My Roman Holiday 2016 vs 2005

2005

11 years ago in 2005 Spring, I visited Italy with a group of friends. We were all students traveling on a limited budget. Five of them travelled from the UK and I from the US, and we met up in Rome.

I still think it was quite an epic feat that we managed to plan and execute the trip, considering that we were studying in different universities across different counties/continents. The strategy we employed was to divide and conquer. We divided ourselves into three groups, each group was in charge of planning the itinerary for different cities.

We were quite "kiasu" back then, trying to include as many attractions as possible in our itinerary. My memories of the trip were: lots of walking, lots of picture-posing, lots of gelato, and sore feet/leg/body. No pain no gain. "Physical sufferings" aside, we achieved our goals (with some misadventure), and had so much fun!

2016
Fast forward to 2016 Spring, I traveled to Rome again, this time with Mr. Yu. We spent almost five days in Rome, hence, were able to explore the city at a more leisurely pace and cover more areas. Traveling with the curious and studious Mr. Yu also means getting to learn more about the history of Rome, because he enjoys reading up on history and explaining things to other people (while I am more of a "I came, I saw, I took picture" kind of traveller).

Thanks to mobile technology and affordable data roaming, we were able to make full use of these three important friends during our trip: 1) Google Map, 2) Wikipedia, and 3) TripAdvisor. The Internet-of-things, plus smartphone, have definitely made traveling so much more efficient and informative. It is hard to imagine that when I was in Rome 11 years ago, I don't even own a mobile phone, and had to figure out how to use a local payphone to contact my friends. Nowadays, payphone hardly exists anymore.

The attractions in Rome are generally the same compared to 11 years ago, but the presentations have improved a lot, resulting in better tourist experience. Audio guides have become very common; the Palatine Museum and the National Roman Museum also have very good video presentations that make history so much more interesting and easy to understand. The most impressive experience I had was at the recently restored Santa Maria Antiqua Church (of Roman Forum): in certain chambers where the wall paintings have been damaged, the "original" paintings are being projected back onto the dark walls, allowing visitors to experience what the place could have been like back in the olden days.

I was quite a blur case when visiting Rome in 2005. My friend was the chief planner and I had simply tagged along. This time around, I did my research and planned well for the trip. I even received positive feedback from VIP customer, Mr. Yu. In my next blog post, I will be sharing some trip planning tips on the following:

• Accommodation
• Transportation
• Must-see attractions (+ wish list items - places we wanted to visit but did not have time to)
• Recommended eats/drinks
• My itinerary

I hope these information will come handy to those who are interested in visiting Rome in the near future. Please stay tuned!