What is Rome REALLY like now?

[Ann]

We'd like to return to Rome in October, but I've been reading a lot of really negative things about it lately -- for example, www.nytimes.com/2018/12/24/travel/rome-pollution-trash.html and http://www.romafaschifo.com/. So I would appreciate some input from those of you who've been fairly recently about conditions there. Thanks in advance, Ann

 

[stav]

What would you like to know ?

 

[Mom83]

I first visited Rome in 1969-1970 while I was attending college in Florence. Sadly, I did not return to Rome until our daughter attended college there in 2004-5. Since then, I have been back numerous times...the last time in October, 2017 for a week. Yes, it certainly has changed over the years...but, to me, it is still a very magical city with more places to visit and things to see than I can count. Personally, I have not noticed any vast amounts of unsightly garbage on streets or an increase in the amount of graffiti on walls or buildings in recent visits. Yes, it is a gritty city in places...as are most cities of this size. But there is incredible beauty that can be found around every corner. One of the nicest surprises from our most recent trip was how beautiful the Trevi Fountain is now after its recent cleaning...it was gleaming white!
Please visit with an open mind.

 

[Alpinista]

Any big city is going to have some wear and tear, but (as noted above) Rome's beauty and majesty transcends any graffiti and/or trash. What Rome does have in common with all other cities in Italy is the massive overcrowding that comes with tourism, but that is also a trade-off that a traveler needs to make when putting together an itinerary. I'd suggest looking at every shortcut you can find (from Roma Passes to reserved tours) to help get around the lines. October is still a busy month.

 

[Sharon J]

We hadn't returned to Rome for some time, but decided to visit at the end of May last year. It was packed, and we were so glad that we were only there for three full days, before leaving for the Italian countryside. We return to Italy every year, and will not return to Rome, mostly because of the many large tour groups. We couldn't get into the front door of the Vatican because the guides holding their little flags, clustered around the entrance, explaining what their groups would be seeing inside. When we tried to slip by the groups, the people acted like we were the intruders. Same thing happened at every other historical building, and even the Piazza Navona. I think our favorite day, was walking along the Avenue above the river. Beautiful trees, with majestic sites, everywhere we turned.

 

[SMJ]

SharonJ: I smiled at your comment above about tour groups acting as if you were intruding.
When I was in Florence once, I was in looking at "David", and a small tour group was right beside him too.
As I went round to look at his back view, the tour guide rudely told me to " go away " ,as he was conducting a tour " you know".
I looked him up and down (the tour guide), and moved right in close to David and stayed there for about another 10 minutes looking him up and down..

 

[Parigi]

Indeed it has been discovered by massive-mass tourism. Some places are pretty much lost to that, like the Trevi Fountain and parts of the Forum.
But it depends on how you conceptualize your Roman holiday.

As I grow older, I am less and less interested in sightseeing and more and more into sampling a different lifestyle. Sights are just changing backdrops.
For my purpose, Rome remains a delight. I'm enraptured just to walk and walk and, go to the market and buy in-season ingredients and try out Roman recipes at home, or get ourselves adopted by a caffé and sit there vegetating, doing nothing. -- In fact all the cities I love have to have this doing-nothing factor. Which cities keep you coming back, delighted doing nothing? For me Rome is one.

Even in Rome, even in the thick of tourism max-out, we don't have to be part of the problem (and complain about the problem) if we don't want to.
Last time I was in Rome, which was a little over a year ago, we braved the Vatican museum, as we had not visited it for the previous few trips.
The crowd in the Sistine Chapel was terrifying indeed. Then somehting miraculous happened: A biblical exoduns. All the tourists filed out of a side-door, which I later learned was the "Steve Ricks Sistine side-door". We decided not to follow the crowd and to walk the long way (not that long, about 20 minutes) back to the museum exit.
There we were, all alone, wandering from one deserted room to another, DESERED!, while everyone else was off to the next Ricke Steves highlight. -- I respect Rick Steves for many things. We should bear in mind that his forte is in giving non-experts a nicely streamlined concept of a visit. Being a non-expert in everything, I have benefited from his information on many travels.
And Rick Steves is global. Everyone follows him. Other guidebooks in other langauges copy him. So you have this phenomenon where the entire world converges on a couple of rooms in the Vatican or a few corners of the Forum, and just one room away or around the corner, the place is empty and is all yours. I aspire to making a film-negative-like inverted-black-white map of Rick Steves tourist maps. My maps will show people where Stevists don't go and I'll make a zillion euro. You are all welcome to invest in the Parigimaps series.

By the way we're going back to Rome this xmas-new year. Can't but can't wait.

 

[RachelP]

Cities have their issues, like rubbish and homelessness. But Rome for me is the aging beauty.... losing her figure maybe but still so so beautiful and alluring. Agree with Parigi above. It depends what you are after. Yes the tourist sights are crawling with people. The streets and lanes are enchanting. The smells, the tastes.... all worth it in my opinion.

 

[Ann]

Thank you all for your input. We've been to Rome many times so the tourist hot spots don't hold all that much interest for us. Like Parigi, it's now, for us, all about sampling a different lifestyle. I think a mix of Montepulciano and Rome, both of which we've loved in the past, will be perfect for us.

 

[Christine]

We just returned from 4 weeks in Italy, starting in Rome the first of February. A first-time traveler was with us, my sister-in-law, who has no idea who Rick Steves is.

We have family in Rome who take us to what they call "typical Roman restaurants", their go-to places, and we have such a different experience than in perhaps what might be considered tourist places. Without them, we visited Da Baffetto, Gigetto, and a few other restaurants.

Again we stayed near Piazza Navona; some restaurants that weren't too busy in 2016 were mobbed this trip - or maybe it's just the smokers standing outside - but they certainly had more smokers than other places in the same area.

My SIL wasn't too interested in the Vatican museums nor a Papal audience, so no Sistine Chapel for us. We did the Scavi tour and I have been in Rome enough so I could get us to most of the other places: Pantheon, Trevi, Piazza del Popolo, Borghese Gardens, Spanish Steps, etc. We walked about 8-10 miles a day.

Since Rome is my husband's favorite place to visit, I have no doubt we will always return. I'm a Florence fan.

 

[SherLyn72]

Rome is my favorite city and I feel I could spend a lifetime there and never see it all! Every time I turn the corner onto Piazza della Rotonda and see the Pantheon I feel as if I'm viewing it for the first time. In January, my husband and I visited and it was his first trip to Rome. I was worried that he wouldn't love it as much as I do, but he was completely enamored!

I highly recommend an early morning tour of the Vatican and Sistine Chapel if you are interested in that at all. Being able to walk through the museum with only a handful of other people is incredible.

We will be in Italy in September, flying in and out of FCO. While we will be spending our time in Tuscany, we will stay our last night in Rome. I couldn't be so close and not visit!

 

[JimL]

GO BACK. An enchanting city. We are going back for our 3rd trip since 2015. Sure large cities that are as old as Rome have their infrastructure issues but so does any large city in the USA. The charm outweighs the little things. We always go in early or late season (March/April or Oct. to avoid the inevitable crowds.

 

[Ann]

We are indeed going back, as I posted above, for 12 days in October after 9 days in Montepulciano. I just looked at our old itineraries, and this will be our 9th or 10th stay in Rome, at least a week each time -- I wasn't as well organized pre-internet days. Again, thank you all for your input.