Rome Trip Report: March 18-23
Apr 12th, 2004, 07:50 AM
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Rome Trip Report: March 18-23
Hi all! Here is my report for our trip to Rome from March 18-March 23. Our second leg of the trip, Prague from March 23-29, will follow later. It was our first time in both places and it was a FANTASTIC trip. Thanks so much for everyone?s help! Note: Remember that these are just my impressions and I hope they are at least entertaining if not informative!
The four of us flew out of JFK on an Alitalia 777 jet. The plane ride was long and sleepless as I expected, but Alitalia made it very comfortable. We arrived at FCO and our driver from Airport Connection was just outside of baggage claim with the other drivers. He was very courteous and it was funny to see his face when the four of us walked towards him with our luggage! He was shocked! Obviously there was some miscommunication as I had reserved the van for four and they sent a car. After a cramped ride in a Mercedes going 100 mph we were dropped off at the apartment on Via
del Governo Vecchio. One thing that stuck out was how charming our street was- there was so much to look at on the way. And so narrow they were! After we stopped I prayed that Roman Reference, our apartment rental agency, would be there to meet us because the four of us with luggage stuck out like a sore thumb in this quaint neighborhood. Sure enough they were like clockwork with keys to get in. Their rep took us up
the stairs into our fourth floor apartment and showed us around- he was very professional. We made sure to ask A LOT of questions about the place. It was a basic two bedroom apt with simple Ikea furnishings. Perfect for us. After our experience I would book through Roman Reference again. From the moment we inquired about the apartment they were quick with responses and very friendly. I found they?re prices were comparable to the other agencies mentioned on this board.
So after settling in we crashed for a couple hours and then took off. Piazza Navona was about 30 yards away. Through there toward
Spanish Steps, we stopped at S Agostino which blew us away because we just happened upon it. Up V d Condotti past the designer shops to the Spanish Steps which were naturally packed. Up the steps and into
Trinita dei Monti church, then down past Piazza Mignanelli toward Trevi. Got lost and ended up Palazzo del Quirinale and then Trevi at dusk- the lights turned on while we were there. It was awesome to see this massive work of art and it too was packed
with people. It started to get chilly so we walked back to the apt stopping on the way at a grocery. Even shopping at the grocery was great- I had trouble ordering salami and turkey at the deli counter and a very nice Italian woman helped me out. After stopping
at the apt we went out to dinner at a restaraunt that was literally 5 steps from the downstairs apartment door- I have to admit I didn't right down any
restaraunts that we went to but they were all great. All of them around Navona and Campo. That night we had great pasta dishes and of course wine. After that
we walked around Piazza Navona for awhile and stopped at a restaraunt and had a couple more bottle of wine outside and relaxed. What a first day!
Saturday
The next day we took a day trip to Ostia Antica. Taxi'd to Termini, then we followed the istructions that Elaine had in her "Rome notes" to get to Ostia. These notes were so valuable! The day at Ostia was wonderful and I would highly recommend it- it was very
relaxing and there is lots to see. Unfortunately they didn't have the audio guide available but we did ok
w/o them. We came back to the city which was FILLED with protesters of the Iraq war (we had heard later that it was the one year anniversary). Since we were at the Termini we walked to S Maria Maggiore which was well worth the walk and then started walking west as dusk hit. We should've
gotten a taxi at that point but kept walking and got turned around at the Forum and Collisseum which was loud with protesting. We finally got a cab to a much quieter Piazza Navona. Then we had dinner at a restarant with many locals, again on Via del Governo Vecchio. There we had a good
time and our friend found out the hard way that meat dishes come only after the pasta is finished (the three of had pasta)! Hah hah! We had another great dinner that night.
Sunday
The next morning we had a morning tour with Scala Reale at the Collisseum.
