Thanks a lot,
Maria

Anne Hanley: Trains from Rome to Civitavecchia are frequent, cheap, and take just over an hour. If you're staying at a hotel near Fiumicino airport, your best bet is to take the stopping train (not the faster Leonardo Express) from Fiumicino station and get out at Ostiense station in Rome: Civitavecchia trains all stop at this minor station.

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Columbia, S.C.: We are a group of 6 adults visiting Rome in June. We have heard many horror stories about pickpockets and drive-by purse snatchers. How big a problem is this, really? What are the best ways to avoid being a target?

Anne Hanley: I know far more people who have had bags snatched and pockets picked in London than in Rome! There are nasty people out there, of course, as there are in any big city. They're more frequent in heavily touristed areas. The number 40 and 64 buses (which go between the main train station and the Vatican) are famous pocket-picking places. Don't leave handbags sitting on the ground under outside restaurant tables or expensive camera equipment hanging over the back of your chair, don't flap wads of cash around everywhere, try not to look too lost and helpless... just like anywhere really! One particularly Roman thing is groups of gypsy woman and children who approach tourists flapping bits of cardboard around at waist height. While you try to work out what on earth they're doing, the little ones have ducked underneath and are picking your pockets. But as I said, you'd be part of a very small statistic if anything were to happen to you.

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Sudbury, Canada: We are headed to Rome March 9, 2008. Could you tell me which tour company runs the best Vatican tour with no waiting in lines? Is the official Vatican tour a little drier than those with Angel Tours or Sky Tours? We are traveling with 2 children, ages 10 and 14, and need a "fun" tour guide! Thanks

Anne Hanley: Oh dear, this is one of those questions that I really don't know the answer to (so, apologies to you and to the many other people who have asked the same question). Perhaps there isn't an answer. The official Vatican Museum tours are very good value and certainly there's no waiting in line, but they're notoriously difficult to get on to... so difficult, in fact, that I know no one who has ever done it. You send your fax off into the Vatican void and wait and wait and wait for a confermation fax. As I say, I don't know anyone who has ever had one. I think there are two things to remember when seeking a Vatican tour: if it's cheap—by which I mean less than €100 per person—then it's likely to involve long waits; and as the small print doesn't always explain the real situation, you need to be able to put very precise questions to the tour operator. You need, for example, to be aware that St Peter's basilica and the Vatican Museums (which contain the Sistine Chapel) are two different attractions, with a ten minute hike between them. And getting into both of them generally involves daunting waits, unless you are paying your tour operator enough money to cover the Vatican's huge charge for priority entrance to the museums. I have never heard of priority entrance to the basilica. Sorry, I know that's really not all that much use, or very comforting. If you simply can't make your mind up, try going to the museums round about noon on Wednesday when lots of people are at the pope's audience in St Peter's square: the wait tends to be much shorter.

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Ruidoso, N.M.: What is the most central location to stay in Rome? Someplace close to attractions and great restaurants.

Anne Hanley: Rome's centro storico is compact and full of everything you want to see (and eat). Anywhere around the Pantheon, piazza Navona, the Spanish Steps, Trastevere... you'll love them all.

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