Rome, Roma, the eternal city, fellow travelers the name itself invokes tourist trap vibes! Here we go through some of the most …

Hit the field Travelers Mark here with Walters world and today we’re here in Rome and today we want to talk about our tourist traps you might encounter when you’re here in Rome okay and I I think probably the biggest tours trappy kind of thing that we tourists all fall into

Is falling into a tourist trap restaurant and there is a ton here and you will see that and the big thing to know if you’re going to look for tourist trap restaurants basically if they’re right next to one of the main sites there’s a Pantheon or Trevi found or

Whatever whenever they’re right there within a block from there with a view from there most likely you have way higher prices but food might be okay or it might not be okay because they know no matter what tours are going to come back for that view of the pantheon or

That view St Peters or wherever okay so do be aware of that and that includes those little like kiosks and the little trucks that are there selling food near some of the stops you’ll notice the prices are a lot more than you just went into the little car for a shop and grab

Something there so what I recommend if you’re looking for restaurants in Rome is instead of eating right by the some of those main sides walk two three or four blocks away from that and you’ll notice the farther you get away the more Italian you hear the more locals you see

In the restaurants and you also notice the prices come down as well so some other things to think about when you’re looking at a restaurant a debate if it’s a tourist restaurant if it has like five or six languages in their menu if all of their menus have lots of pictures in it

It’s probably going to be more of a tourist trap restaurant than a tourist restaurant also if their carbonara does not have guanciale in it it is not a place for you because guancialeah you do it here in Rome okay now another tourist trap I gotta tell you is buying water

When you’re here look you do not have to buy the water here the water in Rome is fantastic that’s why the pizza is so good the water they use in the dough oh it’s amazing and you’ll see water fountains around town and you might have

To plug your thumb in it to make it come out to get some of the water but you can drink the water the tap water here just fine so bring a refillable water bottle and do that instead of dropping a Euro or two Euros or three Euros to get that

Bottle of water depending where you are now another tourist trap that I see a lot of tour groups fall into is hotels that have great deals but are nowhere near the center look public transportation here in Rome does exist but there’s only three but I’d say two

And a half Metro lines so if you’re going to be coming in from out of town or from the outskirts you got to take a bus in and and that takes time and do you really want to waste time when you were going to be in a city that you want

To walk around and enjoy so honestly instead of saving a few bucks on that hotel out of town or farther away from the center I would spend the money to stay in town if you want a cheap place to stay the places by Termini station they’re cheap and acceptable I’m not

Saying they’re fantastic but they’re acceptable that’s going to be much better for your overall experience than going for those great deals you hear about hotels that are away from the center now another kind of tourist trappy thing I see is when you’re walking around at some of the sites

You’ll notice the little push carts you know I talked about those kiosks before but this is a specific tourist trap the push card ice cream place the July India that’s a card it’s not a gelateria if it’s in a cart you want to go into an actual julator and get your ice cream

There that’s gonna be much better than the push carts they’re going by I know it’s convenient that it’s there but for the flavor you’re gonna get I do recommend going to a real gelateria instead of going to those little carts that are just selling on the side there

Because I mean it works it’s just it’s not as good and I just feel it’s kind of touristy trappiness because it’s where you are as a tourist whereas if you just walk literally like another 50 feet or 50 yards meters whatever you’d probably find a gelateria instead the next

Tourist traps are a little different because there are tourist traps you really have to visit when you’re here but they’re things that sometimes people get really frustrated about when they do come to Rome and that is going to the Coliseum and go into the Vatican and doing the Vatican Museums because both

Of them have lines from hell and there’s tourist traps that’ll get you to sign up for tours to help you skip the line my advice to you with those things if you go to the Coliseum which you should if you’re going to go to the Vatican

Museums which you should sign up for a tour before you come and sign up for the Vatican Museums sign up for like the early bird special so you can go in and see the Sistine Chapel when there’s only like a hundred people there not 2 000 smashed together because that’s going to

Be a much better experience and and that’s why people get frustrated at the Coliseum and the Vatican they just feel it’s a tourist trap because we’re all smashed in here so those are a tourist Travis said you’re trapped there as a tourist because there’s so many people

So for your sanity you might want to look into that that now another tourist trap right now if I call it a tourist trap but a tourist ha we got you here so we’re gonna sell stuff to you is the Spanish Steps when you talk about Rome

You always hear about the Spanish Steps but here’s the thing they’re just some steps to go up to a church it’s not like they’re revolutionary or anything like that and you can’t sit on them if you walk on them you do get a great view you can see St Peters the distance is

Beautiful but I gotta tell you the trappiness of it is you feel you have to go there and then the Trap that has been set is that’s where all the fancy stores are and so you see store after store after store a fantastic fashion fantastic just just amazing fashion

Dresses men’s clothing all kinds of stuff and you’re then like I should go in and check out and next thing you know you end up at a store with two hours with your wife and you just bought her a bunch of dresses which she looks

Fantastic in but they got me they got me again okay but it’s one of those things that sometimes they know that when you’re a tourist they get you a location they’re gonna suck you in now the thing is there’s also a number of tourist trappy kind of you know locations and

Restaurants and museums to go to because you know there is the wax museum kind of stuff and there’s the over top the the tour kind of things and there’s the haunted realm stuff which can be fun but do take care make sure you’re reading the reviews on different museums to see

The level of touristiness because sometimes it might go over the top into a tourist trap that you might not actually want to go see and the thing is there’s also a lot of scams you need to watch out for when you are here in Rome and we actually have a whole video on

This scam from the pickpocketing to the gelato goons and all kinds of stuff that I want to talk about so watch that video to help you out with the scam side of things because I think the only touristy trappy kind of scam kind of thing that

You might want to be aware of is if you ever see like the Gladiators or the Roman centurions and they’re walking around and you’re trying to take your family picture and they kind of jump in the picture and they kind of trap you into paying them for for getting their

Picture taken because they were in your picture with your family some of them are kind of cool about it they’re like hey no big deal but something like oh you took my picture I want my money so do be aware of that because sometimes you do feel a little bit trapped as a

Tourist into doing that because they’re right there okay so just be aware of it but I’ll be honest there’s so many great museums inside here in Rome that there really isn’t a lot of tourists trapped because everything’s really worth seeing when you’re here so do be aware of that

Enjoy your time when you’re here be judicious will where you go because you can’t spend a lot of money in that touristy trappiness is part of the losing your money when you’re here because you’ve just spent so much on all the great sites and the great food so I

Hope this helps you know a bit more of what to think about when you do come here so you don’t follow these tourist traps so you can enjoy your meals and your food and your fun here in Rome

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