Trip to Rome

[ibleave]

Hello all,

I'm planning a solo sightseeing (and photo taking) trip to Rome in October and have compiled a lot of information from the web on where to go and what to see. What I'm missing is where to stay. Yes, there are lots of options but I was wondering if anyone on this forum has made multiple trips to Rome and has a favorite (and reasonable) place they would recommend.

I also want to take a day trip to Pompeii - anyone done that?

Definitely would welcome Rome travel tips too.

Thanks,
Scott
(will be taking my 40D, hopefully it will get here soon)

[Steelsun]

I hit Rome 2 years ago (in the time span between John Paul's funeral and the Cardinal's meetup).
We stayed outside the city center at a Palacio about 2 blocks from a subway spur entrance. I can't remember the name though, but we booked it through one of the mega travel sites (like Hotwire or travelocity).
Basically we looked for something close to a subway but far enough out that we were not in the tourist areas. We loved it. (nice family style restaurants everywhere out there, at about 1/2 the price of stuff.
Here's a Google map of where it is:
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie...&t=h&z=16&om=1
It's the double box in the center, SW of the corner of Via Aurelia & Circone Vallazione Aurelia. (theres an old church in the middle that the palazio was built around). (and the subway entrance was right at the intersection also)

[Orogeny]

I was in Rome in June and we stayed at a hotel in Trastevere, which is just east of the Tiber river. It was a great location for us as it is an easy walk to most places we wanted to go. There was a bus stop not far from our hotel, but we never used it.

Tim

[ibleave]

I appreciate the input. I definitly want to be within walking distance to the sub and as many sites as possible. Were your hotels reasonable in cost? I'm not really looking for anything fancy, just clean and safe (and no shared bathrooms).

Scott

[MarcoFromHouston]

Originally Posted by ibleave

......(and no shared bathrooms).

Scott

So I guess a Hostel is out of the question..............

They are pretty clean & safe! Nothing like Hollywood wants you to believe!

I stay in Hostels when I travel. Its cheap.

I've only stayed in Hostels in the U.S. though, no experience yet with European & Latin American Hostels.

[Orogeny]

We paid ~160 euro, but we basically had an apartment and there were four of us. If you are travelling by yourself, you can get some pretty decent deals. The hotel we stayed at, Hotel Trastevere, is 80 euro/night with a private bath.

There isn't a sub stop close, but as I said, there is a bus stop close by (about 2 blocks).

Tim

[AllenAyres]

Are you looking for local flavor hotels, or a chain? We usually go for the locally-owned hotels, but when in Venice we ran into a misunderstanding between them and our Expedia booking and they basically charged us 3 times the agreed upon price. Expedia re-imbursed me some of the difference, but it's something a chain hotel would not normally have done. We still like the local ones tho...

[AllenAyres]

I usually use www.kayak.com or farechase.yahoo.com to look for the best combination of star rating and price and location. I see >200 hotels between $40-$200 per night of the 2-4 star variety at kayak right now. You can sort by distance from city center, price, popularity, rating, etc. kayak and farechase search most/all the travel/hotel/airline sites for the best deals.

[AllenAyres]

Did I mention I am jealous? We didn't get our Rome trip in before having kids, it'll be a while now

[MarcoFromHouston]

I wanna go back to Europe so BAD!!!! I was only 17 when I hit London, Paris, Madrid, & Rome (during Holy Week!!). My mom & I were planning to go next year when she turned 50 yrs old.

How about you give http://www.couchsurfing.com/ a try?!?! Sounds like a cool idea!

[adirty1]

Pompeii is about 3 or 4 hours from Roma. when you can find an express take it and pay the extra it's worth the money. If you stop in Naples watch out for the taxi drivers some will try to scam you with the meter still running. look at the back of the seat and there is a sign that says how much something should cost. Naples was the only city that where a little worried about. If you get a chance go to Capri it's wonderful. you can find a hotel like motel 6 that is very nice and cheap. your in the off season so you should be able to get some good deals. we stayed in Northern Italy in an Apt for under 60 Euros a night and took overnight trips and day trips every where.

we are planning for trip again in a few years. we know what to expect and how things work now.

[ibleave]

Again, thanks so much. I've checked out kayak.com and it does provide some good suggestions. Now I wished I had a better lay of the land. I'll go buy a map of Rome to help with that (online maps aren't quite the same thing as a paper one). One thing I've usually found: once there, most cities feel smaller in area than what is conveyed on a map (at least for the historic areas).

[adirty1]

Roma may seem small but it's packed with people and seemed huge on foot but with the bus and subway it made is manageable. the subway and buses are a great way to get around. you can buy a bus pass and a subway pass good for a few hours or a few days. you can always find help in at a hotel the bigger the better the help.

[ibleave]

One last item. Has anyone on this forum experienced any problems with pickpockets or thieves (had their equipment stolen) in or around Rome? Since I'm traveling by myself, I'm going to have to be careful about my surroundings -- especially if I want to take some early morning or night shots.

[Steelsun]

The biggest problems we had were with the (usually north african) immigrants begging or trying to sell you crap.

Don't where a backpack on your back - in crowds they'll go up behind you and slice the bottom open and let it fall into an open bag. Even the subway cops are cool and will warn you to carry it on your front.

What I did was get a dog leash and attach it to the backpack also and then to my belt - usually by running up a sleeve (it was in the early spring and still nippy enough to require jackets). That way if anyone tried a snatch and grab, they'd only get 2 feet.

Keep a wallet in your front pocket, not back pocket, and keep extra cash in your shoes/socks. Also keep small bills in your other front pocket, so when you need to pay for something small you can get it from there without taking out your wallet.