Arrival in Rome - Blogabond

Ryanair got us to Ciampino more or less on time. Their fare structures are getting ridiculous. The actual fare part of the cost was £75 each return which is obviously too low. But by the time we paid for checking in, airport taxes, luggage, getting on the plane, oxygen, lunch for the pilots and so on the total fare was almost exactly double. Actually if they had told us that a return flight to Rome would cost £150 we would have thought that that was very good value but by splitting the fare into numerous different parts Ryanair leave passengers with the constant feeling that they are being ripped off.

When we looked into spending a week in Rome we decided that we wanted to be in an apartment in a residential area. The plan was to shop in local markets, eat in the apartment, visit some more out of the way places rather than the usual tourist destinations and generally live fairly modestly. Hmmmm.....

The apartment we chose was in Trastevere (accent on the second rather than the third syllable as we quickly learned). As the name suggests Trastevere is south of the Tiber and used to be a traditional working class area. As has happened in so many European cities however the area has now been gentrifed and is now more of a middle class/arty/studenty area.

First impressions are that it's a typical Italian higgledy-piggledy residential area, full of very narrow, cobbled streets. Our apartment is fine but very small. Cooking facilities are limited however and there is no table to eat at. Already the prospect of eating in on a regular basis is fading.

The front door to our apartment

Our window box

By the time our neighbour Claudia has shown us the apartment and explained the recycling rules in great detail it's already 9pm so we decide to look for something to eat. There are plenty of local restaurants around but inevitably we make the typical tourist mistake of heading for the main piazza in Trastevere. The meal is very pleasant but nothing spectacular. With one bottle of wine the bill comes to 150 Euros. We won't be coming back here.

The expensive restaurant in Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere

When we get back to the apartment there's a note from Claudia asking us to call her - our taxi driver has called to say that he's got my mobile phone which must have dropped out of my pocket in the taxi. We decide it's too late to call Claudia but she comes to the door about midnight and gets very excited about the whole thing. Anyway we call the taxi driver and he duly turns up about an hour later and hands over my phone in exchange for a modest mancia (tip).

It's been an expensive first day.

written by

Fred Shedden on May 2, 2009 from Rome, Italy

from the travel blog: Roman holiday

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