Hello to all!<BR><BR>We returned home today after a week in Italy. I wanted to give a trip report as so many people were kind enough to answer my many newbie-ish questions while planning this first adventure to Rome.<BR><BR>We got our tickets quite cheaply through go-today.com. I had used go-today about a year ago for London and didn’t have a problem with them. I think our total cost per person was about $700 or $800 for 6 nights, breakfast (continental), airfare & transfers. We flew from New York (JFK). I know someone wrote that they’d had trouble with go-today recently (and I’d responded before my trip but I can’t find the post again now). We didn’t have any problems. We got all paperwork 21 days before the trip and everything was in order.<BR><BR>

PART II<BR><BR>ARRIVAL:<BR><BR>Our flight was through Delta – a direct. We left JFK about 5:45 p.m. and arrived in Rome the next morning at about 8:15 a.m. At that point they had a whole &gt;2&lt; lines open in customs – talk about lines! While we were standing there waiting I used the ATM and didn’t have any problems. I saw a few places at the airport where you could change money, as well, but I think the ATM is the best bet. It’s fast and you get the best exchange rate. There was only one time my ATM card didn’t work at a bank, but we think it was because it was an older machine. When I moved to the machine next to it I didn’t have a problem. If I went back I would stick to just using the ATM and credit card. It seems to be the smartest plan.<BR><BR>At about 9 more customs lines opened. One thing that concerned me was that they never asked us a single question – or even &gt;looked&lt; at our faces to match it with the passports. We just slipped the passport under the glass, they looked to see if the date was valid, and they slipped it back. When we got past that part there was a part for random checks – but we were told ‘aw, just go through’. <BR><BR>Our driver was waiting for us when we walked out of customs. I think the company was called Punta (sorry, they took the vouchers and I don’t have any other information on it). <BR><BR>HOTEL:<BR><BR>We were switched to Hotel Napoleon (which is rated 4 stars). There’s a subway entrance right outside the door (Vittorio Emmanuelle (sp)). I never really felt unsafe, but really it’s not the prettiest neighborhood there – and maybe one of the most ugly out of all we’d seen. I’d read one report on how ‘friendly’ the staff were. I wouldn’t necessarily agree with that – I’d say ½ of the staff were friendly and ½ were pretty snobbish. The room was a little larger than the standard room in London with more than enough closet space, a mini-bar (VERY reasonably priced), and a normal sized bathroom with a VERY SMALL shower. It’s a stand-up tiny thing with a curtain – the floors end up very wet. The continental breakfast was great – several cereals, cheese, meats, omelets, juices, pastries. <BR>

Part III<BR><BR>FAVORITE SITES:<BR><BR>Rather than list everything we saw, I’ll share my favorite sites (in no particular order).<BR><BR>The Pantheon – I had no idea what to expect, but it certainly wasn’t what I got. The architecture is amazing, both inside and out. I loved this building. The shopping near there was great, too .<BR><BR>Borghese Gallery – I was expecting that I would be blown away by the paintings, when in fact it was the Bernini Sculptures that did it for me. I’d never really gotten into sculptures, but these were amazing (even to my novice eye). Loved it. The gardens there are quite pretty, also.<BR><BR>Trevi Fountain – maybe it’s from seeing Three Coins In The Fountain one too many times, but I thought it was gorgeous. It was annoying, however, to have to repeatedly tell the gentlemen who literally try to shove flowers in your hands NO, GRAZIE! We went back to the fountain on our last night and enjoyed it even more than the first time (there were also less people because it was midweek, I think). <BR><BR>Santa Maria in Trastevere – there are amazing mosaics in this church. We arrived and the lights were low and I wondered why. They were getting ready for mass and slowly turned the lights on. All of the sudden you could see all of the beautiful mosaic. It took my breath away. It was one of my favorite churches.<BR><BR>One thing I loved was just walking the little side streets and looking at the architecture and views. Almost every street has some sort of great view. It was lots of fun to explore that way.<BR><BR>

