ITALY – LANDING IN ROME

DAY 1

After an uneventful non-stop, nine hour, airline flight from Dulles to Rome — other than the screaming babies on board — we landed at Fiumicino Airport at 7AM. The place was an absolute madhouse and getting through customs was confusing and involved waiting in endless lines to be processed.

As an aside, let me just say that all families traveling with little babies should be put in a special soundproof section of the plane, like a smoking section, so they don’t make a long airplane flight a living hell for all the other passengers.

We caught a van shuttle to Hotel Barberini where we dropped off our bags and then went for a city walk on the south side of Rome to:

* Trevi Fountain

* Visitor Center

* Colon a Trajanna

* Via Curia

* Emperor Trajan’s Forum shops

* Víctor Emanuel War Memorial (The Wedding Cake)

We walked back to the hotel and checked into our room on the fourth floor on Via Rasalla, overlooking the Barberini Museum. I would recommend this hotel very highly because it is centrally located and within easy walking distance of the main attractions around the ancient Roman Forum. There are restaurants galore. There’s a grocery story at the end of the street. There’s a metro station and bus stops a block away. And the place is very nice and reasonably priced for all you get. The room also came with a free breakfast buffet up in their lovely rooftop restaurant overlooking Rome with some incredible views.
https://www.hotelbarberini.com/en/

Walked to north end of town:

* Plazas dela Républica

* Santa Maria degli Angeli

* Dinner at Ristorante Elettra

Walked 8.7 miles

Insider Tip — Make sure you are in the right line when trying to get through the airport.  There are lines all over the place, some for EU citizens and others for aliens from another country.  

Insider Tip — If you have to catch a shuttle or taxi when you arrive at the airport in Rome, you need to plan on taking at least an hour being herded around the airport and waiting in endless lines.  Do not think for one minute that you can land and thirty minutes later you will have your bags and be on your way.  That aint happening.

Insider Tip — You will need to get some Euros at the airport.  DO NOT USE THE CHANGE EXCHANGES! They are total ripoffs and will charge almost half of what you are getting in fees.  In other words, they will take 40 euro out of 100!  Use a bank machine (they are all around the airport) and try to find one that is affiliated with your bank.  Your bank card will have the logos of affiliated banks.  Use a machine that has one of those logos.  This way, you will avoid the transaction fee.

Insider Tip — You need to plan on rain because it rains a lot in Rome.  Have your rain gear handy.  And consider how rain might affect your ability to travel from the airport to town.  For instance, if you take the subway, the station might be a long walk to your hotel; and in the rain, and in a busy confusing city with narrow streets and intermittent sidewalks, you might have a hard time.

Insider Tip — YOUR PHONE WILL NOT GET INTERNET UNLESS YOU PURCHASED A SIM CARD!  So,don’t count on navigating with your phone.  I downloaded the Google Maps App onto my phone.  THIS IS DIFFERENT THAN THE MAPS APP THAT COMES ALREADY INSTALLED ON YOUR PHONE!  It proved to be more reliable.  BUT, it only gives you a GPS signal.  So, you can usually see where you are, but you can’t type in a destination, and then navigate to it.  You will have to figure out where your destination is on the map and then use the little blue dot feature to get there.  AND, in a city with buildings very close together, even the GPS signal can get scrambled.  We found that, for some unknown reason, the normal Maps App sometimes worked better.  But most of the time, the Google Maps App worked the best.  If you are traveling with a partner, I suggest that one person use the standard Maps App and the other use the Google Maps App.

Insider Tip — You should contact your phone provider before you travel to find out what their phone service policy is in Italy.  We have Sprint and they allowed free texting.  And they charged something like .30 a minute for calls to each other.  But we didn’t purchase international calling, which was expensive, so we couldn’t talk locally, meaning to a local business or a friend who lives in Rome.  If you want that option, then you will need to pay for international service.  The simplest way is to get a SIM Card from one of the four Italian network providers: TIM, Vodophone, 3, and Wind.  TIM stores are all over Rome.  The most recommended SIM card for travelers is called LYCAMOBILE and it uses the Vodaphone network.  And while SIM Cards work great once installed — basically your phone will operate like it does back in the States — it requires multiple steps.   First, you need to go to a store.  If you’re lucky, the salesperson will speak at least some English.  You will have to show your Passport.  You will need the proper extraction tool for your phone so you can swap out the U.S. card and install the Italian card. You will then have to reboot your phone.  And finally, you will have to add credit to your account.  Many people encounter difficulty with this last bit.  I strongly recommend that if you are going to get a SIM Card, you do EVERYTHING at the store and make sure it is working properly before you leave.

Insider Tip — Get a paper map as soon as you can.  There is a standard, legal-sized map that they give away in every hotel.  I guarantee you will use it many times.  Hell, get a couple.  Carry it with you wherever you go.

Insider Tip — The streets in Rome can be very confusing.  The street signs are usually not on poles at intersections like in the U.S.  They put them at the intersections on the sides of the buildings.  And to make it doubly confounding, you can be on a street — let’s call it Via Roma — and you walk five or six blocks and come to an intersection, and suddenly the street name changes to Via Agostina.  It’s the same street.  You didn’t make any turns.  But the name is now different.  So, pay attention to where you are going.

Insider Tip — There is a train station at the airport and that’s the cheapest way to get into town from the airport ($10).  BUT, it’s confusing, and after a long overseas flight, you will be dazed and confused.  There is a shuttle service that will take you to your hotel in a van.  And like everything in the airport, it’s hard to find where you are supposed to go, and most people do NOT speak English.  We never found an information booth.  So, you are pretty much on your own.  And the shuttles leave unpredictably.  You may get there and one just left, meaning you might have to wait another hour (like we did) for the next one.  Here’s what you will be told to do by the shuttle service: Go to the Meeting Point at the Cotav-Fiavet help desk located in the Arrivals Hall of Fiumicino Airport Terminal 3.  If you are unable to locate your driver, please call 0039 347 229 7500 or 0039 393 906 6532.  Please present your confirmation and photo ID to the driver upon pickup.  We paid $32 for our shuttle into the heart of Rome.  Taxis and Uber are very expensive ($75), but the easiest way to get the hell out of the airport and on your way.  

Insider Tip — Italy is synonymous with food.  The kind of food  — I call it the three P’s, pastry, pasta and pizza — that will make you gain weight pretty fast.  Throw in some wine and frosty beverages and you are off to the races.  Want to avoid those excess pounds?  Start walking and don’t stop as soon as you get to Rome.  We walked 5-10 miles a day, ate and drank to our heart’s content, and didn’t put on a pound.