Here’s a few tips that you should know when visiting any of the Rome attractions and landmarks and just some general advice for visiting Rome.

I’ve mentioned this once or twice already, but I’ll say it again because it can save you a lot of waiting time and frustration at the best Rome attractions – get to the Colisseum, Vatican and particularly those attractions that need tickets – early.  I’ve seen cues for hundreds of metres in the afternoon and estimated wait times of well over 1 hour.  Same goes for any of the Rome attractions that are free, try going to do Trevi Fountain after lunch, it’s a complete circus.  Before 9 or 10 is manageable and if you show up at 730-8 you might be able to get a photo without a thousand others in it.  The Pantheon is right in the heart of the city and one of the most popular Rome attractions, so is also crazy in the afternoon, especially if you want to get inside.  Like anywhere else in the world, if you want to avoid the crowds, go early, but I’d say this applies double in Rome.

Rome Airport is about 40-45 minutes from the city.  Taxi’s apparently cost around €40-45 one way, and most of the private transfers organised by car, at least the ones that I looked into, cost around €50-€60. The hotel car (Audi) cost €50one way. So it’s probably worth forking out a few euro’s extra to get yourself a decent car. I only took a taxi once in Rome and has no problems but was with a local so not sure how you’ll get on without speaking the language. There’s really no need to ever get a taxi to see most of the Rome attractions because they’re all within walking distance of each other.

On a related subject, bring comfortable walking sneakers or shoes because you’ll be doing a lot of waling getting to the best Rome attractions and just exploring this awesome city.  I think I averaged about 20-30km per day. That’s probably more than average because I was up at 5a.m and walked all over the city, but regardless, you’ll be doing a lot of walking and comfortable shoes are an absolute must.  Get yourself a pair of Adidas Boost – the most comfortable walking and running shoes in the history of mankind. Not cheap but well worth it. I have three pairs and won’t wear anything else when traveling.  Great on the plane as well, you can slip them off without undoing or tieing up laces and they look rather good too.

I hope you like Italian and pizza because there’s not a whole lot of other options in the city.  I saw a couple of Japanese restaurants and apparently Sushi is popular but I never actually saw one open.  There’s other cuisines, but you’re going to find pizzeria after pizzeria on almost every block.  (Not) funnily enough, I had the worst Carbonara I’ve ever had in Rome.  Thick, tough spaghetti that was drowned in oil and pepper, about as appetising as eating raw Yak meat. I basically lived off pizza, which was rather good but don’t care to see another pizza for a few months. McDonalds is all over the place in Rome but by the looks of things, they haven’t quite grasped the concept of fast food.  I had to eat breakfast here twice because it was the only thing I could find open at 6:30a.m in the morning and waited 15 minutes on both occasions.

There’s loads of cafes with some rather nice sandwiches, panini-type things and bites to eat, and of course the Gelato is all over the place and probably considered one of the must eat at Rome attractions.  Venchi is popular but there’s massive lines in there so you’ve either got to be patient or find somewhere else.  I’m not a huge fan of Gelato but waited to see what all the fuss was about and wasn’t particularly that impressed.  Nice chocolate though but nothing out of the ordinary.

I’m normally a walking Google Map and can easily get my way around a city without too much help.  In Rome however, I lost my bearings in the middle of the city quite often and had no idea which was which, despite walking around much of it for 3 full consecutive days. Make sure you have a map or Google Maps with you as with the narrow streets you can’t get to see many landmarks to give you a reference to where you are.

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