[Travel] Reflections on Rome

[Herr Tubthumper]

I arrived home yesterday and been reflecting on this recent trip; I’m of the view this was my favourite out of Marseille, Ajax and Rome. Rome is an incredible and beautiful city where football seems to be a religion. Literally every single person who discovered we were from Brighton (hotel staff, taxi drivers, cafe, bar and restaurant staff) immediately mentioned the game and then declared which side of the Roma football divide they are on. One guy helping me at the airport even told me he will be at the AMEX on Thursday for his first trip to see Roma outside Italy. The city can even sustain a daily sports (football) newspaper which is further testament to their love of the beautiful game. It’s a proper football city.

I loved the bars, the cafes and the restaurants I visited, many of the buildings are just insane eg Victor Emmanuel building and there’s history on every corner. People were super friendly and helpful.

The game itself was disappointing but the stadium is historical and the atmosphere was great, especially a full house of romans singing that song at the start.

All this whilst watching the Albion!

What do others think?

 

[PascalGroß Tips]

I arrived home yesterday and been reflecting on this recent trip; I’m of the view this was my favourite out of Marseille, Ajax and Rome. Rome is an incredible and beautiful city where football seems to be a religion. Literally every single person who discovered we were from Brighton (hotel staff, taxi drivers, cafe, bar and restaurant staff) immediately mentioned the game and then declared which side of the Roma football divide they are on. One guy helping me at the airport even told me he will be at the AMEX on Thursday for his first trip to see Roma outside Italy. The city can even sustain a daily sports (football) newspaper which is further testament to their love of the beautiful game. It’s a proper football city.

I loved the bars, the cafes and the restaurants I visited, many of the buildings are just insane eg Victor Emmanuel building and there’s history on every corner. People were super friendly and helpful.

The game itself was disappointing but the stadium is historical and the atmosphere was great, especially a full house of romans singing that song at the start.

All this whilst watching the Albion!

What do others think?

I think the same ... nothing more to add.

Loved seeing your food photos.

Heading to Amex in next 5 minutes ... it'll be a bit different ... the result too hopefully.

 

[A1X]

…so you’re saying it’s more attractive a place than, for example, Burnley?

 

[Right Back]

Favourite will always be Marseille. The first one, loudest stadium, 25 degrees and a great comeback. Having said that Rome was also brilliant.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Loved seeing your food photos.

Thank you. I had much enjoyment researching and booking the restaurants for my gang, and much fun compiling that thread.

 

[Bozza]

I was going to wait until the tour was officially over before doing this, and the tour's not over YET.

#KeepTheFaith

 

[Nobby]

…so you’re saying it’s more attractive a place than, for example, Burnley?

He didn’t go that far. Don’t put words into his mouth

 

[Guinness Boy]

Sorry HT but it wasn’t even better than some of our domestic day trips this season for me.

Not the fault of Rome, which is a great city. We had an amazing hotel, good food, a brilliant walk round the sites on Thursday morning and also met lots of nice people.

But the other stuff, created by the UEFA draw mechanism and airline pricing systems made the whole thing an expensive and stressful ball ache. Thirteen hours travelling and another 40 mins waiting for a cab to the hotel on Weds meant we were far too tired to go out properly. However, if we had, then we might have gone to meet Jack and that would mean me and my son might have been with them. Only tiredness and paranoia about putting him in harms way kept us safe and I have a little survivor guilt.

We also had to be up stupidly early to leave on Friday because of the rail strike and then ended up in Rome airport for nearly 4 hours as that flight was delayed.

I do feel like I’ve spent a lot of money for two solid days of travel, a few hours of sightseeing, a couple of nice meals and a 4-0 defeat.

I certainly wouldn’t go back there for football again - I would as a tourist though, when I can pay a decent price for a direct flight and not have to wake up to a WhatsApp that says “is it true your mate’s been stabbed?”.

 

[dwayne]

Overall Rome was the best I guess. Its easily the best city out of all the others.

I was stunned how seriously they took us and how much respect they had. Bit different to when we go to Liverpool, city or arsenal and half the stadium is asleep. And you get zero respect for supporting a smaller team.

This felt like a massive game for them.

On the Wednesday night we ate late at the W hotel's restaurant and once all the customers left the waiters gave us a mini lockin and bearing in mind it's an expensive restaurant we calculated they gave us about £100 each in free drinks.

