When in Rome...How 2 can spend 6 days for $1000

When we decided to go to Italy for the first time in 2009, we booked a 33 day Transatlantic cruise. The cruise line offered a one night hotel stay in Rome including transfers from the airport to the hotel and then to the ship on embarkation day. So we thought we would go a few days early and get some extra time to see the eternal city up close and personal. I excitedly called to get information from the cruise line. "It's okay, just breathe", I told myself as I graciously thanked the young lady on the other end of the line.  Tony, my husband, could tell by the look on my face and the open gape of my mouth that one of two things had just happened. Either I was in "sticker shock" or a village some where had just found its lost idiot. For a few minutes after telling him the cost I was afraid he might have a seizure . At the same time, I was about to cry while thinking, there goes my only chance to see Rome.  The cost you ask?... a whopping $479 PER PERSON for ONE night!!!  
I decided to do some research and see if there was a way to spend a few days in Rome and save some money in the process. After thinking about what we considered the 'must do' things this is the list we came up with.
1. The Vatican Museum                                        6. The Pantheon 
2. The Colosseum and Forum                               7. The Spanish Steps 
3. Piazza Navona                                                 8. Pizza 
4. Trevi Fountain                                                  9. Galleria Borgese  
5. St. Peters Basilica                                           10. Sistine Chapel

We figured we would need a minimum of 4 days before we boarded our ship for the Med and then transatlantic back to Ft. Lauderdale.  My first need - a place to stay.  I like http://www.hotels.com/ and have fairly good luck with them.  We stayed at Flaminio Village Bungalow Park,Via Flaminia Nuova 821, Rome, 00189 Italy 866-539-0036. This is a campground that also offers several sizes of bungalows on a very large property. We paid less than $35US per night and that included breakfast. No TV or phone and limited
WiFi for a fee. But clean and adequate. Here is their website. http://flaminio-village-bungalow.h-rez.com/  I got a better price from hotels.com than the pricing on the site. And please remember we were there in November which is the low season. These lodgings were great for the price, however, we wouldn't stay there again because a few days we spent up to 2 hours a day traveling to get to the main part of Rome where all the major sites are located. But because of the money we saved on these accommodations we were able to stay for six days.  There is a restaurant on premise and that is where we took most of our evening meals. Dinner was an average of  E45 each night including wine. We packed a light lunch of boiled eggs, croissants and fruit from the breakfast bar. We would occasionally purchase a piece of pizza on our daily outings if we wanted an extra snack. We drank water from bottles we brought with us from the bungalow that we filled at the open faucets that are all over Rome. All of the water comes from the mountains thru the ancient aqueducts and is very safe for drinking and tastes like expensive bottled water . This alone probably saved us E50.
We used public transportation and had a wonderful time mingling with the locals on the trains, buses and metro. Use common sense the same as you would in any large city you are not familiar with. Don't dress like a tourist and watch your pockets and you will have a once in a lifetime experience blending in. We speak very little Italian, but between our few words and their little bit of English and sign language and lots of smiles we did just fine. We purchased 2 Roma Passes each for the six days since each is good for 3 days public transportation and includes free entry into the first 2 venues on each pass plus discounts on many others.  Using the pass at venues you get to bypass the ticket lines which can take an hour or more at certain sites depending on what day of the week it is. And the price of entry at the first 2 venues almost covers the cost of the 3 day pass. That means your transportation is practically free! Here is the website.  
http://www.romapass.it/english/index.html  We also felt the 48 hour pass on the Hop On Hop Off Bus was money well spent allowing us to get acquainted with the area and get dependable transport  between
 sites. There are three to choose from. We would not recommend the yellow one as it is mainly for Christian sites. The green and red are almost identical in routes. They offer the most circuitous routes nearest the popular sites We chose the green.
We saw 8 of our ten 'must do' items plus the Scavi Tour (the necropolis under St Peters), which was spectacular, a Rome By Night Tour that was fun fun fun, and spent one entire afternoon on a quest to find a keyhole through which the dome of St Peters was visible only to be driven there that same night on the Rome by Night Tour. We still laugh about that one. If you look at the pictures on the left you will see through the keyhole both during the day and at night. My advise is to reserve and purchase as much beforehand as possible. We bought our Roma Passes (picked up in the airport before we exited), Scavi Tour, and our hotel in advance. We reserved tickets for Borgese Gallery a few days before we wanted to go since they fill up quickly. The Scavi Tour should be booked thru the Vatican scavi@fsp.va several months in advance. You will be assigned a day and time during whatever days you say you are available since they only allow a maximum of 250 people a day, and each group is limited and for a specific language.  We also reserved a driver to pick us up at the airport and then take us to the ship six days later. All of this including souvenirs came to around $1000+/-US. Compared to $958 for one night at a hotel and transport to the ship we had an adventure we will always remember. The best part was we were not slaves to a schedule. We have plans to go back again to see some of the things we didn't have time for, but we have been told you can never see all of Rome. I would love to try. How about you?