Mary of the People" (presumably those self-same superstitious people who clamored for its construction).
The church was rebuilt in the 15th century.

Largo Argentina
The sunken ruins of Largo Argentina in Rome, Italy, where Julius
Caesar met his assassins and now cats nestle like easter eggs amongst
the tall grasses
Today, Largo del Torre Argentina is largely known as the piazza where
you frequently have to change buses, but set into its middle is an

excavated zone sporting a trio of ancient temples, their columns poking up like broken teeth, their grassy
foundations prowling with Rome's largest colony of stray cats, which legend holds are hosts for the ghosts of
ancient Romans.
The site has been opened to visitors only sporadically and rarely over the years; call ahead to check just in
case you get lucky, but consider it permanently closed.
(You can, however, nip into the cat sanctuary shelter halfway down one staircase to chat with the harried cat
lovers who try to keep up with spaying and inoculating the feral felinesat least until they are evicted, which
the city is always threatening to do.)
Still, you can see it all from the road, really.
I find the Largo Argentina ruins all the more remarkable for the fact that they just sort of sit there, un-remarked
uponwhich is especially puzzling given that every 9th grader has read Julius Caesar, and here is the exact
spot where he was killed!
Why so few guides or guidebooks bothers pointing this out mystifies me to this day. Therefore:
Et tu, Brut?
Against the eastern edge of the excavations you can see the jumbled remains of some brick walls. This was the
exit to Pompey's Theater and Baths complex, which the Roman Senate was using in the 1st century BC to
hold their meetings while the main Senate house in the Forum was being rebuilt.
It was while exiting one of these meetings, on these very steps now covered in cats, that Brutus, Cassius, and
the other conspirators fell upon Julius Caesar and stabbed him to death.

The Mouth of TruthSanta Maria in Cosmedin

Santa Maria in Cosmedin is located on Piazza Bocca della Verit, between the western
end of the Circus Maximus and the Tiber. It's most easily reached either by walking along
the river until you reach the Piazza (the church is visible from the Lungotevere Aventino).
Alternatively, tie it in with a trip to the Circus Maximus and get there by taking the metro
Linea B to Circo Massimo.

It's not the 11th century frescoes on the walls, the lovely 12th century bell tower,
or the particolored cosmatesque pavement inside that draw the crowds to this
medieval church; it's the ancient Roman sewer-covering inside the portico.
The Bocca della Verit is a heavy stone disc carved in the 4th century B.C. as a grotesque, bearded face with a
gaping, dark slot for a mouth.
It got its nickname, the "Mouth of Truth," from the medieval tradition that holds if you stick your hand in its
mouth and tell a lie, it'll clamp down on your fingers.

The Capuchin Crypt

INFO MUSEO E CRIPTA DEI FRATI CAPPUCCINI
INDIRIZZO: Via Veneto 27, Roma 00187
ORARI: 9.00- 19.00 (ultimo ingresso 18.30)
The Cimitero Monumentale dei Frati Cappuccinibetter known simply as the Capuchin Cryptis one
of the eeriest sites in Rome: a series of chapels mosaicked with the bones of long-dead monks
Depending how you look at it, the cappuccini are monks with a death wishor a healthy attitude toward their
own mortality.
They're a weird lot, very polite but with a penchant for making mosaics out of the bones of their deceased
brethren.
That's what happened in the crypt of this churchthe entrance is halfway up the staircase to the front doors of
the (otherwise uninteresting) Santa Maria Immacolata Concezionewhere five chambers were filled
between 1528 and 1870 with mosaics made from over 4,000 dearly departed cappuccini (first dried out by
temporary burial in the floors filled with dirt from Jerusalem).
Which came first, cappuccino or the Cappuccini?
The popular coffee drink made with espresso, steamed milk, and a dollop of foam was named after the monastic
order of Capuchins since the coffee's dun color matched that of the monk's robes. Given that, the Cappuccini's
Rome church couldn't be in a better location: on the Via Veneto, famously lined with cafes eager to serve you
their namesake drink.
These fantastic displays form morbid patterns and baroque decorative details, from rings of knucklebones and
garlands of pelvises to walls made from stacked skulls and scapulae used to create butterflies or hourglasses in
an all-too fitting memento mori motif.
A few bodies lean against the walls in varying states of advanced desiccated decay, and the full skeletons of
two Barberini princelings adorn the last chamber, near a placard that drives home the ashes-to-ashes point, in
several languages, "What you are, we used to be. What we are, you will become."

