My first trip to Italy - Rome/Venice Aug 2004 - A Trip Report (eventually)
 

Well, I haven't been back to Fodor's since my trip (go figure! How selfish of me!). I traveled by myself to Rome for 5 nights and Venice for 2 from Aug 20-28. It was a great trip overall, and my first to Europe. I have my trip report in the works, and will be posting when I can. For now, I wanted to post the link to my pictures site, http://homepage.mac.com/jcolem2. The site isn't perfect, but it is the only one that could handle my 400+ pictures! If you happen to be bored at work, take a look and (hopefully) enjoy!

Some very nice photos from what i have seen so far, i look forward to your report

what kind of camera do you have?

Thanks! :-) All of these pictures were shot with a Canon digital...S50, I think. It's a great little camera! Tons of stuff you can play around with. The quality of the pics are actually much better than those on the site. Each of the files was somewhere around 2MB in size, so I had to condense them down to tiny files in order to fit them on the webserver.

Nice pix, JC.

from the practical point of view,,,,hope these will help other tourists with the same needs

was it hard to get accessories for the camera in Italy? (storage cards, batteries) Better to buy extra backups like that before leaving home?
-did you buy a battery charger (with european voltage?

-did you go somewhere to burn all the pictures onto a CD while you were on the road (to free space on your storage card)
-any places where flash was absolutely prohibited? you seem to have some nice shots of the interiors of the vatican that are wonderfully expoosed..camera settings?

I bought all of my accessories before I left, although I did see several places where you probably could have bought them there. I took my camera, 2 256MB cards and one 32MB card, and the battery charger. I bought a voltage/plug adapter combo thing at a travel store here before I left. I also had my laptop with me, so I downloaded my pictures every afternoon when I returned to the hotel.

The biggest tip I can give is to have spare batteries. If your camera takes disposables, you don't have as much of a problem, but mine has a specific battery pack. The problem I ran into most frequently was that the battery would start to run out of juice before the card was anywhere near full. I never ended up having to switch cards because of that. If I could do it again, I would have takent the money I spent on the extra 256 card, and used that to buy another battery. Then I could always have one charging back at the room. If you are buying card backups, I'd suggest buying them here, only becuase you can get them very cheaply (especially online or if you wait for sales). I can only imagine the premium on those cards at shops near tourist sites.

Most churches do not permit flash photography, and have signs to that effect at the entrance. To get the indoor shots without a flash, I usually found something stable to place the camera on (a column, a table, a wall) to mimize shake. It seemed to work pretty well. Also, I tended to take more than one of the same shot in low light situations so as to get one that came out clear. The camera also has several different settings where you can set 'film speed' and exposure, which were easy to set up for those shots.

Oh yeah! I'm pretty sure you could use a flash inside the Vatican (although it was basically useless when trying to get a shot of the Papal Altar - I must have 10 underexposed shots of that).

i think those suggestions will probably be quite helpful to a lot of people reading this forum.

my own previous experience was that depending on buying disposable batteries (standard AA type) was an invitation to disaster as some places only had local batteries that were of uncertain quality. Rechargable batteries with an adapter will save a bundle of money and convenience.

Your photos took me back to two of my favorite places in this world! Very enjoyable photos.

Carol

Well little cousin, I think maybe we have the last name... I'm a solo female as well; and have been thinking about Rome and Venice for some time now.
Do share your hotels; the one in Venice was particularly interesting. It looks so inviting!

We didn't stay at La Calcina, but we did have the most wonderful frozen Bellini at their restaurant which sits on the dock in front with the most wonderful view....

OK...Trip Report, installment 1. Man, this thing is gonna get long!

Friday Aug 20, 2004 - Travel Day

Well, the big day finally arrived. After agonizing over what to pack, what not to pack, copying every document under the sun in triplicate, and spending over an hour calling credit card companies, I was ready to head out on my first trip to Europe. My flight out of BWI on Northwest Airlines left at about 11:40am (or so I thought. Turns out it was a good thing I left early - my flight was at 11!). I left my house by 7 in order to drop my doggie off with the parents ? my mom was taking him to the kennel later that day when it opened. Left my car at the parents house as well, and my dad drove me to airport.

A few short words of advice later (take out cash from the ATM, if something doesn't feel right, don't do it, and call us when you can), my dad had pulled away. And, I was off! Check-in was expedient (I was apparently the ONLY person traveling that morning that had a paper ticket), and the security line was long, but fast moving. The flight to Detroit was completely full, so, as a solo traveler, I was upgraded to first class. Pretty cool! I did try and offer up my first class seat on this flight to someone else in exchange for FC en route to Rome, but no one was having any of that. After a horrific breakfast at the in airport Roy Rogers (ew, don't get me started), I boarded the plane. Just a note here - not to complain, but I don't understand why anyone would bother to pay for first class on this particular flight. The seats were exactly the same size as coach (cramped), and the only real perk I noticed was getting my free gingerale well before the rest of the passengers. Moving on...

The 1 and a half hour flight to Detroit was uneventful. Then came the fun part. A 5 hour layover before I left for Rome. Weehaw! Granted, the Northwest terminal in the DTW airport was very nice with TONS of food options. It just wasn't, "I want to spend five hours of my life here" kind of nice. Stupid ex travel partner's low airfare deal. I called my mom to let her know I was in Detroit and alive (probably the last chance I'd get to use my cell phone this trip), then had a mediocre lunch at the Chili's. Food was fine, service was horrible. I sat down on the concourse to play on the computer for a bit only to find that while my laptop claimed to be connected to the airport's wireless network, I couldn't access anything on the Internet. I also couldn't find anywhere to pay for access. Never did figure out what the deal was with that. In the end, I planted myself in an airport bar and tried to make the best of it (and by that I mean, amused myself by bothering the airport bartenders...hope they didn't mind all that much).