We caught a cab to the Palanine Hill entrance. Sunday morning and hardly any traffic- very nice and
quiet! We were pleasantly surprised that Rome closed the streets to regular traffic on this Sunday. At exactly 9 am Tom Rankin showed up with his assistant and met about 12 of us (2 groups). It was only my wife
and myself, as our friends slept in on this misty morning. Tom was very cordial and began going down his list politely and it turned out we were not on his list for the morning. In addition, when I mentioned that our tour guide was Darius Arya, as it said on the website, Tom said that Darius was
on a private tour this morning. I was a slightly miffed at this point as I had heard good things about Darius, and then after a call to his assistant, he asked us ..Are you sure you weren't scheduled for yesterday's tour? My wife and I looked at each other
thinking maybe we should?ve slept in as well, but sure enough soon another Scala rep came and had us on his list- his name was
Arra, who is a phd student from Berkeley. The tour was great. A small, nice group of people and Arra was very easy to talk to. We asked alot of questions which he was glad to not only answer but in knowledgable detail. They knew my background and asked me my thoughts on a couple things which was small but a little thing like this kind of impressed me. We loved Palantine Hill, esp. the garden, the Forum was overwhelming and Arra's explanations were great and much needed for alot of areas that were seemingly piles of uninteresting rubble (ok I'm exaggerating a bit!). The Colliseum tour was brief but I knew the tour wasn't centered around it so it was fine. I will say that it was nice
to just walk through the Collisseum entrance past the people waiting in the 30 minute line ("I'm with the band!"
. After this tour I would have probably went
with Scala again because of their quality of tour guides and small tour group. We passed countless groups of thirty people standing and listening to a miked up guide. It was nice to be walking and talking at the same time which only a small group can do. Oh
yeah- there were two jumpers at one of the top arches of the Colliseum. They had climbed up the scaffold that were on the inside of the walls and were attracting a few spectators- but it was funny that
most people took a look or two and after that were generally uninterested and walked on. Almost likethey had better things to do than watch a couple of wackos who probably wouldn't jump anyway. I never found out if they did or not. So we finished the Scala Reale tour at the Collisseum and met our friends there. We had scheduled the day
pretty heavily with the Scala tour in the morning and then a tour of the Borghese Gallery from 3-5pm. Honestly none of us were really enthused about going,
so we bagged it and instead we had a lunch at a nearby restaraunt and walked through the Forum again. Our friends spent a little more time looking around the
Forum and we headed up to Palatine hill and just walked around the gardens again. It has a really nice view up there. So we got back to the apartment and crashed with a big nap, and later we went to dinner at a restaraunt right in Piazza Navona. There are quite a few and we looked over all the menus- finally we chose the one that had most of the people in it! I must admit it was a lackluster dinner but the
atmosphere was very nice- sitting outside under heaters with music going on in the square. After dinner we checked out the artists work in the square
and then hit a bar on a side street off of Piazza Navona heading west for a few rounds of beers. This area was one of my favorite memories of Rome because it had such a mix of entertainment and it's totally off the beaten path. Gelato, bars, restaraunts etc.
lit with old lamps only just enough to see where you're going. We loved to just walk through there and it was so nice we were a short short walk to the apartment. I cannot tell you how much we liked the location of our place! So anyway after many beers we
came home for the night.
Monday
After a late start we hit the Pantheon which is just so perfect for such an old building. The architecture was phenomenal esp. the roof. I was surprised that
Piazza della Rotonda was so small around the Pantheon- not that it's a bad thing but it's just not like I pictured it. And the McDonalds across from it was slightly subdued but you just could not miss it!
