Rome

Schizophonic

Schizophonic

Schizophonic

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Joined
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Northampton
So I decided to take the wife and my step son for a few days in Rome.

Never been and not sure what to expect right now, its going to be very busy and hot over there.

We are flying from Heathrow into Rome and will need to get the train from the airport to the main train terminal and a short walk to the hotel.

I heard its worth getting some organised tour guide for some of the venues like the coliseum, or some sort of audio text commentary while we explore parts of it.
Apart from main tourist spots, any other places we can go or eat? How did you find it when you last went?

Are the pickpockets really bad as I've seen some tiktok videos? Now my algorithms on my social feeds is really bad with this type of content.
If you were to go again what would you have done differently?
 
I went to Rome for the first time a few weeks ago for work. First thing, it's a lot smaller than I'd imagined. I'd actually put off going there on holiday because I thought it was massive like Paris or something... But I stayed near Barberini metro station and a fair amount of the big hitter sights were all walkable (Colosseum was furthest at ~30mins, I did kinda kill myself going there and back in 2hrs only -- in 32c on my only free morning :p ). But the Trevi fountain*, Spanish steps, Piazza Navona, Monument to Victor Emmanuel, the Pantheon was. I guess I've missed the Vatican there.

The only restaurant recommendation I could give is Luciano's. The locals I was working with took me there and it was great. The carbonara lived up to the hype, to my tastes. But not only that the starters were all fantastic too. Seems to get a bit of hate online (probably because proclaiming the "best" anything would) but it's in the Michelin guide and the quality was clear to me. As with most cities, avoid eating anywhere near the sights or anywhere near the lovely squares. There's the ones you read about people getting £1,000 bills for two mains and a cocktail (Don't know if that even happens in Rome, like Venice but..)

I was getting driven around mostly but did take the metro twice and it was phone. Coming from someone who lives and commutes in London it's probably the usual thing.. just be sensible. Keep an eye on people, especially if they get too close or bump into you. Don't wave your phone around etc. To me it felt almost as safe as the London tube, certainly as safe as any European metro I've taken. You can use contactless cards btw.

*This was like a zoo even at 10pm after dinner. Be prepared for crowds! In fact be prepared for crowds everywhere.
 
Rome is my favourite city in the world (after Birmingham of course :cry: ). It’s going to be hot and busy!

Most of the tourist sights now need timed and ticketed entry. If you’re only there for a couple of days, try to figure out what you want to do exactly. Central sights like Piazza Spagna, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Piazza Navona, Piazza Popolo and the Wedding Cake are all walkable very easily. The pantheon is ticketed now which is a shame, but worth a look if you can get a slot. The Colosseum is a bit of a walk and it’s worth getting the bus down there as you’ll want to save your energy for a tour. All that lot could be done in one day depending on how long you want to spend at the colosseum.

Take a separate day to do the Vatican +/- museum. The Vatican museum is really great if you’re at all into art. Lots of famous things in there. A great alternative is a trip up the duomo of San Pietro.

Villa Borghese is really nice to explore and I always enjoyed hiring a quadricycle type pedal bike and cycling around. Lots of fountains and green space. The gallery in the park is excellent too.

Eating - you’ll struggle to eat bad food. Don’t stress if you end up paying a bit more to eat overlooking a famous historic square. You’ll still eat well, if a place looks good and you like the feel/setting, go for it! Would recommend Bar Frattina (more geared for a quick business style lunch, but excellent pasta and the best tiramisu I’ve ever eaten). Also Antica Enoteca Ristorante. Nice setting and good wine selection.

Giolitti is THE place for ice cream. Very busy but an absolute classic. Again, very hard to eat bad ice cream in Rome - if it looks good, go for it!

Most jealous, have a great time!
 
You are a very brave man. :P

Keep yourselves alert if you go on the metro (anywhere). Id try and avoid it to be honest, its not like London where stops are actually frequent and useful. I think the colosseum is the only stop that's anywhere near it says it is.
Its much better to walk if you can. We walked a lot there.... Just make a little loop of where you want to go and walk between the spots, its a beautiful place, shame about the crowds. Im not gonna lie but it sucked when we went there in January (epiphany) let alone peak "peak" tourist time... So many people, the vatican museum and tour was like being trapped in a zombie hoard shuffling onward. Trevi fountain is ten people deep. lol

I am from London but i guess i've been living in the sticks for too long... Cant deal with folk anymore lol

If you wanna go all over the colosseum, "in it, under it" id deffo pay for a tour, if its really your thing then it'll be so worth it. It might help with the Queues too, you have to book a slot to queue to book a slot"
The old forum area is amazing i could spend 2 days here alone. The history of it its just mind blowing. The parks and the plazas its just beautiful....
Torre Argentina cat sanctuary was cool, if you like cats, apparently the staff can be a bit hot and cold but we had no problems, its quiet small its like a 15/20 min visit. Cats all sunbathing in roman ruins is cool lol.
The Vatican... I'm not a religious man but i can understand how humbling visiting a place like this must have been to a man hundreds of years ago.

Food, i'm not a huge restaurant eater but you cant really go wrong. If you are in proximity of any tourist trap you'll pay double or triple.
I couldn't tell you the names of the restaurants we ate but one of the better was near the vatican for an early dinner. It must have sat 200....we ate at 6pm and it was empty, Mediterranean's eat much later meals than northern europeans. Other food we just grabbed stuff on the move, ate a lot of focaccia/pizza.

