MKDx4

I'll be in Rome in 2 weeks. I'm from NY, panhandlers and shysters don't have a chance with me (us). LOL! This will be our first trip there, we are also going to Naples, Pompeii Scavi, Mt. Vesuvius, Vatican City, Paris and London. We're not doing the 5* hotel thing. More like 3* that has excellent reviews. We were thinking about doing taxis until I read a lot of people complaining about that bait and switch. I started planning this trip back in February/March and have done so much research. Read what people wrote and took everything into consideration. I pre-booked a lot online because 1. I didn't want to stand in line for hours when we could be out seeing something amazing in that time that is being wasted and 2. I don't want people approaching us if they see we are trying to buy tickets. I hope you were able to get out for your last evening there and had a nice time. Try and have a nice time on the rest of your trip!

kybourbon

If you think Rome is dirty and the traffic is crazy, don't go to Naples.

I love Rome and feel no trip to Italy is complete without stopping in Rome a few days. As many times as I've been there, I still have a long list of things I want to see.

FYI - In major cities of the world there really isn't an off season. In Rome, it would be more in winter (perhaps a few weeks in January). Rome also seems to have a bit of an off season in late July and August (hotel rates can often be discounted a bit then).

janisj

>>FYI - In major cities of the world there really isn't an off season. <<

I agree. Especially in Europe -- major cities like Rome, Milan, Paris, London, etc are VERY busy/crowded in October. Some more so than in the height of summer. It is a perfect storm of business travelers back in the swing, late season leisure travelers, and the fashion industry. Hotel rates are high for sure.

Blueeyedcod

Why is everyone apologising to the OP - there is nothing to apologise for.

The OP is clearly from 'nice spot USA' which doesn't have smokers, doesn't have traffic and doesn't have tourists. She is clearly expecting another nice spot USA utopia.

Some research would have indicated to the OP that Rome is indeed a busy city. One that originated from more than 2000 years ago and built up around Augustus' Campus Martius - hence the labyrinth of streets. Some - even a Youtube clip or two - would have indicated to the OP that there are - shock horror - buses and cars and lots of traffic.

I am not sorry at all that she is having a bad time. She has only herself to blame for her lack of research and her expectations - whatever they may be - differing from the reality.

Blueeyedcod

@ annhig - Florence and Rome 30 years ago were full of brown smog and air pollution. I wouldn't be calling them the good old days.

greg

MKDx4,
I have used Taxi often in Italy. This is another area one needs to study before the trip to sort out the inherent differences as well as scams.

In the scam area, what I found useful using taxis in SE Asia as well as in Central and South America turned out to be equally useful in Italy. There are mostly honest cabbies, but are also scammers. Scammers either try to talk you into accepting bogus fixed fee arrangement or take you around a long ride. If you know how much it is supposed to cost, you can easily thwart the first kind. The second kind can be sorted out by asking how much it would cost. If the driver gives estimate over 20% of what it should be or try to be evasive and pretends he does not hear me, I don't get in. Honest cabbies always gave me a close estimate. I also reject anyone who comes up to offer me a ride. Legitimate cabbies don't do this in Italy. They wait in queues at official taxi ranks.

This is to be distinguished from round about way the cars need to circulate in any ancient city like Rome due to convoluted traffic pattern. It is not unusual for traveling between two destinations to come out with significantly different prices. For those who live in places where all streets are bi-directional, it might look odd. The only time a cabby tried to do this on me was in Las Vegas. He tried to turn into tunnel from the airport to downtown - the usual scammer route, but I yelled at him, "NO TUNNEL!" He was ticked off, but he relented. Another cabby took a longer way from CDG my hotel in Paris, but I was looking at the google map traffic and the shorter route was solid red, so I thought he correctly chose the longer yet faster route.

The bill switch trick can be avoided by always announcing the bill amount you are giving to the cabby and how much he is to keep. This is described in many travel sites, e.g. http://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tip.../tourist-scams

Sassafrass

It is a good thing (and courageous) to present unfavorable views of a place. It provides balance and realistic expectations for others.

I love the craziness of cities like Rome and Istanbul, but my comfort level for adventure and the outdoors is very limited, so I know I am missing out on a lot of things other people enjoy. Knowing what you are comfortable with is a good thing. You can better plan for what suits you.

A cruise might actually be a great for you - if you choose the ship and itinerary carefully and use the ship's tours, avoiding all the problems of fending for yourself. For example, the Caribbean might not be for you, but Scandinavia or Hawaii might be.

