Papal post
by TheWanderingCamel
If you want to post your Roman postcards from the Vatican, you can't simply pop your Italian-stamped cards into the postboxes you'll see painted in the papal colours of yellow and Marian blue outside the Vatican City post office in St Peter's Square. The Vatican issues its own stamps, usually very handsome ones in fairly small runs - they can make a good souvenir - and you must use these. Similarly, you can't use stamps you buy at the Vatican City to post mail from the rest of Rome or Italy.
The Vatican's Post Office is so efficient many Romans make the trip to the Vatican just to post their mail; postcards you send from here could even beat the usual fate of postcards and arrive home before you do.
There are three Post Offices at the Vatican - one is on the right hand side of the Square as you face the Basilica, in the middle of the colonnade, another is on the left hand side next to the steps going up to the Basilica and the third is actually inside the Vatican City near Porta Sant' Anna. If you tell the Swiss Guard at the Chiesa Sant'Anna you want to use the Post Office, he'll point it out to you. Use the ATM outside the Post Office and you can practise your Latin - it's one of the language options you can choose!
Santa Maria, Trastevere. ...
by acemj
Santa Maria, Trastevere. Trastevere is the neighborhood just on the other side of the Tiber's second big bend toward the southern end of the city. I spent an evening walking around the neighborhood, but a cold rain prevented me from really enjoying the area. Trastevere literally means 'across the river,' and according to some locals I spoke with it's one of the better areas in Rome to find good, authentic food. Santa Maria is the area's biggest church.
Taxis To Rome from the Airport
by magyarozag
Once you have disembarked your flight and have come into the airport there are two ways to get to Rome(You cannot walk). One is the Train but they aren't as reliable and can be dirty. The other is a taxi. You would think they would be extortionate prices but they aren't. A man may approach you and ask or you may need to go to the desk. Either way you get to Rome. But if you take the taxi it will cost around 15 Euros( could be more or could be less depends on traffic) and he will give you a little piece of paper and if you present it to your return taxi driver you get 5 Euros off.
Trastevere -Local, fun & welcoming
by eileencat1 about Alle Fratte di Trastevere
This was a great recommendation from a Fodors poster. The owner an older Italian man very lively and welcoming and his wife is from New Jersey but has been living in Rome many years. They have great team work and make you feel at home. I had the smoked salmon pasta with vodka and cream as a first and grilled lamb chops as my secondo mmmmm!
Crawl around in the graves... er, catacombs...
by PartyRambo
I've never been in catacombs before, and thought it would be a unique side trip. Throughout the city, ancient graves lie, some open to the elements, carved in the rock underground.
Most now have buildings - churches - built above them - I imagine that was the plan - and although the ground wasn't "prepared" - no concrete poured, no coffins built, just slots carved into the walls of trenches dug deep down - there isn't quite as much damp unpleasantness as one might expect..
Not for the claustrophobic, though - I visited the Church of Sant'Agnese Fuori LeMura, and most of the paths are only wide enough to walk comfortably (basketball players need not bother entering - the ceiling's too low!)
It costs a small fee to join a guided tour every 30 minutes or so, and photographs weren't allowed, and although I usually obey such rules, I more often try to sneak a pic or two in - but a flash would have been necessary, making a secret photo not so secret, so I didn't try...
Sign in with Facebook
Number 8 tram pulling in to Trastevere stop
His Holiness Benedict XVI entering the Hall
Santa Maria Maggiore - Crypt "the confession"
Piazza Navona early in the morning