After the Pantheon went a couple blocks east to St. Ignatius church, another amazing church that you could easily miss, then we went up north and east to a church that the girls wanted to see- S Maria D Concezione aka the Bone Church. We stopped on the way
at a small pizzaria got some slices to go because we were headed toward Spanish Steps and we could eat there which we did at the bottom of the steps. Then we made our way up the steps again, down via Sistina
and took a left on v d Cappuccini to the church which was closed until 3:30. So we walked around Via Veneto
for awhile and came back about a half hour later only to be VERY disappointed that church has been closed for repairs since January! We were bummed bigtime. We just
sat at the front gate for about 10-15 minutes moping. Since we didn?t have anything else on the agenda, we split off from our friends and my wife and I went to see S Giovanni in Laterno. We took the metro to the Manzoni stop and when we came up this was a bit more rundown neighborhood, southeast of the Termini. We
walked from the stop to S Giovanni which is a massive church, the biggest we had seen. As we walked towards it we happened upon the Holy Stairs on our left and
went in. These are the stairs that Jesus is said to have walked up before being judged by Pontius Pilot. People were going up these steps on there knees and it
was really an amazing place. A small chapel is upstairs. After this we moved on to S Giovanni. I got a good look at the front of the church- AMAZING. If you?re into churches this is a must see. The inside is massive as expected and there are humongous
statues of all of the apostles. There was a lot to see. When we left there we walked a short time northeast on V Carlo Felice on the way to S Croce in Gerusalemme. On the way a drunk came up from behind us and started walking toward us yelling, so we stopped and he kept walking past. For some reason he decided to come back right up to us
and I thought it may be an ugly moment. If he would have touched one of us it would have been "GO" time, but luckily after making an obsene gesture toward my wife he moved on with his empty beer bottle.
So after that tense moment we went into S Croce in Gerualemme, which has some relics including a piece of the true cross of Christ. We went in and nobody was
in there! It was pretty spooky. This was now the Smallest church we had been in. We went downstairs and there was about 5 chalices on an alter behind
bars. These were the relics that we were there to see, but there was no explanation and you couldn?t tell what was what. We
left after a few minutes a little confused. After that we caught the metro back to the Spanish Steps and walked back to the apartment. We met our friends and had a very nice dinner in Campo dei Fiori and went to the same bar off of Piazza Navona that we had been to the night before.
Tuesday
Last day in Rome. After stopping on the way for a slice of pizza, we went over the Tevere River on Ponte S Angelo. My wife couldn?t resist buying a fake designer purse from one of the many vendors on the bridge! We made our way up Via della
Conciliazione to St Peters Square, around the east and north walls to the Vatican Museum entrance at 12:45pm. Plenty of time for our 1:00 pm tour with Scala Reale.
We were all very excited. So here we were at the entrance where every other group tour was meeting. Since we didn?t know where we were meeting (please humor me on this one!), my wife and I went inside the
security check and sat down while our friends waited outside the doors. Well 1:00 came and no Scala Reale. The whole morning that day I thought that maybe the
tour started at 1:30 pm, so I told our group that must have been the case. And so we waited till 1:15 and I was becoming a little nervous. And soon it was 1:30 and at that point I didn?t know what to do! I took a
last look at my printed map that Scala Reale sent via email, and sure enough at the bottom of the map in red letters ? MEETING POINT: AT BAR DA PAOLO, ACROSS THE
STREET. I felt about 10 inches tall as I told my wife and our friends. I ran across the street, I don?t even think I looked both ways, to the Bar Da Paolo and
bumrushed the waiter with a two worded question: ?Scala Reale??. He said a very polite ?Sie? and pointed towards a table with a woman on one side and a couple on the other side. I introduced myself to another tour guide, and explained who I was. Sure enough, she explained that the tour was at 1:00 and they left about 20 minutes ago. They must have walked right past us! She got on her cell phone and called the Scala office and suggested I have a drink while
they did what they could. While I humbly finished a bottle of water in the busy restaurant she told me that they had gotten ahold of our guide and he would
meet us at the top of the escalators just after the entrance. I was so happy and relieved as I ran back across Viale Vaticano, looking both ways this time,
and we rushed through the entrance up the tall escalators to meet John, our guide. It was 1:45 by now and I apologized profusely to him and the two other guys on our tour since we had most likely held them up, and John was VERY understanding, explaining that we had not missed much at all. So we started the tour already in progress! The museum is spectacular and our tour was really a major highlight of our whole trip. There is SO much to see, from statues to tapestry, paintings on canvas, paintings on walls and ceilings, and designs of marble and mosaics. We saw some amazing rooms painted by Raphael. Then we went into the Sistine Chapel which is just so spectacular. All of this was really overwhelming. You could spend a day in each section. Then you go into St Peters which is truly magnificent, and outside the church St. Peters Square was really huge and impressive. I really can?t say enough about both the Vatican and our tour w/ John. After leaving we were disappointed to find out that the gift shop was closed and so were the steps going up to the top of St Peters. I mention this so that you leave yourself plenty of time to do those things. We shopped at stores in the Vatican neighborhoods which had plenty of items and a whole lot of junk. I guess people buy it or else they wouldn?t be selling it, right?! After this we stopped at the apartment and then went to dinner in Campo. This was an amazing restaurant and we had an excellent waiter who joked around with us the whole time and even did a shot with us at dessert. A very HARD shot of lemoncello mind you! It knocked us off our feet and so did the second one! I will try to get the name of the restaurant off of our credit card bill for those of you interested.
