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In Rome Tours Blog IV

IN ROME TOURS REVISED BLOG IV TripAdvisor  It's been coming, and now's the time to splurge. Most, perhaps all tour operators in Rome, legal licensed, openly illegal who don't even know they need a license to sell tours on and offline, fly-by-night tour website owners, guides who make bank in summertime then jump ship in October, and all the merry rest do their level best to keep their customers happy. Most of the time. Sometimes there is no winning and plenty of losing to be had. Sometimes customers just don't want to be happy, or they genuinely can't be happy, are genetically programmed to be unhappy etc. Perhaps it's a trait which only manifests itself when in Rome, or when on holiday anywhere else in the world. Who knows? Who cares... we care alot !  We are in 2012 and the internet guarantees everyone a degree of anonymity, but not much. Every service provider in the business of tourism is held ransom by an unpleasant website called TripAdvisor. It allow...

In Rome Tours Blog III

IN ROME TOURS REVISED BLOG III Safety at Roma Termini  It's deteriorated, not unlike how the WordPress dashboard has gone to the dogs, what with wholly unnecessary and unwieldy "widgets" compromising control panel navigation.  Roma Termini is the central station in Rome. A magnet for lowlife, ergo drug dealers, drug users, prostitutes, Viator employees , and a small army of exclusively male immigrants who arrive here from north Africa. It's hell in waiting for tourists who arrive at night, especially late on a Friday or Saturday.  Consider the tide of immigrants flooding the greatest European capital. Thousands of males who have apparently seen "some kind of combat" in the third world, thousands more escaped criminals therefrom. It's easy to see how dangerous Termini station can be. Add prejudice dished out 24/7 by the locals, add the aforementioned drugs and prostitution problem, add Viator, and then add the tourists filing through from Fiumicin...

All about Rome and Beyond by In Rome Tours

Wine tours Rome in a nutshell Nov 13  Coming from Napa area in California, I arrived in Rome with high hopes and expectations. Raised around some of the finest wines, I was still very excited to try the wine in Italy. At first, I was disappointed. It is not easy to go into a supermarket and choose a bottle of wine in a foreign language. It is also not easy to choose a bottle or glass of wine from restaurant wine lists. Some restaurants and wine bars have menus that are almost the same size as the bible. If your Italian is anything like mine was, and you get around saying “ciao, arrivederci, pizza, scuzi, and grazie”, good luck. Fortunately, after many weeks of struggling, I found some Roman friends.  Unfortunately, if you are only coming to Rome for a couple of days it is hard to find Italian friends. Luckily, I am your new best friend, and I am here to steer you in the right direction. First off, Do NOT be afraid of the vino della casa (house wine) when you are...