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How to pick the right hotel in Rome,
which are the best locations.
What you should know when landing at
Rome's airport.
What you should see in Rome.
What you should see at the Vatican.
How to handle in Rome's traffic when
crossing the streets.
And then tour Rome by golf cart with us!
The best tour of Rome for
kids, seniors, disabled, families... and anyone who
wants to enjoy Rome thoroughly without walking!
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We are hereby daring to try to describe Rome to people who've never
been there, we know it's kind of like describing colors to a blind
man, but we'll try...
In fact, whatever one can imagine Rome is, when he gets here he
always discovers that the reality is very different from whatever he
could imagine.
Someone said nothing can prepare you to your first visit to Rome,
only your first visit prepares you for he next one.
We are stubborn though and we want to try to help you avoid making
the most common mistakes and have a more pleasant stay.
Having been in this business many, many years we think we have an
idea of the common misunderstandings a tourist can incur in and what
please them instead.
So, please, allow us have the pleasure to, at least, try to
introduce our city to you and please forgive us if at times we may
sound like we are trying to sell our services, bragging about
ourselves or scolding you. :) We don't mean to do any of that, it's
just about being ROMANS !!! |
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How to choose where to
stay
The first thing you do when
planning a trip, is choose where to stay and book your
hotel. There are countless hotels in Rome and they're
all on the web. They all look very nice and they're all near
the attractions you want to visit, but is that
really true?
Not always. The area you call Rome is big
and it's all called "Rome" but the
real Rome, the part of
the city that a tourist wants to see, is
relatively
small. Most of the interesting sites are located
within the historic center of Rome, still surrounded by the old city walls built in the 3rd century a. D..
The
area belted by these walls is where we would want to stay if we were
tourists in Rome. We would
want to stay at a place were we could walk out of the
hotel and the scenario would be entirely different from what
we see at home. We would want to be immersed in the
atmosphere of Rome and be able to stroll to a nearby
authentic place for dinner or walk to some of the
sites. We would not want to stay at a hotel outside of the
city walls, even if that would mean staying at a more comfortable
hotel paying the same price we would pay for one in the
city. Except for some special areas, the outskirts of Rome don't look too different from
the outskirts of any other big city in the world, so if you stay
at a hotel in the city's outskirts, except for some cases,
you'll not be able to walk to any of the sites and maybe
you'll not even have a nice restaurant close enough to just walk
to it. This
means you'd practically be forced to commute to the city
twice a day or have your meals at the
hotel. In addition, the
commute to the city center could be expensive and surely
subtract time to your sightseeing and relax. But this is what we
think. Some people may want to stay in the modern
hotels, part of a big chain, outside the city just because
they get a big discount using up their
credit card points. We would rather use our points for
other purchases
and stay in the old part of Rome. These large hotels though,
provide shuttle
service and that makes it rather easy to get in and out of town,
so if you stay in one of these hotels you're not really in
bad shape, though you'll have to expect to spend a lot of time
in traffic.
Let's face it, what a tourist normally
does is leave his hotel in the morning and go sightseeing.
He gets back to his hotel in the late afternoon to freshen
up before going to dinner some place. This is very easy and
pleasant to do when you're staying at a hotel downtown, but
if you are staying somewhere out in the outskirts? Well, in
this case it means spending two hours
commuting, half an hour each way to say the least. Often people end
up giving up the idea of riding the shuttle to go town one
more time
and end up having their "cosmopolitan" dinner at the hotel
spending more than twice the amount of money they would have paid for
an authentic and fun dinner at a restaurant in old Rome and
so spending the money they saved by staying in a hotel in
the outskirts.
Or they take a taxi to go a restaurant in
town and obtain the same result.
Some others instead pick their hotel on
line and let prices guide them, having pretty bad surprises
sometimes. We've had cases of clients who ended up staying
in places that were one hour away from the city at a hotel
that had no shuttle service and they had to use public
transportation to get to the city and walk a mile to get to
the nearest bus stop. It happens often than to save 20 Euros
a night for the hotel, people end up spending 50 Euros a day
on taxis.
Some of the hotels that advertise for
themselves as if they located were in Rome aren't really in
Rome but in the Province of Rome and that's how they can do
that.
For example,
the address for a hotel in the little town of Xxxxxxx, 20 miles from Rome, would show ROME at the end of its
address in block letters preceded by the actual name of the
town because Xxxxxxx is in the Province of Rome. Not knowing
that, you'd think it's in Rome! We've had several cases like
that and we wonder how many times it
happens that people have ended up staying in venues that far
from the city and ended up with a really unpleasant stay!
Mind you, they always say
it takes 15/20 minutes to get to the city, in some cases
it's true, but only if you drive there at three o' clock in the
morning!
When choosing a hotel, look at its
address carefully, it should show nothing else but Rome at the end of
it.
If it shows another name before Rome, than it's
not in Rome, in its province!
You can find out
whether a hotel is in Rome or not is checking its zip code,
Rome's general zip code (cap
in Italian) is 00100, so if the first 3 digits are not 001
it means the address is not in Rome. Rome's city center zip
code is 00186 so if the hotel
you pick has this code in its address it means it's in the middle
of the city.
Other good area codes are:
00184 -
00185( also the code for the
train station area... careful!) -
00187 - 00153 -
00192 -
00193 -00196.