Arriving in Rome by plane

Rome's Ciampino airport

Many charter and continental flights land at the smaller Ciampino Airport, 15km (9 miles) south of the city.
How to get from Rome's Ciampino airport into downtown Rome

By bus (3545 min.; 46): The easiest way to downtown Rome from Ciampino is the Terravision shuttle bus
(tel. 06-9761-0632; www.terravision.eu), which has departures every 40 minutes or so (usually timed to arrivals
of major flights). It arrives in downtown Rome at Via Marsala 29A (the Terracaf), by the northwest corner of
Termini train station. Tickets are 6 if bought on board, or 4 if bought online ahead of time.
The more common route downtown (at one-fourth the total price) is the public COTRAL bus (tel. 800-174-471 or

06-7204-7205; www.cotralspa.it) outside the terminal; it leaves two to four times per hour for the under-20
minute trip to Anagnina, the terminus of Metro line A, where you can grab a subway to Stazione Termini.

By private car (4050 min.; 12): A private transfer between Ciampino airport and your city center hotel costs
just $15:
o Rome Ciampino Airport Private Arrival Transfer
o Rome Ciampino Airport Private Departure Transfer

By taxi (4050 min.; 30): A taxi from Ciampino airport to downtown Rome will cost 30 ($39), including
luggage.

Ciampino
Rome's smaller airport, is mostly used by charter flights and budget airlines.
To get to the centre from this airport, take COTRAL bus, get off at Metro A: Anagnina station, then to Termini Station.
Cotral bus runs every 30 minutes, until 11pm. The only way how to get to Rome after this time is to take taxi.

Be sure you stamp one end of your ticket at one of the little yellow boxes usually located in the passageways leading to
the tracks and strapped to a column at (or near) the head of each track. If you do not, the conductor may fine you (they
sometimes give tourists a stern warning, but more and more they are simply imposing the fines regardless).

Arriving in Venice by plane

Venice's Marco Polo Airport (www.veniceairport.it) is in the northern reaches of Venice's landlubbing suburb, Mestre.
From here, you will need to get "downtown" to the historic center of Veniceyou know, the bit with all the islands,
canals, palaces, and gondolas (see below).

The best way to get from Marco Polo airport to downtown Venice
There are two ways to get to Venice from the airport: by waterprivate water taxis or the public ferry, both
of take you straight downtownor by land.
I prefer going by watereven though it is more expensive and actually slower (4080 minutes versus 2030
minutes) than going by land. However, taking a ferry or water taxi is way more Romantic (and didn't you
come to Venice for that?), plus it is usually way more convenient.
The best option: the Alilaguna public water ferries (15), which stop at several key points around the historic
center, allowing you to walk to your hotel.
If you go by landwhether by shuttle bus (7) or public bus (1.30)it will only get you as far as Piazzale
Roma, which is the only part of the historic center accessible by car (just over the causeway from the mainland).
So, unless you're staying very close to Piazzale Roma (not really recommended), you'll still end up paying an
additional 7 for a vaporetto from Piazzale Roma to get to your hotelbringing the total cost for the "land"
option to 14 for the shuttle bus and 8.30 for the city bus.
All things being equaland even though I'm a cheapskateI'd go by water.

How to get between the Venice airport and downtown Venice by

water
My #1 option: Go with the slower (45110 minutes), cheaper (15) Alilaguna traghetto public ferry (tel. +39041-240-1701, www.alilaguna.it).
You still get to arrive in Venice that oh-so-Romantic way on the water (truly, the only way to come to Venice),
at a fraction of the cost.
Note that you do have to walk about 500 yards outside (with your luggagethough if you pack light, that's
not a problem) from the arrivals hall: leave the building, turn left and follow signs for "Water Bus/Alilaguna"
beneath a canopied walkway, across a street, and down to the boat landing stage (past the water taxi stand). Buy
your ticket from the kiosk before getting on the boat (or from the blue machine in the airport; there's picture of
the machine a bit further down this page on the right).

