City of Thieves

The Emperors stole with taxes to build a marble covered city. The Christians stole the Emperors marble to build churches. Today, hotels, pickpockets, and gypsies steal from tourists. Rome truly is the cradle of Western Civilization– thievery run amok. 

Listed in order by how impressed we were are the sights of Rome we saw in three days:

Ancient Rome: The Roman Forum– in the small valley along the Via Sacra was the civic center of the Republic. The palace ruins on Palatine Hill (fee) was where most of the Emperors lived. The Pantheon is the most completely reserved ancient building, with a spectacular marble interior. The Coliseum packs a big wow factor, even after seeing it in all those pictures, but the visit (fee) to the interior may not be worth the time in line required, for not much is preserved inside and you cannot visit the rooms that were under the stage.

Ancient Rome, second string: The uncrowded, vast Baths of Caracalla are another reminder of the scale on which the Empire built. Augustus’ Temple of Peace is considered the greatest remaining work of Ancient art. Hadrian’s Tomb/Castelo San Angelo (fee). The Popes turned Hadrian’s Mausoleum into a fort and built places on top. The original structure of the tombs of the Emperors is best seen at Augustus’ Mausoleum, a circular brick building with a garden on top, then topped off with a statue of the Emperor (now missing). The Imperial Fora.

Trevi Fountain

Great Churches: St John in Lantern was the headquarters of the Catholic Church before the Vatican was built. The side (transept door) looks like the front door, but if you enter here, be suer to go outside the real front door at the far end of the nave to see an even more impressive entrance. There is €2(.83) charge to visit the excellent cloister, a visit that takes 3-5 minutes. St Carlos(Via Corso). San Clemente, near the Coliseum (bus # 117, 85) is unique. The
"modern" 12th-century church was built on top of century church which can be explored by descending two fights of stairs (€5, .05). Continuing down stairs, the unguided tour goes through an even older Roman house with some vestiges of frescoes and mosaics. This is good lesson in how the modern city is built on top of the past centuries.

Piazza Navona

Campidoglio

The Capitoline Museum(fee).

St. Peters.

Vatican Square


The Spanish Steps.

Quick Tips:

We had eight guide books to Rome. Michelin Green Guide was by far the most useful, but if using public transportation, Eyewitness Rome has a usable map of bus routes in the tourist areas.

We were surprised that the Michelin Guide recommended seven hours to visit the Forum and Palatine Hill, but we spent five hours without getting to the Coliseum.

May 12-20, 2007 was Culture Week. All the government monuments, museums, etc. were free. This saved us about each on admissions.

Most churches are free to enter, but money charge for stuff inside the church, like the Treasury, cloister visits, museums.

Church interiors are works of art, and span the whole Christian time period. Churches have dress requirements for admission– no shorts or bare shoulders.

Steps to protect against pickpockets and purse snatchers, generally gypsies, are a must. I will detail what to do in an "Experiences."

Lasagne cost directly across from the Coliseum, but one block up the street from the Coliseum.

After traveling extensively in Europe, we learned not to bother looking up restaurant recommendations on the Internet or in guide books, except the Michelin Red Guide, and in most cases, we don’t even bother with that. Restaurant quality in the areas where travelers in Western Europe find themselves is so high, that you can go eat at anyplace whose appearance and menu posted at the door strikes your fancy and you will not be disappointed. Price is some what related to quality, but we usually end up so tired at the end of the day that the closest restaurant to our hotel that looks decent is the place to eat. That’s how we ate in Rome, and we had three nice meals at three different restaurant all within a block of out hotel.

Don’t miss Italian ice cream, gelato, sold all over the place at Getalatoterias.

Italian pizza is quite good and very different from US pizza. Pizza is sold in at least three different types of places. Pizzerias may be either take out or by the slice or be a sit down restaurant serving whole pizzas-- one person size-- no slices. Many restaurants also have pizza in their prima patti (first course) menu.

Best Way To Get Around:

Guide books are loaded with warnings about taxi rip-offs. That was not our experience on our one taxi ride from the train station to our hotel. For getting around the city, we mostly used the bus and walked.

The 24 hour €4 (.65) BIG ticket for unlimited travel on Rome’s buses, trams, and metro pays off after four rides. The one Euro BIT ticket is good for 75 minutes. Get both at tobacco shops and newsstands.

