My useful Rome hints.

Thanks for the recommendation on getting an early start. I'm going to Rome in September, and the Colisseum and Vatican are must-sees. I don't really like getting up early, but I like less the idea of lining up in terribly long queues. I guess having a book to read is a good idea, just in case...

When I left St Peters at the Vatican in late morning, the queue went halfway round the square. People entering said they had queued for 2 1/2 hours.

Good advice on the getting up early...that is a good idea everywhere touristy,particularly in Italy.Most local people don't do it so the queues can be a lot shorter at that time!

Also that early entrance to the Sistine Chapel is really worth it,if you have the budget.

Good advice on the getting up early...that is a good idea everywhere touristy,particularly in Italy

Absolutely agree. We are very early risers and found some of our best wanderings to have been done before the vast amount of tourists are even out of bed.

Here's my minority opinion on the Colosseum "combo ticket."

You know what you see mostly from the interior of the Colosseum? The other side of the exterior walls. And some remaining stone benches. And a big dirt hole in the middle.

Plus I'm happier overlooking the Forum from the back of the Campidoglio than walking through it.

Which leaves the Palatine Hill. Which I've never visited. And which, oddly enough is the most appealing of the three attractions (for me) covered by the combo ticket. Now that I have a better sense of what's there.

I wonder how many tourists with limited time feel compelled to visit all 3, even if all three don't appeal to them, because they've already paid for them.

So my helpful hint would be: save time and money by not entering the Colosseum.
Arguably, the reliefs on the two nearby arches reward closer scrutiny than anything in what is now a very bare Colosseum interior.

We saw the Forum back when it was free: just walked in one early, drizzly morning and had almost the entire place to ourselves for awhile. Did Colosseum and Palatine that same day (ticketed) and Palatine was our preferred of the two: more interesting and a LOT less mobbed.

I've never understood the fuss about the Spanish Steps.

These are interesting perspectives-so many photos I've seen of the inside of the Colosseum make it look like something that absolutely must be visited thoroughly but is it really currently so uninteresting from the inside?

The interesting bit is really just learning how it operated. For example, it's interesting that a structure built 2000 years ago - with (free) ticketing and assigned seating - was such an efficient design for filling/emptying the arena of thousands of spectators in a hurry that the model is still used today. It's interesting that at one point it was occasionally flooded for staging mock sea battles.

But even what remains of the exterior doesn't look like it did when built: it was sheeted in marble that was lifted and reused for other purposes after it fell into disuse.