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Driving to Salerno instead of Sorrento...frustrating, getting all of our debit cards "eaten" at the ATM's in Rome...irritating, watching our (almost) two year old play with the pigeons in San Marco Square...priceless! A mini trip repor

Driving to Salerno instead of Sorrento...frustrating, getting all of our debit cards "eaten" at the ATM's in Rome...irritating, watching our (almost) two year old play with the pigeons in San Marco Square...priceless! A mini trip repor

Old Jan 24th, 2007, 08:56 AM
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Googie,
What a different and interesting report! I admire you for just going and taking your daughter with you. Looking forward to the next installment!
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Old Jan 24th, 2007, 09:21 AM
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Hi googie!

I know "life" can get in the way, but count me amoung those really enjoying your report. I hope you will be able to finish it and look forward to hearing more about your lovely family.
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Old Jan 24th, 2007, 09:36 AM
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great story! I am planning a trip for my girlfriend in march and am loving your experiences. cannot wait to hear about Rome, since I am clueless there, plus the ATM's since we are planning on getting by on those instead of a bunch of travelor checks.
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Old Jan 26th, 2007, 01:26 PM
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Hi- Sorry it has taken me so long to get back here, but you know that thing called "life" has to be taken care of too!

ROME:
Our apartment was located on Via Dei Farnesi (right off Via Guilia near Campo De Fiori) It was our best apartment yet. The owners even had pastas & other food/cooking items there for us. We have definite plans to return to that apartment. It again felt like we were such a part of the action by stepping out of our front door right onto the street like a local. The apartment building had 2 other Italian families living in it too, so it was nice to greet them in the morning/night & hear them going about the daily routuine.... oh and the smells of delicious food they were cooking!

Day 1: New Years EVE! We had a crazy day today. The morning began w/me getting up early & deciding to walk & hit a ATM, grab some bakery for breakfast & groceries for our stay. DH & DD are still sleeping. DH wakes up & asks me where I am going & after I explain he looks at me with this weird grin & says "yeah right." He is actuallly amused at the thought that I would forge out on my own in our first day in Rome. Of course I am more determined than ever to go & return with all of our items. The first ATM I hit says we are out of funds for the day ( I know we aren't- we hadn't gone to an ATM in two days.) I find another & no problem- get $$. (Remember this for later) The area around Via Guilia is beautiful & I fully enjoy my morning outing all by myself! I smugly come back & proudly display all my finds. DH has DD fed & ready to go (maybe I should have gone out by myself more often!)
We thought we would walk to Palatine Hill where we had a tour set up for the day. We walked, walked & walked some more with DH saying "The colosseum is right around the corner." After 500 "corners" he pulls out the map. Lost again. We do make it to Palatine Hill- but the tour group is long gone. We look around & call the company, but nothing. I am almost in tears (all my hard work of arranging the tour & I was looking forward to having someone else explain the sights.) I was MAD! We took a moment & pulled out or guidebook & became our own tour group. I told DH I was sorry- after all, can I expect him to fully get us around a strange city on the 1st day? (um...yes!) We were in Italy, at these amazing ruins, I was determined to start enjoying my day & get over my disappointment. We buy tickets for the P. Hill & Forum here. Make sure you get your tickets here. No lines- the ones at the colosseum were LONG! Palatine Hill is truly amazing. Love it! We walked down to the Forum and still continued to be amazed. We took some great pictures & DD found LOTS of rocks to play with & some other kids too. We continued on to the colosseum & looked for a place for lunch. Not much right where we were. We ended up at an overpriced place, with O.K. food, but the veiws of the colosseo were priceless. We did go with one of the guides that were hawking for people outside & it was worth it just to get past the line. DD fell asleep for the whole thing (great for enjoying the tour, but imagine carrying the stroller over all those stairs carefully so she won't wake up!)
We did like the colosseum, but as Christians, also find it disturbing.

