After visiting Rome, I don’t think too fondly of it. I think it is a multitude of factors; it seems overly expensive to visit (food and hotels), there are just too many people at the attractions, I don’t understand the language at all, and it’s really not that all different in lifestyle from France or England which I’ve previously visited.

It is odd though, that I could levy half of those criticisms about visiting Asia; but I guess the cheapness of travelling in Asia (short of the flight) makes up for those hassles.

Aside from the Vatican and ancient Rome, we visited a bunch of other Roman attractions such as the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, the Pantheon, Trastevere (the food is affordable here yay), Capitoline Hill, Castel Saint’Angelo, the Christmas market at Piazza Navona, and various other buildings/piazzas along the way.

The food (gelato included) was not as great as I thought it would be. It seemed like every (family-owned) restaurant had the same set of dishes; spaghetti bolognese, lasagna, grilled beef fillet, etc. Many things were also overly salty, and I don’t consider that delicious or tasty. There was wine, but it wasn’t as cheap as I thought it would be. After currency conversion it ends up being around $5 for a glass of house wine.

Right now, I don’t think I will ever go back to Rome (or Italy) by choice again, although there are still some places in Italy which still seem intriguing (Tuscany, Pompeii). It’s just there are so many other places in Europe that seem more promising.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs, Facebook Notes Tags: europe, food, italy09, travelling, wine