Romans are very shouty and "prego prego!" aggressively welcoming lol

Id love to go again, more off peak, not on one of the biggest holiday weekends in January :(
 
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Thanks for the heads up, appreciate the time for posting your views and opinions. We are getting into Rome about 10:30 to and then getting to our hotel maybe just after midday. The wife has emailed them to ask if we can possibly have our room ready slightly early to drop off our bags, but if its not we can still leave our bags with them in a safe location and check in when its time?

We booked a tour at the colosseum to make the most of it I think, not sure if we will come again but I thought we might as well do things thoughly rather than rushing it. As for food, will have a look to see if i can plan our itinerary to stop at certain locations to eat or sit down meal. I know we will get breakfast at the hotel and it will be a good time to get as much before the busy day. We can still walk to places and the furthest tourist spot is the vatican and its over a 60 mins to get there. We will decide if we want to get a taxi or pop along to places on the way their.

As its a multicultural city, getting around and speaking English is going to be fine right?
 
Are you flying into Fiumicino or Ciampino?

If Fiumicino, and if you enjoy history, I would give consideration to visiting Ostia Antica and staying a night nearby. It's about 7 miles from Fiumicino airport, around a 15min taxi journey or 1 hr by bus. It was Rome's port city and the site is extensive and well preserved; you'll get a sense of perspective there without the tourist throngs of central Rome. Based on your posts, it sounds like your hotel is already booked though, so perhaps it's not an option. *About 2-4 hours would be sufficient to see most of the ruins and highlights. You could store your bags at the airport, make a day-trip of it, and check in later.

Re: food. If you stumble across a trattoria selling baccalà (dried, salted cod), try it - it's delicious. It's often sold by backstreet takeaways that specialise in just baccala too, the Italian version of a chippy.
 
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I booked tours - things like the Vatican the queues can be crazy so it's worth booking a cheap tour just as a way of skipping some queues.
 
Schizophonic said:
As its a multicultural city, getting around and speaking English is going to be fine right?
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Yes. We went there for a week last year, and I've been there dozens of times for work, so already had the lay of the land before the holiday.

As you'd expect, popular places get busy! Places like the Pantheon, get there early for a mooch around, as my late morning and in the day, it'll be rammed. Most lazy tourists (Americans) don't get up early, so if you want quiet(er) streets, head out early for a nice walk.

Avoid any restaurants on the perimeter of the popular plazas etc, and any that invite you in. Any decent restaurant does NOT need a man pestering you to come in.

Watch out for pickpockets, very common. I had someone try to get in my camera bag but he couldn't get the clasp undone, but I felt it (he just looked at me nonchalant-ly and walked off)

Prepare to do a lot of walking, depending on how much you want to see of course, and parts of the city and quite hilly.

I'll shamelessly plug my photo blog if you want any inspiration: :D
www.danfreemanphoto.com

Rome — Dan Freeman Photography

www.danfreemanphoto.com www.danfreemanphoto.com
 
Been to Rome twice. Absolutely loved it.

We booked online first for some attractions.

One place to try is the very top of St Peters! The views are amazing.

August can be extremely hot in Rome.

I walked everywhere. Loved it....that was 10 years ago since my last visit there though.
 
Yeah walking is really good. You see so much. There's so much architecture and stuff to see. Find a couple of things on the way for 5 min breaks and just enjoy it.

Damn i wanna go back now.
 
We had two days circa 2008, didn't have time for Vatican was all we missed that we wanted from see

We were also in August. Frozen water, I did not know was a thing, but lots of people selling it, But it kept me alive !

We did not train at all, on the way back to airport the hotel got us one of their private hire companies. Was a set fair, she took us some more scenic route and seen lots of expensive cars. Which was funny as that's the opposite of the millions of battered fiats !

In places where pick pockets are a concern I just take the spare phone, small amount of cash and forget about it.

Like others have said lots of walking, just take your time though. If there a few days you should be able to do all the main things.

Have an awesome time dude.
 
Manbatius said:
We were also in August. Frozen water, I did not know was a thing, but lots of people selling it, But it kept me alive !
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You know there are fountains all over the city, that you can drink from? (safely, the locals use them all the time). Saved us loads on inflated water bottle prices!
 
Shadowness said:
You know there are fountains all over the city, that you can drink from? (safely, the locals use them all the time). Saved us loads on inflated water bottle prices!
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Nope! Rome was my first time out the country. However I'm not good with the heat. So would probably have bought the frozen water just to hold onto had I known.

You are spot on though. That was 2008 and felt pricey, probably need to just give them my wallet these days !
 
Take the high speed train and go on a day trip to Florence it is beautiful with the cathedral, and only hour and half.

I did 6 days in Rome so allowed me to see a lot, I never got bored one of my favourite citys it's like walking through history.

Most of the stuff been covered here now, I stayed just down abit to the right of the Colosseum was amazing to walk past there everyday.

Climb the steps of the Vatican for the views over the city it's breathtaking.

Use the app getyourguide to do the Colosseum tour one of my favourite, much better seeing places with guide to explain things.

I remember going to a restaurant twice tucked in the corner on piazza navona it's was brilliant. Loved trying the pizza stops just little places selling slices was good.
 
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