The front door is considered the exit from the bus, and we missed one bus stop when the driver did not open the back door so we could exit, even though we were sitting and then standing right beside the back door.

The metro was not very useful for visiting the tourist sights. It was designed for local commuters, but the bus took us everywhere we wanted to go. For example, the Vatican metro stop is blocks away from St Peter’s Square, but the bus stop is right at the front gates.

Many popular sights, and popular means mobbed, have two lines for entry, one for groups and one for individuals. We found the individual line to be shorter, almost no wait unless, like at St Peter’s, we had to wait for security before the lines separated.

For what it’s worth, our hotel told us we could cut the lines at all the Vatican sights by hiring a private guide service who had a deal with the Vatican– no doubt by paying off the Christians– to jump to the head of the line. The charge was an hour, three hours minimum. At St Peter’s, there was a really long line waiting to enter the Tomb of the Popes but almost no line to enter St Peter’s Church. These two lines run side by side. We found the short line to the church by one of us standing in the long line while the other went forward to scout out the system and found the
intended, and shorter, line way ahead of where we started.

First the bad news. High season (May-October) 2007 room rates were €400 or $570 a night for deluxe rooms. Even with advanced booking Expedia discount, our rate was $435. Standard rooms are less, but standard rooms are smaller. Our Deluxe room was quite large, even by American standards, large enough that we didn’t unpack into the sizable closets, instead we spread three days living out on the floor and still had no problem navigating the room.

Forgetting the price, we have never stayed in a better hotel. The decor is a bit odd, sort of an austere designer modern, but Capo d’Africa was one of the quietest hotels where we have ever stayed.  The only sound that intruded into the room was from the shower from the room next door, and that could only be heard in the bathroom, not in the main room. The mini-bar refrigerator was the only mini-bar we have ever met that could not be heard running, even with the relatively quiet a/c turned off. I could hear the thermostat click to turn the mini-bar on and off, but no sound
from the compressor. No street noises intruded, even though our room overlooked the street. No hallway sounds, no sounds from the surrounding rooms except that shower.

Four sets of curtains over the windows darkened the room very well for sleeping. The room was so dark at night that the designer thoughtfully provided two night lights, one in the vestibule and one by the bathroom light switch, so we could see our way around if we got up in the night. For the final touch, the night lights had two brightness settings.

There was some fluctuation in water temperature in the shower, but not as bad as is often found.  The Kleenex box provided very skimpy tissues, hardly enough for a good blow, and the box was not replaced after we emptied it at the end of day one of three days. Turning on the TV was an adventure. The only way we got it to work was to turn the power button ‘on’ and then change the channel with the remote. Both steps seemed necessary to get the thing to work. There were two English language stations, CNN Europe and Sky News, both of which were very repetitious in their broadcasts.

The beds were comfortable but they were the firmest beds I’ve ever encountered.

The a/c did an excellent job of maintaining a constant temperature, something not often found in hotels.

The beds used the preferred triple sheet system, with an obvious tear in one top sheet one day, but it was changed the next day.

The Capo d’Africa is located across the street from the well known Hotel Lancelot in a quiet neighborhood about three blocks from the Coliseum and one block from a major bus route, making it easy to get around once we figured out the bus system.

Very highly recommended if it had a reasonable price.

Rome’s residential neighborhoods are well populated with little restaurants where prices are lower than in tourist areas. We looked at a menu directly across the street from the Coliseum. Lasagne was $14. We walked up the block, away from the tourist zone, and, at the other end of the block, Lasagne for $7. Even in the lower priced zone, prices are not cheap. Italian servings are much smaller than American servings because meals are meant to have 2-4 courses. That $7 Lasagne will feed only a very light eater. At the low price end, figure $7 for a salad, $6-9 for a pasta dish with no sides, and $14-25 for an entrée with a few potatoes.

We ate at three neighborhood restaurants on our stay in Rome. The most expensive was $83 for diner for two. Here is our $83 meal: one bottle of Chianti, one lasagne, one osso bucco accompanied by one small potato, and basket of bread. This was the best meal we had. A good deal of the cost increase over the other places we ate was higher priced wine to try the most expensive Chianti instead of the cheapest on the menu.