That contrasted heavily to the massively intimidating atmosphere at the stadium before the game. But all part of the passionate fun.

If only we could defend on the pitch.

 

[C1 BHA]

invited to have a fight or ‘I will stab you’ on the Wed night followed by deflecting a full coke bottle away from my brothers head at the game completely undid all that was good about going to football in Rome. I will never go to football there again. Terrible shame because the city itself is magnificent, some of the people we encountered were the lowest of the low

 

[dwayne]

Sorry HT but it wasn’t even better than some of our domestic day trips this season for me.

Not the fault of Rome, which is a great city. We had an amazing hotel, good food, a brilliant walk round the sites on Thursday morning and also met lots of nice people.

But the other stuff, created by the UEFA draw mechanism and airline pricing systems made the whole thing an expensive and stressful ball ache. Thirteen hours travelling and another 40 mins waiting for a cab to the hotel on Weds meant we were far too tired to go out properly. However, if we had, then we might have gone to meet Jack and that would mean me and my son might have been with them. Only tiredness and paranoia about putting him in harms way kept us safe and I have a little survivor guilt.

We also had to be up stupidly early to leave on Friday because of the rail strike and then ended up in Rome airport for nearly 4 hours as that flight was delayed.

I do feel like I’ve spent a lot of money for two solid days of travel, a few hours of sightseeing, a couple of nice meals and a 4-0 defeat.

I certainly wouldn’t go back there for football again - I would as a tourist though, when I can pay a decent price for a direct flight and not have to wake up to a WhatsApp that says “is it true your mate’s been stabbed?”.

Ouch

I got massively lucky with the direct flights. And I'm becoming a big fan of ryanair for short haul as they are just so damn efficient. Getting there and getting back took about 5 hours I think door to door. The small airport in Rome is highly recommended, no queues and easy to get a cab.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I arrived home yesterday and been reflecting on this recent trip; I’m of the view this was my favourite out of Marseille, Ajax and Rome. Rome is an incredible and beautiful city where football seems to be a religion. Literally every single person who discovered we were from Brighton (hotel staff, taxi drivers, cafe, bar and restaurant staff) immediately mentioned the game and then declared which side of the Roma football divide they are on. One guy helping me at the airport even told me he will be at the AMEX on Thursday for his first trip to see Roma outside Italy. The city can even sustain a daily sports (football) newspaper which is further testament to their love of the beautiful game. It’s a proper football city.

I loved the bars, the cafes and the restaurants I visited, many of the buildings are just insane eg Victor Emmanuel building and there’s history on every corner. People were super friendly and helpful.

The game itself was disappointing but the stadium is historical and the atmosphere was great, especially a full house of romans singing that song at the start.

All this whilst watching the Albion!

What do others think?

Are we going to get regular meal updates on more away games - the gastronomy of Burnley, Luton, Wolverhampton, Brentford, Croydon etc would be fascinating.

 

[Eeyore]

Sorry HT but it wasn’t even better than some of our domestic day trips this season for me.

Not the fault of Rome, which is a great city. We had an amazing hotel, good food, a brilliant walk round the sites on Thursday morning and also met lots of nice people.

But the other stuff, created by the UEFA draw mechanism and airline pricing systems made the whole thing an expensive and stressful ball ache. Thirteen hours travelling and another 40 mins waiting for a cab to the hotel on Weds meant we were far too tired to go out properly. However, if we had, then we might have gone to meet Jack and that would mean me and my son might have been with them. Only tiredness and paranoia about putting him in harms way kept us safe and I have a little survivor guilt.

We also had to be up stupidly early to leave on Friday because of the rail strike and then ended up in Rome airport for nearly 4 hours as that flight was delayed.

I do feel like I’ve spent a lot of money for two solid days of travel, a few hours of sightseeing, a couple of nice meals and a 4-0 defeat.

I certainly wouldn’t go back there for football again - I would as a tourist though, when I can pay a decent price for a direct flight and not have to wake up to a WhatsApp that says “is it true your mate’s been stabbed?”.

So you'd swap it for one of our trips to Port Vale ?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Sorry HT but it wasn’t even better than some of our domestic day trips this season for me.

Not the fault of Rome, which is a great city. We had an amazing hotel, good food, a brilliant walk round the sites on Thursday morning and also met lots of nice people.