We grab a cab from here (we ended up doing this more in Rome than we planned. It was just convenient & quick!) We arrived at the Borghese Gallery early for our tour. You have to reserve your tickets in advance & you only get a 2 hour time slot. For people with kids: you cannot take a stroller/diaper bag in the museum. We just put a few toys/little snacks in our pockets & all was well. I loved this museum. I think that the Borghese & Bargello are my favorites. DD was well behaved & we found lots to point out to her to keep her interested. There is always an animal or something in a sculpture/fresco that she liked. The grounds around the museum are gorgeous too.

We ate dinner back at the apartment & head out again. The plan was to walk around for a while & then get back to the apartment before midnight (remember it's New Years Eve.) It just didn't seem like the party/street scene would be appropriate for our little one. More on that plan later... We walked around Piazza Navona (Bernini's 4 rivers was covered in scaffolding Still gorgeous. They had a Christmas fair going on, so there was lots for DD to look at. They also had another carousel. We went on & forsaw a lot more rides in our future!
We continued our walk & made it to the Pantheon (my favorite spot in Rome I think.) It's just crazy how you come around this corner & there it is. I fell in love with Rome. We had gelato & espresso. I miss that!!!
We walked over to the Trevi Fountain & that too completely took my breath away. We did the usual coin tossing & stopped when DD was demanding more money to throw in & all we had left was larger change. We began to wander back to the apartment & didn't really read a map- so yep! Lost again! It was fine because we sort-of knew where we were, & we were just enjoying looking around while DD was sleeping. It was getting really close to midnight & the street life was getting crazy. I was actually a little scared, because as midnight rolled around we made it back to Campo de Fiori (our apartment was right around the corner) but we couldn't get back to it because of the crowds. The clock struck twelve & the champagne was flying & fireworks were in full swing. If it just would have been DH & I we would have been fine, but we literally had to walk an hour to find a street we could walk down that people weren't throwing fireworks out of their windows onto the street. Scary no- but yes if you are pushing a stroller with a baby! So much for our plan... but we certainly got to get a first hand idea of Rome at New Years! We collapsed into bed around 1:00 am glad we got home safe & sound.

Day 2: It's a whole new year! We figured not much would be open today (January 1st) so we had our day arranged accordingly. We set out in search of an ATM & the first one we come to eats DH's card- gone! We actually laugh about it. We don't laugh for long. We find another ATM & use my card this time- eats it too. So here we are in Rome with no ATM card & a few Euros on a holiday with no banks open. We had only brought 2 ATM cards. We used them fine for 2 weeks through the rest of Italy, and we wonder if we should have brought like 4 or 5 cards- but that seemed so silly! We didn't have many Euros left because we could only withdraw $500 or so a day & we had to pay for our apartment in cash upfront, so we didn't have a lot stockpiled because we had been going every day to the ATM because we knew we had to give such a large amount to the apartment. We walk back to the apartment & get U.S. dolars to exchange. There are not any of those change cambio places open either on a holiday! We finally find a person who tells us that there is one that is open by the Pantheon. We find it & exchange money for a horrible rate- but whatever, it would keep us fed until the next day when the banks would be open. We also wanted to call our bank at home ( I had all the numbers) but they would be closed because of the time difference & the holiday.

We had espresso & lunch on the square by the Pantheon & DD chased some more pigeons. We walked over to the Largo di Torre Argentina ruins & looked around & caught a cab to take us back to the Borghese Gardens.
Our destination was the Bioparco Zoo. It was open today even though it was a holiday & it was nice to give DD something to do that was just for her. It was interesting mostly being around just other Italian families- it didn't seem like many tourists go there. DD got to feed the goats carrots & it was a good time. We did have to laugh because they actually have deer & cows in zoo exhibits & all these people were taking pictures. We live in the Midwest, so we get plenty of those animals. It was just funny.
We walked through the Borghese park all the way to the top of the Spanish Steps & then down. I am glad we got to see them, but they weren't my favorite. We stopped for gelato & a crepe & had a late dinner at our apartment. We thought about going out again, but after a long ATM day we called it a night & spent the evening organizing, & doing laundry. Good times!

