"Rome on Wheels" - by Kelly Mack

Rome is an incredible city, filled with history and art — plus incredible food. On a recent Mediterranean cruise my husband, Richard, and I spent one day touring some of the sites in a swift whirlwind. We caught the Rome bug and had to go back to see and experience more of this unique place.

Although I plan a lot of our travel details independently, I also very much value the services of expert travel companies that have greater knowledge and expertise for assisting disabled travelers. For this reason, we engaged Sage Traveling to help with booking accessible ground transportation (to and from the airport) and personalized tours. They were super helpful and everything they arranged went perfectly!

Air Travel and Wheelchair Planning

For our air travel, we booked direct flights with United Airlines. One of my travel challenges is finding comfort as I find airline seats difficult and often exhausting for my body. I did OK on these flights, but find if I can pay to upgrade to better seats I feel better upon landing after a long ride. On each flight (going and returning) I did use the onboard wheelchair with assistance from my husband to use the lavatory. I will criticize United for not having accessible-sized lavatories on their international flights. We needed a flight attendant to hold up a curtain to give me some privacy as there was not enough space for me to receive the necessary assistance with their tiny lavatories and have the expected privacy.

We checked a folding manual wheelchair (more on why later) and also a folding lightweight (about 50 lbs) motorized wheelchair that went into one of the cabin closets. In my daily life I use a customized motorized wheelchair that weighs more than 250 lbs. While the folding motorized wheelchair is less comfortable, I prefer it for international travel so that the risk of airline damage is minimized. My husband can also tilt it some and help me navigate over one step or bad terrain, which proved necessary during our Rome visit. 

Ground Transportation and Hotel

I was very thankful for excellent ground transportation to our hotel when we landed. That made carting the luggage and extra wheelchair much easier. Although my manual wheelchair doubled as a handy luggage cart as well!

In Rome we stayed at Le Méridien Visconti near the Vatican. While the room was small, it had a roll in shower (we had to request a bench for it) and grab bars. There wasn’t much rolling space, but it was sufficient to get my wheelchair up to the bed and to the bathroom. I booked the room online then called to request assignment to an accessible room. The staff was very helpful throughout our stay and we appreciated starting the day with a nice breakfast spread (note: we did pay extra for that convenience as it was not complimentary).

Since we enjoy walking/rolling around when we travel, I selected the hotel based on its central location for getting to the sites. Most of the time we either rolled or took a taxi to and from our tours. There are many hotels in central Rome with various pricing levels, so there are plenty of options. I definitely recommend calling hotels for more specifics on their accessibility features.

Touring Rome

The tours we selected were all fantastic with expert guides from European Odyssey (they were the local contractor for Sage). We experienced so much and learned a lot of history from these highly-educated guides. Additionally, they knew about wheelchair accessible routes and provided great recommendations on local restaurants. We also explored a bit ourselves on foot/wheel and saw the Tiber River, St. Angel Castle, Marcus Aurelius Mausoleum, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, and more.

Expect to spend at least 5 hours at the Vatican Museum and definitely book a guide if you can. They are a huge help in navigating the complex wings and elevators for this very large museum. There is a lift that takes wheelchair users down into the Sistine Chapel as well.

We brought my manual wheelchair specifically for the day we visited the Capitoline Museum, Colosseum, and Forum — which worked out much better on the rough terrain and very uneven stone and paths at the Forum. There was a great elevator for going down into the ruins, but the paths were challenging. Richard worked hard (with the help of our guide) in pushing me through this area.

The other days we used my folding motorized wheelchair and it did well despite some of the accessibility challenges with missing (or bad) curb cuts, too many cobblestones, and other pavement problems. We had to go up or down one step in some areas, but this wheelchair could do so with assistance from my husband. In addition to the Vatican Museum and St. Peter’s Basilica, with this wheelchair we toured the Pantheon, Jewish Quarter, Old Forum (with a newly installed, beautiful elevator down into the excavated site), St. Mary’s Basilica, Baths of Diocletian, the Borghese park and Gallery. 

Dining and Getting Around

With some good recommendations from the hotel and guides, we ate some amazing meals. I prefer a nice leisurely lunch to recover from touring in the morning, so that was lovely to enjoy. And, of course, we found great gelato and pizza as well! Definitely get suggestions from locals on where to eat and venture off the main streets to find the best places.

We had great interactions with Romans and felt very welcome! Getting a taxi was sometimes challenging, but if I had downloaded the local taxi app that may have proved useful. In any case, we found them eventually and learned there is a shortage of taxis in Rome. We tried Uber once, but the vehicle that arrived was too tall (a huge van) and I could not transfer. A guide also advised that Uber in Rome is often twice the price of a cab. One thing to note: we saw no accessible (WAV) cabs and so we needed to transfer me and fold my wheelchair to load in the trunk. The only accessible vehicles were vans with lifts that were booked through Sage Traveling.

I remember the anxiety about this trip and wondering if I would be able to manage the inevitable accessibility challenges. While we did encounter barriers (like many steps with no ramp alternatives), my husband and I were able to navigate them and truly enjoyed a one-of-a kind visit to the Eternal City.