Money and Phones

A short break from talking about Rome is called for. 

My young friend is leaving for Italy tomorrow and I never got around to talking about money and phones, both important considerations.   I’m sure she’s sorted it out, going as she is with a college group. 

The short answer is, things change.  Each time you leave the country you must research these two items. 

For a while it seemed our credit cards were not going to work in Europe.  New York Times travel section articles said European banks were doing away with the stripe in favor of a chip and PIN system.  The last three years I’ve ordered euros from the bank and taken them with me.  That’s what you have to do in a medium-size midwestern city: order and go back several days later to pick them up.  The bank tells me they don’t charge me a fee, but their exchange rate is always several points worse than what I’m pulling up online.  Still, it should be better than any rate you’ll get changing dollars once you get there.

In spite of the predictions, our cards have worked fine, just as they always did, provided we told our bank we were going.  I once had mine shut down at the end of two weeks in Paris as I franticly shopped for last-minute gifts.  Why it took them so long I don’t know, I must have reached a threshold.  The bank woke up and pulled the plug in a children’s clothing store on rue Rivoli, as I tried to buy a dress for my six-year-old niece.

When you use your card for purchases, you'll be charged a euro to dollar conversion fee by your bank.  It will appear on your statement as a percent of the purchase. You might avoid it if you have a credit union card, an elite card or possibly an airline credit card.  You’ll have to read up on this.

When you use your card to get euros out of an ATM, you’ll be charged a fee for using the machine by their bank and by yours, plus the conversion fee will show up on your statement.  With all that, it should still be cheaper than going into a bank or a storefront money exchange to change dollars or travelers checks into euros, because there you will undoubtedly suffer from a less than favorable conversion rate.

One last point on this subject: European ATM numeric key pads do not have letters, so be sure you know your PIN by its numbers.

Phone charges and policies change as fast as you can do the research.  The least expensive way to go that we've found is to make sure your phone can make international calls and buy an international texting plan.  We make few calls, keep them short and pay for them.  It's never amounted to much.  (If you need to make frequent calls, consider getting a cheap prepaid phone over there.  Read up on it. I believe incoming calls are free, but data is expensive.)  We mostly text and occasionally email.  If you can get by with emailing only when you have Wi-Fi access, you're in good shape.  Be forewarned that in small towns and villages, Wi-Fi and phone reception can be scarce. 

If you're like we are, dependent on following the blue dot on Google maps to keep from getting lost, you'll need an international data plan.  These do not come cheap and can be so limited, as to the amount of data they'll allow you, that they are worthless.  Try to find one you can add to if you get close to your limit.  If you rent a car you can get GPS.  But we travel mostly by foot. 

Five times to Italy but only once to Rome, part seven

Back in the Trevi neighborhood, or rioni as they are called here, we climbed the three flights of stairs to our second floor room - ground floor is 0.  We were staying at La Piccola Maison and yes the room was small and cozy.  David and I unpacked our things, uncorked the wine waiting for us courtesy of the management and soon dozed off for a nap. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rioni_of_Rome

These maps show different iterations of the neighborhoods, with the names on the yellow one being more accurate.  See our neighborhood marked Trevi.

However, the detailed map below more easily shows where we traveled this first day.

See the green area labeled Borghese and below it a purple area called Spagna.  To the right is a yellow unlabeled area.  This is the location of our hotel,  just below the large Villa Borghese gardens.

We left our hotel and went first to the Spanish Steps in the area marked Spagna. Then we walked south to the Trevi Fountain and then west to the Pantheon.  We had lunch in the Navona area, walked though the Piazza Navona and then south to the Campo de' Fiori before returning to the hotel. Notice the train station (Roma Termini) just left of where it says San Lorenzo.

http://www.slowtrav.com/italy/maps/rome.htm

You can see it again here.  Our hotel was in the Trevi neighborhood very near the charming via Veneto. We walked north to the Spanish Steps, south to the Trevi Fountain and west to the Pantheon.  We had lunch near the Piazza Navona - whoops, what happened to Campo de' Fiori? On this map it'd be near the bottom of the area marked Navona.  And then we walked home.  Whew, it was a long day...but these places are really pretty close together.

We woke up from our nap still full from lunch and decided to walk up the via Veneto hill.  At the Villa Borghese gardens we sat on a bench.  It was dusk.  The park was beautiful but we lacked the ambition to explore it.

A dining pavilion with its glass sides removed, outside a via Veneto hotel. 
http://wikitravel.org/en/File:Via_Veneto_restaurant.jpg

As we came down the hill diners were being seated in the small glass pavilions, belonging to a hotel or restaurant, that line via Veneto. We ducked into a hotel lobby and ordered a drink.  A group of Italian and American tourists sat nearby discussing their day.  No dinner for us.  We were ready for bed.
Next: A yoga class in Rome, the Colosseum and the Monti neighborhood.

Five times to Italy but only once to Rome, part six

"After lunch," was when Georgio told us to come back and check into our room.  By now it was after 2 p.m. and we headed back to the hotel via Piazza Navona and Campo de' Fiori.

Both are large, attractive, public spaces with interesting details well worth inspection, but we were worn out. 

In Piazza Navona, throngs stood between us and the Bernini fountain. We pressed our way through. 

