How do I visit ancient Rome?
January 2, 2018 9:42 AM Subscribe
Ever since I listened to the History of Rome podcast, I've wanted to tour the locations in person. Please recommend some ways to do so - more inside.
My ideal situation would be to take a trip to Italy and, with a group, be taken from location to location. The tour guide should be conversant in the stories of what happened at that location, and there should be written/electronic material as well. At each location, the group would be given information, and time to explore on their own.
Second to that, it would be really great to have some sort of book or website that would allow me to construct my own tour of the sites and locations that I find fascinating.
There are a few difficulties:
A. I am bi and will be traveling with my transgender husband. We do not want to be in any dangerous or uncomfortable situations because of this.
B. I've never traveled oversees and am pretty bad at finding amenities even when I do travel (this is why I would prefer an inclusive trip of some sort)
C. I don't speak any languages besides English.
My questions:
1. What would be a reasonable price for a trip like this, sans international flights?
2. What would be a good time of the year for this? I don't want unbearable weather, things to be too busy with tourists to find amenities, or so off-season that nothing is open.
3. What tour guides / trips might you recommend?
4. What books / websites might you recommend?
My ideal situation would be to take a trip to Italy and, with a group, be taken from location to location. The tour guide should be conversant in the stories of what happened at that location, and there should be written/electronic material as well. At each location, the group would be given information, and time to explore on their own.
Second to that, it would be really great to have some sort of book or website that would allow me to construct my own tour of the sites and locations that I find fascinating.
There are a few difficulties:
A. I am bi and will be traveling with my transgender husband. We do not want to be in any dangerous or uncomfortable situations because of this.
B. I've never traveled oversees and am pretty bad at finding amenities even when I do travel (this is why I would prefer an inclusive trip of some sort)
C. I don't speak any languages besides English.
My questions:
1. What would be a reasonable price for a trip like this, sans international flights?
2. What would be a good time of the year for this? I don't want unbearable weather, things to be too busy with tourists to find amenities, or so off-season that nothing is open.
3. What tour guides / trips might you recommend?
4. What books / websites might you recommend?
Oh, apparently you can hire the guides for private tours (they are local to the area you want to visit). Marta is local to Rome. A user on the Rick Steves forum discusses hiring Marta as a private tour guide here.
Rick Steves offers "My Way" tours, explained here. These are tours for folks who don't want to travel with a group, but want some structure to their trip. If you don't want to do the group thing, I suppose you could combine a "My Way" tour and hire a guide depending on their availability, but if cost is an issue I think it may be cheaper to go with a group.
posted by onecircleaday at 10:40 AM on January 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
Rick Steves offers "My Way" tours, explained here. These are tours for folks who don't want to travel with a group, but want some structure to their trip. If you don't want to do the group thing, I suppose you could combine a "My Way" tour and hire a guide depending on their availability, but if cost is an issue I think it may be cheaper to go with a group.
posted by onecircleaday at 10:40 AM on January 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
I also came to recommend Rick Steves -- we haven't done the guided tours, but used his Italy guidebook when we went to Italy and it was fantastic. We went in spring (late March) and had excellent weather, outside of a bit of rain. If you do end up deciding to go more the DIY approach instead of a guided tour, his guidebooks are wonderful!
Language was definitely not an issue -- we learned a few key phrases ahead of time and never had any problems. Even in smaller cities, people working at hotels and restaurants had enough English that we could made it work, and if you're planning on just being in Rome, I would think it will be even more of a non-issue.
posted by rainbowbrite at 11:44 AM on January 2, 2018
Language was definitely not an issue -- we learned a few key phrases ahead of time and never had any problems. Even in smaller cities, people working at hotels and restaurants had enough English that we could made it work, and if you're planning on just being in Rome, I would think it will be even more of a non-issue.
posted by rainbowbrite at 11:44 AM on January 2, 2018
November is also a lovely time for Rome - that and March look to be the lowest-traffic months, weather's decent (10-15C when I went, open-coat temperatures and no rain) and walking the Colloseum with no-one else in sight was amazing. In any tourist-oriented facility including tourist-area restaurants English is no problem at all, though the occasional prego and grazie will please the locals. If you opt for a self-organised trip, for gods' sakes don't rent a car in Rome. Craziest drivers I have ever seen. The public transport's fine.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 12:16 PM on January 2, 2018
posted by I claim sanctuary at 12:16 PM on January 2, 2018
I won't talk about tours, because I do the independent travel thing, but I'm queer and can assure you that being bi and traveling with your trans partner will not be a problem at all in Rome (unless maybe you are in bars in bad areas at 3 AM, and even then I kinda doubt it).
