Arrival in Rome/Meeting Up

Hi everyone,

Since Stephanie Simpson and I are already in Rome we thought we'd give you some tips:

-When you arrive at the airport you will likely be really jet-lagged and really tired (unless you are exceptional and can sleep like a baby on planes), so you probably shouldn't plan on doing much for the first day after you arrive

-If you catch any connecting flights the chances of the airline losing your bag increases exponentially, so some of you will have the unhappy experience of dealing with that. Keep in mind that you may have to spend this additional time at the airport. We were extremely fortunate and all our bags arrived ok. (Some people that we are staying with in a shared apartment had to go without their bags for 4 days, so keeping all essential stuff in your carry-on (a change of clothes and a toothbrush included), is a good idea).

-If you catch a connection to Rome from somewhere else in Europe you'll have to go through customs there (in our case it was Frankfurt). We're not sure if this is a problem or not, but since we went through customs in Frankfurt we didn't have to in Rome. We wanted to see if we needed to get another stamp from Italian officials (just so they know we are in the country), but when we asked an Italian Airport Official which way to go to get to customs he casually and confidently directed us to the exit from arrivals from which we could not re-enter to reach customs. I emailed Helena about the whole issue of not being stamped by Italian custom officials and I'm waiting to hear back from her, so in the meantime, you may want to go through customs (if you can) just in case. We got dated stamps from German customs at the Frankfurt airport, so it's not as if you'll be in Italy illegally or anything. It's just that since there are few border controls between EU countries you'll definitely have to go through customs at your point of entry into the EU, but not necessarily in your final destination.

-The train ride from the airport to Termini is 20-30 minutes and the tickets cost 11 euros (which you can buy from the newstand near the tracks). Make sure you're on the right train--ask more than one person if it goes to Termini if you're unsure.

-When you get into Termini try to look aware and oriented even if you aren't. Don't get flustered if you don't know which way to go. We were so tired and overloaded when we got in that we took a taxi (from the Piazza which is straight ahead outside of the station) for our 2 block ride to our hostel. It cost us 9 euros (and we may have been overcharged, though if you don't know how to speak Italian it's hard to make your case and, as such, some people will take it as their right to rip you off), but it was better than wandering around being lost, tired, and with all our baggage (and especially since we arrived at night).


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Finally, can anyone tell us when and where people are planning to meet when they arrive? Given thar our access to the internet is now limited, we likely won't have the time to navigate all the forums to find this out on our own, so we'd sincerely appreciate if someone would let us know about this!

Hopefully this will help some of you. Good luck and see you soon!

Stephanie and David

Stephanie and David,

Your post helps so much thank you so much!!!! About meeting everyone Merin, Nana and some others are staying at Hostel des artistes as are we and are arriving at about 11am on the 5th. Nikki and I are arriving at the Hostel probably after 1 since we are supposed to arrive around 12:30. So we might meet that night for dinner somewhere close. We could decide to meet right outside the Hostel depending on where you guys are staying. So if you guys get a chance to read this before we arrive then great but if not we will all find each other. Thanks again.

Ciao and see you soon.
Gabriella

I'm actually in the Alessandro hostel gabrielle, just thought I would clear that up!

oh sorry Nana I thought someone said you are in the Hostel des Artistes. That was totally my bad.

Sorry again,
Gabriella

Helena got back to us about the passport stamping thing, and it's good we entered the EU through Frankfurt (especially if you're someone who plans on staying longer than 90 days like me). The stamp only has our date of entry into the EU--not Italy--so I can say I entered Italy whenever I like, if necessary.

Where is the hostel des artistes and what time do you plan on meeting for dinner?

Nikki Merin and Gabriella here,

for anyone in Rome, the three of us are in The Hotel des Artistes and we have been vainly trying to get ahold of those of you already here. We travelled around on foot for eight hours today and it was amzing, tried to find nana a couple of times at the Hotel Alessandro, we left a note at the front desk for you! To no avail.

We are meeting tomorrow at the Hotel Syracuse entrance, beside the restaraunt just across from the Termini station at 9:45 AM we will wait for a while to see if you guys can show up, we will be seeing some extra sights tomorrow on foot if anyone is intereseed. I will check the forum again later, hopefuly some of you get this!

All the best,
Nik

hey guys
i will be there!

hey guys, i had trouble finding the hotel and didnt get to it till lil after 10. sorry if i kept ya waiting. now that i know where it is, wanna meet up for supper tonight?

I am at the Hotel Allessandro now-they wont let me in my room to 3:00 so I am just going to hang around until they kick me out-or until I meet up with someone.

Hmm, well somehow I managed to miss everyone else at Allessandro Palace this morning. Then I came across this thread around 9:30 so I went to the hotel but didn't see anyone there from around 9:40 to 10:20. I walked around Termini, came back to the Alessandro and I guess I'm on my own for the day.

It was the Hotel Syracusa right? East out of Termini, just across the street and beside a bar/restaraunt on the corner. Right? Oh well, I suppose I'll wander the city again today and maybe try to meet up later if anyone else posts back on here. I'll try to be outside the hotel again at 6pm tonight to meet anyone who wants to. I don't knopw if I'll be able to check the forum again before then so hopefully this is ok.

Fancy that, I'm sitting right beside Barbara.

hey dave and barbara
are you guys staying at the alessandro downtown hostel, or teh alessandro palace hostel? im staying at the downtown one

that explains it-we were at the palace. dave and I took off for a while but I had to come back and rest-I have not slept in 36 hours.
Oh well-see you all tomorrow.
Barbara

hey barbara,
are you and dave and or others planning on getting a bite later tonight? i think dave mentioned something about meeting at the siracusa/syracuse hotel at 6. let me know what you guys are up tp

Well Dave and I will be there for sure!