Day 3: DH set out early to find a bank (since we had no ATM card & no U.S. $$ left) He went to 4 banks & all told him that they needed the ATM card to give him money (even though I had our account numbers.) We ended up having to get a cash advance on our credit card. Oh well. We were leaving for home the next day, so at least this happened on the end of our trip. We went to the Campo de Fiori for breakfast & espresso & got some fruit at the market, wandered back to the carousel in the Piazza Navona.
We took a cab to the Vatican & waited in line for about an hour to get into the museums. I had done the whole fax request at home, but didn't have a fax # in Rome because we were in an apartment. I called the Vatican that morning, but they said I needed the fax. So wait in line we did (there was a fax confirmation in our machine at home though when we got back- oh well.) I did a little shopping in the market & would go back while DH waited in line.
We saw a few of the rooms in the Vatican (mostly the ones on the way to the Sistene Chapel) & they are gorgeous. Of course, the Sistene Chapel was amazing. We couldn't believe how loud it was & all the people talking video/photos, when you were clearly not supposed to. We had lunch at the cafeteria there, more just out of necessity. We followed the Fodor's advice & went through the side entrance of the Sistene Chapel & right into St. Peters. Thanks guys!! A side note: if you have a stroller in the Vatican you actually get to use the elevators & all these side entrances (hence skipping lots of lines,) so having a baby was an absolute bonus!

After St. Peter's DD played in the square with pigeons & we got a cab back to the Pantheon area. We had espresso & bought some at La Tazza d'Oro, and had gelato. We went in the Pantheon- and how amazing it is! We walked back toward our apartment & grabbed pizza from "Forno" to take back with us. Good stuff!
We had dinner & changed DD into her PJ's & set off for our last evening in Rome. We walked across the Tiber to the Travestere area & had gelato & shopped. This is one area we would like to come back to & explore in the future. So many cute palces to eat. DD fell asleep, and we wandered through the Jewish Ghetto & saw some ruins near there (I still have to see what they were-anyone know?) We found ourselves back at the Trevi Founatin, DD woke up, we had more gelato. We walked slowly back to our apartment through the Piazza Navona where we finished our Italy trip with one last ride on the carousel. As I watched DD & DH together on the carousel I thought about how truly blessed I was. There is nothing like being in an amazing place like Italy (even with a baby), but most of all having a beautiful daughter & an amazing husband (even if he dosn't like to look at a map) to share it with.

Thank you again for all of your help in our trip planning. It is truly appreciated. I hope that this report may help some of you on you future travels to Italy & if you have any more questions, or toddler-specific questions I would be happy to help.

I will add a couple pictures too, as soon as I figure out how to do it!

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Old Jan 26th, 2007, 03:10 PM
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Thanks for the grand finale to the trip report. Wonderful reading it. It's great that you realize how fortunate you are. I think that every day and doubly so when we are so lucky to be able to travel to fabulous places.

Just one last question, did you ever find out why your ATM cards were eaten?
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Old Jan 26th, 2007, 07:28 PM
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Yes, a lovely report! We're going to be staying in an apartment on via dei Cappellari in March, and also plan to eat most dinners in. Can you tell me where you found a small grocery, and did you find much in the way of prepared foods to just heat up? I had already heard about Forno's, and have it on my list!
I'd also like to know what kind of follow-up you were able to do about your ATM cards. We had that happen at an ATM outside of a bank in London, and we went into the bank and were able to retrieve the card (although we did have to beg and plead with the manager!) That's really scary to think it could happen twice. We only have one card each, so now I'll be really nervous!
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Old Jan 27th, 2007, 02:01 AM
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Hi, Hagan, if you put your apartment's address into www.mappy.com, you can look up the nearest supermarket etc.

Best wishes,
ann
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Old Jan 27th, 2007, 05:49 AM
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Googie, I truly enjoyed your report. We're planning our own trip to Italy with our daughter this May/June - she's 17 though!