Not speaking Italian also won't be a big issue. People used to dealing with tourists can speak English and everyone else loves to use hand gestures. Do try to say hello, please, and thank you, though. It's appreciated.
Definitely don't go in July or August when it's beastly hot and crowded (and it's often still hot well into September). April and May are usually beautiful (and March if it isn't raining all month). Fall is also good--October and early November.
For books, I recommend:
"Rome in Detail", for it's walking tours
"The Revealed Rome Handbook", for great advice
and "Eating Rome", if you are foodies
Have fun! Rome is amazing, with wonders around every corner. Eat gelato, drink good coffee, and explore. Give yourselves as much time as possible.
posted by mkuhnell at 12:24 PM on January 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
Not speaking Italian also won't be a big issue. People used to dealing with tourists can speak English and everyone else loves to use hand gestures. Do try to say hello, please, and thank you, though. It's appreciated.
Definitely don't go in July or August when it's beastly hot and crowded (and it's often still hot well into September). April and May are usually beautiful (and March if it isn't raining all month). Fall is also good--October and early November.
For books, I recommend:
"Rome in Detail", for it's walking tours
"The Revealed Rome Handbook", for great advice
and "Eating Rome", if you are foodies
Have fun! Rome is amazing, with wonders around every corner. Eat gelato, drink good coffee, and explore. Give yourselves as much time as possible.
posted by mkuhnell at 12:24 PM on January 2, 2018 [2 favorites]
I was just in Rome in November and can definitely recommend late fall as a great time to visit. Lines were pretty much non-existent other than the security lines at the Vatican. It was rainy, so I suspect October might actually better weather-wise. I was traveling alone and would say my costs averaged out to about $150 per day (food, lodging, activities). Some of the resources I used to plan were:
The Rome (Pallas Guides) guidebook was recommended by someone on the green and it was a great resource for Rome. It's exhaustively detailed, broken up into 'walks' with a strong focus on Roman history. It's out of print, but the history doesn't change. I would offer mine, but I committed book murder by slicing out sections to have on hand as I traveled (it was just too big to lug around).
I tried TripHobo when I was planning but it was too fussy for me. It gave me some ideas of sites to see, however I ended up abandoning it for a spreadsheet. Perhaps it'll work for you.
I used Walks of Italy for a Colosseum and Roman Forum tour. Our guide was an academic and engaging and knowledgeable. They are highly rated (and pricy) but perhaps you'll be able to combine a few of these into something that works if you end up planning your trip on your own. I would recommend that if you go in the fall, carefully consider whether it's worth paying extra for "skip the line" tours. As mentioned, the only lines I dealt with in November were the metal detectors in St. Mark's Square for the papal blessing.
I've heard good things about Road Scholar trips, which have a strong focus on learning and include things like actual lectures. This Road Scholar Rome trip looks reasonable.
One other quick recommendation, I greatly enjoyed the food tour I took via The Roman Food Tour. Our group was small and ended up turning a 4 hour tour into nearly 6 hours of food and wine cause we were having such a good time.
I'll also note that I found Rome pretty easy to navigate speaking only English and a very few Italian phrases. If you can't find an escorted tour that works for you, you can totally plan an awesome trip that fits you!
posted by thatquietgirl at 1:18 PM on January 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
The Rome (Pallas Guides) guidebook was recommended by someone on the green and it was a great resource for Rome. It's exhaustively detailed, broken up into 'walks' with a strong focus on Roman history. It's out of print, but the history doesn't change. I would offer mine, but I committed book murder by slicing out sections to have on hand as I traveled (it was just too big to lug around).
I tried TripHobo when I was planning but it was too fussy for me. It gave me some ideas of sites to see, however I ended up abandoning it for a spreadsheet. Perhaps it'll work for you.
I used Walks of Italy for a Colosseum and Roman Forum tour. Our guide was an academic and engaging and knowledgeable. They are highly rated (and pricy) but perhaps you'll be able to combine a few of these into something that works if you end up planning your trip on your own. I would recommend that if you go in the fall, carefully consider whether it's worth paying extra for "skip the line" tours. As mentioned, the only lines I dealt with in November were the metal detectors in St. Mark's Square for the papal blessing.
