Wikimecum:Rome
Introduction
Rome, the capital of Italy was the first place I traveled too during IQP, and it was one of the best. The train to Rome from Venice took about 7 hours and round trip cost about 70 euro round trip. We left Venice at night and arrived in Rome during the early morning. Upon arriving, we checked into our hostel which was only a block or two from the train station. The cost to stay in the hostel for one night was 25 euro per person. The hostel provided free internet, but European keyboards are different from the QWERTY setup we use here in America. The keyboards took some time to get used too. On the bottom of this page is a link to a very useful Hostel website called Hostel World. We then traveled to St. Peters Basilica in Vatican City via the subway. I recommend Everyone to travel too St. Peters as it was truly awe inspiring. The huge church and square provided sightseeing for the entire morning. We even got to see the pope! He comes out and speaks every Sunday morning.
Sites
Along with St. Peters, we also visited the Colosseum, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, Pantheon, and many other ruins from ancient times. I recommend going to see at least the sites I have listed. Since there are so many monuments in the city, plan ahead so you know what you want to see because you wont be able to see everything given you travel to Rome on a weekend. Consult the map on the right for some of the more popular monuments and their locations so you can plan your trip accordingly. Also the link on the bottom of the page has a list of all the monuments in Rome, and there are quite a lot!
Social Life
Unlike Venice, Rome has a bustling night life. Bars and pub crawls are not hard to find. The food in Rome is like it is anywhere else in Italy, really good. I do suggest that if you do go to a restaurant too not always go with the "Tourist Menu". One restaurant we went to for dinner advertised a tourist menu. The majority of the group ordered from the "Tourist Menu". Some of us ordered pizza and another dish from the regular menu, this turned out to be the better choice. The food from the "Tourist Menu" was not quite up to the quality that the other food was. There was a large variety of pizzas at good prices. Pizza is good anywhere in Italy, so if you are unsure of the menu somewhere, go with the pizza.
Haggling
While you are in Venice, you will encounter men on the streets selling cheap goods. These guys are all over Rome. Every attraction we went to had its own set of men selling many similar things. We ate dinner outside at a restaurant and 3 peddlers came by trying to sell us things. It gets annoying after a while, but just remember that they are trying to sell the goods to you. What ever they offer as a price can be halved if not more as long as you know how to haggle.
See Also
Hostel information in Rome
http://www.hostelworld.com/hostels/Rome
List of Ancient monuments in Rome
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ancient_monuments_in_Rome
--Tmcgee722 03:34, 8 January 2009 (UTC)