Although the ambiance was modest– we sat at a very small table outside in the street, plain white tablecloths, no flowers on the table, no wall sconces, actually, no walls– the small serving of Lasagne was terrific. The Osso Bucco was the best flavored I’ve ever eaten, and the veal was of a quality rarely found in America. Three bites of roasted potatoes were three bites of potatoes. The $32 bottle of Chianti was excellent. Service was a language adventure, but we managed. Service did not include pouring wine after the first glass.

Somewhere on our 33 European vacations, we developed a philosophy on eating in Western Europe. The only restaurant recommendations we follow are the Michelin Red Guide, restaurants with at least one star or three red crossed knives and forks. Otherwise, we go to some place close to our hotel that looks interesting. We have never been disappointed by taking pot luck because the average quality of European restaurants is far above the USA.

I’ve eaten nearly 400 diners in Europe. That’s a lot of restaurants. Of those, we have made repeat visits to six. Four we found on our own, one had two Michelin stars, one was three red crossed knives and forks. We don’t repeat much because we know not to worry about quality, so we go exploring most of the time except when we discover a really exceptional place, which usually comes from exploring, not from restaurant reviews.

Unless you are looking for a blockbuster meal that will be very expensive, ignore restaurant advice. Be adventuresome. Take this, and all such restaurant reviews not as a recommendation to eat here, but as an example of what you can expect to find within a short walk of your hotel.  Then go find one.

Somewhere during our 33 European vacations, we developed a philosophy for eating in Europe. The only restaurant recommendations we occasionally follow are the Michelin Red Guide, restaurants rating at least three red crossed knives and forks. Otherwise, we go to some place close to our hotel that looks interesting. We have never been disappointed by taking pot luck because the average quality of European restaurants is far above the USA.

I’ve eaten nearly 400 diners in Europe. That’s a lot of restaurants. We go exploring someplace new most of the time rather than returning to a previous restaurant because we know not to worry about quality. Ignore specific restaurant advice. Be adventuresome. Take what follows as an example of what you can expect to find within a short walk of your hotel. Then go find one that strikes your fancy. Forget Guide Books and recommendations unless going for multiple Michelin stars, and a big expense.

Our hotel, three blocks from the Coliseum, was in one of Rome’s residential neighborhoods which are well populated with little restaurants with lower prices than in tourist areas, and so we found our way to Osenlia il Bocconcino, three blocks from "home". The first thing that grabbed my attention about Osenlia il Bocconcino was that there was no English translation of the menu.  Good vibes– a sure sign of an authentic neighborhood eatery, not a tourist trap. Another sure sign– it didn’t open until 7pm, local diner hours in effect.

The staff, with almost as limited English as our Italian, translated the menu. She had the superb Ravioli. I had slices of leg of lamb marinated in Rosemary and garlic with roast potatoes. The Lamb was solid middle class, the roast potatoes the best we had in Rome. Wine was a local Shiraz, a dead ringer for an Australian Shiraz.

Dinner for two: 38 euros, or $54 in May, 2007. Add about 5% by July, 2007, for to GW Bush’s continued destruction of the value of the dollar. When Clinton was President, this would have cost $35.

Although there was a pleasant looking small dinning room, we chose to sit outside in the street.  Here’s the scene: like most Roman neighborhood restaurants, most of the seats were outside, occupying what should be the parking spaces and half the sidewalk. The outdoor seating area was defined by a row of planters loaded with foliage. The small tables were covered with red and white checkered tabled clothes and "Cinzano" umbrellas provided shade.

A 45 minute brass band concert soon started up halfway down the next block. Who knows why?  The restaurant staff had no ideas.

A picture postcard setting, nice food, good wine, perfect summer weather, and an impromptu band concert on the streets of Rome. The only thing out of place in this setting of "la dolce vita"  was that the band mostly played Broadway show tunes.

Our hotel, three blocks from the Coliseum, was in one of Rome’s residential neighborhoods, which are well populated with little restaurants with lower prices than those in tourist areas. On a menu across the street from the Coliseum, lasagne was $14. We walked up the block, away from the tourist zone, at the other end of the block, lasagne for $7. One more block, $5.  But even in the low priced zone, prices are not cheap. Italian servings are much smaller than American servings. That $5 or $14 lasagne will feed only a very light eater. At the low price end, a big eater should figure $7 for a salad, $6-9 for a pasta dish with no sides, and $14-25 for an entree with a few potatoes.

