Rome, Here We Come!

For better or for worse, we've booked our dividend miles trip to Rome and we hope it doesn't rain every day.  Rome couldn't have rainier or colder weather than Pittsburgh at any rate.  So do we stay the whole time in Rome and do day trips?  Or do we try to stay in  another city?  But that means we would have to come back to Rome to fly out, although technically we could take an early train to Rome (Papi says "No!")

For the 3 of us the train would cost ($27x2)x3=162 total to Florence and back.  That's for the direct train, like the Frecciarossa (Red Arrow) pictured above (talk about a mix of languages).  There are "slower" ones beginning at $13, but then one is looking at connections or longer travel times than the standard 1 hour and 32 minutes.   A trip to Naples is even shorter: 1 hour and 10 minutes but the same price.  Didn't you always want to see Mount Vesuvius?  I looked at the possibility of a day trip to L'Aquila, the capital of Abruzzo, but there's no direct train there and the shortest trip would be more than 3 hours - it's not on the Frecciarossa line or the Frecciargento or the Frecciabianca.  Going over the Appenines is apparently a big roadblock.  Was it Rick Steves who had a list of day trips in the back of his Rome book?