1) Traveling solo is not the same as traveling alone. Whenever I want human contact, there it is. The easiest “in” is to watch a couple or a family setting a timer for a photo with all of them in it, and then ask if I can take it for them instead. Happy, happy; smile, smile. Offering my street map or my bus map to someone looking perplexed and lost also works. Smile, smile.
2) Almost all Italians I’ve met know at least a little bit of English. However, everyone appreciates the few Italian phrases that I learned. Either that, or their smiles are at my pronunciation. One waiter told me, none-too-kindly, that my attempt at Italian actually sounds like Japanese. However, he gave me a free glass of wine to make up for his brutal honesty, so all is forgiven.
3) The hardest moment of each day is walking out of the door in the morning. Even though I desperately want to experience the day, I also feel nervous about the challenges and the unknowns ahead. Part of me wants to burrow back under the covers. I tamp down that anxiety and take a deep breath. Once on the street, it passes and I’m good to go.
4) After reading every guide book on Rome published in English, I proclaim that Rick Steves’ “Rome 2012” is the best by far. Rather than carrying the whole book each day, I tear out the pages that I will need and take them with me. His advice is practical, accurate, and sometimes brutally honest.
5) Fodor’s “See It Rome” has great colored photos and excellent detailed info on the history of sites. I enjoy reading it either before I head out, or as a recap after I’ve explored an area. But it is heavy, being printed on heavier paper, and its small, dim font requires good light and reading glasses.
6) The National Geographic “Walking Rome” has turned out to be rather useless. What it says are “walks” are actually just maps with sites listed, and straight lines drawn to connect the sites. The lines don’t map out the walking route, but would work fine if I could fly like a bird. Stupid book.
7) There are maps, and then there are maps. The best Rome map is “Streetwise Rome”. I have two other Rome street maps, but “Streetwise” is the only one that all of the streets named on it. Why “Eyewitness” or the Rome tourist office would bother to print maps with only the main thoroughfares labeled is beyond me. It is not at all helpful to be lost with a map that is a tic-tac-toe crosshatch of unnamed streets.
8) The Metro Roma bus map, though costing 6 Euro, is worth its weight in gold. While it only names the streets that have bus stops, it does show ALL of the bus stops and routes. Of all of the Rome bus maps for sale, its font size and darkness is easiest to read.
9) Fresh pasta is its own special food group, right behind good chocolate. It seems to be completely unrelated to that boxed macaroni.
10) Gelato is also its own wonderful food group. Tonight I ordered my gelato, and asked the scooper to “Surprise me”. She had fun putting together wonderful dark chocolate and a scrumptious mint chocolate. Together, they were heaven.
11) While dining late is fun, it is a bad idea to drink Expresso at 11 PM unless one wants to wake up at 3:15 AM and type this list.
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