But the other stuff, created by the UEFA draw mechanism and airline pricing systems made the whole thing an expensive and stressful ball ache. Thirteen hours travelling and another 40 mins waiting for a cab to the hotel on Weds meant we were far too tired to go out properly. However, if we had, then we might have gone to meet Jack and that would mean me and my son might have been with them. Only tiredness and paranoia about putting him in harms way kept us safe and I have a little survivor guilt.

We also had to be up stupidly early to leave on Friday because of the rail strike and then ended up in Rome airport for nearly 4 hours as that flight was delayed.

I do feel like I’ve spent a lot of money for two solid days of travel, a few hours of sightseeing, a couple of nice meals and a 4-0 defeat.

I certainly wouldn’t go back there for football again - I would as a tourist though, when I can pay a decent price for a direct flight and not have to wake up to a WhatsApp that says “is it true your mate’s been stabbed?”.

First of all you really do not need to apologize. I know you well and respect your views; I am also interested to hear different thoughts.

I guess the fact I didn't have the same airline pricing issues and my trip was spread over Tuesday to Saturday influences my opinion; it was all quite relaxed. I appreciate I’m very fortunate my work allows me this time off and flexibility

 

[Guinness Boy]

So you'd swap it for one of our trips to Port Vale ?

A bit off topic but if I had a Time Machine I’d love to jump back to that sort of time and do an away with everyone just once. No internet, just turn up on the train you’d arranged the week before, bang the tinnies in a locker, pub for opening time, game in some kind of daze not really caring about the result, tinnies out, drink on way home. Rotherham, Barnsley, Port Vale, Blackburn, all great days out in a shithole.

Not Oldham though. Oldham can f**k off,

 

[POSKETT AT THE VALLEY]

Sitting in a cafe in the Prati district. Stunning city and able to gloat to my Scottish wife over the rugby yesterday. Brilliant atmosphere despite the annoying stadium announcer.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I was going to wait until the tour was officially over before doing this, and the tour's not over YET.

#KeepTheFaith

Very fair point.

 

[peterward]

Favourite will always be Marseille. The first one, loudest stadium, 25 degrees and a great comeback. Having said that Rome was also brilliant.

I didn't go to Ajax away, just the other 3.

Best in Stadium atmosphere was Marseille, hands down the best in my lifetime, but thought the city itself was a bit of a dump.

Best overall was Athens, great weather, fantastic time in city, walking to stadium and chatting to AEK fans, though game itself was a bit meh even though we won and qualified so all good.

Rome, is tough to judge as the loss really cut and made me feel flat and miserable, but it's probably my favourite city in the world anyway, as its a stunning historical/culinary paradise that's full of soul.

What was cool, and when does this ever happen! On arrival to our group of 3 Air BnB near Vatican, the owner Roberto turned up between midnight and 1am on his vespa to do check in, cool fella, Robbie Williams ringer, you can smell a bit of booze on his breath and he mentions hes had a few Lemoncellos,...... he let's us in, shows us the apartment, we mention we're here for the game and he's says hes a mad Roma fan/STH, travels abroad too... we ask if there's any local bar still open at 1am, and first he starts to show us on maps where it is, so we ask him if he wants to join us, he duly obliges and after short walk, we spend the next hour having a few in an Irish pub, and when that closes at 2am, we walk across road to some late night sandwich place with draught beers and drink there until 3am, after beers Roberto is back on the Lemoncello, all sharing football stories and chewing fat on both clubs, he was a proper hardcore Roma fan who knew about us. As we left he insited on buying a round of Sambuccas one of our 3 went for it (i bottled!). He invited us to meet up with him on the Thursday evening with some of his Roma mates at 5pm, but we got the busses earlier to ensure we got in.

Back at our apartment after his original + with us lemoncellos, 2 pints of guinness and a large Sambucca Roberto rides off on his Vespa at 3am!!

All random and spontaneous but a fabulous couple of hours with a top fella and Roman footie nut / air bnb landlord!!

 

[LamieRobertson]

I think the same ... nothing more to add.

Loved seeing your food photos.

Heading to Amex in next 5 minutes ... it'll be a bit different ... the result too hopefully.

Nah I’m still hoping for a 4/0 home win

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Are we going to get regular meal updates on more away games - the gastronomy of Burnley, Luton, Wolverhampton, Brentford, Croydon etc would be fascinating.

View attachment 178409

This could be a fun idea. Maybe next season I choose an away game, look into the area’s culinary history and report back. I think I’ve gone as far as I can with the offal theme so I need something new.