Rome is the capital of Italy, allocates the Vatican city and should be visited at least once in a life time.

Rome is divided by the Tevere River, at one side you have the Vatican and on the other the Trevi Fountain (Fontana de Trevi), Navona Square (Piazza Navona), the Pantheon and the Coliseum (Colosseo). The Vatican side, also known as Trans-Tevere has wider streets and an more orthogonal geometry. The opposed shore can be defined with just one adjective: Chaotic! It is easy to get lost and extremely hard to find yourself (even with a city map, make sure you're caring one all the time). You can get your hands on a city map on your Hotel. We used the map that came on Rome's Moleskine which has the advantage of not resembling a map and the big disadvantage of being divided in several pages which hardens the navigation. Another option would be using an GPS device as the ones that come on most recent smartphones.

There are two streets that can be used has navigation reference: Via di Ripetta and Via del Corso, the later being an excellent site for shopping. They both join in People's Square (Piazza del Popolo).

A major down side of Rome is the fact that it doesn't have streets solely for walking – Via del Corso is closed to traffic Friday's afternoon and weekends but it isn't enough to give it a down town status. During the week it is extremely crowded and is impossible to enjoy a walk as you have to step into the road. - Anywhere in the world this would be rewarded with a horn and a couple of insults but in Italy this behaviour is normal. The traffic is absolutely chaotic, the normal traffic rules are replaced by an initiative system – Don't expect to cross the road without throwing yourself in front of a car!

Rome is full of great sites to visit, make sure you enter in every single church you see! If are in Rome for an limited time and have to make choices make sure you visit:

1 – Sistine Chapel (hastily browsing the Vatican Museums)

2 – St. Peter's Cathedral

3- Trevi Fountain (Fontana de Trevi).

Beside being very close to each other, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter's Cathedral are the most singular landmarks of Rome, everything else, Coliseum included, has homologues all over the world.

Safety wise, although it is difficult to get away from the street sellers, we didn't have any problems. There are stories about children stealing tourists that we can't dismiss as fake but are probably urban legend, nevertheless it always pays to be careful. Remember not to dress as a tourist: go as you would for work and avoid backpacks or have your kids carry them.

In conclusion, Rome is an unpleasant city and mostly a deception which places it on second place if you are considering revisiting cities, nevertheless make sure you visited it at least once. If you're starting to travel all over the world now or planning a large visit to Europe, make sure you leave Rome for last as it will help you appreciate Vatican's real value