There are thousands of hotels that match
these specifications and they go for all prices, we're sure
it will not be too difficult to find one that matches you
budget. Outside of personal preferences and
budgets, we would like to suggest to stay in hotels
located within the city walls but better not in the area
of the main train station, called Termini.
In the "links"
page of this website we list some of the hotels where we
would stay at, maybe you want to pick your hotel from
this list. Let us specify that the hotels we list do not pay
us a fee to get listed and, in
most cases, they don't even know they are there and neither they pay us a commission. They are
just there because we think they deserve to be there
and this is valid also for any other business we list on
our website.
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Handicapped, steps &
elevators
Another thing you need to know, when
you book your hotel, is that the smaller ones, rated 1, 2 or 3
stars, sometimes don't occupy the whole building
they're in but just a portion of it, like one or two floors.
There could also be more than one hotel in the same building. Before you finalize your booking, especially if you have problems climbing
steps, make sure the
hotel has access to an elevator you can use to get up to
your hotel and to your room from the level of the street !!! Some of these
hotel have elevators that don't start from the street level!
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Check in / check out time
The
hotels' check out time
in Italy is generally 12:00 noon, though some hotels
want their guests to be out by 10:00 am. This means that rooms
normally aren't ready for the new guests until 2 or 3
p.m.. And it also means that if you come in on an
early morning flight, your room may not be ready when
you get to your hotel. You better think of something to
keep you busy and awake until mid afternoon at least. The
hotel will surely store your luggage for you let you freshen
up, thus so you'll be able to start doing some sightseeing
right away. If your hotel is in proximity of one or more of
the highlights of Rome you can just walk over to them and
stretch your legs after a long flight, differently you
may want to ride one of the "hop on hop off" open deck
busses or, why not, let us take you on a tour!
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Messed up reservations
Suppose you get to your hotel and they
tell you they don't have a room for you because your
reservation got messed up. It doesn't happen too often, but can
happen. Before you start arguing, see what they
have to offer. You have to know that, buy the law, the hotel you
booked has to provide another accommodation for you for
the same price you would have paid them, they can't just let you down and
get away with it. If this happens to you, before you
complain, check out the replacement accommodation they can provide,
it might be better than the room you booked! In fact
they have to provide accommodation for you, even
if that means getting you a room at a hotel that will
cost them more than what you would have paid them and they'll
have to cover the difference.
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Food & drinks
One of the things Rome and Italy are known
for is food, it's practically difficult to have a bad meal.
There are restaurants everywhere where you can get a good
meal for less than 30 Euros, wine included. But a restaurant
is a restaurant and a hotel is a hotel. You sleep at a
hotel, but go have your meal at a restaurant. Unfortunately the hotel
people all think that any food or beverages they give you has to be
charged at least three times as much as it would cost anywhere else.
They charge you 3 Euros for a little bottle of water and 5
Euros for an "espresso", so what do you think will
charge for a meal? You better let it be their secret and
eat your meals elsewhere! Also because usually their food can't hold a
candle to the bottom of the line restaurants! Off course
things are different when you're not in a big city. If you
go touring the countryside you can have a great meal at the
hotels in the small hilltop town or on the road, but that's
a different story, they're more like restaurants with a
local clientele with some rooms
to rent rather than being hotels.
At the bottom of this page you'll find a
map of Rome showing the different areas of Rome where we
think you better stay.
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Map of Rome |
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We sincerely hope this map will help
you make a good choice when you'll have to pick a hotel
in Rome
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The airport
Where else could we start from if not
the airport? That's the first place you see in Italy The first thing you need to
know is that you generally do not have to withstand an
accurate customs inspection, especially visitors from
U.S. or Canada, they just walk through... But you'll
have to stand in line to show your passport and if
you're not lucky and end up lining up after people
coming "other" countries, who' identity is checked
thoroughly, the you may end up standing in line for
quite a while.
After this formality you are directed
to the carrousels where you pick up your luggage. Now,
if you had started to suspect that things in Italy don't
get done as quickly as in your country, the wait for
your luggage will confirm your suspect. It'll take a
while.
Generally after 45 minutes or one hour
you're out, ready to get in some kind of transportation
that will take you to your hotel. A taxi? You stood in
line for the passport control then to recuperate your
luggage and now you want to stand in line for a taxi?
Theoretically the cab's fare to take
you to a hotel is a city center is 40 Euros, but then
there are additional charges for each piece of luggage
and this and that... so you end up spending an average
60 Euros and you ride in the car that's first in the
line, whatever that is. Big or small it the cab that's
taking you to Rome. If you haven't been far-sighted
enough to book your ride with a limousine company (their
fare is just a little more expensive than a taxi's or
equivalent) and you don't want to stand in line for a
cab. you can hire car and driver from one of the
limousine companies that operate at the airport, but
make sure they give the price first, before you get in
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The carrousels at
Fiumicino airport
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The train. There's a train that takes
you from the airport grounds to the Termini station
which is right in the heart of Rome, but the ticket is
costly and 4 people would spend more money going by
train than taking a taxi or a limo, especially if their
hotel isn't within a short walking distance from the
train station and they'll still need a taxi to get
there.
We think the best way for one to get
to the city from Rome's airport is to book their
transfer, we're not saying you have to book your
transfer with us, and make sure that
there will be no stress. It really makes a lot of
difference to know that someone is expecting you, knows
where you're going and you know what you're paying him.
No surprises.