Hagan, we are also renting an apartment on Via dei Cappellari - I'd love to hear your feedback after the trip - it might be the same apartment!
H
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Old Jan 27th, 2007, 12:27 PM
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Vinolover- Why the cards got eaten is still a mystery. Our bank at home said that the Visa company (where the ATM cards are from) did indeed suspend the account. They verified that we had ample dollars in the account & I had also called them before we left to tell them we would be out of the country. So, who knows. The only thing they could think of was that when the 1st card got taken it was New Years Eve in Rome & that the ATM machines were working overtime & maybe out of money & one machine just flipped out & ate the card. They said that if one gets eaten, most likely the rest will too.

Hagen- I will give you directions to a really nice grocery store close to where you will stay. It was a large one w/everything you would need.
From via dei Farnesi: Turn right onto Via Guilia, go 5 blocks to a small square on your right (Viceolo di Moretto- I don't think that's exactly spelled right, but it's close), there is a "Despar" grocery on your right in the square. Have an amazing trip.

Phieaglefan- Have a great trip. Say hi to Italy for me!
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Old Jan 27th, 2007, 08:11 PM
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A great report googie, I have two delighful grandchildren plus I am Grandma to Matthew who was a 7 week primie & has been adopted by a friend of my daughter who is single & has no imediate family so I have the honor of being Grandma to Matthew as well, I love travelling I can see me taking DH s place & help to take the grandchildren to some of the lovely countries that DH & I have visited & your report has realy inspired me to do this. How did you book the apartment in Rome & what did it cost? I have a friend who is going in May.
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Old Jan 27th, 2007, 09:08 PM
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Thanks for your report. I appreciate the detail.

2 months to go!
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Old Jan 28th, 2007, 09:37 AM
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googie,

You do not mention trying to get your cards back from the bank the next day. Does that mean that it was an independent ATM not connected to the local bank branch? Might it be safer then to make sure that the ATM is part of a local bank branch?
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Old Jan 28th, 2007, 06:45 PM
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Thanks so much for the info on the grocery. I'm printing it out.
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Old Jan 28th, 2007, 06:50 PM
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Phieaglefan -
The apartment we're renting is through sleepinitaly.com, and the address is 27 via dei cappellari. Is it the same as yours? I haven't been able to find any reviews of this one, but I'll be sure and post when we get back.
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Old Jan 29th, 2007, 06:26 AM
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We stayed on the via dei Cappellari, too. Here is how to get to a grocery store: Go to the Corso Vittorio Emanuele and turn left (toward the Vatican), staying on the same side of the street (don't cross Corso Vittorio Emanuele). After about 5 blocks, you will get to a grocery store. We asked lots of people directions to a grocery store, and walked in circles, but found this one on our own. The Campo dei Fiori has lots of places to buy produce, olives, etc., but if you need cereal and milk, go to this grocery store.
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Old Jan 29th, 2007, 08:26 AM
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Michael- Yes, the ATM's were individual places not attached to a bank, but I am sure affiliated w/one. We used all types of ATM's in Italy (in banks & not) & didn't have any problems at all for the two weeks before Rome. So, who knows?
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Old Jan 29th, 2007, 08:36 AM
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Thanks for the info on the ATM follow up Googie. The only time we've ever had any ATM trouble in Europe was during weekend or non-banking hours (but luckily we never had our cards eaten).

Your post is a good reminder that we will be careful to use only bank ATMs during the hours that the bank is open just in case of a problem.

Plus I just requested another ATM card from an account we rarely use just to have another back-up card.

As you said, most likely we won't have any problems but with the exchange rate already hurting our trip fund I don't want to lose more money by needing a credit card cash advance.

I'd love to see your trip photos when you get around to posting them!

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Old Jan 29th, 2007, 08:39 AM
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googie

Indirectly I was asking why you did not go back to the branch the next day to see if you could get your card back. I would think that this would be the procedure if you used an ATM that is physically part of the bank branch.
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Old Jan 29th, 2007, 08:48 AM
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I've certainly never thought about where ATM cards end up when they are eaten. If, for example, a Bank of America ATM ate my card, would it end up at B of A hq in Charlotte, or at the closest physical branch?
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Old Jan 29th, 2007, 09:43 AM
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Using an ATM at a bank may not help if the card is 'eaten'. See http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/atm...?prodtype=bank

Henry
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