Italy — First Impressions of Rome

Hi everyone,

So… we’ve arrived in Rome, and I have to be honest — this one didn’t quite start the way we expected, before we left, everyone kept saying the same thing: “Watch the pickpockets.”

No one mentioned the railway staff.

Lesson: make sure you know exactly what you brought.

Welcome to Rome… Sort Of

We bought tickets for the airport train into Roma Termini, found our seats and settled in for what we thought would be a simple 30-minute ride.

All going smoothly… until the conductor came through, he looked at our tickets, asked “English?” — we said yes — and then told us we had bought second-class tickets and were sitting in first class.

Fair enough, we thought, easy mistake - so we apologised and said we were happy to just pay the difference.

But no.

That wasn’t an option, we had to pay for full first-class tickets again. No discussion, no flexibility — just a firm “this is what you need to do.”

So yes… apparently it’s not just the pickpockets you need to watch out for.

Lesson learnt.

Scammers old school - tricking people into thinking that they could make 100 Euro

Location, Location… and People Everywhere

We eventually made it to our accommodation, which is in an amazing spot right near the Colosseum. The building itself was older than Australia has been colonised, so even though the location was great it meant stairs, lots and lots of stairs, no modern niceities here.

You really can’t beat the location, the street is lined with shops, restaurants and more gelato places than you could ever need, but with that comes one thing.

People.

Lots and lots of people, it’s incredibly vibrant, but also full-on.

Rome — The Reality

We spent the day exploring, and to be completely honest… it was a bit overwhelming.

Crowded.
Expensive.
Busy beyond anything we’ve experienced so far.

But as they say — when in Rome.

And there’s no denying the history here is incredible, standing in front of the Colosseum, wandering through the ruins, visiting Vatican City, and seeing the Trevi Fountain — it’s all as spectacular as you imagine.

Everyone rubs Ceaser’s toe - Don’t know why?

But it’s also relentless, the crowds don’t stop, everywhere you go, people are trying to get that photo — the perfect Instagram shot — and it does take something away from the experience.

So Digby confronted this guy who he saw take a women’s mobile phone out of her top pocket, luckily it was the lady’s husband and he was trying to teach her a lesson regarding pickpockets. He did fist pump Digby for calling him out though.

Expectations vs Reality

I think the hardest part was this: I had built up a picture of Rome in my head, a certain feeling, a certain atmosphere, and unfortunately, the reality didn’t quite match that.

It made me think… maybe we should have come here 30 years ago, before travel became so accessible and before social media turned every landmark into a photo queue.

Even the locals seemed a bit… over it.

Not particularly friendly, not overly helpful — which you can kind of understand when you see how many people are moving through the city every day.