Have sturdy shoes and other Rome, Italy General Tips

Favorite Thing: The city has only two subway lines but is crisscrossed with a well-ordered bus network that will get you where or near to where you want to go. The best exploration is (as usual) on foot. Cabs are unconscionable in Rome. Prepare to walk a good deal.


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Favorite Thing: Nowhere else in Europe is the past millenium more fully on display than in Rome. While some of the relics in the Roman Forum are little better than shells, and the statuary about the city often defaced with the march of time, many other monuments and relics are in a fair state of preservation. Some of those can be visited like an ordinary church, while others must be viewed from behind a gate. Temples that stood when Christ preached his message can still be found today.


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Favorite Thing: Keep your eyes open when touring the city, or you'll miss an ancient statue, overlook the columns of a former monument, or entirely bypass the remnants of an ancient structure, such as an aqueduct which looks fused upon the modern building.


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Favorite Thing: Some of the greatest and prettiest churches in Rome have the plainest front facades that almost divert attention away to the better-known attractions in town. Do not be fooled by outward appearance! If you see a church door open anywhere, at least poke your head inside. You might be surprised and you might not, but a quick survey only requires an instant.


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Favorite Thing: While your eyes dazzle before such monuments as the Arch of Constantine and the ruins of the Coliseum, you might not notice all the excavation sites in Rome. Modern scholars and archaelogists continually uncover or unearth relics of Rome's illustrious past. Sometimes the sites are marked as a 'keep off' area and others are fenced off, so be mindful of such places and watchful as well -- markers don't always advertise the latest finds for public exhibits.


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Favorite Thing: Some people come to Europe for the first time and are afraid of getting lost. Of course you'll want to see the important sights but getting lost (deliberately), or rather wandering intentionally, should be considered essential on any game plan. Good folding maps of European cities are available at your local bookstore, which will pinpoint you if you don't know exactly where you are. If you fear getting lost, or deliberate wandering is not for you, there are some excellent ways to let the city guide you back and forth. While Rome is no different from other European cities in the disjointed layout and naming scheme of its streets, its central causeway (Via del Corso, or just the 'Corso') runs almost straight north and south from the Piazza del Popolo to the Piazza Venezia. You can see much of what is great in Rome by sticking to within of few blocks of this easy to find thoroughfare. Street names are generally posted at the corners of buildings on the second level above ground. Another interesting route would be to circumnavigate the city by using the Aurelian Wall as your constant conductor and escort. A third option might be walking the Tiber itself. Though the river is terribly polluted and colored a sickly green, it passes among other things the Mausoleum of Augustus, the Castel Sant'Angelo, the Via della Conciliazione leading to Vatican City, the ancient churches of Trastevere, and the Isola Tiberina, from which (if you head north) you can rendezvous with the Capitoline Hill and by extension the 'Corso.' And there you have it! Navigating by Rome's own arteries!


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Favorite Thing: In many places throughout Rome you will see outward columns fused onto a modern constructions. The Teatro Marcello was once a miniature amphitheater near the river, and today looks somewhat like a smaller, filled-in Coliseum. Look for the arches from Rome's ancient and medieval past to see how they are kept alive by serving as modern foundations for today's architecture.


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Favorite Thing: Public fountains lie all over the city in Rome, and just like other cities in Europe, there are mementoes, plaques, and markers detailing the famous personages who lived in the neighborhood, a poet who took apartments nearby, or a painter who stubbed his toe on the underlying cobblestones. All the neat things about Europe and particularly Rome are not always the soaring public edifices or the expansive ruins, but the little things that decorate countless street corners.


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Favorite Thing: Public fountains lie all over the city in Rome, and just like other cities in Europe, there are mementoes, plaques, and markers detailing the famous personages who lived in the neighborhood, a poet who took apartments nearby, or a painter who stubbed his toe on the underlying cobblestones. All the neat things about Europe and particularly Rome are not always the soaring public edifices or the expansive ruins, but the little things that decorate countless street corners.


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Favorite Thing: Some of the best smaller decorations and ornaments are not necessarily fused onto hotel corners or beneath apartment windows. Much of Rome's neatest statuary stands in somewhat mutilated condition in the Forum. Others dot the landscape throughout the Villa Borghese, Rome's great park just outside the northern walls. Still others adorn the street, a square, or some other place. Freestanding, pensive, dramatic - you'll find them throughout the city.


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