Getting Around

 When we first went to Rome we played it safe - I've already mentioned getting out accommodation and event tickets through an agent/third party as we weren't too sure about either. We did come up trumps in both cases, but subsequent visits have been much cheaper with our new knowledge and contacts.

Now it's time to consider getting around...

Month 6 - Bite 17

Again on our first trip we looked carefully at the maps and decided that our route to the tennis was a bit out of our comfort zone so took taxis. Then, when we visited my niece and her family she and her husband drove into Rome to pick us up - his journey back was awful and so we decided not to be so faint-hearted the next time and to explore public transport.

What an eye-opener! Our journey by metro and tram to the tennis was simple and soooo cheap. The tickets for a single trip (and on some combinations that means a total of 100 minutes travelled even when changing buses) was 1 Euro 50. Buying tickets was simple as you can just get a strip of them from the kiosks around town and date/time stamp them on board. They even covered our trip out into Labaro where picking us up was quick and fairly traffic free! This time we used the buses too to get out to the Appian Way - it couldn't have been much easier and again really cheap. It certainly beats paying around 10-15 times more by taxi...

Using the train from Sorrento to get to places like Pompeii was straightforward and far less expensive than any other way of getting there. It's an experience not to be missed...

Month 6 - Bite 18

Embolden by our experience (I know, others will have done Grand Tours, Gap Years and so on - we hadn't obviously) we looked at travel further afield. When we were in Sorrento it was ferries around the coast and from Florence the buses into Siena and beyond were really easy from the coach station and a fraction of the price of joining a tour or hiring a car.

The trips also had the advantage of us choosing our own time within the schedules (even if the 'last bus' from Vesuvius went rather earlier than advertised!) and giving us the chance to enjoy the scenery rather than consulting maps and concentrating on unfamiliar roads if we'd driven ourselves or searching for parking, etc.

Definitely to be recommended.