Campo de' Fiori daily market stalls

As in our public market at home, in the late afternoon Campo de' Fiori vendors were packing up their stalls.  Children ran around just out of reach of distracted parents and the odd paper wrapper blew across the ground. We will come back.

Five times to Italy but only once to Rome, part five

Our sightseeing marathon has left us seeking a cozy seat in a friendly restaurant.  Checking in with Rick Steves - on our Kindle we've downloaded his map of restaurants near the Pantheon, so no Wi-Fi or international data use is required - we see a promising street near the Piazza Navona, our next target.   Would Rick and I sit down and order the same thing for lunch? Probably not, but he's a pretty reliable guy when it comes to maps and directions.

The view from our table at Ciccia Bomba

We barrel across the end of the piazza and down the via del Governo Vecchio.  It's a narrow,  busy street full of small shops and crowded outdoor cafes.  Tables are full of food.  Strollers anchor balloons.  People speed by on motorcycles or stop and carry on spirited conversation in the middle of the street.  This is the kind of dense arrangement we're fond of.

The couple with the baby, she's
feeding it.

Hungry and short on patience, we quickly settle on Ciccia Bomba.  My desktop translator widget says it means flab bomb.  Must be an idiom.  We spend a few minutes hovering near the outdoor tables before some people get up and a friendly server steers us to a tiny table wedged between a young couple with a baby and the front window.  Inside, a few regulars enjoy their lunch in peace.  

I had a salad and pizza and I can't remember David's meal.  More than likely it included meat.  The food was wonderful and I ate too much of it.  This is Italy in a nutshell.  

There was a vintage clothing store across from the restaurant and I took a minute to stick my head inside before we walked back to the Piazza Navona.

Five times to Italy but only once to Rome, part four

It's a Friday morning in Rome.  We woke up early, rode the train from Umbria, dropped our bags off at the hotel and hit the ground running.  We have two days before we fly home.  Rome is busy, crowded and wonderful. We've downloaded specialized maps and follow live, blinking blue dots on our phones.  For the heck of it, we trail behind a Japanese tour group.  And there it is, the Pantheon.

The Roman Pantheon

We pass though sixteen mammoth, single-piece Corinthian columns and walk inside.  Rebuilt in 126 AD, it's been in continuous use ever since.  Above us is the world's largest unreinforced concrete dome with its oculus.

Of course it's crowded, but it's cool, dark and beautiful and I could stay here all day if I wasn't ready to eat lunch.

The oculus

Inside the Pantheon

Five times to Italy but only once to Rome, part three

At the top of the Spanish Steps

The Spanish Steps are beautiful at the top and crowded at the bottom.  It was morning and from what I understand, the worse time to sight see because the tour buses come, drop people off and collect them after lunch.  But we had things to see and we were out there with them.

I'd have stuck my head in the Camper shoe store in the Piazza di Spagna, but I was thirsty and thinking about the fresh-squeezed orange juice available in every street café.  Unfortunately we sat down outside a place on the main route to the Trevi Fountain and paid €6.

David's photo of the Trevi Fountain looking
like a scene from Mystery Science Theater 

It's pretty, but the crowd at the fountain was so dense we left, promising ourselves to come back after dark.  We snapped a few pictures and moved on to the Pantheon via the Piazza Colonna.  The Column of Marcus Aurelius (sometimes called the Colonna Antonina) is magnificent!

Marble victory column of Marcus
Aurelius at the Piazza Colonna

Giuseppe Vasi's 1752 etching of the
Piazza Colonna 

Five times to Italy but only once to Rome, part two

And back to Roma...
At this point on our September 2012 trip, we left Rome and headed for Umbria.  We stayed in Bevagna for about two weeks - I'll go into that later - and came back to Rome for two nights before flying home.

I asked a friend who knows Rome well what neighborhood he thought would be good for us.  He suggested the Spanish Steps or Piazza Barberini, to be close to sites we could see quickly and check off our list.

This is not the way we usually do it.  We like a small hotel in an area with residential amenities like markets and laundromats and we don't usually do the whirl-wind tour.  But we just had two days.  I was willing to take his advice.  I searched on Venere, cross referenced TripAdvisor and decided on La Piccola Maison near Piazza Barberini.

We left Bevagna and arrived in Rome after an hour and twenty minute train ride. Per instructions, we emailed the hotel to tell them we had arrived.  They answered right away.  Our room wouldn't be ready until after lunch but we could come now and drop off our luggage.  Again we left the train station, pulling our rolling bags behind us. It was a beautiful, sunny day.  The hotel was a 15 or 20 minute walk from the station and easy to find.  

We could have taken the Metro or a cab but we like to walk.  We learn our way around faster that way, plus it allows me to sit down in front of a plate of ravioli with a somewhat clear conscience.

La Piccola Maison

 After being buzzed into what looked like an apartment building, we headed up the stairs and were met on the first landing by our host, the charming Georgio.  There was a tiny lift for the luggage.  We continued up to the third floor.  There were no public areas, just a stairway and a hallway of doors.  The management sat in a small office.   We left our luggage and headed out.

The area immediately surrounding La Piccola Maison has hotels, apartment buildings and at least one embassy, but no real neighborhood feel or amenities.  There's a Metro station a block away and a handsome 17th century Bernini fountain in the piazza.  Using Google Maps on our phone, we walked around the corner, up a hill and found ourselves at the top of the Spanish Steps.

Roesler Franz's 1880 painting of the Piazza Barberini