Rick Steves' Travel Blog

March 30, 2015March 30, 2015

Stow Away with Me for “A Hundred Days of Europe”

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Today I flew — as I have every year at this time since the 1980s — to Europe to kick off another spring of exploring, checking, learning, tasting, and sipping. This photo features a bit of my “Welcome to Rome” meal — or what’s left of it — at Ristorante Fortunato. Oh, baby, I’m in for some good eating in the next couple of months!

I’m already enjoying thinking of the euro as being worth a buck. I’ve done this in the past (when a euro cost $1.35) in order to con myself into splurging a bit… but now, with a rate of $1.10 to the euro, that shortcut is almost honest.

Landing in Rome, I reviewed my guidebook for tips on getting into the center by taxi. It says, “The legal fixed rate to anywhere in the center of town is €48. Cabbies will complain and say it’s more. But insist. Say with confidence, Quarant’otto euro — è la legge (which means, ‘Forty-eight euros — it’s the law’).” Curbside at the airport, I asked the waiting cabbie the price. He said €56, maybe €60. I used my phrase and he nodded, opened his door, and we headed into town. A few minutes later, he offered me a mint and we were friends. Good information + confidence = smarter travels.

Starting on April 1st — this Wednesday — I’ll be posting entries daily for the next hundred or so days, reporting on my experiences. First I’ll be in Italy and Greece producing our Easter special, then researching my guidebooks in Rome, Tuscany, Florence, and the South of France. Then I meet my television crew in Germany to film our upcoming Reformation special before heading for London, South Wales, and southern England. Finally, in August, I’ll meet the crew again and film three shows on great German cities.

I hope you can enjoy stowing away with me here on my blog. Please share a link to the blog with your traveling friends and let them know that 2015 promises to be a great year of travel…and I’d love to have them come along, too.

March 5, 2015March 6, 2017

Sharing the Wonder of My First Solo Trip in 1973: Rome

On my first solo-trip to Europe, in 1973 — just after high school graduation — I wrote postcards home nearly every day. I packed so much information onto each card it was a challenge to read them without a magnifying glass. Looking back on these exuberant little reports back to my family (42 years later!), I can see a travel writer in waiting. While the writing is pretty goofy, the passion for experience was solid. Here’s a card from Rome.

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8-7-73

Hi Folks back home, we’ve just about polished off Rome. Man we’ve seen a lot! I don’t have the time, ink, or paper to tell you what we’ve done completely but, for instance, last Sunday’s schedule was: 7:30-10:00 Flea Market, 10:30-11:30 Coliseum, 12:00-2:00 Forum, 2:00-3:30 Capitoline Hill, Mussolini’s headquarters, Victor Emmanuel monument, 4:00-5:00 train station to cash checks, 5:30-7:30 eat dinner, take showers + dress for opera, 8:00-12:00 Tosca opera with Frank, our landlord, 12:00-12:30 tour with Frank by wild car of Rome, 1:00 plop into bed. The opera by Puccini was really a thrill. It was in the ruins of the baths of Caracalla + it’s the biggest stage for opera in the world! There was a full house, full orchestra, + great cast. We had the Tosca script in English to follow along. Then Frank, our landlord who can’t speak no English, screeched around Rome like the Grand Prix for a tour + then we slept. Monday we saw the Vatican City, gigantic St Peter’s Cathedral, the Pieta by Michelangelo (we’ve seen about 70% of his work now) the Sistine Chapel + Vatican Museums + then we saw what everybody sees when they come to Rome – Fountains, Parthenon, Spanish Steps, churches, Moses, etc. We had a splurge of a breakfast on the steps of St. Peters, we took a bus out to the Appian Way + walked around + while waiting for the bus we got a neat 22 yr old Italian to pick us up. Most Italians are real friends. We had a great time + he took us right to the Coliseum. We got tickets to Aida opera Tues night + then I got the bug to bargain + haggle. We haggle for everything now + I’m getting OK at it. I got 60 Kodak slides of Rome – reg 5,000 lire, for 1,300 lire ($2.20)! It’s so much fun to talk prices. We sat around the Forum waiting for a sound + light spectacle that never came + then, after goofing around with some more sellers, we walked home. The only problem is that, I sweat so much + get so dirty. It’s awful. When my arm gets wet – mud forms + that’s the truth. I did have a great bath before Tosca. We found a great way to eat well + cheap. You go into a pizzeria + point out your pizza + how much you want, then pay by the weight, and you have a feast. We ate tons of pizza last night for 40 cents each! Well well well, Goodbye – RICK

