Top Secrets for Rome: First-Time Visitor Must-Knows

Hello, welcome back to my channel. I'm really sorry I haven't had a new video in a while. I've been traveling around Europe and today I wanted to start sharing the

first

of what I hope will happen. There will be many videos about my experience to help you with your vacation in Europe, so to start with all this today I want to talk to you about Rome and here are my best tips for traveling to a Rome different from yours. I'm listening to other people, in fact some of the other videos were completely wrong. I did a lot of research on YouTube before I went to Rome so I could be prepared for anything that came up and a lot of what I found on YouTube is actually true. not correct at all, maybe it has changed since the last

time

you were there so these are my top tips for traveling to Rome as it is from 2022 and I just traveled there in June so you are set, Let's go ahead and dig deeper if so.

Traveling to Rome you will probably go in the summer, although that is not always the case, but if you are going to travel to Rome, keep in mind that it is very hot, very hot, so my number one tip is that when you go to explore Rome , go early. As early as you can, things won't necessarily be open when it comes to restaurants and shops, which usually don't open until a little later in the day, for example if you go for lunch, they won't open until closer. until noon, some of the rest are the shops probably open, maybe around 10 or 11, some

time

s even at noon too, but what you want to see by going early is that you want to get ahead of the heat and be ahead of the crowds .

So when we went to explore Rome the

first

few days, we went early, I would say maybe between 8 and 30 in the morning, which allowed for no crowds as you can see the weather, although it was still quite hot at that time. morning time, it was far away. more tolerable, so we left early, went exploring, saw the outside of a lot of things, some museums and things are open at that time, so we were able to get into some of those things, not all, but some, and this was the perfect moment. To start exploring all those historical monuments that you go to Rome to see now, when it started to get hot, we went back to our hotel to relax in the air conditioning and take a break because it is very hot if I have.

I didn't say that anymore and then once we had a break we went back out, but here's the difference when we went back out at about noon or a little bit after it was a whole new world, it was completely packed, shoulder to shoulder. You could hardly survive, it was much hotter, so we lasted much less to be able to walk and explore. I highly recommend going early when you're exploring the terrain. Now this brings me to the next thing in that hot equation. And there is not much air conditioning in Rome, there is usually in your hotel, especially if you stay in a good hotel, it will have air conditioning, but most of the places we found include restaurants, shops.

Some of the museums and such don't have air conditioning so you should know that when you go to some of these places it will be a little hot and a lot of the restaurants have aisle seating and they have some of them. They have misting systems to help cool it down. Some of them have fans, but it's something that will definitely be on your radar. In fact, there were times when we specifically chose a restaurant because it had air conditioning and that was very, very difficult to find. most of them don't know it, so they just know that they plan their day around it and are willing to put up with it being a little bit hot when they're having dinner, but also in those restaurants and things like that and planned trips back to their hotel .

Rest or look for places that have air conditioning if you need to cool down a bit. Speaking of heat, one of the best things Rome has to offer when you are in the city center are water fountains literally in the middle of the street. I'll just have a big pipe that's constantly coming out and pouring water, I think it's constantly coming out of the water system and when the water is clean and safe to drink, it's cold, I couldn't believe it, the water coming out of the ground. I thought for sure it would be at least air temperature and room temperature, but it's nice and cold and delicious, and it's amazing, so when you go to Rome, all you need to do is bring your water bottle or if you have one water bottle in one of the local stores they keep them empty because as you walk around the room, those water fountains are everywhere and there are a lot of them, open, ready to drink and you can fill them up at any time.

Okay, speaking of walking around Rome, just know that they are not regular. paved streets when you are in the city center when you are in that area of ​​the city center, especially when you are closer to the main attractions coliseum pantheon trevi fountain things of that nature are cobblestones and there is actually an area next to the coliseum That's not even cobblestone, they are large rocks embedded in the ground and you should pay attention to them when you walk on them because even with tennis shoes or flat shoes, with sports shoes, they can twist your ankle very easily, so you should know that if you go going sightseeing or even going out to dinner at night in Rome, make sure you wear the right footwear for that, because if you try to wear heels, it will be very difficult on the cobblestones unless you wear them. maybe some wedges or something so know that that's going to be a problem or a potential problem and if you have mobility issues it could be a bigger problem so you'll want to investigate those areas before you go to make sure if you have someone in a chair Wheeled or mobility impaired, there are ways to get in without hurting yourself because really, if you're in the city center of Rome, it's mostly cobblestones and stuff like that, unless you're driving down the main street, then.