Somewhere on our 33 European vacations, we developed a philosophy for eating in Europe. The only restaurant recommendations we occasionally follow are the Michelin Red Guide. Mostly, we go some place close to our hotel that looks interesting. We have never been disappointed by taking pot luck because the average quality of (Western, except UK) Europan restaurants is still well above the USA.

Unless you are looking for a blockbuster meal that will be very expensive, ignore restaurant advice. Be adventuresome. Take what follows, and all restaurant reviews, not as a recommendation to eat here, but as an example of what you can expect to find within a short walk of your hotel. Then go find one. Following our own advice, we walked down the street from our hotel, liked the looks of Le Naumachie, liked the menu prices and the selection, so in we went.

The menu was typical of a Roman neighborhood restaurant. Each of the several courses making up an Italian diner offered a few choices. 

Unlike the restaurant across the street where we ate sitting in the street, Le Naumachie has a  pleasant dinning room, with the street facing wall mostly open. Tables are packed close together, lighting was on the dim side, the decor peasant but not fancy. Service was adequate. It seemed that the waiter appeared just in time, just at the point where we were beginning to wonder where he was.

She had a nice Italian style pizza. I had a fried veal chop with roast potatoes and very spicy fried spinach--a basic meat-and-potatoes meal that was very nicely done. I won’t complain about anything, but, on the other had, nothing was spectacular. With the cheapest, but very decent, Chianti on the wine list, 34 euros or $48 for two in May, 2007 (Up the prices by about 5% by July, 2007, due to GW Bush’s continued destruction of the value of the once "as sound as a" dollar).

Shortly after we were seated by the somewhat overloaded staff, an accordion player strolled in off the street and made a few circuits of the dinning room serenading us with Italian street music–nice touch. Worth a tip.

We bought an all-day transit pass at a news stand 1½ blocks from our hotel, I took a bus to the Coliseum Metro station to Spagna (Spanish Square) and the famous Spanish Steps (impressive, but I think over rated) and visit America Express to cash Amex Travelers’ Checks at the best rate we found in Italy.

Rearmed with euros, we reversed direction to the far end of the Square and went left on Via d. Croce, an attractive narrow street lined with trendy shops, to Via Corso, Rome’s main shopping street. San Carlo al Corso, with its impressive Baroque interior was almost directly across V. Corso. A short walk (two blocks) to the left on leaving the church brought us to V. Pontifici, where a left turn brought us to the Tomb of Emperor Augustus.

Although desecrated by the Popes, who stole the marble facing of the tomb and the ring of statues that circled the garden on top, Augustus’ Tomb remains impressive. To fully appreciate it, find the sign along the sidewalk circling the tomb that has a drawing of how it originally looked. Seeing this picture also helped understand the structure of Castle San Angelo (Hadrian’s Tomb).

The Alter in Honor of the Peace of Augustus (~10BC), celebrating the end of 22 years of civil war, is adjacent to the tomb, inside the modern building. The alter is considered the finest remaining ancient Roman art work.

Now on the banks of the Tiber, we crossed the river, turned left past the monumental Law Courts to Castle S. Angelo, which technically is only the top part of the structure, a Papal Palace built on top of the garden that surmounted the Emperor Hadrian’s Tomb. Note how the Popes used the massive ancient Roman building as the center piece of the fortifications protecting the Papal Palace. Don’t miss the Pope’s bathroom.

There is a decent public restroom just inside the entrance on the left, and if I recall correctly, it can be reached before the ticket booth. After a visit to the Papal Palace, we proceeded along the Tiber to the grand entrance way to the grand entrance to Bernini’s grand Vatican Square where we visited St Peter’s Cathedral, saw the Pieta, and took a bus from just outside the entrance to Vatican Square back to within one block of our hotel. St Peter’s is the largest church in the world, almost 700 feet long, with 500 pillars supporting the roof. It is said to have once held 60,000 people. 

We thought the best view of the Pieta was from the right side, rather than head on. Scrunch right up to the wall.

Note: If you are going directly into St Peter’s (free) rather than to the Papal Tombs(fee) under the church, you can bypass the long, long line waiting to get into the catacombs.