Finally let's specify that Rome has two
major airports, the main one is called Fiumicino after the
locality and it's dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci, the other
one is called Ciampino, also because of where it's located,
and it's dedicated to G.B Pastine. While everyone knows who
Leonardo was, not many know that Giovanni Battista Pastine
Pastine was a blimp pilot during WWI and a war hero and the
airport is dedicated to him because Ciampino was a Zeppelin
base during WWI. He was killed by the Austrians in
1916 when his blimp was shot down and he refused to
surrender. |
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Taxis at Rome's
airport Fiumicino |
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Touring Rome
Rome, only four letters
forming two syllables, but a lot history, a lot of
people, a lot of magnificent buildings and a lot of ruins of
magnificent buildings. But also a modern city of nearly five
million inhabitants that you cannot comprehend in just one
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How to tour Rome If
you’re here for the first time and you only have
a couple of days, or worse, if you’re on a
cruise ship that docks in Civitavecchia for the
day and you have only a few hours to see Rome
don’t try to see everything, you’ll just get
headache and sore feet! Whichever way you decide
tour, walk, bus, private tour etcetera, you’re
going to have fun, guaranteed! After all it’s
fun just to be away from home and the usual
routine, isn’t it?
If you
think you can handle it and by this we mean that
you would know what there is to see in Rome and
your cultural background allows you to
understand the explanations you can read from a
good guide book, than you’ll be happy with that
and a good map or, better with a GPS unit!
Differently you better rely on someone to guide
you and you can pick between a narrated bus
tour, a guided group tour, a private walking of
driving tour or even a golf cart tour! If you
haven’t spent time preparing yourself culturally
for your trip to Italy, a guided tour of sort is
obviously the best solution. You’ll not have to
worry about finding out what to see and how to
get there. You’ll be taken to the various sites
and you’ll be told about them. You still have to
pick which venues you want to visit though. We
don’t think it’s a good idea to act snobbish
about the fundamental highlights and go tour
places like the excavations under St. Peter’s
and then have no time left to visit the Pantheon
or simply enjoy the city walking through the
market in Campo de’ Fiori for example. Surely
one would impress his friends saying that, using
his special connections, he was able to visit
the Vatican Gardens, but we would instead
recommend to visit Villa D’Este in Tivoli first.
You would also see some of the countryside and
one of the most spectacular gardens in the
world. We want to add that these ‘very special
visits’ like the ‘Scavi’ (excavations under
St. Peter’s), the underground of the
Colosseum, the Roman houses on the Celian Hill,
the Domus Aurea, House of Livia on the Palatine
and so forth are fine, but your first time you
need to the see fundamental attractions first,
otherwise you’ll not even be able to fully
appreciate the out of the way places when you
visit them. It’s not a good idea to start from
the roof when you’re building a house!
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History
Rome's history is nearly three thousand
years. It was first founded as a kingdom by Romulus in 753
b. C., then came the Roman Republic in the 6th century b. C.
and later, in the 1st century b. C. the Roman Empire which dominated Western Europe,
Middle East and North Africa for more than six hundred
years and fell in the 5th
century A.D. Then the popes ruled Rome until the unification
of Italy which occurred in 1870. Rome was the capital of the
unified kingdom until, by voting referendum in 1946, Italy
got rid of the monarchy and became a republic. So now Rome
is the Capital of the Italian Republic:
Surely not the place one can see in a day
or even a week.
The well known proverb says "Rome wasn't
built in a day", but there's another one, less popular, that
sais "It takes longer than a man's life to see Rome"
So just think of the different historical
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Ancient Rome
Roughly from it's foundation in the 8th
century b.C. to the fall in the 5th century A.D. we have
twelve centuries during which the Romans evolved from the
state or rude shepherds to being the most advanced
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Middle Ages
Than came the Middle Ages when
the pope ruled Rome and influenced the politics
of Europe and the Middle East. Those were tough
times, because the pope banned all of what had
been achieved by the Romans and causing the
humanity to precipitate into chaos. This period
lasted nearly one thousand years and finally
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Renaissance
This is the "rebirth" of everything.
Renaissance is rebirth in French and it puzzling that in
English you use a French term for something that absolutely
Italian.
In the Renaissance, beginning in the 13th
century, art, architecture, literature and culture in
general started to flourish again. The pope and his
entourage themselves became interested in such matters and
employed people like Michelangelo, Bernini and other famous
architect, sculptor and painters to build and decorate their
homes, churches, monasteries. The were not afraid of the
Roman gods anymore and after destroy Roman sculptures for
centuries, they now started to collect them and pay dear
prices for the finest ones. A cardinal ended up having to
pay for the building of a church in order to obtain a Roman
statue that had been found during its construction! |
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Risorgimento
An Italian word that means resurrection.
Another way to say Renaissance? No, Renaissance in Italian
is Rinascimento. Risorgimento (
Resurgence) is the social and political movement that
started in the first half of the 1800's brought to the
unification of Italy. Not without bloodshed. Actually rivers
of blood ran throughout the Peninsula. The Italians fought
against the Austrians, the French, the Spanish family of the
Borbones which ruled southern Italy, and the Pontifical Army
(the pope's Swiss Guards and more) and made of Italy one
country. |
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The Museums of Rome
Rome is really like a big open air museum
where you practically have something to see at each street
corner but also has a lot of museums of all kinds. Ancient
and modern art, sculpture, science, nature the whole life
span of a human being is not enough to see everything there
is in Rome and you can obviously pick which museum to visit
according to your taste and interest. We are listing some of
the most interesting here below considering that a tourist
in Rome would want to visit the ones where he could see art
and archaeological findings, we are therefore omitting to
list other kinds of museums. We marked with a red star the
ones we think should be visited first, considering their
importance, but especially the time it takes to visit them,
generally less than two hours. Clicking on the
museum's name will direct you to the specific museum's
website opening another page of your browser. Sorry if the
website is not in English or for no website. |
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The churches of Rome
There are nearly five hundred churches in
Rome and a lot of them are surely worth your visit. We will
not consider the religious importance of the churches, but
their value in terms of art and architecture.
