Trifter

Random things to know:

• If you haven’t already figured out what to do for cell phones, I would suggest doing Tim Mobile services. Most stores carry Tim cards too if you need to reload on minutes. You can also just walk directly to the Tim store and purchase minutes directly from them.

• If you are flying into Heathrow airport, just know that they are very strict about having only 1 carry-on.

• Try to do one of the pub-crawls around; they’re a lot of fun if you can rally up enough people. There are two of them out there, but I from what I’ve been told the Coliseum Pub Crawl group is better.

• Go to a Roma soccer game if you can. Tickets are sold at the Roma futbol store off of Via Firenze.

• Momando.com is another good website to check for reasonable flight prices.

• Go to Venice’s Carnivale! It takes place over the course of a few weekends, but the last couple of weekends are the best ones to visit. If you haven’t already booked a hostel, I would suggest you make that your first priority when you get to Rome. Room availability in hostels goes incredibly fast, so just expect to have to pay a lot. The closer you can get your place to San Marco Sq the better, but the trade off is the hostels are much pricier. At least have your hostel on the main island…if you don’t then you have to make sure to catch the last water taxi of the night or you will be stuck homeless otherwise. If you have a large enough group you can negotiate with the travel agency in the Campo to get discounted tickets for the train.

• Bring your own bag from home for groceries, as they will charge you a few euro cents for each grocery bag you need.

• Bring flip flops for hostel bathrooms

• Always have an unused bus ticket on you and if you don’t use it make sure to stand by the validator in case the checkers (in blue uniforms) get on. IF YOU SEE THE ITALIANS JUMP OFF you need to validate or jump off too!

• Always take out the maximum of euros from ATMs-Deutsche Bank has okay withdraw rates-make sure you check others because they can be very high!

• Hostelworld.com is a good website to use when looking to book hostels in other countries/cities.

• Day trips that are especially cool include Capri, Cinque Terra, Sperlonga, Ostia Antica, and Orvieto.

• Best area to go shopping is right around where Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps are down the street called, Via Firenze. There are a lot of designer stores and affordable clothing stores down these streets.

• Hostels I would recommend in Different countries: HelloBCN in Barcelona, Los Amigos Opera Backpackers Hostel in Madrid, St. Christopher’s Berlin in Berlin, The Yellow in Rome.

Campo di Fiori

There are so many restaurants, bars, and clothing stores around here.

• Saby’s Restaurant

  • Go here during happy hour. They have really good spaghetti and pizzas for between 5-7 euros. They also have some pretty tasty happy hour dessert specials.
  • At night this place turns into a bar. If you make friends with the people that work there they can hook you up with some free drinks.

• Take Away Saby’s

  • They give you ‘to go’ coffee cups that you can bring with you to class.
  • They make really good cornetti, can’t go wrong with any of them.
  • They usually offer a deal if you get both a coffee and a cornetto.

• Joe’s

• • Serves really good espressos and Americanos.
  • Good lunch menu (but very pricey!)

• Fornos

  • They sell really good pizza by the ounce. Always a large line outside of it.
  • Pizza selection changes day to day.

• Insalatta Ricca

  • They make the biggest and best salads I’ve ever tasted! Definitely go here if you are having a craving for some leafy greens.
  • If you like avocados, get the avocado salad…it will change your life.

• Sloppy Sam’s

  • Good Bar with tasty and reasonably priced drinks.

• Despar

  • This is a short walk outside the Campo, but it’s Rome’s equivalent to a small-scale version of Safeway.

Piazza Navona

• Tre Scalini

  • If you are looking to try some good Italian tartufo, look no further than this restaurant. Its on the left side across from the church when you enter Piazza Navona from the south end (closest to Campo di Fiori.)

• Anima

  • If you want to go dancing then this would be the club closest to your home. Go down the street to the right of Sant’ Agnese in Agone. The street should be called Via di Santa Maria dell’ Anima. The club is near the corner of this street and Via di Tor Milina.

• Abbey

  • An Irish owned pub. The bartenders put on a really good show and hand out a lot of free and really tasty shots.

• Giovani’s

  • This is an American bar owned by a Canadian/Italian named, Giovani. He’s a really hospitable and friendly bartender who can give you all sorts of recommendations for anything you might be looking for around Rome.
  • Buy a drink and you get free snacks.

• Milkshake shop

  • This place has a real name, I just can’t think of it off the top of my head. But if you go down the street where Giovanni’s is almost across from that is a gelato/milkshake shop…they’re huge and super good. They have a wall full of pictures of celebrities who have come to their shop as well.

• Montevecchio

  • Really good, but expensive Italian food. If you’re looking to splurge you will want to stop by here.

• Societe Lutece

  • This is a fun bar that a lot of the locals like to go to. It is actually located right underneath an apartment complex.

Pantheon

• Miscellanea

  • Definitely visit this restaurant at some point during your stay! This was one of my program’s favorite hang out spots before going out to the bars. Its run by a man named Mikki…he loves to entertain and take care of the customer by giving out free bottles of the very tasty strawberry wine aka “sexy wine,” and sometimes comps some of your food too. Make sure to order their turkey sandwich, its phenomenal! He has a son, Romeo, who is, shall we say “gorgeous.”

• Gelateria Giolotti

  • This place reminds you of an old-fashioned ice cream parlor. There’s dozens of flavor choices to choose from and the portions that they give you are huge!

• Cremeria Monteforte

  • This gelato place is to the right of the Pantheon, if you are standing right in front of it. Cute little place that serves from interesting flavors, like rose petals.

Trevi

• San Crispino

  • Well known for its natural and organic gelato flavors. Portions they give you are much smaller and a tad bit more expensive than what you are served at other gelato shops, but well worth the extra euros. They serve a lot of seasonal flavors.

Trastevere

• Friends Art Café

  • Supposedly this bar/restaurant was named after the TV show, and is a popular hangout for locals. It’s got a more modern feel to it, but is a lot of fun to hang out at while drinking wine and eating their delicious all you can eat vegetarian aperitivo buffet. Very cheap place to eat at.