Never would have thought of doing this, but several readers actually asked me to post my trip report, so here it goes...! (If you have any specific questions, just ask.)

In Europe for total of 5 weeks. (July 20-Aug. 22)

First stop Rome - 5 nights
OVERALL ROME RATING ON A SCALE OF 1-10 (10 being highest): 5

Flew Northwest/KLM. Flights were good, but arrived 1 hour late. Got to Rome - NO SUITCASE. Waited at KLM desk for 1 hour to report missing bag. They delivered it to my hotel that night.

HOTEL was Della Torre Argentina. Single room 100 Euros. Great hotel. Clean. Modern. Nice breakfast. Right next to bus stop. They included my airport transfers & the driver was great - he waited over 2.5 hours for me on my arrival!!!

Found Rome to be a rip-off (Especially around the Vatican). Was very put off by the 33 Euro buffet lunch 2 blocks from the Vatican. These people are totally exploiting the tourists. I also managed to rack up a 20.50 Euro bill for pizza, salad & a coke at another place nearby. LESSON LEARNED - DON"T EVER EAT AT PLACES THAT DO NOT CLEARLY POST THEIR PRICES! In addition, I did not manage to locate any restaurants that had really good food. I've had much better "Italian" food in New Jersey than I had in Italy..

Also, one taxi driver drove away without giving me change! (He made a $4 tip on a $6 ride!!)

Returned to Rome in August.(4 nights) Had reservation at Golden House B&B. They bumped me to the Hotel Atlante Star. - DUMP - Moved out after two days & went back to Della Torre Argentina. Atlante charged 8 Euro for a soda at their roof top cafe!!!!!

SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS:
Nero's house is a cool place for a tour.
Vatican Museums are great.
Weather was 95 degrees every day. (Need lots of changes of clothes).
After thousands of years of living there, why can't Romans put seats on the toilets?
Eat lots of gelato - tastes great, cheaper than wasting money on bad meals, and it will keep you cool.


Destination #2 - Golden City of Prague
Overall Rating: 8.5

As usual, awesome. This year was way hotter than usual, though. Since I am a violinist & play at festivals, I do not fit into the typical tourist category, but will review lodging, etc.

Stayed at the Bohemia Plaza Intl. Business Residence. 60 Euros per night. Great location near Museum. No a/c, but had a big fan. New place & decorated very well.

Tourist traps: they now charge 40 crowns to get into the Golden Lane at the Castle. This is crazy, since the Golden Lane is a bunch of shops. My friend managed to bribe the guards & give them 40 crowns for 6 people to get in!!!! Too funny! It's hysterical how easily these people can be bribed!

Anyway, bought some fabulous artwork (2 oil paintings by a Georgian artist) at Le Saint's Gallerie on Nerudova, which is right next to one of my favorite roof top terrace restaurants (Bazaar). Another good restaurant find is a new Czech style restaurant, also in Mala Strana. I forget the name, but it is right near the tram stop in the square, and is at the corner of Valdstejnska. Has blackboards with written menus on the outside. Great food & drinks.

Also ate lunch at Duplex (Wenceslas Square). The "express lunch" took over an hour! (There were about 10 people eating there!!) Food was decent. View great.

Kogo restaurant (Mainly Italian) was good. The bruschetta was served on wheat toast, though, causing my friend & I to laugh really hard. Pasta was good.

A Few complaints: Really hard to buy stamps! Post office wait line was huge, and the kiosks would only sell stamps if you bought the postcards! TIP: Buy stamps at Kotva, Bila Labut, etc. They are big stores and have a bigger stock. The small vendors act really pissed when you want stamps.

After going to Prague 7 times, I have to say that the prices are going up, but I have never been ripped off there the way I was in Rome. Prague is still the most beautiful city around, and still a great value.

Favorite place off the beaten path: Vysehrad cemetary. (all the famous Czech artists, composers, writers, etc. are buried there) Very peaceful park setting with great views.

Destination #3: Netherlands
Rating: 6 (Nothing bad, just a really boring place to me)

Finally, some cooler weather! No big report here, just visiting friends. TIP: eat at some of the Asian restaurants. Great Vietnamese food, etc.