The flight to Rome was mostly uneventful. The woman next to me was very nice, and we chatted for a bit about traveling solo in Italy. Consumed a thoroughly awful pasta concoction for dinner along with the worst white wine known to man (didn?t even want the wine ? militant flight attendant forced it on me ? guess she thought it might put me out). After dessert, I took my two Tylenol PMs and settled in to sleep. Two bad movies and several rounds of Bejeweled later, I finally started to doze. Approximately 15 minutes later I was shaken awake for...a bagel...which I didn't eat. Thanks again flight attendant lady.

Saturday Aug 21, 2004 ? Arrive in Roma

Landed in Rome amazingly keyed up, having traveled for about 36 hours without sleeping. Customs and baggage check was easy. I had reserved a car from Limo Service Rome, and, once I figured out I needed to go OUTSIDE to find the drivers, it was easy. The car was nice, the driver was personable, and there was little traffic at 8am Saturday morning. Arrived at my hotel in no time. If you are at all nervous about getting to your hotel (as I was), I highly recommend the Limo Service Rome.

Check-in at the Albergo Cesari was very smooth, and I was fortunate that they already had my room ready. Knowing that I needed to stay up in order to avoid as much jet lag as possible, I quickly unpacked and headed out to explore. First things first, I stopped at the closest Tabacherria (sp?) which happened to be two doors down from my hotel and bought a phone card that would let me call home - I was SURE my parents wanted to know I arrived safely. And then I realized I had no idea what time it was at home. Worse, I had no idea what time it was in Rome! I had left every blasted one of my watches back in Baltimore! Well, at least I had a mission.

Most of the morning on Day 1 was spent wandering in search of a watch. Two hours (or so I assume...not like I could TELL the time) and many many circles later, I stumbled across the Swatch store on Via di Condotti. After much deliberation, I settled on a watch, vaulted over the heads of about 25 other tourists to reach the register, and purchased what is affectionately known as "The Most Hideous Swatch Watch Ever." I am now aware that it is approximately noon, and am famished. I set off in search of food. But, not just any food. GOOD food.

Of course, in my infinite wisdom, I left my map and restaurant recommendations back at the hotel. Which, of course, I have no idea how to find. As I had bought a NICE map back in B'more, I refused to purchase a new one on the street. Probably the worst call of my trip. I followed the suggestion of my favorite Fodorites and tried to find a place off the beaten path (with something that I'd eat, of course). In the end, I had the worst pizza ever at a place called...ummmm...can't find the name. I'll keep looking. It was this place just off to the right of the top of the Spanish Steps (although I didn't know that at the time - I would have SWORN I was nowhere near an attraction. Sigh.). The food was expensive, and the pizza was soggy.

The rest of the day is mostly a blur. I walked to basically every tourist spot you can imagine (all without a map, of course) in an effort to stay awake. Took a ton of pictures, fully realizing I'd have to visit all these spots again. I swear I was in a walking coma. I eventually realized I couldn't call home (as it was about 2am there when I thought about making the attempt), so I utilized the hotel lobby's internet access to email them instead.

I had dinner at Trattoria Da Luigi. The Penne Arrabiatta was wonderful, as was the house red. I wish I could have enjoyed it more, but, at about 9pm Rome time, I was ready to pass out at the table. Had the waiter taken a second longer to bring the bill, I just might have! Total bill was about 31E for bread, antipasta, pasta and a glass of red and a bottle of water. Not cheap, by any stretch of the imagination, but not horrific either. After dinner, I headed back to my hotel, and promptly passed out.

**Notes on the Cesari**
The rooms are lovely and quite spacious. Then again, I had rented a double, as I was initially not traveling alone, so that may have had something to do with it. The bathroom was also very nice (shower, bath, toilet, bidet en suite). Shutters almost completely blocked the noise from the busy restaurants below at night. My only real complaint was the lack of an alarm clock. I had to arrange for a wakeup call every morning, which was a bit of a pain.

The Cesari is very well located. It is approximately 2 blocks from the Trevi Fountain, and maybe 3 from the Pantheon. Once I had my map, it was easy to navigate the city. I walked EVERYWHERE from the hotel. The internet access in the lobby is free, and a great bonus to the hotel.

Breakfast in the hotel was in a lovely little room on the first floor. It was much better than I had expected for an included continental breakfast. The cappuccino was excellent, and there was always a good assortment of rolls, meats, muffins, cereals, fresh fruit and yogurts.


Coming soon...Day 2 and Ancient Rome

Hi Jc,

Thanks for sharing. I can picture you wandering jet-lagged through the streets mumbling "a watch, a watch...".

Add a bit of glaring at people at random, and you'd be pretty much right on target :) My first day in Italy ended with me convinced I should just go home - thank goodness that wasn't a possibility!

jcolem2: Try bringing along a small travel alarm clock the next time you travel. I have found that my most indispensable item ever and never travel without it. There are many, many hotels in Europe without alarm clocks or even anything on the night stand table! I bring along an extra set of AA batteries and I am ready to go, every morning, without any wake up call. Just a tip........sounds like you made the most of your time in Rome and had a good time anyway.

Wow--fantastic photos.

It's obvious to me that whatever (hopefully minor) difficulties you may have encountered as a first-time solo traveller to Italy, you certainly managed to see the amazing beauty of Rome and of Venice.

Hope you had a great time, and I look forward to the rest of your trip report.

Thanks for the tip! It's funny - I almost bought an alarm clock right before I left at the same time I picked up my plug adapter...oh well, I'll know for next time!