PART IV<BR><BR>RESTAURANT NOTES:<BR><BR>Al 34 – Piazza Di Spagna Area – The waiter here was a HOOT. This was our first real dinner there and we felt like we were waited on by Roberto Begnini (sp?)’s brother. He handed us menus and then just started brining us appetizers! The 4 of us had 5-6 appetizers (all his choice), 4 first courses, 4 second courses, 2 desserts, a bottle of wine and a few bottles of water. It ended up being $15 each. We couldn’t believe it. We really enjoyed each course, too. That was quite a fun way to start out our trip.<BR><BR>Rinaldi al Quirinale via Parma 11a – Free champagne to start, then the waiter did the same thing the water from Al 34 did – he brought us about 7-8 appetizers. Unfortunately I didn’t like any of them except the black olives, BUT I am very very picky, so it was bound to happen at some point! I had linguine and lobster and that was wonderful. They also give everyone an after dinner drink on the house. Their specialty seems to be seafood.<BR><BR>Romolo nel Giardino della Fornarina – Trastevere – we went here on New Year’s Eve. Our fixed menu was 180,000 lira per person but included shrimp cocktail (very generous with the shrimp), champagne to start, all wine/water you wanted, seafood plate, bowties with asparagus, pasta with salmon, gnocchi, dessert (which I never got the name of but it was a wonderful pastry/cream/chocolate combination that made me drool). I thought it was a good deal for NYE.<BR><BR>Al Pompiere in the Camp de’ Fiori area – they have the BEST artichokes here. I enjoyed the meal EXCEPT I didn’t understand the waiter and agreed to have tripe with my pasta. Yikes! Even my non-picky hubby thought it looked nasty. Ah well, the artichokes more than made up for it here. Lunch was about $50 for two with house wine, two appetizers, two courses & two desserts (and two cafes). Not bad at all – and it’s a quiet place which is a change from most of the other places we’d gone to.<BR><BR>La Tartaruga. <BR>via del Monte della Farina 53, 06 686 9473, closed Mon. I got this suggestion from Elaine on this site! Thank you Elaine. We tried to get in on a Sunday and New Year’s Eve – both full. Luckily we got in on our last day. The place is so charming with 12 tables and one of the few places that had colored table clothes – ha. The food was divine – I also highly recommend it. We got a very nice bottle of wine, two first courses, two second courses, two desserts, one caf&eacute;, one bottle of water. The total was about $125, but the wine was $45 alone. We would have paid more and would have gone back if we’d had more time there. I can certainly understand why Elaine went twice!<BR>

ODDS AND ENDING NOTES:<BR><BR>The first day I was thrilled with Rome, but the longer I stayed the more I liked it. It was hard to see so much graffiti – more than New York, even! My friend said he hadn’t seen that much writing on a subway car since watching Welcome Back, Kotter. I thought that about summed it up. <BR><BR>The people were less friendly than I’d expected. The nicest people were the waiters – but that makes sense. We had some wacky waiters that really added a lot of color to our trip and great stories.<BR><BR>The food was very good. I didn’t quite think it would be as good as people had said (and we are used to New York caliber) and we loved 85% of what we had. That’s a great success rate. And it felt like it was so cheap for such good stuff. The bad part is I think my stomach has expanded and I feel like I need to eat every two hours now <BR><BR>YOU MUST TAKE GOOD WALKING SHOES. I took Eccos, which were great, and some ortho shoes I have. Never had any trouble with my feet.<BR><BR>Women – keep Kleenex with you for the bathroom (more times than not there wasn’t a seat and/or wasn’t toilet paper – be prepared!). I never once had to pay to use the toilet, though.<BR><BR>It’s not too difficult to get a cab without having to make a special call. It seemed like when we called from the hotel they started the meter as soon as they started heading over to the hotel rather than when we got into the cab. When you flag one down on the road it seemed cheaper.<BR><BR>Take more than one credit card (friend took one and had trouble). Use your credit card and your ATM for cash advances. You get the best interest rates that way.<BR><BR>WE SAW PEOPLE IN JEANS. I was surprised. Even at the restaurants. I was proud of myself that this was my first vacation with no jeans. But I also missed them! I think next time I would take them if I didn’t plan to eat out at a restaurant.<BR><BR>All in all we had a great time and a week seemed like the perfect amount of time to really get a decent taste of what Rome is like. I’d go back again sometime, but definitely when it is warmer (it was so cold – even took long johns!). The architecture blew me away, as well as the views.<BR>