Destnation #4 (as mentioned before, returned to Rome for 4 nights) Still really hot!!!!
Lots of things are closed in August - including places to buy bus tickets. Buy them in bundles when you can.

Final Destination - New Jersey (home sweet home)

After 2 good flights, I once again was left with NO SUITCASE!!!!!! (as were 25 others)
This time, Northwest gave me a $25 coupon for my troubles. Bag was just brought to my home tonight at 11 PM! (Over one day later)Crazy.

OK - overall, Europe was great!!!
Now, back to my teaching job after one more short week of vacation. Looking forward to my next break, so I can hop on a flight back to Prague! Nashledanou & happy travels...

The restaurants and cafes around the Vatican are known to be tourist traps and that's why no prices are posted usually. But I didn't find all of Rome to be a ripoff at all. I found the food to be quite good in Rome. Gee, where did you go that did not have toilet seats? Even the smallest cafes and restaurants had seats on their toilets.

Sorry you did not care for Rome. At least you enjoyed Prague.

Re: toilet seats

I can think of at least 6 places that had no seats! Two restaurants near Navona. The concert hall where my festival was. A resaturant in Campo Fiorio (I know I screwed up that spelling). A bar in the same area, and one of the stalls in the airport (which also had no paper.) Also, there was a huge cockroach in the airport bathroom stall with me! In addition, one place that did have a toilet seat did not have any running water in the sinks. Thus, I left the establishment with soap all over my hands! Luckily, I was able to wash them off in one of the convenient fountains!! Ciao... Ann Marie

Sorry that you didn't enjoy Rome. What did you think of Pizza Navona? Trevi fountain, Villa Borghese?...We love Rome and love these places plus more...We had many fantastic dinners around the Pizza Navona and Trevi fountain area...reasonably price, usually around $15 per person for dinner. Can't wait to go back this Sept...Adriana Villa..etc. You should try to stay at/around the Pizza Navona or Pantheon area...very exiting at night, lots of people, live music...

Considering the fact that 40 Czech Crowns is equivalent to a whopping $1.34 and the fact that you've apparently gone back to the "bunch of shops" seven times it shouldn't suprise you that the folks who are "so easy to bribe" finally figured out that people are willing to pay to see the place.

>...one taxi driver drove away without giving me change!<

I guess we have all been reminded to not leave the cab before the transaction has been completed.

You sound like a lightening rod for trip disaster. Sorry, your luck was so bad. However, I think your trip is not typical of a visit to Rome.

We've gone three times and always found places all over town where we could eat okay for $10 to 20 per person.

What exactly did you see and do in Rome? The beauty of the forum, Pizza Navona, Trevi fountain, Villa Borghese.... always blinded me to getting upset over a cockroach here and there.

Thanks for replying, everyone.

Degas, you are cracking me up! I don't consider myself prone to trip disasters, at all! Considering I have travelled alone internationally about 10 times (and for months at a time), I feel quite lucky that the worst I can complain about is being way overcharged in Rome! Also, I am not actually afraid of cockroaches (lived in Texas for awhile), but the one I saw on my last morning there was pretty ugly!

Anyway, I saw/did all the "touristy" things. The only places that really impressed me were the Vatican & the Forum areas when they were so beautifully lit up at night. Otherwise, I left Italy with a feeling of "been there, done that", not the awe inspiring feeling I leave with when I travel to Shanghai, Prague, or other places that really hold my interest. I would someday like to see Venice & Cremona (I'm a violinist!), because the only other Italian places I've been to are Florence, Naples, and Pompeii.

Anyway, thanks again for chatting about the ever-interesting topic of world travel!! - Ann Marie

Thanks for being honest. Many, but not all, visitors are impressed with Rome. I do think you had a run of bad luck on that trip. Good to see it was a fluke thing.

And I know about Rome cab drivers - I had to literally chase one down to get my change back. It was just too big a sum to walk away from. Always keep some small bills handy now to avoid the opportunity for misunderstandings.

Never been to Shanghai, but I bet its a great place.

Amp- Just curious how did you get from Rome to Prague. By air or train? We would like to do these two cities in spring '04 and have been going back and forth for awhile now.

Thanks.

Czech Air. I think a train ride would be way too long (at least for me!)