stanleykl

I found a lot of useful info from this forum when planning my trip to Rome (March 22-29). I hope the infomation below will help others in the future.

We booked our trip via expedia and used the autoservetzi service for $69 to have transportation to and from the airport and our hotel. I originally thought this was a bit pricey, but we need to leave our hotel at 4:30 am when we left and the service was there at 4:15 am. I would recommend this service if you did not want to take the trains / metro or taxi.

We stayed at the Hotel Bernini Bristol at the piazza barberini. We stayed on the first floor facing the piazza. It had a shower/bath combo and the tub had whirpool jets - which is nice for soaking sore feet!
I would stay here again, it is close to Trevi fountain and to the spanish steps area.

This hotel is next to the metro which is also very convienent. A weekly metro pass cost us 16 euros and the machines to buy these in the metro stations are easy to use.

I did learn some basic Italian via "learn Italian in your car cds". I did use some of my new Italian vocabulary, however 90% of the people I spoke with spoke excellent English. I found they were happy to assist and not snobbish at all.

I regret not bringing jeans and tennis shoes. I twisted my ankle on the cobblestones and even after being home for 3 days it is still sore. Many people were wearing jeans, even inside the Vatican museum and St.Peter's.

I found 6 days to be too long to stay in Rome, I would have rather split the trip up and stayed in Rome and another city. In fact, I didn't even throw a coin into Trevi fountain. I found Rome to have polluted air, after coming in for the evening my hair smelled like I'd been at a bar all day - yuck!

How to avoid pick pockets:
1. Do not get on crowded metro trains. Wait for another and plan your travel around busy times.
2. No matter what is in your purse / bag always keep it in front of you so that you can see/feel it. My purse was slit open probably by a razor. Luckily I only lost my camera.
3.Don't stereotype pickpockets. I believe it was a couple of 50ish year old women who stole my camera.
4.Children 8-11 years old will surround you, grab your arms and search your pockets while you try to get on the metro. 12 hands all over you is not pleasent especially when you only have 2 to try to push away from them.

Many restaurants are not open for dinner until 7pm or later. Before trekking across the city to go eat, make sure they're open!

Happy Travels,
stanleykl

ira

Hi stanley,

Thanks for sharing.

Nikki

Thanks for your report. I also learned basic Italian driving around in my car for months before my recent trip to Rome, and I didn't have nearly as much need for it as I had hoped/feared.

Unlike you, I found that six days was a good length of time to stay in Rome. There is so much to see in Rome that one week just scratches the surface, although after spending a week looking at it all I was ready to leave. I just feel like it would take several trips to begin to see it all. More to see in Rome than any other place I have been.

kybourbon

I've been to Rome twice and still have a long list of things/places that I haven't had time to see. I live in a small town and love the hustle and bustle (but not the pickpockets or pollution). Were the pickpockets especially bad in the Barberini piazza area or on the metro?

stanleykl

The pickpockets were on the metro. The Barberini piazza was much nicer environment than the metro.

2058

How much was the hotel per night that you stayed in Rome per night? US dollars..

stanleykl

The Bernini Bristol hotel was about $300 a night. I wanted to make sure our room had a shower and was non smoking, so we upgraded to one of the executive rooms. In the actual hotel room it was listed as 550 Euros a night.

CafeBatavia

Thanks for sharing, but what did you see and do in Rome?

I usually stay five days at a time and still leave with an incomplete "to do" list.

Being robbed tends to color your perceptions of a place and its people.