You might also enjoy some high end tours where you do not have to fend for yourself in long lines, deal with taxis, etc.

Pick countries carefully after doing some research. IME, Switzerland is an opposite experience from Italy.

Do not go to Istanbul or Athens. Everything you do not like about Rome is magnified.

I re-read your post, so will address a few points for consideration about Rome.

Disney being clean and Rome being "filthy."

Disney is a sanitized, make believe place, it is not real. It is not a living entity. It is not a place where people actually live. It offers no cultural experience.

Any place where people live (people of all colors, professions, ages, cultures, religions, beliefs, social and monetary differences, etc.) will have the issues and problems, misery, and sadness relative to all human life. OTOH, because it is real, it will have the vibrancy, music, relationships, joy, robustness and excitement that goes along with human life.

You will not know the person running a ride or working at a concession in Disney. If you are in Rome for a few days, and stop at the same shop more than a couple of times, you may have a real conversation with one of the people standing outside the shop, and get to know a bit about him as a person. That is one enrichment you can get from travel - meeting people of other cultures.

As to traffic, getting lost, etc. except for Naples (and I am getting used even to that) I don't see too big a difference between travel in many major cities. If you carry a good, old fashioned map, you might still get turned around and walk an extra block or two, but that is part of experiencing and learning about a new place, going down an unplanned street or road.

Rip-offs happen in many big cities, so do not doubt that it happened to you, but don't judge all by one occurrence. We may have been lucky, but have never had a taxi try to cheat us in Rome.

Street vendors and shysters are in every major city in the world, many far whose than Rome. All part of the game.

Crowds have become heavier in recent years, but cities in Italy have at different cycles in history, for a variety of reasons, been uncrowded or super crowded and busy. Read about and look at old paintings of Venice. The same for Rome. If you want to see some of the greatest artwork in the Western World, you have to deal with it.

Bokhara2

Nicely said, sassafras.

It seems that there is quite a disconnect between the OP's expectation & the reality of an ancient, vibrant, world city like Rome.

Rome isn't everyone's cup of tea. It's most certainly mine, though. In large part because of of the contrasts between it and my own young "New World" city of just over 200 years.*

(* of European settlement)

Personally, I don't care for theme parks or sanitized locations , where there seems to be little spontaneity or individualism.

Someone unthread made the very valid point that in cities where smoking is banned inside buildings, those who smoke do so in the streets & thus can create the impression that "everyone smokes".

It happens occasionally when tourists visiting Sydney will comment on the number of smokers, whereas less than 15% of people in the whole state of NSW smoke.

Most travellers embrace the opportunity to experience something different from their home bases. Others put up with aspects they don't like in order to see & do things they want to experience.

Some people really don't like to move far outside their comfort zone and they will often be happier doing organised tours which don't have much interaction with the local population or way of life.

Others really don't have much interest or curiosity about how other people & places work - and they are happier staying at home.

I have friends & family in each of those categories.

I think a lot of how we experience a place depends on our attitude & flexibility. Expecting "over there" to be a mirror image of home is usually a fairly quick route to disappointment.

I agree it's interesting & useful to have a variety of impressions & viewpoints - especially about a place we know well.
We may not agree, but it's interesting to see things through others' perspectives.

thursdaysd

I do have some sympathy for the OP. S/he seems to be suffering from a bad case of culture shock, and if Rome is her first stop outside the US, perhaps it's not so surprising. Venice would have been a better intro to Italy, or London to Europe.

I didn't care that much for Rome myself, but I liked Naples and I love Hanoi, which has Roman traffic and taxi drivers on steroids, so it wasn't for the reasons the OP lists.

But someone who thinks the rest of the world is just like the US - especially if they actually want it to be like the US (horrid thought!) - is bound to have issues.

BTW, these days there is no reson to get lost. I enjoy map reading, and am quite good at it, but it is an obsolete skill. My smart phone does the map reading these days, it knows when the buses and trains go, too, although for some reason it doesn't know about ferries.

Bokhara2

Have a look at Rome2Rio, thursdaysyd. I use it a bit & find it pretty handy.

GPS apps & google maps might not extricate you from the maze of Kathmandu or Hanoi backstreets, but they would probably do a reasonable job in Rome.