After dinner we packed and said goodbye to Rome.
Wednesday
Airport connection picked us up at 6:00am sharp with TWO Mercedes cars this time, which made for a very comfortable ride to the airport.
The four of us flew out of JFK on an Alitalia 777 jet. The plane ride was long and sleepless as I expected, but Alitalia made it very comfortable. We arrived at FCO and our driver from Airport Connection was just outside of baggage claim with the other drivers. He was very courteous and it was funny to see his face when the four of us walked towards him with our luggage! He was shocked! Obviously there was some miscommunication as I had reserved the van for four and they sent a car. After a cramped ride in a Mercedes going 100 mph we were dropped off at the apartment on Via
del Governo Vecchio. One thing that stuck out was how charming our street was- there was so much to look at on the way. And so narrow they were! After we stopped I prayed that Roman Reference, our apartment rental agency, would be there to meet us because the four of us with luggage stuck out like a sore thumb in this quaint neighborhood. Sure enough they were like clockwork with keys to get in. Their rep took us up
the stairs into our fourth floor apartment and showed us around- he was very professional. We made sure to ask A LOT of questions about the place. It was a basic two bedroom apt with simple Ikea furnishings. Perfect for us. After our experience I would book through Roman Reference again. From the moment we inquired about the apartment they were quick with responses and very friendly. I found they?re prices were comparable to the other agencies mentioned on this board.
So after settling in we crashed for a couple hours and then took off. Piazza Navona was about 30 yards away. Through there toward
Spanish Steps, we stopped at S Agostino which blew us away because we just happened upon it. Up V d Condotti past the designer shops to the Spanish Steps which were naturally packed. Up the steps and into
Trinita dei Monti church, then down past Piazza Mignanelli toward Trevi. Got lost and ended up Palazzo del Quirinale and then Trevi at dusk- the lights turned on while we were there. It was awesome to see this massive work of art and it too was packed
with people. It started to get chilly so we walked back to the apt stopping on the way at a grocery. Even shopping at the grocery was great- I had trouble ordering salami and turkey at the deli counter and a very nice Italian woman helped me out. After stopping
at the apt we went out to dinner at a restaraunt that was literally 5 steps from the downstairs apartment door- I have to admit I didn't right down any
restaraunts that we went to but they were all great. All of them around Navona and Campo. That night we had great pasta dishes and of course wine. After that
we walked around Piazza Navona for awhile and stopped at a restaraunt and had a couple more bottle of wine outside and relaxed. What a first day!
