Rome’s Most famous Piazza?
One of Italy’s bewildering number of fine piazzas, charming Piazza Navona in Rome is a must see for most visitors to the eternal city. This week’s images of Italy photograph is of said piazza, only it has been producd using a special technique called HDR.
HDR is a technique which can give images a certain extra little something.
See what you think of this photograph of what was once the location of a Roman circus.
Rome, Italy – Piazza Navona by pynomoscato
Piazza Navona, Rome
I’ve seen Piazza Navona in the flesh, so to speak. Only when I was there, all the fountains were being done up, so this famous Italian piazza had lost some of its charm. Never mind, hopefully one day I’ll see this piazza and all its fountains in full working order.
Do as the Romans Do
On the subject of visiting Rome, someone recently complained about tourist rip offs in Italy’s capital here on Blog from Italy.
Beware of restaurants in Rome with people who invite you in. The food is unlikely to be good, and the bill may well be high. Guides for tourists litter the internet nowadays, so you should do a little research beforehand. Blackberry and iPhone owners with reasonably priced data roaming plans can do such research on the spot, and on the go to an extent, and Google’s Latitude service can help you avoid getting lost, unless, of course, you want to!
Remember that wi-fi enabled mobile phones can connect to free wi-fi in hotels and elsewhere. This means that there is no need to drag a heavy, and valuable, laptop around with you, and, as you might know, such connections will not have an adverse effect on your end of trip phone bill. Make your life a little simpler by booking into a hotel with free wifi.
However, having said that you should avoid overly friendly eateries, part of the fun on holiday, for me anyway, is coming across interesting little restaurants. You can still do this, but try to look for places where the menu is only in Italian, not in Italian and English nor in languages other than Italian. In other words, do as the Romans do, and you will taste real Italian food.
With thanks to pynomoscato for letting me use his photograph of one of Italy’s most famous Piazzas.
This and other examples of pynomoscat’s work can been seen on Flickr: pynomoscato
For more information on HDR – see High Dynamic Range Imaging on Wikipedia
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I could tell you one of my most convenient and reliable dives, but then I’d have to kill you so it wouldn’t get more crowded.
That sounds like a thinly veiled death threat to me Judith!
I dare not ask more.
Yours, terrifiedly,
Alex
Alex,
I’ve always found that it’s best to go one or two blocks away from the tourist areas, down some quieter street and, as you say, look for a menu that’s only in Italian.
Of course, this is a bit hit-and-miss and there is a chance that the food will be as terrible as it might be good but I shall never forget my first trip to Rome when I did this, many, many years ago. The staff were brilliant and the food terrific and, when the menu couldn’t be explained, they took us into the kitchen to show us the ingredients. Truly memorable.
Hi Andy,
Yes, yours is the best tactic. You can find some real gems by doing what you do.
I would also add that restaurants/trattoria with a slightly downtrodden look, hand painted by not new sign, are often some of the best places to eat. This is my other half’s strategy. I suppose that she goes on the basis that even if a place looks faintly run down, it has probably been there for aeons, which means people visit often, and return. This means the food may well be very good.
You might not find anything too elaborate in such places, but the food will be tasty, well cooked and priced reasonably. The table wine will probably be pretty good too. House plonk in Italy is generally a several cuts above its equivalent in other countries. Easy to understand – serve ‘orrible wine and Italians will never visit again!
Good tip, thanks.
Alex
Do McDonalds in Rome have free WiFi as in Paris?
Hi ReneS,
The answer to your question is that I don’t know. Perhaps someone else will be able to chip in on this, or you could hop over to http://romephotoblog.blogspot.com/
and ask Rome-based Jessica if she knows about this.
In any event, plugging into free wifi systems in Italy is a little fiddly, in that you often have to register for the service, and you need some form of ID for this – a passport is fine, but the language barrier might cause problems.
Best regards,
Alex
Hello there….I’m not sure about McDonalds really. At least I haven’t noticed any signs for free WiFi there when walking around. We’re way behind in Italy when it comes to free WiFi, it’s definitely nothing like Paris or other major cities. You are starting to see more cafes with it, but it’s still something new and novel. I definitely don’t rely on it being available when out and about.
Thanks for chipping in Jessica – you know more about Rome than I seeing as you live there, which is why I took you name in vain.
As a matter of interest, I was in our local McDonalds here in Via Paolo Sarpi recently, and noticed that there was a sign advertising free wifi. I did try to hook up, but could not – however I did not ask for any passwords or anything – just had a go to see how easy it was.
Anyway, if our local McDonalds is doing free wifi, then I think it is probable that other McDonalds around Italy will start to do so too – if they have not done so already.
If anyone knows about this, passing McDonalds staff included, please let us all know. I did have a very quick look at the McDonalds Italy web site, but could not see any wifi related info.
Best,
Alex