Stephanie -<BR>Great trip report! Even though Italy is not in our plans for a few years (unless I win the 6/49 tonight), your account and excellent descriptions make me wish I were going there.<BR>ja

Nice report Stephanie. Brings back a lot of memories.<BR>Art<BR>

Stephanie, a few pointers to an otherwise decent trip report.<BR><BR>Stop wailing about the jeans thing, is it really such a revelation?<BR><BR>Secondly, get over this 'New York City is the greatest' attitude that you seem to have, it isn't nice, dear. Or true, even.

Happy New Year Inky -- glad to see that you're in good form.<BR><BR>Stephanie -- ignore Inky -- great report -- nothing like that first trip

Sally my dear, good to hear from you too.<BR><BR>I'll make it to Cicero one day.

Really enjoyed your trip report. I did a similiar trip last Thanksgiving (2000) to Rome and stayed at the Napoleon. I've used Go-Today several times and have been consistently pleased with their service.<BR><BR>john<BR>Rome travelogue at www.apppleberryroad.com

Stop wailing about the jeans thing, is it really such a revelation?<BR>&gt;&gt;Yes, actually. Did you somehow miss the first part of my report where I said it was my first trip to Rome?&lt;&lt;<BR><BR>Secondly, get over this 'New York City is the greatest' attitude that you seem to have, it isn't nice, dear. Or true, even.<BR>&gt;&gt;You're quoting, so where did I say that? I said it had less graffiti and talked about the caliber of food and that Rome was right up there with it. Maybe you don't like NYC - I don't know - but you're reading too much into what I wrote. Sounds like you need a vacation...&lt;&lt;<BR>

Steph, did you by chance see the cat gato in Rome where hundreds of cats live amongst the ruins? It is actually a homeless shelter for cats where they are cared for and adopted out to new owners. I understand the city hates having it there but it is quite popular with the tourists.

Sally - sorry, couldn't resist! I did a search on this person's name and I understand now why you said what you did I've yet to find a travel report. Ah well, there's one or a couple in every crowd. I am going to look at your site today, too (found the addy in the archives, as well).<BR><BR>John - your site is great! I am going to bookmark it. I love reading trip reports. Thanks for the addy. Do you have a trip planned yet for 2002?<BR><BR>

Morris (cute name) -<BR><BR>No, I didn't see it. There were quite a few cats at the Borghese, though. If you called to one seven would come running. They all actually looked well-fed and healthy. I was surprised.

Oh Inky -- I'm assuming that last post is a forgery -- it is just not up to your usual standard of rapier wit. Too much bubbly a few days ago? Tsk.<BR><BR>Not sure which site you found Stephanie, but the "fodorite" one that I maintain is at http://traveurope.net/fodorite/fodor.htm

Stephanie,<BR>Thank you for the very enjoyable trip report. I'll be in Rome in less than 2 weeks now & found your comments helpful. (Also, from what you described, I will be on that Delta flight!)<BR><BR>Best Wishes & Welcome Back,<BR>BC

Susan - yep, that's the one. Thanks!<BR><BR>BC - Have a great time! Delta wasn't bad at all - left on time and got there a few minutes early. Here is another tip (if you aren't that familiar with Italian): When we were dropped off for the trip home we stood in what we thought was the line for Delta, but it was the *ticket* line, not the check-in. There were only two lines and there were a bunch of people who also didn't realize they were in the wrong line. When you go around the corner from that line (you can't see it from the ticket purchasing line) there are 8-10 check-in lines. Save yourself some time and go to the right line to begin with

ttt....