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Rome, Italy vacation tips?
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Harken Banks
Oct 30, 09 10:45
Post #1 of 14 (263 views)
Rome, Italy vacation tips?
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So I'm off to Rome in February with my wife for a week of vacation. I'd certainly appreciate any tips on lodging, dining, or things to do. Also, can anyone recommend a pool?
Ciao.
Matt
Yknot
Oct 30, 09 11:38
Post #2 of 14 (255 views)
Re: Rome, Italy vacation tips? [Harken Banks]
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I studied in Rome for a few months some time back. I was at St. Stephen's school in Rome on the Via Aventina. It was without a doubt some of the best few months of my life. Since I stayed at the school, I can't give too much lodging advice and restaurants may have changed since I was there. General suggestions-
Dining- nutella cornetti. Have one the first day and report back how many you have subsequently. They are amazing.
Things To Do- I think the mistake most people make is trying to everything and as a result ending up seeing nothing. I would try to trim your list down and really give yourself time to see each thing on the list. In terms of museums, the villa borghese is probably at the top of the list. The Vatican is great as well but you can easily spend your whole week just exploring the Vatican. You can not miss the Pantheon. The building is...no way to finish that sentence. You can't take a pic which captures its architecture and you can not capture it in words either. The Trevi fountain at night. The Spanish steps are a cool place just to go and soak in some Rome, if you are lucky you might even get pickpocketed there to get the full experience.
I think the best idea is to do walking tours. There is a book that gives various options, I know I did a walking tour of Bernini's Rome which was incredible. Sorry I can't remember the name of the book. But honestly, try to give yourself a day or two just to walk around and take in the city. It is best to enjoy what you see then rush and see everything. Also, grab some pizza from a shop you walk by that smells good.
If you do travel out of Rome (and I would suggest staying there), I would maybe suggest Florence. It is a neat city that is doable in a watered down manner in a day or so (check out the Ponte Vecchio, the Duomo, and at least one (really, both) of the Uffizi and the...can't remember, it has Michelangelo's Prisoners.
hooker_elite
Oct 30, 09 12:13
Post #3 of 14 (233 views)
Re: Rome, Italy vacation tips? [Harken Banks]
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I just returned from spending a week in Rome, specifically, Trastevere. I've been there a few times and have stayed in a different spot each time. I recommend skipping hotels and find a nice vacation rental--you can't beat the prices and the accommodations are typically nicer, larger, and you get a kitchen. Check out this website:
http://www.rentalinrome.com/
What you should see depends on what you like. PM if you would like to trade a few emails.
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nickc
Oct 30, 09 15:00
Post #4 of 14 (218 views)
Re: Rome, Italy vacation tips? [hooker_elite]
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2x on Trastevere.
SProboscis
Oct 30, 09 16:13
Post #5 of 14 (208 views)
Re: Rome, Italy vacation tips? [Harken Banks]
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I lived in Naples for 4 years. Watch your valuables and cash.
Harken Banks
Oct 31, 09 5:44
Post #6 of 14 (191 views)
Re: Rome, Italy vacation tips? [hooker_elite]
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Hey folks, thanks for your replies and info! I'm going to do a bit more research and then probably post some follow-up questions.
Ironmom1
Oct 31, 09 17:14
Post #7 of 14 (172 views)
Re: Rome, Italy vacation tips? [Harken Banks]
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The Roman Forum is an amazing place - It is one of the only places where I would hire a tour guide. What time period are you most interested in? There is so much to see in Rome, I would suggest spending a few days visiting ancient Roman sites, a day doing early christian, and then a few days doing the Renaissance - post renaissance. Rome can be very confusing if you go from tourist site to tourist site because you can be skipping a thousand years from place to place. I'm sure you can find a guide book that breaks the city down by time period. Just my 2 cents!
mfreeman72
Nov 1, 09 19:28
Post #8 of 14 (146 views)
Re: Rome, Italy vacation tips? [hooker_elite]
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x3 on Trastevere. Gorgeous and a little more traditional -- like what Rome was like in the 1950's, or so I'm told. Well located, so you can walk to a great deal from there.
I stayed at the Hotel Santa Maria, a former monastery. Clean, relatively reasonable, and just cool as hell.
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jimmy d
Nov 1, 09 21:42
Post #9 of 14 (131 views)
Re: Rome, Italy vacation tips? [Harken Banks]
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We just returned from Europe a couple of weeks ago. Rome was our last stop. We stayed near the Termini. Our hotel was fine, but the area isn't the greatest. Dining? We walked or took the subway everywhere, so we ate wherever we had to. Many streetside restaurants charge 8 - 12 Euros for a plate of pasta, which didn't seem to out of line. Wine was relatively cheap at most places as well. We did find one place where appies started at 60 Euros and the main courses were 160 - 200. We, um, didn't eat there. There are all the usual suspects in terms of sites, but there are also old ruins that are seemingly unidentified that are all over Rome. As another poster said, go to Florence if you can. It is a great place and the food there is much better in my opinion! I never saw a pool there, but I imagine Google can sort you out with that.