Being Culture Week, admission to Augustus’ Peace Alter and Hadrian’s were free. All in all, a fascinating walk through history.

The heart of ancient Rome is a central mass of the ruins of the Forum (the Republic), the Imperial Fori (the Emperor’s forms), Palatine Hill, and the Coliseum (free entrance during Culture Week). The Imperial Fori are separated from the rest by Via d. Fori Imperiali.

There are three entrances to the Roman (Republic) Forum, the oldest of the Fori. Avoid the one in the middle of the block along V. Fori Imperiali. It lacks the impact of the view when entering from the Coliseum end or Capitoline Hill.

For a thousand years, the Forum was the government center for the known world, and its most surprising feature is how small it is– about a half mile long. Also note how narrow the Via Sacra, the most important street in the world for 1,000 years, is. 

The best views of the Forum are from the neighboring hills, from the corner of the Palatine Hill garden where Caligula’s palace was located and from the Capitoline Hill. Otherwise, exploring the Forum is pretty straight forward. Walk down Via Sacra, loop around the block, and return to where you started. Do not do this without a guide book with enough detail to explain what you are seeing. We also found it very useful to buy (10 euros) an overleaf book from a sidewalk stand along V. Fori Imperiali for the illustrations of what it all looked like in the Rome’s heyday.

With your back to the Coliseum, to the right of the Arch of Septimus Severus, is a building next to a church, the Curia. Don’t miss looking in here, the meeting room of the Roman Senate. Be sure to get a close look it the Arch of Septimus Severus and the Arch of Constantine at the opposite end of the Forum. Otherwise, visiting the Forum is straightforward– follow the roads and use your guide book to read about the sights.

When we arrived, our Michelin Green Guide said to plan on spending at least seven hours in the Forum, Palatine Hill, and Coliseum area. We thought that was extreme, but 5½ hours later, we decided to save the Coliseum for another day and go back to our hotel for a break. This is a fascinating place. Don’t shortchange yourself by allowing too little time.

The ancient Greeks built with stone and marble, a time consuming, expensive way to build. The Romans cut costs and reduced construction time by building in brick with a marble veneer. The Popes stole most of marble to build Rome’s churches, which is why you will see a lot of brick and very little marble in the once marble covered Forum. The rows of holes in the exposed brick walls are part of the system used to attach the marble veneer. Look close at the marble columns that remain. There are places where time has exposed the inner brick pillar and you can see how the marble was attached to the surface.

The Trevi Fountain was one of favorite spots in Rome. We visited three times, mid-morning, late afternoon, and about 9:30pm. We concluded there is no time when the small Piazza Trevi, when the fountain is located, is not packed with tourists and hawkers. The variations in lighting at the different times of day make multiple visits more than mere repetition. I especially liked late afternoon, watching the sunset shadow line creep over the fountain.

During the course of our three visits, we had long looks at the fountain head on, from the far right, and from the far left from the steps. Each spot offers a different perspective and is worth doing. Another good view place is from the porch of the church at the corner of the square, and since we were there, we took a look inside the church as well. Also worth doing.

The water for the fountain comes from 12 miles away by Agrippa’s aqueduct, built in 19 B. C. and still working. Pope Clement XII had the present fountain built following a design by Bernini. The fountain, the largest in Rome, is built against the wall of the Duck of Poli’s Palace. A semi-circle of steps faces the front of the fountain and it’s a good place to sit to watch the waters.

This is the fountain of "Three Coins in the Fountain." Interestingly, before the movie, Trevi Fountain was barely on the visitor’s radar. The movie made it one of the best known sights in Rome, if not in the world. The bottom of the pool is covered in coins, thrown in the water by tourists. According to the ancient legend, if you throw a coin in Trevi Fountain, some day you will return to Rome. Tossing your coin backward over your shoulder is the recommended procedure. Apparently the ancient legend about coin tossing was invented by the movie script.

On one visit, we were entertained by a guy trying to grab coins out of the fountain pool without getting seen by the ever present cops.

If you didn’t bring a camera, there is a commerical photographer with a Polaroid roaming the crowd who will be delighted to sell you a picture of your coin toss. He even shows you how to do it.