I've heard good things about Road Scholar trips, which have a strong focus on learning and include things like actual lectures. This Road Scholar Rome trip looks reasonable.
One other quick recommendation, I greatly enjoyed the food tour I took via The Roman Food Tour. Our group was small and ended up turning a 4 hour tour into nearly 6 hours of food and wine cause we were having such a good time.
I'll also note that I found Rome pretty easy to navigate speaking only English and a very few Italian phrases. If you can't find an escorted tour that works for you, you can totally plan an awesome trip that fits you!
posted by thatquietgirl at 1:18 PM on January 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
We just came back from a trip to Rome, and found that late November/early December was fantastic for avoiding large crowds at major attractions. We only had one day of heavy rain and the rest was clear, but it may have been unusually dry.
Also, my husband speaks no Italian and I speak just enough to ask for two tickets to an attraction, then get hopelessly confused when they ask me another question. It wasn't a problem: everyone we interacted with spoke enough English that we could muddle through, with the very occasional resort to Google Translate.
We chose to travel by ourselves, booking the occasional private tour, but if you go with an organized tour group, they'll arrange the tickets and all that for you, and you'll get to go in via tour entrances, so there will be less standing in line.
posted by telophase at 2:11 PM on January 2, 2018
Also, my husband speaks no Italian and I speak just enough to ask for two tickets to an attraction, then get hopelessly confused when they ask me another question. It wasn't a problem: everyone we interacted with spoke enough English that we could muddle through, with the very occasional resort to Google Translate.
We chose to travel by ourselves, booking the occasional private tour, but if you go with an organized tour group, they'll arrange the tickets and all that for you, and you'll get to go in via tour entrances, so there will be less standing in line.
posted by telophase at 2:11 PM on January 2, 2018
Oh--if you end up going by yourselves, I can recommend http://www.toursbylocals.com -- we ended up touring Pompeii and Herculaneum with a native Pompeiian art restorer guide whose day job is restoring frescoes there, and there's also couple of professional archaeologists who lead tours of the sites.
posted by telophase at 2:13 PM on January 2, 2018
posted by telophase at 2:13 PM on January 2, 2018
rebent - have you played Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood yet? (iirc, you're a gamer, but can't remember if you have a gaming rig, but AC:B is fairly old)
Apparently it's somewhat accurate in depicting 17th century Rome.
Might be neat to give it a try, just for laughs.
posted by porpoise at 2:31 PM on January 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
Apparently it's somewhat accurate in depicting 17th century Rome.
Might be neat to give it a try, just for laughs.
posted by porpoise at 2:31 PM on January 2, 2018 [1 favorite]
Oh, I'm so excited for you to take this trip! One thing I adored about Rome is that there is so much history everywhere you turn in the historic area. From all the different eras, layered on top of and next to each other. I'll never forget turning the corner and seeing the Trevi Fountain, or wandering into a building and only find out after about 20 minutes that it was the Pantheon!
I went there for work and several of my coworkers spent time sightseeing. I'm straight/cis, but we were a pretty diverse bunch racially and in terms of gender identity/sexual orientation, and no one had trouble. Rome is a modern, cosmopolitan city.
You may want to look for tour companies geared towards LGBT folks, or that advertise being LGBT friendly, so that you don't have to deal with middle-aged MAGA types giving you the side-eye.
posted by lunasol at 5:03 PM on January 2, 2018
I went there for work and several of my coworkers spent time sightseeing. I'm straight/cis, but we were a pretty diverse bunch racially and in terms of gender identity/sexual orientation, and no one had trouble. Rome is a modern, cosmopolitan city.
You may want to look for tour companies geared towards LGBT folks, or that advertise being LGBT friendly, so that you don't have to deal with middle-aged MAGA types giving you the side-eye.
posted by lunasol at 5:03 PM on January 2, 2018
Rome was made for tourists! Seriously, it's whole infrastructure was made to accommodate travelers, all the way back to when it was the centre of the empire, over the renaissance, where the idea was to manage thousands of pilgrims, to the fascist era and even today. It is really easy to be there as a visitor, and even those people who don't understand English will do their best to help you. Also, it is increasingly safer and safer for everyone. Since it is a city with several big universities, there is a youthful and liberal culture which is very tolerant of all different people.