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JerseyQuaker
Nov 1, 09 22:13
Post #10 of 14 (124 views)
Re: Rome, Italy vacation tips? [Harken Banks]
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Lazio vs. Roma (I gave a quick search for the fixture schedule, but didn't come up in initial results)
Catacombs
Don't take a guided tour of the Vatican (unless you have to now or if you're really into art history -- it took us FOREVER)
Edit:
Oh, and stay away from the subway. The worst smelling and unclean metro I've ever been on.
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Gnothi Seauton.
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xtremrun
Nov 2, 09 6:26
Post #11 of 14 (104 views)
Re: Rome, Italy vacation tips? [Harken Banks]
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The daily tour buses are great. They make a tour of the main attractions. You can get off one bus and on another all day for one price. A great way to check out the city. They are located outside the main terminal.
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desert dude
Nov 2, 09 7:20
Post #12 of 14 (94 views)
Re: Rome, Italy vacation tips? [Harken Banks]
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buy a bus pass, Rome, while walkable to get everywhere around, is sometimes easier on the feet to take a bus.
We were there for 7d, and could have used 1 more. Every morning we'd figure out where we wanted to go, cut the list in half and plot it out. This afforded us time to stop and check out other things of interest during the day. We pretty much left the hotel at 9am and got back about 10pm. Ultimately we walked through all the major tourist stuff and had some time to go back to some of our favorite things but not all, hence the extra day.
I don't remember where we stayed other then there was a trolley stop 1 block away.
The vatican took about 8 hours to get through. It was the day after Christmas when half of it was closed. But I like art so...
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SourDieseL
Nov 3, 09 11:13
Post #13 of 14 (60 views)
Re: Rome, Italy vacation tips? [desert dude]
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I was up in Rome earlier this year and absolutely loved it!
Definitely hang out in Trastevere, wonderful little area. Also close to John Cabbott University, many US students there so if you need to toss about some english you'll find someone to ask around trastevere.
Things to check out - you can do all of vatican city and basically need a new pair of sneakers. Great if you got time to walk it, I did and spent about a good 4.5 hours RUNNING through it. I can easily see myself taking a nap somewhere in there just to get out of the place. More so, to the top of VC, it's a long haul but it's totally worth it. Be wary of the spiral staircases with the hanging rope as a handle and look for KlinkerSire you'll know when you see it
Food - dinner is at around 9pm, anything before is usually too early to eat for them. Wine definitely is on the cheap so drink up. Found myself having pizza for lunch often, just scattered around the city whenever I felt hungry. One major thing to look out for - BLUE ICE! You can google it or just stumble upon it. Believe there is one near Piazza Navona.
Metro - trains are trains, reminds me of NYC back in the 80s. If you can maintain, then maintain no need to worry about pick pocketers just don't be a stand out dumb tourist. Mind yourself and you'll be fine. The bus helped with the walking also!
All the other usual attractions are worth seeing, Pantheon, Collesium, Ruins, etc etc. Now that I think about it,would have been proper to bring a pair of running shoes or something you're comfortable in because you're feet will hate you for sure.
BUENA SERA
Dan Os Fan
Nov 3, 09 12:22
Post #14 of 14 (42 views)
Re: Rome, Italy vacation tips? [Yknot]
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Definitely have to agree with the Villa Borgese. The entire Borgese Park was great to walk through.
I highly recommend bringing running shoes and putting in a couple miles as many mornings as you can as it will help you get familiar with the city.
We took a walking tour of the Colesium and that was great. We paid a few extra Euro's outside of the place and got to jump to the front of the line as well as having a guide tell us about it. We were skeptical since it seemed weird that they were outside trying to get people to join them, but in the end it worked great. We had a friend hire a private tour guide for a 3.5 hour tour of the Vatican and it was great. I think if we were there for 8 hours it would have been a big drag.
There were just so many cool things about the city that we were going crazy from overload after the week was over.
Get used to two hour dinners, great to relax that way when you get used to it. We loved a pizza joint near the spanish steps that we ate at a couple times. Relatively cheap and fun to have wine for lunch and it was cheaper than cokes.
FYI you can carry around water bottles and fill them from any fountain in the city. Great tasting water.
Expect lesser standards for your hotel rooms. We were in a 4 star hotel on the Via Veneto and we were surpised at the bedroom size and the shower was the size of a phone booth.
I can't wait to get back there.
Enjoy !
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