The reason why your visit the churches is
that they are like museums that contain fantastic works of
art being the buildings themselves outstanding masterpieces
of architecture. Consider them jewel incrusted silver and
gold caskets containing precious jewels.
Or, if you don't like the analogy, just
think of them as museums you can enter without standing in
line and without paying a fee.
Please remember to dress properly when
visiting a church, no shorts or bare shoulders.
Generally it takes about half an hour to
see each one and therefore you can visit a few in a day's
time. However, the estimate time to visit churches and
museums we mention do not refer to the thorough visit of a
scholar, but that of the average tourist. We know you can
spend more than one day in each place, we did it.
Clicking on the churches name will bring
you to the respective Wikipedia page.
Please support
Wikipedia |
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Capitoline Museums
The Dying Gaul
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Church of St. Ignatius
The Glory of St.
Ignatius on the ceiling by Andrea Pozzo |
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St. Louis of the French
St. Mathew and the
Angel, painting by Caravaggio |
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Saint Mary Magdalene
The Organ |
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The Pantheon
Not to be confused with
the Parthenon... |
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The Borghese Museum
Apollo and Daphne,
sculpture by Bernini |
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Traffic
Traffic is kind
of like one of the excitements in Rome for the
tourists. Especially for those who come from
overseas, from country where cars have all the
space they need.
As we drive with guests
around Rome these are the comments and questions
we most commonly get, let us try to explain...
Don't you
guys have any lanes?
How do
you decide who has the right of way?
Are
there any traffic rules?
Do
you people ever get a parking ticket?
How many
scooter riders get killed everyday?
When the locals cross the street they just close
their eyes and go!
You take your life in your hands when you cross
the street!
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Don't you guys
have any lanes?
We do, but
they're not meant the same way as they
are in America. When you come to a traffic
light, on a street that's wide enough to have
lanes, you have lanes. They start generally
about 100 meters (yards) from the traffic
light itself. As you start coming close to the
light you have to decide which lane to stay on.
Usually the left lane for those who turn left,
middle if you're going straight and right if
you're turning right an you act accordingly.
This is the theory though, it doesn't really
apply in fact. When you pull up to a street
light you're not the only one there. there are
cars and scooters all around you, very few
inches away from your car and they've been there
for quite a while. So you may be on the right
lane when you get to the light when you really
want to turn to the left. This means you'll
practically be forced to turn right if that's
what most of the other drivers are doing, or
straight if that's where traffic goes. The first
time. At the following light you would want to
prepare before time and you'd turn of your
indicator and sort of start pushing in the
direction you want to turn, expecting the other
drivers to get mad at you, honk their horns and
call you all kind of manes. Surprisingly though
they would give you the space you need, but an
inch at a time!
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How do you
decide who has the right of way?
Generally the rule is that you
have the right of way when you come from the
right side. When you come to a street crossing,
if there's a car coming from your right hand
side, unless there's a sign that indicates to
act differently, you have to stop and let it go
ahead. But again that's just the theory!
Normally you get to the intersection surrounded
by myriads of other vehicles and find it already
occupied by throngs of other vehicles. So who
goes first? You just move slowly and occupy the
pace your are given (conquer) allowing other
drivers to gain their space in order to let
everyone to keep moving. This can't be explained
really, to learn this things as you grow up and
they become part of your nature. When you turn
fourteen, your parents make you independent by
buying you a 50 cc scooter or a micro car, like
the one in the picture, and that's when you
start confronting the traffic. Live and learn! |
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Are there any
traffic rules?
There are traffic rules
obviously, but if they would be respected to the
letter nobody would be getting anywhere. The
cops would never make it to work either. Rome,
and more generally most of the cities in Europe,
developed centuries before cars where invented.
Until cars where invented, people walked
everywhere and used means of transportation to
travel far or to carry heavy loads. This is also
one of the reasons why the streets are narrow.
If the streets had been wider,
the cities would have been too big to walk them
and it would have also made them more vulnerable
to the any potential enemy's attacks.
So especially the parking
rules are disregarded. The 'no parking' signs
are everywhere in the center of Rome. But
everywhere you see those signs you also see cars
parked. The sign are distributed thinking as if
the center of Rome had 300,000 inhabitants and
not three millions! In fact, during the month of
August, when all the locals get out of the city
for their vacations, they look appropriately
assigned. But what about the rest of the time
when everybody's doing their thing? Let's just
consider the delivery trucks that supply
groceries to the restaurants and talk about the
area around piazza Navona for example. There are
hundreds of restaurants within the space of
maybe two acres and only three legal parking
spaces reserved for the trucks. If the cops
would force them to obey parking regulations,
Rome would be full of starving tourists! |
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Do you people
ever get a parking ticket?
