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.