Roma

Just returned home from 4 Days in Rome and I am conflicted. I really do enjoy history and Rome has a ton of it. It seems like every turn reveals more ancient ruins or something of more recent historical signficance. I think there are few places in the world where you can go that have the density of this many historical sites. It is probably because of this however, that I am conflicted. With all of this history come epic crowds and tourist traps everywhere you go.

I like to think of myself as a pretty experienced traveler. I do it for a living. And I have a few rules that have served me well over the years. The most useful rule has been 'Never Eat on a Main Road'. The principle here is that the best stuff, the stuff the locals eat, is usually in some small out of the way side street away from the tourist traffic. There are few places in the world where this is not the case, like Asia, where you are better off not eating in a restaurant at all and get the good stuff from a guy pushing a cart restaurant on the side of the road. Rome seemed to be a bit of an exception. Dinner the first night we employed our logic and we did find a place with excellent pizza, but also a bunch of tourists. Every other meal though, the food was mediocre and certainly not like what we were able to find in Venice. We finally surrendered our last evening and went back to the first restaurant where we started because we knew that at a minimum, the pizza would be good. And it was.

Another rule that SWMBO and I like to apply is plan as little as possible. There is nothing I dislike more than an agenda on vacation. I don't mind planning a couple of outings or a visit to the theater, but I do not want to live on a schedule. I do it when I work, I don't want to do it when I am relaxing. The best part of this approach, is that you are open to a little travel serendipity and this trip was a great example of that. The lines at the Vatican were miles long so after wandering around the square in front of St. Peters, we bagged going in and started investigating the surrounding neighborhood. While we doing that, we came upon a bunch of people setting up for the Mille Miglia. This is a race of classic sportscars that runs 1000 miles from Brescia to Rome and back. It is something that we have always wanted to see and we had no idea before we made the trip that it was going to be in Rome at the same time as us. Because we hadn't planned anything, we had the opportunity to attend and it was worth the price of admission (free). We saw about 100 new and vintage Ferraris in the Celebration of Ferrari that kicked the event off and then the parade of the Mille Miglia participants. It was a great evening.

So Rome was a mixed bag. Beautiful scenery, lots of History, and some awesome sportscars. Food was just alright and the crowds were insane. The company was excellent and we had a really nice time. Will I rush back, no. But I am glad I went. Now four days until we leave for Geneva!!