We talked about the situation
and maybe by now you understand that the cops
have to be tolerant. However, people tend to
exaggerate and they have to reminded
periodically that they cannot just do whatever
they do. So every once in a while you will see
them on an 'expedition'. They would move on to
an area where people customarily park their cars
illegally, like if it was perfectly alright to
do so and doing so slowing up or completely
stopping the traffic. The cops would then move
in and toe cars away or 'boot' them. This scares
everyone and reminds them that they better not
take advantage of situation force them to a more
appropriate behavior.
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How many
scooter riders get killed everyday?
C'mon, let's not exaggerate!
Surely scooters get involved in accidents
everyday in Rome and if you go to the emergency
room of a hospital there's always at least one
person there because of the consequences of a
fall down. But in most cases it's only bruise or
broken bones. We don't really have data because
the statistics do not specify, they consider
accidents in general and not scooter
accidents with a person killed in the city
itself. Motorcycle accidents are reported by the
local papers when somebody gets killed and you
read about them twice a month. It is sad and we
don't want to say it's irrelevant, but compared
to the number of scooters you see around, it
makes them look safer than they do as they zip
through the traffic. When you stop at a street
light, during rush hours, if you're in a car,
you feel like you're in the wrong vehicle at the
start of a motocross race!
If you want to be cynical, you
can consider the accidents motorcycle accidents
collateral damage to the attempt of saving
Rome's traffic from coming to complete, total
and definite stop. Rome is the city in Europe
that has the largest number of motorcycles. Why?
Because it's the most practical means of
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If all of those who get where
they're going by scooter would drive a car
instead, there would be not space left for any
vehicle to move and pollution would be
unbearable. It has been proves that a scoter
moves through the city quicker than any other
vehicle and, in additions a scooter is allowed
to enter any section of the city while instead
there are severe restrictions for all the other
vehicles. For example no private cars are
allowed to drive in the area enclosed within the
Old Roman Walls. Consequently, if you live
outside of the walled in area but work there,
the scooter is your best choice if you want to
on time!
All this means that riding a
motorcycle here in Italy in different than it is
elsewhere in the world. Yes, people ride their
big bikes out to the country on the week-ends,
but during the week they go to work on their
scooters! So you see beautifully dressed up
ladies in their high heels and distinguished
gentlemen in their suits riding their scooters
to work or anywhere else.
So maybe the final answer to
this fatidic question of how many scooter riders
get killed everyday in Rome, is simply that
scooter riders getting killed everyday in Rome
is the same as the amount of car drivers getting
killed in their cars where people drive a car to
get to work. |
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When the
locals cross the street they just close their
eyes and go! |
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No way! Don't even think of
doing that, you'll get killed! We guess the
reason why people think so, is the we walk
slowly across the street, while
instinctively a tourist would run when he
estimates he has a sufficient gap between
vehicles. When we walk across the street we walk
slowly towards the center of the street allowing
the upcoming vehicle the space to pass and we
continue to walk after it has passed and so to
permitting to the next coming vehicle to
continue to drive skirting us from behind.
In other words we merge into
the traffic without forcing vehicles to stop for
us. But that's another one of those things you
learn to do as you're growing up...
In any case that's what
drivers expect you to do when you walk across
the street and it is very risky or hesitate. A
good way to get hit by a car is to go half way,
then panic and start running back. In fact the
first vehicle would probably miss you, but
you'll get hit by the next one. The driver of
that vehicle would have thought that you would
have continued in the same direction and started
his maneuver to go around behind you. |
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You take your
life in your hands when you cross the street! |
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No you don't. If you maneuver
they way we described above allowing the drivers
of the vehicles to understand what you are up
to, than you are ok. Always look at the vehicles
and their drivers to make sure they saw you and
try to understand what they expect you to do.
Depending on the situation,
they could either slow down for you or increase
their speed to get out of your way.
Curiosity: the local drivers
are afraid of the tourists when they see them
start to walk across the street. They don't know
what to expect from them and generally prefer to
stop rather than running the risk of hitting
them, but it's also a certain sense of
hospitality that makes them stop just to be
courteous with a visitor. |
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Roman Holiday
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Traffic
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Traffic
policemen giving ticket to a "Micro Car"
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A lady parking
her scooter
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Stilettos,
miniskirt and scooter!
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Scooters !
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Geography & Climate
Rome's coordinates are 41°54'39"24 N
latitude and 12°28'54"48 E longitude.
This means that Rome is as far north as
Stamford, Connecticut and Cheyenne, Wyoming USA, pretty
far from the Tropics isn't it? Therefore, even though in the summer
it gets hot to the point that would make one think he's very
far south in the world, we are not and we do not have
tropical weather, which means no rainy seasons or
hurricanes.
Italy is a peninsula that extends in to
the Mediterranean Sea and it's shaped like a boot (sorry,
but we found out some people don't know this)
ending on the North side with the Alps and the Dolomites
that shield it from the cold weather coming from the north
and Rome in particular is also shielded against the cold
coming from North-East by the Apennines mountains which run
throughout the peninsula from North to South.
Rome is almost on the Mediterranean Sea,
only 12 miles separate it from the coastline. The
Mediterranean Sea is a lot warmer than ocean water and keeps
the peninsula warm.
When the French or the Spanish go to the
coast they may have to specify whether they're going to the
sea or the ocean, Italians can't choose, they can only go to
the sea, unless they want to travel abroad...