Saturday
The next day we took a day trip to Ostia Antica. Taxi'd to Termini, then we followed the istructions that Elaine had in her "Rome notes" to get to Ostia. These notes were so valuable! The day at Ostia was wonderful and I would highly recommend it- it was very
relaxing and there is lots to see. Unfortunately they didn't have the audio guide available but we did ok
w/o them. We came back to the city which was FILLED with protesters of the Iraq war (we had heard later that it was the one year anniversary). Since we were at the Termini we walked to S Maria Maggiore which was well worth the walk and then started walking west as dusk hit. We should've
gotten a taxi at that point but kept walking and got turned around at the Forum and Collisseum which was loud with protesting. We finally got a cab to a much quieter Piazza Navona. Then we had dinner at a restarant with many locals, again on Via del Governo Vecchio. There we had a good
time and our friend found out the hard way that meat dishes come only after the pasta is finished (the three of had pasta)! Hah hah! We had another great dinner that night.
Sunday
The next morning we had a morning tour with Scala Reale at the Collisseum.
We caught a cab to the Palanine Hill entrance. Sunday morning and hardly any traffic- very nice and
quiet! We were pleasantly surprised that Rome closed the streets to regular traffic on this Sunday. At exactly 9 am Tom Rankin showed up with his assistant and met about 12 of us (2 groups). It was only my wife
and myself, as our friends slept in on this misty morning. Tom was very cordial and began going down his list politely and it turned out we were not on his list for the morning. In addition, when I mentioned that our tour guide was Darius Arya, as it said on the website, Tom said that Darius was
on a private tour this morning. I was a slightly miffed at this point as I had heard good things about Darius, and then after a call to his assistant, he asked us ..Are you sure you weren't scheduled for yesterday's tour? My wife and I looked at each other
thinking maybe we should?ve slept in as well, but sure enough soon another Scala rep came and had us on his list- his name was
Arra, who is a phd student from Berkeley. The tour was great. A small, nice group of people and Arra was very easy to talk to. We asked alot of questions which he was glad to not only answer but in knowledgable detail. They knew my background and asked me my thoughts on a couple things which was small but a little thing like this kind of impressed me. We loved Palantine Hill, esp. the garden, the Forum was overwhelming and Arra's explanations were great and much needed for alot of areas that were seemingly piles of uninteresting rubble (ok I'm exaggerating a bit!). The Colliseum tour was brief but I knew the tour wasn't centered around it so it was fine. I will say that it was nice
to just walk through the Collisseum entrance past the people waiting in the 30 minute line ("I'm with the band!"
. After this tour I would have probably wentwith Scala again because of their quality of tour guides and small tour group. We passed countless groups of thirty people standing and listening to a miked up guide. It was nice to be walking and talking at the same time which only a small group can do. Oh
yeah- there were two jumpers at one of the top arches of the Colliseum. They had climbed up the scaffold that were on the inside of the walls and were attracting a few spectators- but it was funny that
most people took a look or two and after that were generally uninterested and walked on. Almost likethey had better things to do than watch a couple of wackos who probably wouldn't jump anyway. I never found out if they did or not. So we finished the Scala Reale tour at the Collisseum and met our friends there. We had scheduled the day
pretty heavily with the Scala tour in the morning and then a tour of the Borghese Gallery from 3-5pm. Honestly none of us were really enthused about going,
so we bagged it and instead we had a lunch at a nearby restaraunt and walked through the Forum again. Our friends spent a little more time looking around the
Forum and we headed up to Palatine hill and just walked around the gardens again. It has a really nice view up there. So we got back to the apartment and crashed with a big nap, and later we went to dinner at a restaraunt right in Piazza Navona. There are quite a few and we looked over all the menus- finally we chose the one that had most of the people in it! I must admit it was a lackluster dinner but the
atmosphere was very nice- sitting outside under heaters with music going on in the square. After dinner we checked out the artists work in the square
and then hit a bar on a side street off of Piazza Navona heading west for a few rounds of beers. This area was one of my favorite memories of Rome because it had such a mix of entertainment and it's totally off the beaten path. Gelato, bars, restaraunts etc.
lit with old lamps only just enough to see where you're going. We loved to just walk through there and it was so nice we were a short short walk to the apartment. I cannot tell you how much we liked the location of our place! So anyway after many beers we
came home for the night.