The Alilaguna traghetto (public ferry) from Marco Polo airport into Venice via Piazza San Marco.
The Alilaguna traghetto runs two main lines (plus three seasonal ones), all of which are identified by color.
Most tourists will use only Blu (blue), Arancio (orange), or the summertime Rossa (red).
(There's also Linea M for shuttling from San Marco to the cruise docks.)
If your hotel is near St. Mark's, take the blue line. The ride will take 45100 minutes, depending on where
you get off.
If you're staying closer to the Rialto, grab the faster Arancio (orange) line, which stops at Madonna
dell'Orto (30 min.), Guglie (up in the hinterlands of Cannaregio above the train station; 42 min.), San Stae
(for S. Croce/S. Polo; 51 min.), Rialto (57 min.) and S. Angelo (61 min.)both ideal for hotels in the San
Marco or S. Polo neighborhoodsand Ca' Rezzonico (for Dorsoduro; 67 min.).
The slower Blu line stops first at Murano (an outlying island; 30 min.), Fondamente Nove (on the north side
of the Cannaregio neighborhood; 38 min.), the Lido (Venice's beach; 6065 min.), the Arsenale (convenient for
the few hotels way out in the eastern reaches of the Castello neighborhood; 77 min.), before arriving at Piazza
San Marco (get off at either the San Zaccaria stop, 82 min., or San Marco Giardinetti stop, 87 min., for hotels
in San Marco or the western Castello), then zipping around Dorsoduro to stop at Zattere (convenient to hotels
in Dorsoduro; 102 min.), the Hotel Molino Stucky Hilton on Giudecca island (107 min.), and finally the cruise
terminal (114 min.).
There's also an seasonal (Apr 30Nov 3) express Rossa line, which stops only at Murano (30 min.), the Lido
(53 min.), and finally San Marco (73 min.).

How to get between the Venice airport and downtown Venice by land
From the Venice airport, the ATVO shuttle bus (left) costs 6 and takes 20 minutes to reach downtown Venice's
Piazzale Roma; the ACTV city bus no. 5 (right) costs 1.30 and takes 30 minutes. (Photo courtesy of Roaming
Photos.)You could opt for one of two cheaper land methods to get from the airport into Venice.
The city bus is way, way cheaper than the airport shuttle bus.

To help tell them apart, look at the photograph on the left there.
The shuttle buses are usually blue or green and say "ATVO" on them.
The local city bus no. 5 (and others) are orange and off-white and say "ACTV" somewhere on them.

City bus #5 from the airport to Venice (30 min.; 1.30)

Diehard penny-pinchers can take the ACTV public bus no. 5 (tel. +39-041-272-2111, www.actv.it), which
doesn't have handy luggage storage underneath like the shuttle buses but costs only 1.30. It also makes stops
along the way, prolonging the arrival in Piazzale Roma to about 30 minutes
(However, on a personal note: I was on this bus once and it got into an accident with a Mercedes; since the bus
was fullas were all the other no. 5s that whizzed by us while we sat by the roadside with our luggagewe
had to wait more than an hour before they dispatched an empty bus to pick up the stranded passengers.)

ATVO shuttle bus from the airport to Venice (20 min.; 6)

Automated ticket machines for the ATVO land buses (left) and the Alilaguna traghetto/water bus ferries (right)
at the Venice airport.There's an ATVO airport shuttle bus (tel. +39-0421-594-518 or +39-0421-383-672,
www.atvo.it) which leaves every half-hour for the 20-minute ride to Piazzale Roma, the car parking lot
near(ish) the main train station, Stazione Santa Lucia.
Tickets (a pointlessly pricey 6) are easy to come by: at the ATVO ticket window in the arrivals hall, or from
the automated blue ATVO machines located in the baggage claim area and also outside by the bus departure
point.
Still, for that much money (6 for this, plus another 7 for a vaporettoassuming you aren't staying near
Piazzale Roma), I'd advise just to take the Alilaguna Ferry for 15.