May 31, 2014January 5, 2018

Rome’s Hottest Neighborhood: Monti

On this trip, I’m grabbing extra time in Venice, Florence, and Rome to beef up our restaurant listings for our guidebooks. As things are in constant motion in Europe, it’s important to keep our recommendations both up-to-date and fresh. The big news in Rome is the emergence of the Monti neighborhood as a vibrant place for any visitor to consider. This shot is the central piazza of the zone which stretches (conveniently for travelers) between the Termini train station and the Colosseum. We found several good hotels and a slew of fun eateries of all kinds for the next edition of the guidebook. For 20 years I’ve been enthusiastic about the characteristic Trastevere neighborhood as a great place for a colorful dinner. Now, for the energy of a lively neighborhood, I prefer Monti. To be the first traveler on your block to have all my new Monti finds (which will be in the 2015 edition of our Rome guidebook), click here.

May 31, 2014January 4, 2018

Guide Work in Rome

With more than 600 Rick Steves tours a year, we have guides working all over Europe all the time. It’s an amazing pool of talent, passion, and travel savvy. They have their own digital communication portal and are constantly rendezvousing, sharing ideas, lessons, and having fun. For me, touring with Reid and Trish is a good chance to get in on the social end of things. Here (from left) guides Ben, Francesca, Trish, Reid (mugging for the camera), and me try out a new restaurant near Rome’s Campo de’ Fiori. (By the way, many of the photos on this blog are shot by Trish Feaster, whose own blog is at The Travelphile.com).

There are plenty of people researching for various guidebooks and websites in Europe, and rarely do I feel a strong, kindred spirit with them. But meeting Tom, who founded EuroCheapo.com, was really fun. Tom is a hotel wonk; he’s friends with many of the same hoteliers that I’ve recommended for decades. He’s right up-to-date on the trials and tribulations hoteliers are suffering in this age of Booking.com and TripAdvisor. Even the most independent of hotel spirits are finding themselves “invisible” if they don’t enlist with booking sites (like Booking.com). I don’t understand how these various booking agents can justify taking 18 percent of a hotel’s gross income when you compare all the real investment and tangible expenses of running a hotel to a website. Here, over a fascinating conversation about the hotel business, Tom, Trish, and I are enjoying one of my favorite kind of restaurant: an enoteca (a place specializing in fine wine by the glass and simple, rustic plates of ingredients that pair nicely with the wine).

As a tour guide, even when trying to vacation on a tour led by someone else (as I’m doing on this Best of Europe in 21 Days tour), I can never let a teachable moment go by. On this tour, each of our guides stops by his or her favorite hill town to break the long drive from Rome to the Italian Riviera (Cinque Terre). Reid stops at Massa Marittima–a delightful hill town that was new to me. Walking around its medieval walls, we came to a fig tree. After all the fig leaves we saw yesterday at the Vatican Museum, I just had to try one on. All I can say is, “They’re really sticky.”

May 30, 2014January 5, 2018

Muscling through the Vatican Museum

In this video clip, I’m surrounded by a cacophony of tour guides explaining one of the highlights of the Vatican Museum’s collection, Raphael’s “School of Athens.” This is the last stop as they muscle their way through all the art to get their gangs to the coveted Sistine Chapel – just around the corner from here. In the video, I’m talking softly as to not disturb all the guiding going on…so you can barely hear me (turn on YouTube’s captions for subtitles). With emerging economies (China, India, Russia) and more cruise groups than ever, must-see cultural attractions like the Vatican Museum are jam-packed with tourists at all hours. Still, of course, these attractions are great experiences. This clip gives you a feeling of the crush of tour groups as we see the Raphael Rooms, which were done at the same time Michelangelo was creating the Sistine Chapel frescoes a few steps away.

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.