If you fly into Fiumicino airport early in
the morning, when it's still rather hazy, driving on the
motorway to Rome you may have the impression that you're in
a country as flat as Holland. But that's just because you
can't see far and the airport was built in the appropriate
location, by the sea, where the land is flat. But if the air
is clear an you can see far, driving in the direction of
Rome you'll see that beyond it there are hills and mountains
beyond those hills. If you had x-ray view and could see
through those mountains you'd see that the scenario on the
other side is the similar, after the mountains come the
hills and after the hills the land gets flatter close to the
coast.
Mediterranean is the general name for the
sea and it comes from medius, "middle" and terra, "earth",
in other words inland sea. But
the Mediterranean is divided into smaller seas so the
everybody can have their own part and the sea of Rome, which
is on the western coast of Italy, is called the Tyrrhenian
Sea, name which was given to it by the Etruscans who maybe
named it after their prince Tyrrhenus or after themselves,
Tyrrhenians is in fact the Greek name of the Etruscans.
Do you want to know what kind of weather
to expect during your visit?
Maybe this table can help you find out,
click here! |
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Map of Italy and the
Italian Seas
The Mediterranean
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Climate data for Rome-Ciampino airport, near city
centre (1961–1990) |
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Month |
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
Year |
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Average high °C (°F) |
11.8
(53.2) |
13.0
(55.4) |
15.2
(59.4) |
18.1
(64.6) |
22.9
(73.2) |
27.0
(80.6) |
30.4
(86.7) |
30.3
(86.5) |
26.8
(80.2) |
21.8
(71.2) |
16.3
(61.3) |
12.6
(54.7) |
20.5 |
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Daily mean °C (°F) |
7.3
(45.1) |
8.3
(46.9) |
10.1
(50.2) |
12.8
(55.0) |
17.0
(62.6) |
20.9
(69.6) |
23.9
(75.0) |
23.9
(75.0) |
20.8
(69.4) |
16.3
(61.3) |
11.6
(52.9) |
8.3
(46.9) |
15.3 |
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Average low °C (°F) |
2.7
(36.9) |
3.5
(38.3) |
5.0
(41.0) |
7.5
(45.5) |
11.1
(52.0) |
14.7
(58.5) |
17.4
(63.3) |
17.5
(63.5) |
14.8
(58.6) |
10.8
(51.4) |
6.8
(44.2) |
3.9
(39.0) |
10.0 |
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Precipitation mm (inches) |
102.6
(4.039) |
98.5
(3.878) |
67.5
(2.657) |
65.4
(2.575) |
48.2
(1.898) |
34.4
(1.354) |
22.9
(0.902) |
32.8
(1.291) |
68.1
(2.681) |
93.7
(3.689) |
129.6
(5.102) |
111.0
(4.37) |
874.7
(34.437) |
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Avg. precipitation days |
9.0 |
8.8 |
8.7 |
8.7 |
5.8 |
4.4 |
2.2 |
3.2 |
5.6 |
7.6 |
10.9 |
9.6 |
84.5 |
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Sunshine hours |
120.9 |
132.8 |
167.4 |
201.0 |
263.5 |
285.0 |
331.7 |
297.6 |
237.0 |
195.3 |
129.0 |
111.6 |
2,472.8 |
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Source: Servizio Meteorologico dell'Aeronautica
Militare |
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Vatican
An easy name isn't it? How many times have we
heard people say "we want to go to the Vatican" "we must see
the Vatican"? Millions of times! But in most cases people
didn't really know what they were talking about and they
probably imagined the Vatican was just a building with
Michelangelo's frescoes in it and that's it!
So we'll list some of the basic information here hoping to
prepare you for this complicated place.
So what is the Vatican really?
Let's start from the name, Vatican is too easy to
say, diminishes the venue and makes it sound like a place
you can get in and out of in half an hour. More properly it
should be called the "Vatican City
State". In fact, since the 11th of February 1929 when
Pope Pius XI and Mussolini signed the treaty known as "The
Lateran Pact", the Vatican was separated from Italy and
became an independent, sovereign state where the Pope rules
as a king and the cardinals run the government.
The Vatican covers a surface of only 108 Acres and this
makes of it the smallest country in the world, but you can
put a lot of buildings in 108 Acres, especially if you have
1,700 years time to do it, and these buildings are literally
stuffed with works of art from all ages and of all kinds. By
the way, do not expect to be able to show up at the place
with your passport in your hands and be allowed in to freely
walk around, it's not going to happen.
The fact that the country is so small allows them to be
very selective about who admit in and where. So the common
tourist is only allowed to visit the following places in the
Vatican: |
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St. Peter's Basilica.
The original church was built at the time of the Emperor
Constantine in 324 a. D. and the present church, which took
118 years to build, was inaugurated exactly 1300 years after
the first one was: in 1624 a. D..
You can easily spend one hour in St. Peter's looking at
masterpieces made by Michelangelo, who's also responsible
for the architecture of the building, Bernini and other
famous artists. The church was built on top of the Vatican
hill, hence the name "Vatican" now extended to the whole
country. We suspect that when a tourist says "Vatican" he
means this building and he expects to find Michelangelo's
frescoes in here but he knows they in the Sistine Chapel and
consequently he thinks the Sistine Chapel is part of this
building: wrong! The Sistine Chapel is a separate building
and can only be accessed from the Vatican Museums.
It has happened more than once that after we took people
through the Vatican Museums and the Sistine Chapel (2
hours), when we finally got to St. Peter's they
spontaneously exclaimed: "This is what I wanted to see!"