Monday
After a late start we hit the Pantheon which is just so perfect for such an old building. The architecture was phenomenal esp. the roof. I was surprised that
Piazza della Rotonda was so small around the Pantheon- not that it's a bad thing but it's just not like I pictured it. And the McDonalds across from it was slightly subdued but you just could not miss it!
After the Pantheon went a couple blocks east to St. Ignatius church, another amazing church that you could easily miss, then we went up north and east to a church that the girls wanted to see- S Maria D Concezione aka the Bone Church. We stopped on the way
at a small pizzaria got some slices to go because we were headed toward Spanish Steps and we could eat there which we did at the bottom of the steps. Then we made our way up the steps again, down via Sistina
and took a left on v d Cappuccini to the church which was closed until 3:30. So we walked around Via Veneto
for awhile and came back about a half hour later only to be VERY disappointed that church has been closed for repairs since January! We were bummed bigtime. We just
sat at the front gate for about 10-15 minutes moping. Since we didn?t have anything else on the agenda, we split off from our friends and my wife and I went to see S Giovanni in Laterno. We took the metro to the Manzoni stop and when we came up this was a bit more rundown neighborhood, southeast of the Termini. We
walked from the stop to S Giovanni which is a massive church, the biggest we had seen. As we walked towards it we happened upon the Holy Stairs on our left and
went in. These are the stairs that Jesus is said to have walked up before being judged by Pontius Pilot. People were going up these steps on there knees and it
was really an amazing place. A small chapel is upstairs. After this we moved on to S Giovanni. I got a good look at the front of the church- AMAZING. If you?re into churches this is a must see. The inside is massive as expected and there are humongous
statues of all of the apostles. There was a lot to see. When we left there we walked a short time northeast on V Carlo Felice on the way to S Croce in Gerusalemme. On the way a drunk came up from behind us and started walking toward us yelling, so we stopped and he kept walking past. For some reason he decided to come back right up to us
and I thought it may be an ugly moment. If he would have touched one of us it would have been "GO" time, but luckily after making an obsene gesture toward my wife he moved on with his empty beer bottle.
So after that tense moment we went into S Croce in Gerualemme, which has some relics including a piece of the true cross of Christ. We went in and nobody was
in there! It was pretty spooky. This was now the Smallest church we had been in. We went downstairs and there was about 5 chalices on an alter behind
bars. These were the relics that we were there to see, but there was no explanation and you couldn?t tell what was what. We
left after a few minutes a little confused. After that we caught the metro back to the Spanish Steps and walked back to the apartment. We met our friends and had a very nice dinner in Campo dei Fiori and went to the same bar off of Piazza Navona that we had been to the night before.
Tuesday
Last day in Rome. After stopping on the way for a slice of pizza, we went over the Tevere River on Ponte S Angelo. My wife couldn?t resist buying a fake designer purse from one of the many vendors on the bridge! We made our way up Via della
Conciliazione to St Peters Square, around the east and north walls to the Vatican Museum entrance at 12:45pm. Plenty of time for our 1:00 pm tour with Scala Reale.
