You have two choices when you visit a foreign city - stay near the sites and activities you're gonna do or see, or stay in a neighborhood away from tourists. Here's what I recommend:

• If you're going to spend a lot of time in the city, why commute each day?  Stay in the City!
• If you're going to spend more time in the outskirts, why commute each day?  Stay in the outskirts!

Before you book your hotel - get a map of the city you plan to visit and circle all the places you want to go. Next see where the hotels are at.  If for an extra $15 or $20 a night you can stay closer to the sites you want to see, go for it!  You'll thank yourself later!  You may be wondering if the city sounds will keep you up at night.  Unlike New York, Rome's rather quiet at one in the morning.

In Rome, we wanted to see all the historical sites and be within a $10 cab ride to restaurants.  With that said, we got very lucky the second time we stayed there as the hotel was right in the heart of Times Square! 

Getting There

You get there by airplane.

When you arrive

You'll be flying into the Leonardo DaVinci airport.  Quoting from my 1999 travel journal: 

The airport itself is quite far from the city.  Customs was non-existent - we were asked if we had American passports; we flashed the covers and were let right through.  Afterwards we were disappointed that our passports weren't stamped and so we went back and asked to have them stamped.

 Our bags took a while to arrive, but once they did we were here!  I'm really surprised at how lax customs was.  All other countries that we've been to at least asked to look at our passports.... The airport itself is quite far from the center of Rome, an so as we drove along the highway we could see vineyards and grassy planes.  Johanna noticed how some of the cars looked so tiny...

Budget $70 (about 68 Euros) for a cab ride into the city.  In 2000 it cost about $50 to take a cab to the city.  Ask the cabdriver how much it'll cost before you board.  You could also take the train - but seriously with all your luggage and after flying for several hours - who wants to bother?  If you booked your trip by a travel agent, they may have arranged transportation, whereby all you'll have to do is tip the driver.  This is where having small bills comes in useful.  You don't want to hand the driver a 100 Euro note for a 4 Euro tip.

You'll want to wash up when you arrive and maybe even rest for an hour.  Now here's where personalities come into play.  If you flew out the night before (say a Friday night 7:00 PM fight from New York, Eastern Time Zone), you'll arrive the following morning (Saturday at 10:00AM, Rome Time Zone).  The flight's about seven hours, during which you may get some sleep, but not much.  When you land, your biological clock thinks it's three or four in the morning - even though it 's 10:00 AM Rome time - and by the time you get to the hotel you barely slept for over 24 hours and it's already One in the afternoon,  local Rome time!

I'm a "Let's rock and roll!" kind of traveler.  I don't want to waste away my first day sleeping.  Besides, I figure if I stay up through the first day, I'll fall asleep that much easier and make the time zone switch-that much quicker.  A fifteen minute rest, a quick shower, and I'm off getting a cappuccino to wake me up.   Johanna, on the other hand, always experiences jet-lag on her first day and would rather take a long nap.

What's the first thing you should do after you've checked into your hotel?  Make dinner reservations!! 

Unlike in New York where the peak dinner time is between 7:00 - 9:00PM, peak dinner time in Rome starts at 9:00PM.  And also unlike New York, in good restaurants, the table's reserved by you for the evening.  Eat at 9 and you can stay until closing.  The tourist trap places are like the IRT back home: cramp, noisy, busy, and rushed.  Although service in Rome is no where like Greece, if your waiter is hovering over you, you're eating in a tourist trap.

More on restaurants later...

Where to Stay

Pensione Parlamento

Located on Via delle Convertite (it's a small street) in the Quirinale district - you'll be within walking distance of the Pantheon, The Spanish Steps, The Trevi Fountain, Via del Corso, and the amazing Via Del Condotti!  (Mark this as a place to visit  - especially on a Saturday evening!)  From here you can also walk to Via Vittorio Veneto, enjoying a stroll among the locals.  Johanna and I have done it a few times and we've enjoyed ourselves thoroughly - all for under $150 a night, double occupancy!

One thing that you should be aware of is that the pensione occupies the third and fourth floors of a 17th century palazzo. Once you walk past the front outer doors (the hotel receptionist will buzz you in), you'll enter a courtyard.  Turning to your right you'll see a small plaque pointing the way to the "lift" up a short flight of stairs.  Once you climb those stairs you'll encounter one the tiny elevators you find in hotels throughout all of Europe.  Take the elevator up to the third floor and and that's where you'll find the entrance to the hotel.  And if you're too tired to bring up your luggage, the hotel staff will send someone down to get it for you.

After you've checked in they'll take your passport to register you with the police and give you a key to your room and - I don't remember this very well, but I think you also get a key to the outside door as well.

The front door opens on to the tiled reception area, you'll find one of the friendly guys working behind the desk.  If I recall, two brothers work there and I was constantly confusing the two.  There's also an older gentleman.  To the left of the reception area is the breakfast nook, where you can find a computer for guests to use.  You can use it to drop a note to your friends and family from Italy or IM for a few minutes - though please!  Don't spend hours there!  You're in Italy!  If your idea of vacationing is sitting in front of a computer reading and writing emails - save yourself the money and stay home.  Besides, when we were last there, they only had dial-up access.

