[quote name='Kendro']I went to Rome last year with my girlfriend and had a great time. Instead of giving you the lowdown on where to go since you can get that from any tourist book, here are a few tips:
1) Banks are a great way to exchange currency. I have an account with Chase so they gave me a good rate, much better than other places that offer currency exchange.
2) When you go out to eat and buy bottled water (a definite must), make sure you look at the cap and see that it hasn't been tampered with. I ate at a restaurant and noticed the water tasted like toilet water. Upon inspecting the bottle cap, it looks like they simply refilled empty bottles with tap water and put the cap back on to make it look like it was brand new. If it is a little loose or looks funny, ask the waiter for a new one. From then on, I simply ordered sodas and house wine whenever we ate.
3) There are many Chinese operated groceries in Rome. Their prices are a lot cheaper than the price of Italian owned grocery stores. Buy from them if you are craving a soda or a bottle of water. And no, it isn't counterfeit soda.
4) Watch out for scammers or con artists on the street. While we were walking, this guy came up and offered my girlfriend a rose. He basically lied to her and said it was free. As soon as she took it, he asked me for 3 euros. I obliged because I didn't want to get into an argument. These guys generally work in groups so don't threaten a guy if he pisses you off since there are others to watch his back. The best way is to simply smile and say, "No thank you."
5) I guess when my girlfriend was carrying the rose, other scammers thought we were an easy target for money. As we were taking in a sight, this "nice guy" strikes up a conversation and asks me to extend my pinkie for a blessing. Before I know it, he was tying a rope around it and was making a bracelet. Out of nowhere his friend comes to us (they work in groups), and does the same to my girlfriend. I pull out a euro to say thanks and the guy gets insulted and says, "Only 1 euro? Give me 5!" I basically told him if he doesn't want what I offered, he doesn't have to take it. He then cut off my bracelet and walked away cursing in Italian with his friend. I later read about this scenario on another forum and that person offered 5 and the guy wanted 20. I guess whatever you offer, they automatically counter with 4 times the amount.
6) If you are on a budget, pizza is generally a good deal. About 8 euros for an individual pie. Thankfully the pizza is AMAZING. If you can, try to hit up Pizzeria Baffetto. Unfortunately it is a tourist trap and no exaggeration, we waited 2 hours for our pizza as did other tables around us.
7) If you visit the Colosseum, the ticket also grants you access to the Palatine Hill (right next to it) for free. That means you if you buy a ticket at Palatine Hill, you have access to the Colosseum (since they are all the same ticket). Why is this so important? The lines are insane at the Colosseum. Buy your ticket at Palatine Hill, and then go to the Colosseum and bypass all the lines straight to the entrance. I picked up this tip at another forum and no joke, the lines at the Colosseum probably had 200 people. There were 5 people in front of us at the Palatine Hill.[/QUOTE]
I just want to add my two cents on this before I write a post about things to see:
1) I'll take your word for it, I was there for an extended time so I really didn't bring USD to convert into euros. I just pulled money from BNP Paribas as that's the connecting bank with Bank of America.
2) This will be more true in crappy tourist restaurants, which in Rome is VERY frequent unless you go to where Italians go...and that's not really in "Rome." You should be fine if you order acqua frizzante ("con gas"), but the tip here is to always remain vigilant because...
4,5) There's a lot of people in Rome looking to rip tourists off. I don't want to use the
word, but you should be able to recognize them when you see them. I've never seen an ethnic Italian selling string bracelets, light up toys, single roses, etc. That being said, they're nearly ubiquitous and impossible to avoid, even INSIDE restaurants. Restaurant owners can't really kick them out unless they want trouble. You can always say "no," they understand that pretty well. I got in a verbal kerfuffle once with one guy who shined a laser pointer in my eye and then asked if I wanted to buy it. I was having a bad day and that broke the straw on the camel's back so I pretty much told him to
vaffanculo and I guess he was having a bad day too :lol:
That being said, you can still get a rose for your girl if you wait until like midnight and there's nobody around. Then they're pretty chill. Still refuse to buy it and he may be nice and just give it to her, but not while there's a million people on the streets.
6) Pizza from Rome and south is delicious and should be tasted. I've had okay pizza in Florence and Venice, but it was average by American standards. However in Rome, don't order pizza at a restaurant (once when I was a little kid, a friend of the family, this Sicilian waiter, told me "never get pizza in an Italian restaurant. Get pizza at a pizzeria!"), you should get pizza in one of two places:
a pizza "bar" (you'll see the word bar a lot, it doesn't carry the same meaning to Italians as it does to Americans. Bars are usually for caffè, pizza, or pastries, though they do serve alcohol if you want. Your nightlife should be clubs if you're into that; Italian clubs are, imo, worlds better than American ones.)
OR pizza al taglio which means pizza by the slice. In Rome what they do is they take a big sheet of pizza and cut it per KG, then fold the squares up in a sandwich. It's delicious!
Naples has two different styles of pizza, what I like to call street pizza and restaurant pizza. Because Naples is the home to pizza my advice about Italian restaurants doesn't apply, you'll be hard pressed to find crappy pizza there. Street pizza is small, handheld things sold by street vendors. Pizza in a restaurant will be your traditional circular pie. Get a
pizza margherita and make sure the words
mozzarella di bufala are somewhere in the description. Buffalo mozzarella is to die for in Italy, and it doesn't ship very well to the States. Capri has the best
insalata caprese.
The point, also, is that Italian food is VERY regional. Florence has great red meat, Sicily has great fish. Naples has amazing pizza, Rome has delicious veal (if you like veal, I'm not a big fan),
carbonara, and
cacio e pepe.
7) Completely correct. The Palatine Hill is also great because it's essentially an archaeological park. The house of Augustus, Domitian's Palace, Romulus's hut, the Domus Aurea.