We were all very excited. So here we were at the entrance where every other group tour was meeting. Since we didn?t know where we were meeting (please humor me on this one!), my wife and I went inside the
security check and sat down while our friends waited outside the doors. Well 1:00 came and no Scala Reale. The whole morning that day I thought that maybe the
tour started at 1:30 pm, so I told our group that must have been the case. And so we waited till 1:15 and I was becoming a little nervous. And soon it was 1:30 and at that point I didn?t know what to do! I took a
last look at my printed map that Scala Reale sent via email, and sure enough at the bottom of the map in red letters ? MEETING POINT: AT BAR DA PAOLO, ACROSS THE
STREET. I felt about 10 inches tall as I told my wife and our friends. I ran across the street, I don?t even think I looked both ways, to the Bar Da Paolo and
bumrushed the waiter with a two worded question: ?Scala Reale??. He said a very polite ?Sie? and pointed towards a table with a woman on one side and a couple on the other side. I introduced myself to another tour guide, and explained who I was. Sure enough, she explained that the tour was at 1:00 and they left about 20 minutes ago. They must have walked right past us! She got on her cell phone and called the Scala office and suggested I have a drink while
they did what they could. While I humbly finished a bottle of water in the busy restaurant she told me that they had gotten ahold of our guide and he would
meet us at the top of the escalators just after the entrance. I was so happy and relieved as I ran back across Viale Vaticano, looking both ways this time,
and we rushed through the entrance up the tall escalators to meet John, our guide. It was 1:45 by now and I apologized profusely to him and the two other guys on our tour since we had most likely held them up, and John was VERY understanding, explaining that we had not missed much at all. So we started the tour already in progress! The museum is spectacular and our tour was really a major highlight of our whole trip. There is SO much to see, from statues to tapestry, paintings on canvas, paintings on walls and ceilings, and designs of marble and mosaics. We saw some amazing rooms painted by Raphael. Then we went into the Sistine Chapel which is just so spectacular. All of this was really overwhelming. You could spend a day in each section. Then you go into St Peters which is truly magnificent, and outside the church St. Peters Square was really huge and impressive. I really can?t say enough about both the Vatican and our tour w/ John. After leaving we were disappointed to find out that the gift shop was closed and so were the steps going up to the top of St Peters. I mention this so that you leave yourself plenty of time to do those things. We shopped at stores in the Vatican neighborhoods which had plenty of items and a whole lot of junk. I guess people buy it or else they wouldn?t be selling it, right?! After this we stopped at the apartment and then went to dinner in Campo. This was an amazing restaurant and we had an excellent waiter who joked around with us the whole time and even did a shot with us at dessert. A very HARD shot of lemoncello mind you! It knocked us off our feet and so did the second one! I will try to get the name of the restaurant off of our credit card bill for those of you interested.
After dinner we packed and said goodbye to Rome.
Wednesday
Airport connection picked us up at 6:00am sharp with TWO Mercedes cars this time, which made for a very comfortable ride to the airport.
Apr 12th, 2004, 07:57 AM
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Elaine- After heavy research I found a deal on Bestfares.com for JFK to Prague w/ a free Rome stopover offered by Alitalia only for March. Since we were flexible on dates it worked out. I did have to join Bestfares for $60 to book all four tickets. They ran us approx. $500 each with the membership fee included.
Apr 12th, 2004, 09:11 AM
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Kirby, we were in Rome March 17 - 23 which overlapped your time there. You are right about how large the demonstration was. I thought there had been an attack based on the number of police cars. However, at least where we were, the demonstrations were against terrorism (triggered by the Madrid train bombings). My son is fluent in Italian and read the signs to us. Many flowers were laid near the Spanish Steps in memory of those lost in Madrid.
Your trip sounds wonderful, as was ours. Can't wait to hear about Prague as we are going there in 3 weeks.
Your trip sounds wonderful, as was ours. Can't wait to hear about Prague as we are going there in 3 weeks.
Apr 12th, 2004, 09:50 AM
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Hello Kirby,
Thanks for your trip report which allowed me to relive our 3 days in Rome, March 21-24, 2004. We enjoyed many of the same experiences as you. We particularly enjoyed our Scala Reale tour of ancient Rome with Flavia Marcella. In fact, we were also at the Colosseum the day the two sad souls were threatening to jump. I heard later from a fellow American that someone did jump off that day. Hope it's untrue
I am very interested in reading about your time in Prague as I am currently considering taking my family there this summer. How did it compare with Rome which was a big hit for all of us, especially the two teenaged boys? Please write about Prague with as much detail as Rome!
