Thanks so much for the report, Oldmyst. I'm heading to Rome in one more week and have made some notes from your helpful info.

Dear Statia, I hope you have as great of a time as we did. I am sure you will. I found the advice I received on Fodor's Forum to be invaluable. We didn't experiment with restaurants as much as I wanted because my DH and I loved one restaurant so much we tried many of the items on their menu. I went to Rome with volumes of recommended places to eat from Fodor's Forum and two guide books. My DH wasn't as interested in my list of recommendations and more interested in what the hotel had to say. I found that three places recommended by my hotel were very good. I still wish I had more time to try dinners in other places. One day we decided to sleep in and missed our buffet breakfast. That afforded us to try a restaurant for lunch, which I enjoyed very much. We never went out to lunch since breakfast always filled us up. Later when I come home from work, I will go through my suitcase and try to find the names of all the places I enjoyed. I am just starting to unpack, and have a lot of wash to do. Back to reality.

On Thursday we had reservations for an Icon Tour of the Vatican. We met our tour guide, named Mike a few blocks from the Vatican. We were no more than 10 people in our group, and the cost was 25 Euro a person. They had at least another group going out the same time. They are keeping their tour groups to under 15, who reserve in advance. Mike was great, informative and funny. We truly enjoyed our Icon Tour. We toured the Vatican Museum, The Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Bascilia. The tour was only suppose to last 2 1/2 hours, but Mike stayed with us for almost 4 hours. He never once rushed us. My husband and I feel that it was the highlight of our Rome trip. Mike was able to give us an understanding of what we were looking at, and the stories behind it. After our tour ended, we decided to go to the top of the Bascilia. The line looked long, but it moved quickly. We took the elevator, but then we had to get out and climb some stairs, and more stairs, and more stairs. I thought I'd have a heart attack! Soon we were at the top of the inside of the Bascilica. Nice, but then I saw more stairs, and more stairs, and suddenly we were outside the top of the Bascilia. What a view! The view from the top of the Bascilia is worth all that stair climbing. The views of Rome are breathtaking. Make sure you take advantage of this. (only if you are physically able to) We must have spent an hour up there. When we climbed down (much easier) we went back into the Bascilica to soak it all up again. All in all I think we spent about 7 hours at the Vatican. Worth it! As we were walking away, the sky was darkening a little, and my DH took some photos of the Vatican with a little bit of a sunset. Just beautiful. Regards, Lisa

I walked back to the Spagna area on Friday to buy my older daugther her Furla bag. I kept emailing her imploring her to give me some idea what bag she wanted. I even had left behind a Rome Guidebook and asked her to look up shops that specialize in bags and see if they have websites. She finally emailed me two bags she thought looked interesting from Furla. I went to two Furla stores to find one bag she liked, and was thrilled to have gotten that out of the way. I went to a farmacia and bought two tubes of hair straightening balm that was recommended on this website for my girls. My husband and I walked to Campo di Fiori and bought bags and bags of dried porcini mushrooms to give as gifts to friends, relatives and for ourselves. The gentleman also was selling different mixtures of spices and we kind of went a little crazy buying spices for cooking. I think we were his best customer of the day. Boy did those spices sure smell up the armoire in our hotel room! When we landed in JFK and we were at the carousel getting our luggage, the agricultural dog almost made a beeline to us! He started towards us and then went to some girls collecting their luggage.
It sure felt good to get the shopping obligations out of the way! I was more concerned with buying gifts for others than myself. I always thought I would like to buy myself some luxurious blanket or comforter from Italy, but other than Frette, I never saw anything I wanted to buy. And Frette was definitely not in the budget. Also the thought of dragging it home wasn't appealing to me. I knew we would be a little heavy on the luggage to begin with. Good night, Lisa

Thanks, Oldmyst.
I'm really enjoying your trip report.
The Borgese Gallery details are especially helpful since I've been debating between audio and live guides.
We also have never climbed the dome at St. Peter's, so I'd like to do that this trip.

This is great! Oldmyst, thanks for posting..
(Taking notes )

Rufus, we have noticed lately that most chefs are over doing throwing the Sea Salt all over the food ..very annoying~

Hi OldMyst ~ I am greatly enjoying your trip report. It has brought back so many fond memories of my trip to Rome six years ago.

Thank you for taking the time!
Tiff

Thanks for sharing. This has taken me back to our trip to Rome last year. We also stayed near the Pantheon and loved the location (hated the B&B but location was great).

One of our favorite things to do in the evening was sit on the stairs of the Pantheon and listen to the musicians and people watch.

Oh, we also had a "persistent" guy with the roses at the Trevi Fountain. In fact, my very laid back DH who never gets upset nearly got into a fight because the guy kept touching me to take the rose after I asked him to stop. All my DH did was firmly tell him no and moved his hand away from me and the guy got so mad. He wanted to fight my DH and was swearing at us. Considering my DH is 6 feet tall and built, this guy was barely 5'5" and kept getting into my DH's face until we started calling for the police. He would not back down until the other guys also selling stuff pulled him away.

My DH is a New Yorker, so he has seen everything. The rose guys are the Trevi were probably the most aggressive I have ever seen. I kept seeing people trying to get them to go away. They act like they are "giving" you the roses for "free", shoving them at you, but obviously that is not the case. I also saw a lot of women lying on the ground cradling a child, crying out in Italian for help.

Two years ago my favorite beggars were in Florence, where they were two adorable dogs with signs around their necks that said Grazie and a bowl in front of them for money. That got my attention and my coins!