Still, I agree you should find a good tour group. I arrange study trips to Rome, and it takes a lot of detailed planning to see the sites you are interested in, and avoid the tourist trap bars and restaurants that abound. Even though I always go off season, there are still some important places that have long lines, and with a group you can avoid this.
IMO, spring is the best season. It may be cold or lovely, but it is always fresh, and specially the archeological sites are lovely with new leaves on the trees and wild flowers everywhere. This year I am going in April.
Whenever you go, or how, make sure you stay at a place in the "Centro Storico" - the old centre of town. Lot's of interesting things are happening in other quarters, but as a first time visitor, strolling around the ancient streets at night is really a big thing to experience.
For excursions outside the city, Tivoli with Hadrians Villa is a good day trip. Look for that. Also the ancient harbor town of Ostia Antica is worth a visit and quite easy to get to.
One little thing to be aware of: Italy in general is not very sophisticated when it comes to air condition or central heating. I've both frozen because I hadn't brought warm pajamas in May and gone sleepless because I struggled between a noisy air-conditioner and stifling heat in October.
I am struggling to find really good/practical literature in English for my students. Obviously there are miles of books on Rome, Roman architecture, Roman art, Roman culture, contemporary Rome etc. But it is hard to find a good introduction. The same goes for websites. If I find something I will get back to you.
The Katie Parla blog is fun and inspiring for food, and she has an app too.
Enjoy! To me, Rome is the most wonderful place in the world. The combination of amazing sights to see, friendly locals and great food is perfect.
posted by mumimor at 9:21 AM on January 3, 2018
Still, I agree you should find a good tour group. I arrange study trips to Rome, and it takes a lot of detailed planning to see the sites you are interested in, and avoid the tourist trap bars and restaurants that abound. Even though I always go off season, there are still some important places that have long lines, and with a group you can avoid this.
IMO, spring is the best season. It may be cold or lovely, but it is always fresh, and specially the archeological sites are lovely with new leaves on the trees and wild flowers everywhere. This year I am going in April.
Whenever you go, or how, make sure you stay at a place in the "Centro Storico" - the old centre of town. Lot's of interesting things are happening in other quarters, but as a first time visitor, strolling around the ancient streets at night is really a big thing to experience.
For excursions outside the city, Tivoli with Hadrians Villa is a good day trip. Look for that. Also the ancient harbor town of Ostia Antica is worth a visit and quite easy to get to.
One little thing to be aware of: Italy in general is not very sophisticated when it comes to air condition or central heating. I've both frozen because I hadn't brought warm pajamas in May and gone sleepless because I struggled between a noisy air-conditioner and stifling heat in October.
I am struggling to find really good/practical literature in English for my students. Obviously there are miles of books on Rome, Roman architecture, Roman art, Roman culture, contemporary Rome etc. But it is hard to find a good introduction. The same goes for websites. If I find something I will get back to you.
The Katie Parla blog is fun and inspiring for food, and she has an app too.
Enjoy! To me, Rome is the most wonderful place in the world. The combination of amazing sights to see, friendly locals and great food is perfect.
posted by mumimor at 9:21 AM on January 3, 2018
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Our tour guide was named Marta Marsili. She was fantastic. She was so knowledgeable about Roman history that she talked to our group for half a day with one little break in between. It was wonderful. In fact, Rome was one of our favorite parts of the trip and it was largely because of the knowledge and passion for history that she imparted to the group.
Language is not a problem. As long as you know a few phrases, you'll be fine. I knew very little when we went (we practiced phrases in the target language on the bus as we went from place to place) and I got by with flying colors. Honestly there are so many tourists around that the locals are used to speaking English. Having said that, do try to speak a little - it is very much appreciated and you will have a better experience if you speak the basics. Please, thank you, excuse me, where is the bathroom... you get the idea. Attempting the language and smiling goes a very long way.
I recommend Rick Steves tours without reservations for anyone. In the beginning of the trip, we received an introduction from our tour guide who stressed that we're family while we're together and everyone needs to respect each other and their differences, whether political or not. Our tour group was mostly couples, a couple of singles, and no one who was transgender to my knowledge, but everyone was really respectful of each other.
Feel free to memail me if you have other questions.
posted by onecircleaday at 10:27 AM on January 2, 2018 [3 favorites]