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Rome - an alternative trip report

My greatest pleasure ,when not working of course , is derived from following my soccer team, Arsenal , around europe. Last week we played in Rome and using the trusty search function of Fodors I was able to procure some valuable travel info. I flew off from Paris Orly on Wednesday morning with Airlib express having reserved via their internet site .The return flight cost me 146 euros which considering i was returning the next day was quite a good fare . I was slightly worried when an earlier poster had mentioned that Air Lib were in financial trouble but for the moment at least it would appear that they are honouring their flights. The flight itself was fairly uneventful , I fell in to the trap of ordering a double JD & coke before realising that on Air Lib the drinks are anything but complimentary. The plane was half full so I stretched out got some shuteye & before you knew it we were skirting the italian coast ( beautiful view ) & landing at Rome airport.

This was my first trip to Rome & I had decided to prebook a transfer with www.rome-airport-shuttle.com. Ok yes I admit I did want to spy on their service & see how their operation compared to ours in Paris.( thanks to Rex for the tip ) I was impressed , upon arrival the delightful Carillo was at the exit gates holding up a board with my name ( spelt wrongly but legible none the less ). I had time to sample a quick local beer Perroni ? (not much taste & quite gassy )before being dragged away to my shuttle bus . Now Ive been in the bus / coach business for a good few years now & one thing that we dont see often are female drivers.What a nice surprise then that my driver was the charming Alessia & I had the whole bus to myself ( how do these guys make money ?? ). We sped off to the city centre talking a mixture of poor italian , french and english. I speak french so I can understand 50 % of an italian sentence but unfortunately my vocab is limited to about 15 italian words so there was a lot of head nodding & arm waving. Alessia showed me her work schedule and seeing that she had plenty of time before her next pick up I managed to charm her into giving me a mini tour of Rome.I wish I spoke Italian I really do.Alessia was chatting away & pointing at all the mouments whilst I was nodding like a lunatic .Traffic was crazy , much worse than Paris which Ive always found intimidating at the best of times , so I had complete admiration for the skills of my driver. I arrived at the hotel , the PANORAMA on via nazionale , which my friends from London had pre booked. A strange hotel situated on the top floor of a building used by the Italian tourist board. Having negotiated for an extra bed to enable three of us to sleep in the room we paid a total of 90 euros which seemed like a fair deal. The hotel was basic but comfortable , cheap but friendly.The coup de grace was the delightful breakfast terrace which offered a superb view of Rome. My fellow football supporters & room mates arrived within the hour & having all changed into our teams colours we set off to check out the city . Now usually football trips in Europe consist of visiting as many bars & pubs as possible before kick off.Sightseeing is not often on the agenda but on this occasion my friends Bazo & Hungry Tony agreed that we should take in as much as possible so ,rather than using taxis ,buses or the train ,we walked & walked & walked. Feeling happy that we had seen the most important monuments ( I knew my girlfriend would kill me if I didn t take some half decent photos of the Colliseum) we then decided to get down to the serious business of eating & drinking. We plonked ourselves outside a café bar opposite the central train station & ordered up the first round . “ No alcohol for English !” came the reply from the waiter. Now being an English football fan rightly or wrongly we all get tarred with the same brush ,so one gets used to this kind of prejudiced & negative reception. We moved to the bar next door , sat down & made the same request .This waiter was happy to take our order & explained that the bar next door was an AS Roma bar ( our adversarys that evening ) whereas this bar was a Lazio bar ( Romes second soccer team & great rivals of AS Roma ).We were made to feel very welcome & pretty soon we were tucking in to some excellent pizzas & more very gassy beer. ( Is it only in Italy that you can find Pizzas with such a thin dough base ?? If only pizza hut could adopt the extra thin base they would have my lunch money )

During the afternoon we roamed from bar to bar before Hungry Tonys stomach lead us to ( god forbid ) the hard Rock café ! I know this is probably regarded as a sin by experienced travellers & tourists alike but the lure of a burger & chips ( the staple diet of a soccer fan ) was too much. It appeared that we weren t the only ones to find the hard rock as we walked in to find about 200 english fans singing away happily.No real comment to be made about the hard rock except for the fact that the staff were very friendly & they had guiness beer on tap. We had been advised by Arsenal Football Club & the British Ambassador not to travel to the Olympic stadium by ourselves as I quote “ there is a very strong possibility that you will be attacked “. The things we do to see a football match ! anyway we decided to play safe & jumped on one of the waiting local coaches and were given a police escort up to the ground. As usual we were greeted by over eager riot police who took great pleasure in relieving us of all objects that could be thrown. ( lighters , coins etc )This is understandable ,however they took 4 euros in change off of myself , mutiply this by 1200 fans & someone back at police headquarters must have been counting up his bonus into the early hours. The Olympic Stadium is an impressive place and definitely worth a visit , even more so if there is a game on , as the Italians really know how to generate a good atmosphere. Food & refreshments inside the ground were absolutely awful according to Hungry Tony. We were tucked in to a small corner of the ground & were treated to an intimidating cacophony of whistles by the roma fans & a hail of missiles .( somehow we got the impression that the Roma fans didn’t get the same treatment as us ) We won the game 3 – 1 , making the trip more than worthwhile , and even though they kept us locked in the ground for an hour after the match had finished we were all in a party mood by the time we arrived back in central rome. We celebrated at a bar called the Druids & an interesting dancing establishment called Chica Chica Boos before calling it a night and heading back to our hotel. with early flights home we jumped on an express train to the airport as we were unsure how long a shuttle would take in rush hour traffic. ( Have to say that I was very impressed with Rome airport , clean , comfortable and well planned.) A pleasant flight home in an unmarked plane ( never seen that before )back to Orly ,work and reality ......

Nice report , certainly different to the usual ones we read . glad to hear that you won after all that .

Mark, Thanks for the amusing report! What a great overnight trip! I had to laugh when you mentioned trying to talk to the shuttle driver in French and English. When I was in Sorrento 2 years ago, I met some Italians who wanted to take me and my friend dancing. The guy I was "talking" spoke little English, and I speak no Italian, so we spent the night trying to converse in a Spanish/English/Italian mix, since we both spoke a bit of Spanish. While it was fun, by the end of the night, I had a headache from concentrating so hard to understand him! Glad you team won!

Thanks for a funny report Mark. Tell me is tony always hungry ??

like the report , hate soccer

Mark: I agree with you - Pizza Hut and others should offer the thin crust pizza you get in Rome. We do have one local owned pizza place in town, Papa John's, that does do thin crust, but it still doesn't taste the same!