ROAM TOUR TACTICS

Touring Tactics

Rome is particularly hot and usually sunny during the summer, so be sure to take your sunscreen and a hat that will shade your face and neck. Plan to tour in the morning or late in the day and spend lunchtime doing what the Italians do - eating and napping. Just make sure you hotel is air-conditioned! One more climate-related note: cool summer evenings are when Rome awakens!!

Dinner in Rome is a late affair and meals are not meant to be rushed. If you are in a hurry, which is very un-Italian - especially at the evening meal, don't try to expedite the service in a restaurant, as you will only frustrate yourself and your server. Restaurant service is slow by design - in the Italian culture meals are a time to relax and visit. Those of you in a hurry will get poor service in Rome (or most of Italy for that matter). If you are in a hurry, stop for pizza or some other fast-food.

Rome is crowded in high tourist season and you need to make the crowds part of the fun. Think of it this way - great pizza, wonderful pasta, some of the best gelato in the world, good food, good wine and a romantic setting - who could ask for more?

The treasures of Rome are almost endless, which is what makes exploring the city so much fun. Take some time to wander off the normal track of highlights to find places like the two at the right edge of this page. Be prepared to take the good with the bad. For example, Rome has dense traffic, sometimes circling stunning works of art, like the Bernini Triton to the right.

http://www.thereareplaces.com/Guidebook/pdest/itropts.htm