I mistook a subway line in NYC once & the Broadway I ended up stepping out onto was a very long way for the theatre district! I walked for a while & hailed the first cab I saw. Problem solved & an amusing lesson learned.

At the very least the OP can dine out on the "horror stories" of Rome when they get home.

Peter_S_Aus

"One man's (or woman's, for that matter) meat is another man's poisson."

Personally, I can do four or five nights in Rome at a stretch, and then the frenetic activity starts to get to me.

We are in an apartment in Venice right now, and just at our front door there is a small metal working shop. I can hear them at it when they use a grinder, and the snap and crackle of the MIG welder. They proclim that they have been in business since 1804, and the shop looks like it. A small connection to a real, as against touristic, side of Venice.

At the other end of our garden is a print shop, and the sound, a quiet thump thump, of the sheet feed offset press is like a vibrant heartbeat. Makes the place feel very alive.

Blueeyedcod

Rome is not always noise. I stay right in the historic centre and all I hear are church bells, the chatter of teenagers going to the school, the odd motor bike and that familiar screech of Rome's giant seagulls.
The only frenetic activity I see is when I cross a main street like Via del Corso or take a tram at Largo Argentina.
Rome is quiet - you just have to know where to go and stay.

annhig

@ annhig - Florence and Rome 30 years ago were full of brown smog and air pollution. I wouldn't be calling them the good old days.>>

that's not my recollection, Blueeyedcod and I have the photos to prove it [of Florence anyway, I didn't get to Rome until about 20 years later]. As for Venice, 35 years ago, even in July the grand canal was almost free of traffic save for the odd gondola - and I've got the photos to prove that too.

none of that however will now help the OP - who should be well on her way to Tuscany and her unknown and hopefully luxurious and uncrowded destination.

Tulips

The irony of a tourist complaining about other tourists visiting the same place...

I like getting lost in a city like Rome; you can find the nicest places that way, perhaps even some without hordes of tourists.

Rome is not perfect, but really; you could not find even one single thing you liked? Less complaining and more serendipity might improve your holiday.

Blueeyedcod

I have photos of me and my family in Piazzale Michelangelo in 1985 and Florence was covered in an ugly blanket of brown like Los Angeles used to be. Thank goodness for senza pb.

Peter_S_Aus

It would be interesting for Streamliner to also describe, if anything, what she/he LIKED about Rome.

Apropos of nothing, there is some sort of replica Venice in Las Vegas. Clean, well managed, gondolas, campanile, everything that anyone would wish for. Just don't mention Disney.

Lois2

This Rome hating poster said it all in the first sentences of the post...mention of "nice city in USA" and "king size bed in 5* hotel". Those comments are indicative of a person who travels expecting the world to conform to their expectations and everything should be like home for them. Sure there are many tourists in Rome and every other major city in the world but as mentioned above it takes a bit of planning and stepping off the main tourist streets and there is a fascinating city to discover. Love Rome....love Venice...love Paris...and can't imagine being in Rome and sitting in my room and writing this on Fodor. This is definitely a Las Vegas and Disney traveler.

Lois2

and this same traveler mentions in another post that they are staying in Florence for 5 nights but don't like museums? Good luck.

isabel

Very first line of the OP's post ; "As I write this, I am sitting on my king size bed in my 5 Star luxury hotel in Rome, Italy. This hotel, which is "THE" best thing about this city"

Well perhaps that says a lot.

He thinks Rome makes Manhattan look 'slow and uncongested' probably because saw that city from a luxury hotel window as well.

Some people are just not cut out for any kind of travel beyond isolated resorts/cruises where they don't have to deal with real life, and heaven forbid, real life the way people from other cultures experience it.

OP, I think you should just stick to 'nice spot USA".

Vicky

I don't like Rome either and not because I want everything the same as the US. I do love the fabulous sites, and the food, but am highly allergic to smoke and find the vendors annoying (and just try to get a decent shot of Trevi Fountain with all the hoardes). I also found streets around Trevi very 'tacky'. I'd been to Rome twice before - once in 1977 - didn't like it much then either. This last time was just an evening at the end of a Tuscany trip so just dinner (which was fine) and a quick look at Trevi.

Having been to many contries (and I am Italian American) I do find Italy 'chaotic' compared to some other countries. But the light is wonderful and I feel ties to Italy that come from my ethnic roots.... But Rome - glad I saw the wonderful things - but don't need to go back. I actually like Florence better - but last time did stay high up in Oltrano -took the bus back and forth.