The Trevi Fountain is located at the intersection of Via d. Pilotta and Via d. Muratta. Via d. Muratta is a pedestrian-only street packed with tourists and lined with souvenir shops and over-priced restaurants connecting Trevi Square to Via d. Corso, one block away. It is easy to get to by one of the local buses running on V. d. Corso, Rome’s main shopping street.

A nice 2-3 hour walk connects the Trevi Fountain and Piazza Navona by way of the Pantheon.

Piazza Navona is a pedestrian-only zone, a quiet spot in the middle of Rome. Several bus routes run along the next street over, making Piazza Navona easy to get to. The large, long, and narrow square has three fountains in it, the star of the show is Bernini’s Fountains of the Four Rivers, which was surrounded by scaffolds for repair when we were there in May, 2007. The large church dominating the center of the square, St Agnese in Agone, has an excellent Baroque interior. At the curved end of the square, we entered Via d. Lorenesi where several churches are packed together in a short block. We returned to Piazza Navona, left the square by the narrow street more or less opposite St. Agnese, along the vast Madma Palace (via Salvatore) built by the Medici in the 1500s, to San Luigi, another excellent Baroque church. Turning right leaving the church, the second left took us to the Pantheon.

The Pantheon maybe the most important building in Rome, 2000 years old, it is the only work of the ancient Roman Empire whose interior has survived almost intact.

From the Pantheon, we walked along V. Seminario to S. Ignazio Church and Piazza Ignazio, best seen from the porch of the church. The church is attractive, and the ceiling painting is one of the best Trompe d’oeil works we've ever seen. For the full effect, stand on the yellow marble disk under the center of the painting and look up to see the ceiling disappear into a soaring view into the sky. This is a don’t-miss sight.

We left S. Ignazio by continuing along V. Seminario to V. del Corso, Rome’s main shopping street, taking a left on V. Corso, then the second right to the remarkable Trevi Fountain (see review of, this journal).

From Trevi Fountain, we returned to V. del Corso where we caught a bus back to our hotel.

This half day walk was, after our 6½ hour visit to the Forum and Palatine Hill, the best sightseeing excursion we made in Rome. I recommend it ahead of the Vatican, if you are pressed for time.

We weren’t quite sure what to expect when we advanced on the Palatine Hill, one of the legendary Seven hills of Rome, but turned out to be a highlight of our visit to Rome, perhaps even more impressive than the Forum Romani which lies in the valley at the foot of the Palatine. In a nutshell, the Palatine was where Rome was first settled around 800 BC and eventually became the site of the homes of the leading Romans, especially the Emperors.

More or less bay accident, we arrived atop the Palatine by the best possible approach– coming from the Coliseum, we went past the Arch of Titus and then up the monumental stairway across from Constantine’s Basilica. The view of the Forum and Coliseum from the top of the stairway is monumental. We walked along the edge of the Farnese Gardens to the corner overlooking the Forum, the location of the best view of the Forum. Immediately below the overlook are the extensive remains of the Emperor Caligula’s Palace.

Octavian, who became the Emperor Augustus was born on the Palatine Hill and his family home became the nucleus of the palaces of the emperors. The Palatine was crowned by the places of Augustus, Claudia, Tiberius, Nero, and several later emperors. Tiberius’ Palace was buried by Cardinal Farnese, nephew of the Pope and one of Rome’s richest men, to create a botanical garden, still in place.

The oldest part of Rome, thought or at least believed to be where the city was founded, is between Livia’s(Augustus’s wife) House and the Temple of Cybele. Visitors today look down over the precipice from the top of the Palatine Hill into the rooms of the first stone houses and a stone cistern.

This side of the Palatine Hill also offers several good view points of the Circus Maximus in the valley between the Palatine and Aventien Hills. Chariot races were held here on the 550 yard long track– see the movie Ben Hur for examples.

Traveling counterclockwise from the entrance stairway, we came to the vast Palace of Augustus, the Official residence of the Emperors. Just behind the Official Residence is the stadium of Emperor Domitian. Experts cannot agree why Domitian build this stadium, or exactly what is was for, but it sure was impressive. The oval track at the right hand end of the stadium was built in the 6th century AD by Theodoric the Goth, one of the barbarians who brought about the fall of Rome.