That's just a normal paved street, but when walking, brace yourself and you'll be good to go, that's the language, so when I go anywhere I like to learn at least a few key words in that language to help me get around. in that new place in that new foreign place things like thank you hello excuse me things of that nature are generally very useful, particularly like for example when I went to Japan I needed it because not everyone spoke English there, except in Rome and in most countries . European cities that are the main tourist areas now, if you go to a small town this is not the case, but if you go to the main tourist areas like Rome, chances are that most people speak English, there may be some cases like For example, I had to go to a pharmacy and they didn't speak English, so we did a lot of miming.

I knew a little Italian, but I could point and mime and get what I needed at the pharmacy, but in general, in restaurants, stores, hotels. many of them speak English. In fact, I got away with a lot more English than I thought I'd need. I thought he would be more Italian than me. And speaking of Rome, I heard American English and also British English more than I heard Italian more than any other language, in fact, I swear I heard English a lot more than anyone else, generally North American English, so you should know that if you speak English, you really There is no worry if you go. to one of the major cities, I still recommend that you learn some of the basic words of the Italian language, like thank you and hello, and as I said before, because it is common courtesy, you don't want to assume that everyone speaks English and

knows

how too. say if you speak English because it's a much more polite way than just starting it off with English and assuming they know it, but what I found is that most places we went I tried to start it off with Italian, but they immediately knew we were English speakers and They started speaking English. before I even had a chance to try the language, so yeah, I just know that if you don't know any Italian it's not a problem and in fact Rome was just the beginning of a whole European tour we did or a Mediterranean tour . tour we did and every place we went again, it's a great tourist area.

English, I almost never had to use Italian, so I know it's not a problem. Language is not a problem, but learning those two things will be helpful. The next thing I want to talk to you about is the food now one of the things I was dreaming about when I went to Rome or Italy in general was the food. I was dreaming about the food because the food has to be extraordinary, right, and it is, but what I found is a lot of the places we went to weren't much better than the ones we came home to in the States, it was pretty similar in in many ways, the pizza was quite similar in many ways, many other foods, but I was in again. center of the city so most of the places I went were tourist places and one of the things that if you do a lot of research about Rome before you go is that you will hear people tell you to stay away from the tourist areas when you want. enjoy the food when you want to get really good authentic food when you are far away the prices are a little lower and the quality of the food is better and the experience is a little better but when you are in the city center, It's really very difficult to escape.

One of the things in Rome is that there are many alleys that go from one side to the other and, for example, one of the allies we were walking through felt like he was running the gauntlet. There was a restaurant. after restaurant after restaurant and the people in the front were trying to get your attention when you walked into their restaurant. It had English menus and these are all the red flags that people tell you to try to avoid, but that was most of what I could find was trying so hard to find things that didn't have all those signs. alerts that they tell you in YouTube videos and travel guides.

I tried it in the city center and it was the most difficult moment. So most of the time when we were in the city center, we ended up eating at those tourist places because we were hot, tired and hungry and I just didn't want to spend hours trying to find something that wasn't that tourist place. You could probably avoid that in advance by doing a little research ahead of time and finding those restaurants ahead of time, uh, or you could just give up and go to those places, but know that it's pretty standard food, kind of like what you'd get in America, I mean. say.

It was good, it was good, but it wasn't spectacular. The other thing you can do is look for restaurants that have lines. The queues are the key. If they have a line, then their food is usually better than the average person's if they are empty. Don't go there, don't go there if it's empty, there's a reason it's empty, unless it's open and no one's there yet, but the key with food is to look for the lines, if you can find a restaurant that has lines , there probably are. I'll be good in that regard if you're in the city center.

One of the best places I recommend going is Tresta Very, which is a neighborhood right across the river that is phenomenal for food and has different museums. and shops and things there, coolest neighborhood ever. I highly recommend it and the place I recommend the most is a restaurant called monorella. Now this is a place that has lines all the time no matter what they do they always have a line but it's worth it even if you're in line for an hour two hours it doesn't matter it's worth it and when you go I highly recommend the lasagna.