Free admission, no charge, open from 7:30am to 6.30 pm,
but the metal detectors you have to go through since 9/11
cause the formation of long lines. The average time you
spend in line is 20/30 minutes.
It's the largest church in the world and it's full of art
treasures, the least important of which could be the main
attraction of a small town in the "New World". It's surely
the most important building in the Vatican, if it didn't
exist none of the rest would be there. So the idea would be
to see this building and then, if you have time, see the
Sistine Chapel and the Museums but, because of the lines
which cannot be skipped unless you are handicapped, it has
become difficult to include the tour of St. Peter's Basilica
in a full day tour of Rome. It's easier to get into the
church from the Sistine Chapel, but you can only get to the
Sistine from the Museums and you can get into the Museums
without having to stand in line because you can
make a reservation. The visit of the Museums and the
Sistine though make the one-hour tour of St. Peter's
become a three-hour tour of the highlights of the Vatican
and this is why it is far better to tour the Vatican on a
different day, if you have time. There is a way we can
include St. Peter's tour in a full-day tour of Rome, but
we'll only tell you if you tour with us. :)
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The Vatican Museums
After the Louvre in Paris and the British Museum in
London, the Vatican Museums are the third largest collection
of works of art in the world. The 1400 rooms are absolutely
packed with paintings, statues, mosaics, tapestries,
frescoes and even mummies! Works of art and archeological
findings that go from the ancient Egyptians to present days,
and that's only 60% of what the Vatican has, the rest in
storage elsewhere in the Vatican.
Someone has calculated that a visitor who wanted to see
everything there, spending only 2 minutes for each item
exhibited, would have to spend 4 years in the place!
Unfortunately most visitors have no idea of what they're
going to see there and they don't come prepared. Talking
with our clients we found out that some of them thought that
they had a room for each pope, others thought that they
where going to see relics of the saints and so forth. The
Vatican Museums are nothing like that, they practically
present the history of the human kind through the art that
it has been able to produce and the history of the art
itself. They are called museums, plural, because they
consist in different collections that where put together by
different popes over the centuries and so they are named
after the pope that put together the collection or by its
theme and so, for example, you have the Egyptian Museum that
contains items from ancient Egypt as well as you have the
Pius-Clementine museum that houses the items collected by
pope Clement XIV and his successor Pius VI. Each Museum
would require at least a day to see, but normally the
tourist just walk through the portion that takes them to the
Sistine Chapel because that's all they really want to see.
Nevertheless one cannot ignore all the stuff that he sees on
the way there, there's always something that tickles the
curiosity of even the most uninterested visitor and
that is why it takes at least one hour to go from the
entrance to the Sistine Chapel. In addition, the place is
always quite crowded and you end up lining up just to go
from from one section to another and, when it gets very
crowded, the force you to take a longer route just to
disperse the crowds. The place is not air conditioned,
except for the Gallery of Tapestries and the Sistine Chapel,
so it is very uncomfortable to visit the place in the hot
summer months. We would also like to remind to the
visitor that the purpose for the museums in general is to
educate people and that in this particular case the
itinerary that you follow to reach the Sistine Chapel
presents the art that preceded Michelangelo and which he
learned from, enabling him to create what is considered the
masterpiece of the Renaissance in the art of paining
frescoes.
Naturally scholars are the only ones who spend in these
building the time they deserve, as said before, most
visitors just go to the Sistine Chapel the shortest way
possible and that's what we do ourselves when we take people
through there.
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The
Sistine Chapel
Built in 1474 for pope Sixtus IV, hence the name
Sistine. The chapel measures internally 40.9
meters (134 ft) long by 13.4 meters (44 ft) wide, matching
the measurements of the Temple of Solomon in
Jerusalem, was designed by an architect specialized in
fortresses: Giovannino De' Dolci. In fact the idea was to
use it as a refuge for the pope if things got bad. The
famous ceiling later, decorated by Michelangelo, was
originally just painted dark blue refined by golden stars
and obviously represented the sky at night.
At first only the walls had fresco paintings which were
done by those who were considered the best painters of the
time in Italy: Domenico Ghirlandaio, Sandro Botticelli,
Pietro Perugino, Cosimo Roselli and their paintings
represented stories of the Old and the New Testament. In
other words the life of Moses on one of the walls and the
life of Jesus on the other. In 1504 Pope Julius II, nephew
of pope Sixtus IV, was able to "convince" Michelangelo to
paint a fresco on the ceiling of his uncle's chapel.
And now we need to point out that Michelangelo disliked
the art of painting and those who professed it, he
considered himself a sculptor, an architect and... a poet!
To be called a painter sounded like an offence to him. But
he ended up creating the greatest masterpiece of the kind.
Unfortunately to understand how this could happen, how could
Michelangelo could revolution the art of painting to the
point that the paintings on the walls which were done only
30 years earlier appeared like they had been done centuries
before (things didn't change as fast then as they do now)
and everybody, including his competitors, started to have a
great consideration for him. An historical fact is that
Michelangelo was the first artist that was treated like a
member of the aristocracy, the others before him were
considered just a little better than a good artisan. In
addition we must keep present that until Michelangelo
painted that ceiling, no one would have hired a well known
and consequently expensive artist to make them decorate a
ceiling, far from the ground not comfortable to look at and
too far to appreciate the details. After Michelangelo
painted the ceiling of the Sistine, it sort of became normal
instead for well known artists to experience the paining of
a ceiling and today, when we take our tourists inside
another building with a beautiful fresco on the ceiling,
like the church of St. Ignatius, sometimes we hear them say
that Michelangelo's fresco really pales compared to it. Yes,
that's a really spectacular painting, but we have to think
that if it wasn't for Michelangelo it probably wouldn't
exist. This only means that to really appreciate the Sistine
you have to have some background, otherwise you cannot
understand the meaning of it and simply continue to be
impressed by other less important but more spectacular works
of art. Surely it is the guide's job to supply the means to
appreciate such masterpiece and the better the guide is the
more you enjoy your visit, as long as you have the patience
to listen...
