Visit the smallest sovereign state in the world (no, not the Vatican but the Sovereign Military Order of Malta) preferably at dusk and peek through the Villa Malta keyhole for an amazing view.I recommend roman odyssey (www.romanodyssey.com) as tour guides at the Vatican and old Rome.Want to live in a former palace on the cheap: splendide royal on top of the spanish steps (probably $300US per night).

Pay homage to the female pope:------...we must discern who was Pope Joan, la Papessa Giovanna, the legendary female nemesis to the exclusively male office of the papacy. The area around the Hotel Lancelot can indeed be called her turf. The little aedicule housing an image of the Madonna located between San Clemente and the Hotel Lancelot in the popular imagination was believed to be an "imago papissa," a shrine to the ill-fated female pope. The legend, as transcribed by the Vatican librarian Platina in the late 15th century, held that Joan, a brilliant theological student, had concealed her gender and entered holy orders as a Benedictine monk. She was elected as Pope John VII in the 9th century by virtue of her great eloquence and succeeded in concealing her gender for two years from the court. Following a dalliance with a servant she became pregnant and allegedly gave birth during a procession while passing through the Colosseum. The area between the Colosseum and San Clemente was thought to be the scene of her demise where she and her child met their death. So strong was the legend that until the late 16th century the procession for the papal inauguration, perhaps the most important ritual in the career of a pope, specifically avoided passing through the Colosseum or travelling on that stretch of the Via Labicana leading from the Colosseum to the Lateran so as not to be associated with the story of Pope Joan. The detour of the route passed up the steep hill past the medieval convent of SS. Quattro Coronati, thought to be the first convent built inside the walls of Rome (the apse of which is seen as you look to the right from the gates of the Hotel). The legend of Pope Joan was officially discredited by the Church in the 1570s. Sixtus V ran a new straight street from the Colosseum to the Lateran, anchored at that end by the obelisk, in effect obviated the old Labicana route or the alternative past SS. Quattro Coronati, but the area around the Hotel Lancelot in it's quiet isolation might still claim with some irony to be set off as the realm of Pope Joan.-----

Rome is an amazing place to visit and in addition to what Nonius says check out the mural of Michaelangelo (the name of which forgotten although someone on this forum will remind me of it) in the Vatican city...Takes your breadth away that someone actually managed to paint it....Also check out the fountain where the La Dolce Vita was filmed (or at least one of it scenes)..Check out some of the nightlife there was well..Failing all this, grab a rough guide book of italy and look at that. I used it on my visit and without doubt proved invaluable to me

QuoteOriginally posted by: LongThetaIt's too macabre.Nobody beats this martyr's website -- Tyburn Gallows in England

Visit the smallest sovereign state in the world (no, not the Vatican but the Sovereign Military Order of Malta) preferably at dusk and peek through the Villa Malta keyhole for an amazing view.I'm glad I'm not the only person who knows about it, however, not all states recognise the SMOM.Well they are. Still they also are close to Naples not Rome. It's a bit like saying "Any suggestion while in Madrid? Sure, go to Barcelona, it's really beautiful". I know, hence emphasis on "If you could".

"...we must discern who was Pope Joan, la Papessa Giovanna, the legendary female nemesis to the exclusively male office of the papacy."The so-called 'Pope Joan' has been refuted so many times by the competant, knowledgeable, and accurate, that it makes little sense to spend any effort to squash the myth here. This is one of those cases where 'the story' is so compelling it overcomes rational, objective, evidence to the contrary that would ordinarlily appeal to those predisposed to dispassionate truth. Sadly, those in favor of alternate history (me among them) often little see their own predilations being cast as the template on their interpretation of history, and so let that favoritism displace true examination and discourse. But Pope Joan is a fraud and her advocates, frankly, evil, in light of the monumnetal and overwhelming objective evidence that she never was. Anyone who advocates her is compromised by the axe they have to grind, and those who spend effort trying to refute her should actually better be dispersed at the more truly unseatled argumets that really engage the Church.To argue about 'Pope Joan' therefore, is to argue with ignorant cretins about ghosts in a rotting doghouse full of ancient shit.Now, in Rome, don't miss: cocktails at the Hotel Excelsior, and 'Nino's" restaurant near the Pantheon.Drink 'Limoncello' long past you thought you could drink anymore. You'll drink it all night. It's delicious.Go see Saint Peter's chains. If not for Michalengelo's Moses with horns of wisdom, then for the chains themselves.

'Drink 'Limoncello' long past you thought you could drink anymore. You'll drink it all night. It's delicious.'even out of the freezer, 6 limoncellos (and they come in very small glasses) is as many as i have been able to take before it's syrupy goodness was too much for me.Then it's back to the italian beer with the guy who looks a bit like saddam on the front

QuoteOriginally posted by: Tripitaka'Drink 'Limoncello' long past you thought you could drink anymore. You'll drink it all night. It's delicious.'even out of the freezer, 6 limoncellos (and they come in very small glasses) is as many as i have been able to take before it's syrupy goodness was too much for me.Then it's back to the italian beer with the guy who looks a bit like saddam on the front

I think it's only polite if you steal a brick from St Peter's and take it back to the Flavian ampitheatre where those evil catholics stole it from.Also, go into the pantheon, and refuse to take your hat off.