I don't care if you don't like lasagna. I don't care if you think it's not your favorite food. and you want to eat Roman carbonara, I say get the lasagna, lasagna is what dreams are made of, it's the absolute best thing I've ever put in my mouth, so go to Norella and get the lasagna. I'm telling you, do it, do it, it's on tressapray and it's worth it if you go, if it's one of the first times you're going to Rome and you want to see all the basic sites that you want to see. the Colosseum and the Pantheon and the Vatican or all the typical sites that you will see in Rome.

I highly recommend booking a hotel in the city center. It's very walkable, so it's much more convenient to have a hotel there and be able to get there easily. Walk all those tourist destinations, though, if you want to save a little money or if you've been to Rome before and know which places you want to go and it doesn't matter if you're in the city. downtown, I highly recommend trista, very simply, I can't say, which is again that neighborhood across the river, it's a fantastic neighborhood, but if you're looking for something convenient and easy and to be able to get out in the morning and walk everywhere Wherever you want to go, the city center is a great place to stay.

The hotel that I highly recommend that we stayed in is the dimaso hotel or also called domasso hotel and I will leave a link for this below. This is only a three star hotel. hotel but I felt like it could have been four star in America, had free breakfast every morning, had a rooftop bar at night, was very comfortable, had air conditioning, hotel staff and concierge were completely super helpful They helped with reservations. with guidance and everythingOtherwise, it was a fantastic hotel and I highly recommend it. It is very close to the Pantheon, not far from the Trevi Fountain and about a 20 minute walk from the Colosseum and literally right across the river.

Alright, my next piece of advice is regarding money. Now, most places will accept credit card, so it's always an alternative and it's always something you can find anywhere in major cities like Rome. Now, if you travel to smaller areas, there are probably fewer places that accept credit cards, but in big cities like Rome there is a lot of credit. However, I found myself using a lot more cash because when I was buying something like ice cream or when I went to the pharmacy I needed to buy some medicine or even just leave a tip in a restaurant, I found it easier to handle cash, so I highly recommend that you at least have a few euros with you because you never know when it is easier, especially if you are buying a bottle of water or something in a store, it's much easier to pay cash than worrying about whether they accept it or not. credit card and occasionally there were people who didn't speak English so it's much easier to look at the cash register.

You know it's 20 euros don't worry if you know how to save 20 euros in Italy and just give them 20 20. euros so I highly recommend having some cash available and then cards of course are accepted quite well in most them, one of the other things if you come to Rome and you want to go see some of those important sites, especially. for the coliseum or the vatican i highly recommend getting the tickets in advance so i didn't buy the tickets in advance on purpose because the group i was traveling with wasn't interested in any kind of guided tours they didn't want any agenda they wanted to be able to wake up in the morning and decide what they wanted to see so I didn't buy any tickets well the day we decided we wanted to walk and see the coliseum when we got there we really wanted to go in but by then all the tickets were sold out so if you think there is a slight chance that you want to participate in those things, you can easily find them on the websites, whether the Colosseum has its own website where you can buy it directly or if you do. do it through a group like viator that sells tours and packages and things of that nature or just the tickets themselves.

If you're going to do any of those things, I recommend purchasing them in advance if you're coming from North America specifically. It's a big hike and there's a big time zone difference, don't plan anything for the first day or two, keep it super open, super loose, so when you get there you'll be exhausted and probably starving. Don't plan anything that first day so you can go eat, enjoy yourself, acclimatize, and if it comes at night, ideally go to bed because that's all you'll want to do the next day. I also don't recommend planning anything, because chances are that if you get there and you can go to bed a little late, you're going to sleep in, so again, especially if you're coming from far away, if you're coming from North America, America of the South, I recommend that you do not do it.

Don't plan anything especially on the first night, but maybe also keep it very open that first day so that you have a chance to acclimatize before diving into all the tours, sightseeing, and everything else you want to do. Driving in Rome is an adventure. When we got to Rome, we got to the FCO and took a shuttle to the city center and it was kind of like Mr. Toad's wild ride. We were on a transportation service. I was looking back and half of our group was looking forward, but I was watching everything. people looking forward and seeing the expressions on their faces and from time to time they would grab, you know, the sides or the handles, uh, it was an adventure, so you have to know that they know what they are doing and they know that they are professionals and We'll get you there and you should be safe and everything will be fine, but know that it's going to be a bit of a wild ride and on that note, make sure you book a shuttle or a driver or something like that to pick someone. which has good ratings, I personally booked our trip through our hotel, so if you stay at the domasso hotel, they can get a driver to pick you up at the airport, before that, before I know they offered me that.

