Rome: Barbarians (me) at the Cheap Hotels

It’s time to get back into practice with this. The problem has been that I try to draft these posts during my travel days, when I can’t really do much else, and I haven’t had many travel days recently. I stayed for quite a while in Rome. Longer than I expected, in fact, just finishing up an eight-day trip. I figure I can cover most of it in three or four posts, so let’s begin. I’m just not sure if I should do this chronologically or categorically. It may be a little of both. If it get’s confusing, I apologize.

I arrived in Rome on Wednesday afternoon at Roma Termini, which is the main train station and is pretty centrally located in the city. All I knew was that my hotel was about a half-kilometer south of the station. I had read great reviews of the little, family-owned place, Hotel Saturnia, on TripAdvisor, but I picked up a guide book and took a look at it and it listed “Termini Area At Night” as one of the top things to avoid in Rome. I soon learned that the guidebook was overblown and that the area was pretty safe, even at 3:00 am, but it caused me a little trepidation in the beginning.

I got to the hotel and they told me that the room that I had booked had severe plumbing damage and that my only choices were to take a room without a private bathroom (with a refund) or have them call around and find another hotel for me. I took the refund and the room without a bathroom. It turned out not to be that bad and the folks at the hotel were fantastic, so I’m happy I stayed.

On my first day, I did what I do every time I arrive at a new city. I drop my bags, check to see if I have wifi, and then I walk around the neighborhood to see what’s close by. At the front desk, the manager gave me a map of Rome with the hotel circled and I could see that the location was a great one, guidebook be damned. With the exception of the Vatican, pretty much all of the things that I knew that I wanted to see were within short walking distance. (Note: Typically, I hate when people refer to things as “walking distance” as if that provides actual guidance. Walking Distance for whom? I know people who consider anything they can walk to within an hour “Walking Distance.” I know people who don’t consider the mailbox in the front yard to be within “Walking Distance.” But, I digress.)

(I’m going to digress a little more. As I sit here on the ferry from Bari to Patras, they just made an announcement that in case of an emergency, they would like anybody onboard who is a doctor to please identify himself/herself to the receptionist. Nobody ever says this: In case there is a slip-and-fall onboard, please let the receptionist know if you are a lawyer. Enough digression.)

I didn’t know about the Spanish steps, but that is where my journey took me on my first day. If you’ve seen the pictures from my trips, you probably have noticed that I seem to be drawn to obelisks. Well, as in Egypt, this takes no special skill in Rome because they are all over the place. About a kilometer from my hotel, I saw an obelisk and walked towards it and noticed a magnificent church directly behind it. As I approached, I saw the steps leading down to the piazza below. This turned out to be rather fortunate because a few days later, I had to meet a friend and this was the landmark that she gave me, so it helped me to have an additional reference point in the city.

I also walked around looking for a place to buy a bottle of wine and, if possible, a good grocery store. I found a Conad Drug Store at the terminal that had tons of food and drink. As I’ve said before, I always find grocery stores to be fascinating insights into what people actually eat and, as the proverb says, what they are. This particular store became a quick favorite of mine because it had prepared food, for when I wanted to save some money, and good wines, for when I wanted to spend some money. Actually, I found a cheap Lazio wine that actually found a place in my heart very close to the cheap Argentine wine I fell in love with in Buenos Aires.

That was pretty much it for the first day. Nothing at all exciting, but it’ll get better. I actually went places and everything. Just be patient.