WHAT TO EXPECT:

Rome is gigantic, huge, sprawling, filled with beautiful ruins, giant monuments and fantastic restaurants. It's also hot and crowded and very fast, so watch yourself. Our 5 girls had to share a hotel room meant for two, and Ronald and Isaiah suffered a night in a Passolini-esque nightmare of a hotel all because our original hotel reservations somehow disappeared. And on top of that, several students were talked into paying way too much for cab fares from the train station. But we're not saying that Rome is full of scammers. Well, maybe some of us are...

Romans are scammers. Watch out for taxi drivers. I discovered firsthand that unlike in Paris where tourists are simply shunned, Romans prey on young innocent tourists, squeezing as much extra money out of them that they can, simply because they don't speak Italian.
Stella (16) is still a little miffed.

You'll want to walk. From the LA PIAZZA di SPAGNA across to the PANTHEON, and then to PIAZZA NAVONA, then move across the river and wander up the back of the Roman ruins and enter the CAMPALADIO, Michaelangelo's architectural masterpiece. You'll have seen much of Rome, and you'll be excited by everything.

Everywhere you look you'll see history layered like a big cake. Look down and you'll often see ruins of ancient Rome, look ahead and you'll see the Renaissance, and sometimes a newer monument.

Rome was laid out as a huge space before there were many people. POPE SIXTUS placed monuments in important areas and simply waited until the city grew up around it. This explains so many strait lines to the streets, and the big visual treats you see everywhere.

Rome is an intriguing mix of places living in the past and people living for the moment. Walking back from hours of dancing in a small club, we finally collapsed only a few blocks from our hotel on the Spanish Steps. There I was living the whole night living for nothing but the moment, only to find myself on these steps that had lived so many moments before me. ( I hope that does not sound TOO California hippie-dippy.)
Stella (16)
WHERE YOU SHOULD GO:

THE VATICAN MUSEUM
Go at least an hour and a half before it opens and you'll get ahead of the 2 million other people in line. Remember, this is the only tourist attraction in the world MORE POPULAR than Disneyland. You don't want to wait in line for two hours to ride "Splash Mountain" and you don't want to wait in line for thee hours to see the SISTINE CHAPEL. One and a half is enough, thank you.

You may be surprised by a few of the images you'll get before the Sistine Chapel—like the array of religious vendors hovering around the entrance waiting to sate the stomachs of supplicants, or the security guard Nazis who clap when voices rise even slightly above a whisper and hiss at the crowds to quiet them and throw stern looks at all.
Kirsten (16) wonders if all catholic security guards are so obnoxious.

Remember, this isn't the same Chapel you have in your art books... it's been cleaned, which means the colors looks, well, Disneyesque. That is to say, it is quite lively with very vibrant colors. And remember that all the saints are shown by the way they were martyred... you won't want to miss St. Bartholomew holding his entire flayed skin up for examination.

I had never seen any Jesus who was quite so muscular. My favorite part of the Chapel was a painting of one of the damned. A snake was eating his loins. The story goes he looked just like an enemy of Michelangelo...
Laurel (14) vows to never piss off a famous Italian painter.
THE PANTHEON
It's a great open interior space, that has the most perfect proportions you'll find—important for those of you interested in architechture. The great domed ceiling is left open at the top so the rain falls in during storms, but you can still find refuge up against the circular wall as we did. An emperor (Hadrian) figured it out. Later it was converted into a church.
WHERE YOU CAN EAT:

There are great restaurants EVERYWHERE in Rome, but the ones packed with people are your best bets. We'd give you names, but to be truthful, we can't remember any of them. (We'd say we drank too much wine, but we're not sure there is such a thing in Italy.) Romans like to eat out and they like to party, so if you follow the Italian speaking crowds of people you'll usually find yourself somewhere interesting.

There are great inexpensive restaurants all around the CAMPO DE FIORE.

There are also great inexpensive restaurants around the PIAZZA TRESTEVERE, and that's an area which is great for walking at night.

IF DADDY'S PAYING: In Trestevere (the district, not the piazza) there is one grand restaurant with a beautiful garden called ROMOLO (right at the bottom of the Via Garibaldi) which we highly recommend. The best fish we ate the entire trip. Well, more or less the best everything we ate the entire trip.

For lunch, try PIER LUIGI in the Via Guila: a beautiful street right behind the Piazza Farnese (the French Embassy) near Campo di Fiore. Sorry we can't give better directions than that. Chalk it up to our having such a fantastic time that we forgot to take down the exact addresses.
WHERE YOU WANT TO GO:


LA PIAZZA NAVONA
At night this is a carnival, with great fountains, and the best ice cream and granitas in Rome.

LA SCALINATA SPAGNA (The Spanish Steps)
Where everyone from Ohio to Seattle is hanging out and simply gawking at the natives. You'll feel at home, but is that really why you came to Italy? You ought to take it easy on the frat scene. Nevertheless, ITALIANS SINGING U2 can be quite entertaining. Save it for when it's too late and you're too exhausted to do anything else.

FONTANA TREVI
Anyone heard of La Dolce Vita? If you have, this is where the movie star (Anita Ekberg, remember?) bathed with the kitten. One of the most famous fountains in the world.
A DAY TRIP TO TIVOLI
Take the train and visit VILLA D'ESTE. Well, it's the most beautiful villa and gardens in History, designed by the same architect who did the Piazza Navonna. A river is directed down a mountain in a series of variations on fountains. It's spectacular, and there's a ravine and a waterfall in the town that is an adventure in itself.

And if you want to spend another few hours, take a taxi to what's left of HADRIAN'S bigger than life VILLA (Bill Gates, eat your heart out). This great emperor used his visionary talents not only on the Pantheon, but on architecture in general. He's not know as the great builder for nothing (try his wall in England). You will have a better idea of the Roman sense of scale, and how miserably tiny it makes Donald Trump look.

You've got to do a little research on your own, but you can have access to an adventure if you find the estate that gets you down to the bottom of THE WATERFALL AND RAVINE, and that's an adventure in itself.