"Awestruck in Rome" a Rome Travel Page by Lacristina

VT member (and Rome guru) Ciambella is right. All of us who love Rome should have the following sentence at the beginning our our Rome pages. "There is nothing wrong with the area around Termini."

Termini is Roma Termini, the central train station in Rome. No, it's not elegant, yes a bit scruffy like most train station neighborhoods, but there are many reasonably priced hotels nearby. You don't need to be afraid. I have stayed in the Termini neighborhood myself many times. (There are a couple of streets with some really run-down hotels that I wouldn't recommend, on the far south-west side of Termini, on Via Giolitti, just past the car rental area.)

Of course, you should pay attention as you would in any other major city. There are pickpockets about at many tourist areas as well as the train station and airport.

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Back from another trip, and I still can't get enough. I've been lucky enough to visit Rome more than a dozen times over the past few years, and still have so much more to see, and so much I want to see again.

I tell my friends that the wine, cheese, coffee and bread alone are worth the price of a plane ticket!

My favorite time to go is winter (mid November to mid March) because the weather is often delightful (sunny, with high temperatures in the 50's F, 11-15C) and the prices are low. Flights from the US are less than half the cost in the summer. Most hotels are anywhere from 25 to 50% less than high season. For example, we stayed in a nice three star hotel for only 71 euros per night for a double (with breakfast) in Feb. 2006. And Christmas is especially wonderful - truly a festive atmosphere, decorations, eleborate nativity scenes in every church, special concerts, the Christmas market at Piazza Navona, etc.

But the best part of the winter season is you can actually see what you came for! Imagine being the only person in a museum room in front of one of the great works of art. I have been in St. Peter's in front of the Pieta' with no one else within 100 feet of me! This can happen in January and February. This sure beats trying to look over the heads of 20 or 30 rows of tired, cranky, hot tourists in July.

Welcome to my Rome page! I keep updating it as often as my day job will allow. And please write if you have any questions. I'm delighted to be able to help anyone see and learn more about this incredible place.