At the end of Domitian’s Stadium closest to the Coliseum, we followed the sidewalk downhill under the shade trees to see the Baths of Septimus Severus, set against the base of the Palatine Hill. We returned to the top of the Hill and continued through Augustus’ Palace to the path along the Farnese Gardens and descended to the exit near the Coliseum.

Currency Exchange in Italy: On our 14 day trip around Italy, we tried to convert American Express Travelers Checks into euros 11 times and succeeded four times. The first attempt required visiting four different banks, waiting in line in each, only to be told that we had to go to a different bank in the first three banks.

The second time was a major disaster– five banks, four long lines, and when we finally found a bank that claimed they could do it, the computer screwed up and came up with a wrong result.  For $150, we should have received 106 euros. The computer came up with 55 euros. I pointed out the mistake to the bank, which they at first didn’t believe was an error. After they finally realized it was an error, it took them almost 20 minutes to cancel the mistake. Then I left, as neither of us was in any mood to try it again.

Third attempt was at our hotel, which was easy but hotels don’t give very good rates– €67-€68 for $100.

Finally, we arrived in Rome, which was full of exchange offices suggesting that it is possible to exchange, but we headed straight to American Express where our American Express Travelers Checks where quickly converted into euros at a good rate, €71 for $100.

Before leaving home, we got euros from our bank in Utah for €70 for $100. This is not quite as good a deal as it looks compared to the exchange rates in Italy because the value of the dollar plunged between the time we got the euros in the USA and when we converted currency in Italy. 

Cost of Living: Italy, especially Venice and Rome, are expensive places to visit, made even more costly for the tourist. In Rome $85 buys a decent, but by no means lavish diner– a good bottle of Chianti, one serving of lasagna, a modest sized piece of veal, two small potatoes, and a basket of bread at a modest neighborhood sidewalk café. Our table was in the street.

We took our first trip to Europe in 1968, and this year was trip 33. This year, we encountered something we had never seen before– souvenir stores in popular destinations that refused to accept US currency. The greenback used to open all doors. Now they want euros.


Other Money Matters: Although the exchange rate is usually poor in getting euros in the USA before you leave, it is handy to have some local currency on hand when you arrive.  Otherwise, head straight to an exchange booth when you arrive at the end of your flight. Large American cities offer some choice in where you can exchange for foreign currency. We found that Deak regularly had the best rates, but Deak has limited outlets. In Utah, there is no choice
but the local bank. Most USA international airports have currency exchange booths, but not great rates. In Europe, the best exchange rate is at American Express, especially on American Express Travelers Checks. Next in order are banks with the word "Credit" in their name, other banks, exchange booths, and when desperate, your hotel.

Don’t be fooled by exchange booths that post excellent rates. That is the rate before they deduct their commission, which is invariably larger than banks or AmEx.

The big puzzle in currency conversion is how much to convert. The risks of getting too much local currency are [1] theft, and [2] getting dinged twice by bank charges when you have to convert it back to US$. On the other hand, every time you convert, you give up travel time, sometimes a lot of time, as with one of our failed attempts to convert which took almost three hours and pretty much ruined an afternoon of planned sightseeing.

Carrying currency in a money belt reduces the risks of theft, but money belts have limited space and they create another problem. One of the joys of travel in Europe is eating well, which means gaining a few pounds, so you don’t want to start out with tight pants, but if your pants are too loose, how are you going to keep them up when you remove your money belt to pay a bill?

I used to use a money belt, but for the last few years I’ve changed to an over the neck pouch that serves as a billfold and passport carrier. There is some risk from thieves who carry knives to cut the straps of such pouches, so I stick it inside the front of my shirt. This seems to me to be a good defense against all types of thieves except armed muggers, which are uncommon in Europe.

Package Deals: Do package deals save money? Not always if you are a careful shopper. We spent three days in Rome at the end of a cruise. The ship offered a three night Rome extension for two in a deluxe room at a hotel rated 4.5 on TripAdvisor, including transfers from ship to hotel and from hotel to airport for $2,600. The hotel we selected on our own, also rated 4.5 but was in a better location; train, cab, and private car transfers; and tips cost us $1,386 for a Deluxe room. For $1,800, the cruise company offered the package in a lower rated hotel in a poor location. $1,000 is a lot to pay for the convenience of gangway pick up.