One night we were looking for a restaurant and the restaurant card had a diagram written on it. We still had trouble finding it. A young man saw that I was trying to find something and offered to help. He looked at the card and while he was examining it, a woman came by too and said, "oh that's the Piazza where I sleep at night!" Then I realized they were homeless people from England. When I found out it was just around the corner, the "gentleman" asked me to give him some money for helping me. Maybe a "fiver" as he called it. I dugged into my wallet (I had no loose change at the time) and handed him 2 quarters, as it was all I had on me. He told me very annoyed that my money would do him no good, so I just cooly took the money back from him and said too bad.

What I also saw on some of the main streets leading to the Trevi and Campo Fiori, Navona is a lot of people selling knockoff bags, Junky souvenirs, etc. All selling the same merchandise. I really wish they would crack down on them and shoo them away. I actually saw the police pass a few times, but never stopped. The only interesting item being made and sold was a young woman who spray paints pictures of the Monuments of Rome with moons and interesting sky effects. She always had a crowd around her, and people where commissioning pictures from her for 10 Euro. My DH and I couldn't belive all that spraypaint she was inhailing and should have been wearing a mask. More later... Lisa

Lisa, did you see any sign of the artists that used to be in Piazza Navona? Last November, it was announced that the mayor of Rome was kicking them out, even the licensed ones. One article said they might all be moved to one spot, another that they might be spread out in several areas. Just wondered if you saw anything of them.

I, too, am interested in the area around Piazza Navona...are the hawkers gone? I found them to be annoying and rather distracting for such a beautiful area. We stayed at del Senato this past May and are returning in just over a month. While in Rome, we didn't eat at particularly good restaurants. At the time, we would just stop and eat when we got hungry. However, this trip we're going with friends and want to experience great food. I'd appreciate recommendations...so glad you enjoyed the hotel. It's one of our favorites!

Hi, I will gather together my list of good restaurants for you. As I posted before, we ate at Il Chianti three times it was so good. It was always busy. The second time we went they were almost going to turn us away for we hadn't any reservations, but instead had us just wait about 20 minutes for a table. The third time we had reservations for 8PM and they were fully booked, and were definitely turning people away. Very unusual for a restaurant in Italy to be packed at 8PM. It was filled with tourists and locals. The restaurant was recommended by Albergo Del Senato. Don't forget to try most of their desserts. They were divine.

What a great hotel! I loved it, and I am very particular. My only minor suggestion to the hotel concerning the room I was in is that they should provide a wastepaper basket in the bathroom. They only had one in the bedroom. Also the doorstop. bolted to the floor, for the bathroom door is right by where your foot would be when on the toilet, so be careful you don't stub your toe! The hotel is wonderful and our room was lovely. Be aware that some rooms are bigger than others. We were given a corner room, so it was bigger. The rooms without views can be even bigger, but the view to me was important. They provide internet access in the room off the lobby, but you have to buy a card to use the computer for 1/2 hour for 3 euros and one hour for 5 euros. I am hoping one day they will provide free internet access in all rooms. Regards, Lisa

Oldmyst: I am going to Italy for the first time this June and I really enjoyed your report. Tell us more.

Oldmyst: Do you have Mike's contact info? We are going to Rome in April and would like to tour the Vatican. Thanks.

Dorkforcemom, The artists are still in the Piazza Narvona. I think I remember someone selling a few knockoff bags, but it wasn't overun with sellers. also we saw a few "statues" standing still for money. Ice Leopard, I will go through my information on get you the email address for Icon Tours. Mike was great, and I am also hearing wonderful things about Douglas. Maybe other Fodorites who used Douglas for a tour could write in too. Be back later, Lisa

Thanks for the recommendation of Il Chianti. We are going to Rome at the end of may. Would it be a place that I could take my 23 month old daughter?

I can't imagine why not? It is not a stuffy place. I don't remember seeing very young children there though, mostly couples or small groups. The tables there are placed close together though.

Oldmyst,

Glad you loved Rome and the del Senato. The only time I stayed there was with my mother (she paid ). Just from that experience she loves Rome and is always mad to go back.

Enjoying your report!

My daughter, who just turned 21 yesterday, received from me and my DH a Furla bag. We agonzied over which to pick out for her (she finally emailed two suggestions). Excuse me, I agonized which to buy for her, my husband told me to leave him out of the decision making. Well she went into Furla in Manhattan yesterday and the salesman flipped over her bag. Apparently it is a hard to get,(waiting list?) and the cost is $500. I paid 250 Euro and got the VAT back. What a bargain. Thanks fodorites for the great suggestion! My soon to be 17 year old daughter received a crisscross two banded black watch with studs from Furla, which looks great!
Wish I was still in Italy, Lisa

Saturday was our last full day in Rome.I am getting a little sad. We would be catching a 10:15AM flight out of Rome to NY the next day. That meant we had to be picked up at least by 7:30AM! So Saturday morning we decided to skip breakfast and sleep in. It was a good decision for us. First it enable us to get some well needed rest and it afforded us the opportunity to go to a restaurant for lunch. Our hotel recommended a place called Osteria Constanza (I will try to find the address) and our lunch was delicious. I had the fried antipasto. Fried artichoke, cheese, zuccinni, etc. I really wanted to try the jewish artichokes before we left and I was glad I did. The bread was delicious and homemade. We enjoyed our lunch and thought about going back for dinner, but never made it back. When the waiters found out my name was Lisa, they started singing in Italian "Lisa with the blue eyes". Also the interior of the restaurant is interesting with stone walls and beams. i am sorry I never got to eat there twice. We spent Saturday going back to places we loved so much (the fountains, the great interesting historic streets, and spent the evening sitting on the bottom of the pillar of the Pantheon listening to someone play wonderful music with a violin. What a wonderful experience! Have a great day, Lisa