I loved having a freshly made cappuccino with breakfast.  There's nothing extraordinary about the meal itself - a basket with plain rolls, crescents with jam and an assortment of packaged breads, but you also receive fresh fruit and juices and plain yogurt. What's the big deal about the breakfast?  In 1999 we stayed at a place picked by ItaliaTours, Hotel Andrioti.  Here's Johanna's account of breakfast at Andrioti:

We... went downstairs to see what delicious foods breakfast would have to offer.  The room was nicely furnished and had another room attached to it.  Buffet style - we get our plates... meat, pastries, tarts... William made a meat and cheese sandwich.  I was looking for cereal and something to drink because I felt dehydrated.  I found the cereal but there were no bowls!  Oh well.  Juice!  From a machine! The kind that keeps the liquid moving all the time, those things you always see at these cruddy places and you wonder how long its been sitting there and how often they clean their machines.  Coffee!  Also from a machine - press 1 for regular coffee, 2 for hot chocolate, 3 for cappuccino, 4 for hot water, etc..  William and I both got regular coffee, which I couldn't drink.  William had two cups.... We both agreed that though breakfasts were free, we didn't want to eat there again.

At Palemento, the bedrooms are sparse, yet very clean.  But remember!  You're in Rome.  You're not going to be hosting parties at your hotel!  A clean bed and shower are all you need! The bathrooms were tiled and all looked as if they were recently remodeled.  They also have a roof garden, where you can have your breakfast or a early evening drink.

Check out their website http://www.hotelparlamento.it/ for more photos and information.

There's also a convenient ATM machine on Corso, half a block north of Parelemto, and there's a Taxi stand a block east at Plaza San Silvestro - but have the front desk call you a cab.  Taxis in Rome only pick up at designated spots.  When you're out to dinner and want to take a cab home, have the waiter call you one.

After to check in, remember to ask for your passport back!

If you do stay at Parlamento - please let them know that "William Porto" recommended them (and show them my website).

What All Tourists Need to See

The Crypt of Santa Maria della Concezione

27 Via Vittorio Veneto,

Silencio!

That's what the monk who takes your admission is constantly chanting!  This has got to be the most interesting and unusual attractions in Rome! 

Getting here from Parlamento is about a 1/2 hour walk.  You walk a block or so south on Corso and then head east on Via Del Tritone until you come to Via Veneto.  When you come to Piazza Barberini, you're find Bernini's Fountain of the Triton (Fontana del Tritone). This was one of the first major sites Johanna and I encountered on first trip to Rome.  It's been there for 300 years.  Try finding anything in New York that's been around as long! 

The Crypt is located just north of the piazza, on the right hand side of Via Vittorio Veneto (Rome's street of High Society in the 60's - check out Fellini's "La Dolce Vita").  It's on the side of the street where you find the small Fountain of the Bees (Fontana delle Api) which was originally intended as a watering hole for horses.  Bees were part of the crest of the Barberinis and so they're featured in a lot of their sponsored works of art (or so I think). 

You'd never know by the exterior what lies with Santa Maria della Concezione.  This crypt houses the remains of 4000 Capuchin monks.  The way I recall it, the soil came from Israel and going to be used as the burial grounds for the monks.  it turns out that they must have miscalculated and wound up with too many bodies to burry in too little space. One day a monk saw a shoulder-blade lying around and thought to himself, "You know, that looks just like an angel's wings!"  And the next thing you knew he set about decorating the walls and ceilings with bones.  Well, that's not exactly what happened but it's close enough.

You have to admire the creativity.  Everything is made of human bones, including the chandeliers that hang overhead.  You can't miss this place.  While the rest of tour-dome is at the Coliseum saying "This is where Gladiator was filmed!" you'll be feasting your eyes on something you'll probably never see Kurt Russell (or whatever that actor's name was) impersonating.  It's not creepy - it's macabre and fascinating.  The kind of place you tell your friends back at home about.  You can click on the pictures to get a better view of them.  You're not allowed to take photos, but I managed to sneak these in sans a flash.  That's why they're so dark.  I had to brighten them substantially just to bring out some detail.  Your best best is to buy a set of postcards for your scrap-book.

The Spanish Steps

I always think of the Spanish Steps as the "Washings Square Park" of Rome, only with a lot of tourists and no college age New Yorker wanna-be's.

The Spanish Steps were built in 1725 by the French but were named after the the Spanish Embassy to the Vatican.  At the top of the steps you'll find the French "Trinità dei Monti" church so one would think that this place would be called the Monti Steps or the French Steps.  Who knows?   Either way it's a great place to sit and people watch, though it can get very crowded during the day.  The best times to visit it are late in the evening, just before dinnertime.  Stores in Rome close early!!  8:00 PM or earlier!! So after you've finished shopping at the Prada store on Via Del Condotti, get a gellato at Cafe Grecco (see photo below righ)  and head on over to the Steps. 

To get there from Palemento, you walk North up Corso about four blocks to Via Dei Condotti and then turn left.  You'll find the Spanish Steps at the end of Condotti - but don't rush though Condotti, for you'll be missing one of the most famous shopping streets in Rome. The best time to visit Condotti is around 4 PM and then after you're done shopping, sit at the Spanish Steps and people watch.  Or if you are staying at Paremento, you can walk back to your room, drop off your bags, and then head on over to the Steps.

By 11:00PM not too many people are out and about, but you should find some stragglers here.  Keep an eye out for the disenchanted Italian youth.  You would swear that you're back at Washington Square Park.

Oh!  Drop me a line and let me know if there are still dozens of skinny Indian men selling flowers, rubber faces, and junk at the Spanish Steps.  On every trip these guys were all over, selling the exact same thing!

next page...