Rome: The Good And The Bad (Rome)

Member Name: bensci

Product:	Rome
Date:	11/03/09 (54 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful sites

Disadvantages: Big city problems and tourist traps

Rome was much how I expected it to be, a lively mixture of ancient capital and a modern metropolis, with all the related tourist oppertunities. I shant go into massive detail as plenty of other people have! So I shall try to cover things that peple havent.

If youre expecting a fairytale city be warned, Rome IS Italy's biggest metropolis and has all the problems of a big city - crime, graffiti, rubbish and indeed plenty of protests which we witnessed several of. Travelling on the metro-system at night can be daunting, as can venturing into the suburbs.

People wanting to see impressive sites wont be disappointed though, and we got to see all the main ones, Colosieum, Forum, Vittorio Emmanuele II Monument, Spanish Steps and the Vatican easily within 4 days. The Roma Pass is highly recommended, it offers a weekend of travel, plus entrance to two museums / ancient sites for 20 euros, which saves money and is also very useful, especially when it comes to queue jumping at the Colosieum.

I would also beware of anyone dressed as a Roman soldier, especially around the Colosieum. They will charge you for pictures, and charge you high - they attempted to charge us 20 Euros! Feel free to refuse or give a smaller tip, but its probably best just to say no in the first place.

If you want to see St Peters go as early as possible, we queued for about 10 minutes when the queue later can be over an hour long.

A good tip: If you like flea markets and have the sunday free, go to the Porta Portese market in Trastevere. Plenty of bargains to be had, as well as the spetacle of seeing nuns hunting for a bargain! Take a good map though for it can be a bit of a pain to find.

If you like more modernistic architecture I recommend EUR, its slightly further out but worth the visit.

Summary: Well worth going, just be on your guard!