Thanks,
Patty
Thanks for your trip report which allowed me to relive our 3 days in Rome, March 21-24, 2004. We enjoyed many of the same experiences as you. We particularly enjoyed our Scala Reale tour of ancient Rome with Flavia Marcella. In fact, we were also at the Colosseum the day the two sad souls were threatening to jump. I heard later from a fellow American that someone did jump off that day. Hope it's untrue
I am very interested in reading about your time in Prague as I am currently considering taking my family there this summer. How did it compare with Rome which was a big hit for all of us, especially the two teenaged boys? Please write about Prague with as much detail as Rome!
Thanks,
Patty
Apr 12th, 2004, 10:08 AM
#6
Great trip report! We were in Rome March 18-22 and saw the "jumper" at the Colliseum also. We were told that it's a lady who is protesting because she can't get a work permit. They said she had been there every day for weeks and it's such a waste because the rescue people have to be there in case she does jump.
Apr 12th, 2004, 10:12 AM
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Patty -
Prague is gorgeous. Summer will be busy but I'd go anyhow. If you'd like to see some pics, go here...
www.travelchick.com
I don't have my trip report up yet but there are some good pics.
Prague is gorgeous. Summer will be busy but I'd go anyhow. If you'd like to see some pics, go here...
www.travelchick.com
I don't have my trip report up yet but there are some good pics.
Apr 12th, 2004, 02:29 PM
#8
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Marcie Lynn,
I enjoyed your website, especially the photos of Prague. I called American Airlines and made tentative reservations to Vienna, returning from Prague...via Zurich and Chicago. The joys of living in the midwest with so few direct flights! I am excited however.
We are considering using my husband's Marriott points for accomodations. We have never stayed in a chain hotel (so boring) in Europe, however he has so many just collecting dust we might just cash them in. Do you have any knowledge of either the Marriott or Renaissance hotels in Prague?
Patty
I enjoyed your website, especially the photos of Prague. I called American Airlines and made tentative reservations to Vienna, returning from Prague...via Zurich and Chicago. The joys of living in the midwest with so few direct flights! I am excited however.
We are considering using my husband's Marriott points for accomodations. We have never stayed in a chain hotel (so boring) in Europe, however he has so many just collecting dust we might just cash them in. Do you have any knowledge of either the Marriott or Renaissance hotels in Prague?
Patty
Apr 12th, 2004, 03:57 PM
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JenniferW- Sorry but I don't remember the name of the bar. I think it was a Guiness pub on the corner. Very small and playing cheesy pop music which we found hilarious. I wouldn't highly recommend it but of course we had a good time. We passed so many I'm sure they are all nice. My suggestion is to take a walk into Piazza Navona in the evening and then walk west on via di Tor Millina and a left at the next street, v s Maria d Anima to piazza Pasquino. If you take that route you'll find quite a few restaraunts, wine bars outside and bars all of which are off the beaten path.
Our favorite restaraunt was on our last night. We just happened to walk by and it looked like a nice place to eat. It's in Piazza de Ricce in Campo Dei Fiori, named Pierluigi. Their specialty is seafood, but our wives who are not seafood fans loved it as well. The service was second to none. Be careful if you have the after dinner drink...it is strong!
Our favorite restaraunt was on our last night. We just happened to walk by and it looked like a nice place to eat. It's in Piazza de Ricce in Campo Dei Fiori, named Pierluigi. Their specialty is seafood, but our wives who are not seafood fans loved it as well. The service was second to none. Be careful if you have the after dinner drink...it is strong!
Apr 12th, 2004, 04:02 PM
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kirby,
Wonderful report - thank you. Via
del Governo Vecchio is indeed an epicenter for sublime, non-touristy, reasonable dining - a great home base. I didn't know about S Giovanni and environs - yet another reason for me to return!
Wonderful report - thank you. Via
del Governo Vecchio is indeed an epicenter for sublime, non-touristy, reasonable dining - a great home base. I didn't know about S Giovanni and environs - yet another reason for me to return!
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