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The Grottoes
The area underneath St. Peter's Basilica, where the popes
are buried goes by the name of "The Grottoes". The present
church was built on top of the ruins of the former church
built at the time of Constantine and the gap between the
floor of the old church and the present church, about 20 ft
high, (
see the
plit section of St.
Peter's Basilica above
) contains the tombs of the
popes, from Peter who was the first pope to John Paul II.
Well, yes like all the popes who have been beatified or
sanctified also his grave has been moved up to the church,
but like all the other popes that's where he was originally
buried there. Though some of the graves of the popes have
been made by famous artists, the beautiful statue of Pope
Pius Vi by Canova is in the Grottoes, the visit of the place
is more like a religious experience than a tour. The
Grottoes are open from 9:00 am to 4:30 p,.
The tomb of Peter cannot be visited.
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Grottoes opening
hours - free admission |
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Winter - October 1st / March 31st |
8:00 am / 5:00 pm |
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Summer - April 1st / September 31st |
8:00 am / 6:00 pm |
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The Dome
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As we said before (did we say it?)
St. Peter's dome is Michelangelo's greatest
masterpiece in architecture. He designed the church
building and that quite a structure, but building a
dome like that in the mid 1500's, 450ft high, was
almost a miracle.
Today you can ride an elevator to
the terrace of St. Peter's church and from there
walk up more than 300 steps to reach the very top of
the Dome and enjoy the fantastic view.
A curiosity, the Dome really
consists of two domes which were built one
inside the other and thus support each other. When
you walk up to the Dome, you walk in the gap between
them! You can see in the split section of the dome,
here below. |
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Dome's opening hours and admission fees |
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Winter - October 1st / March 31st |
8:00
am / 5:00 pm |
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Summer - April 1st / September
31st |
8:00 am / 6:00 pm |
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Admission fees |
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Elevator to the terrace and the
climb the remaining 320 steps on foot |
7.00 Euros |
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of the total of 550 steps on foot |
5.00
Euros |
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Reduction for school groups, by
presenting previously formal request with the list
of participants |
3.00 Euros |
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The Scavi - Archaeological diggings
under St. Peter's Basilica
Visit of St Peter's tomb and the necropolis (cemetery)
under the Vatican Basilica
This a very special tour, but we recommend to connoisseurs
or those who have spent enough time in Rome to have
seen all the other sites. No use spending half- day on this
tour if you are in Rome for the first time and for only one
or two days.
The "Scavi Office" authorizes the visit to a restricted
number of visitors, normally 250 per day, divided in groups
of 12 participants according to the language spoken.
Children under 15 years old are not admitted ( and they
really shouldn't be admitted in the Museums either... ).
The group is accompanied by a specialized guide and lasts
1.5 hours.
Reservations:
The request for touring the Scavi must be forwarded
to the "Scavi Office" personally by the persons who will go
on the tour presenting the personal data of all the
participants.
via e-mail to: scavi@fsp.va
or uff.scavi@fabricsp.va
via fax to +39 06 69873017
or applying directly to the Excavations Office, opening
hours: 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.: Closed Sunday and Holidays.
Applicants must specify:
1.
the exact number of
participants.
2.
names of participants
3.
language spoken
4.
time period for the visit (months in letters) the date and
time for the visit will be decided by the Excavation Office
according to availability.
5.
how they want
the Excavation Office to
reply: e-mail, fax or
mailing address
Time and date
Specific
reservations for a special date and time cannot be made. The
Excavation Office will set up a time and a date according to
the requests it receives.
Virtual visit available at
http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/necropoli/scavi_english.html
Admission fees
The price for the admission is 12.00 Euros and it
includes the cost for the guide.
Procedure
Participants must apply at the
Excavation Office at least 10 minutes before time.
Participants must be dressed properly. Long pants and
covered shoulders for ladies and gents, skirts below the
knee for the ladies.
Entrance is located on via Paolo VI, same gate as the
Audience Hall.
Present your reservation to the Swiss Guard
at the gate.
Gear
You are not allowed to carry cumbersome objects like
backpacks, suitcases, plastic bags of any size.
No photo or video cameras allowed.
Such items can be checked at the storage room on the right
hand side of St. Peter's Basilica.
Those who will not observe such
rules will be refused admission.
Vatican Gardens
Yes they are beautiful, worth seeing for sure. That's
where the Pope walks around to relax, but do you live in
Rome? Have you seen all the other gardens in the city where
you can just walk around freely without having to make an
application and pay an admission fee? Rome has no secrets
for you anymore? There's nothing else in Rome you haven't
seen yet?
Well, if this is your case, here are the instructions
about how you can visit the place:
contact us and we'll see what we can do! You can't tour
the place just by paying admission. |
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Knowing all this, would you
still ask "Are we going to the Vatican?" |
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Explore Rome inside out by golf cart. Visit Rome's majot
highlights and its hidden curousities without the stress of
walking.
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