I booked it through Viator where I like being able to book transfers there because they give you reviews so you can see exactly what you're getting into and not choose one of the drivers which is maybe a little more questionable. Plus, you can choose drivers who know. English, so that makes it a little bit easier when you need to communicate and make sure they understand where you're going next when you decide what you want to do while you're in Rome, it's better. And I highly recommend that you do a little research before you go because Rome has a lot to do, there are too many things to see and do, especially if you're only going for a few days, so it's really good if you do a little research beforehand and know that okay, I sure want to see the pantheon, the coliseum, the vatican and whatever, just have some of those thoughts in your head because you could get there if you're the kind of person who doesn't plan anything and spends the first day and gets it is going well.

I don't know what we should do today. There are so many things we should do. Where should we start? I don't know, so if you can. Do a little research beforehand, it will make it a little easier and then you will know that you can visit those

must

-sees and then if you have some extra time you can explore to your heart's content, but it is good to know some of the

must

-sees too in that sense, by knowing the moldies, you know what you need to have, bring or do, for example, in Rome, if you go to the museum of a cathedral church, they have dress codes, usually they want your shoulders covered, without sleeveless t-shirts for women, they want something knee-length, shorts, skirt, whatever, they don't want it above the knees, for men, I don't remember it being knee-length as well, but they are very conservative and conservative. rules for your dress, in fact there are even signs out front letting you know if it's a place that has a dress code and some restaurants will even have a dress code so you should know beforehand what you want to see . and do it, or if you think there's a chance you might want to go to one of those places, make sure you bring something that's more conservative attire so you're allowed to go to those places.

I didn't go to any public. bathrooms, but the people I was traveling with did have them and here's something really strange and interesting: a lot of the bathrooms don't have toilet seats, so I was traveling with my kids, my adult children, they went to the bathroom in the restaurant and came back. laughing hysterically because there was no toilet seat in the bathrooms, obviously in the hotel there was a normal toilet and even a bidet, but in public you're not really sure what you might run into and that might be one of the things you might run into not having a seat on the toilet uh but you might also need some euros some change because some of the public toilets you have to pay to use them we ended up going to a restaurant using the restaurant at the restaurant if we were in public and needed To use the bathroom you of course have to buy something first, but always carry a few euros with you in case you have to use the bathroom and I know it might be a bit of a different experience.

One of the other things I heard about, but what I didn't see is that sometimes you walk into the master bathroom and there's the sink area, which is all genders and then you have the men's and women's area on the side, like this that you should know that if you walk in and see the opposite sex standing there, I don't mean you walked into the wrong bathroom, just know that that could be a situation too where they wash areas separate from the actual bathroom area and, uh, perfectly normal and perfectly fine, and then my final recommendation in Rome is to return to the Trastevere neighborhood.

There is a walk along the river that reminds me of a nightly farmers market shopping area. This is along the river and they have outdoor tents with restaurant tents, they even have some carnival games that people can play and it's just a strip of the river right next to it. trista chester on the Chesteve side of the river and it was a lot of fun we went there had dinner had a few drinks walked we did some shopping we played some games it was a lot of fun so if you are in or around that area and where I stayed the hotel Tomasso was in that side of side of Trestevide.

I highly recommend checking it out and that wasn't my final advice. I have an additional tip. I felt extremely safe in Rome. Extremely safe and secure. all these videos and they talked about different scams that you have to be careful with and pick pockets and things like that and yes I'm sure they existed but when I was there I didn't experience anything, we went out to dinner late at night. and I still never met any of those people so keep that in mind but I don't think it's as common as it seems and I guess it depends on where you are but I never experienced any of that but I felt it's very safe to travel around Rome and walk and we never had any problems, so if you are planning that trip to Rome or anywhere in Europe, watch this video here that will help you plan that trip in the best way possible. the way the professionals do it and other than that, I want to thank you very much for stopping by.

Stay tuned for our next Mediterranean and European video which I hope will be out soon and see you in the next video. Thank you very much for stopping by. take care of yourself Bye