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ENIT, Italy’s national tourist office, is well-intentioned but is often of little help for specific needs. There are branches in most major capital cities.

Rome has three main tourist offices across the city (see General Information). There are also 10 privately run information kiosks scattered about the city at prime tourist locations, although their material is less comprehensive than at the tourist offices.

Rome’s official website is www.romaturismo.com; the Vatican’s is www.vaticano.va. Database and search engines such as www.yahoo.com or www.excite.com have detailed travel and regional sub-menus linking useful private websites.

Citizens of the UK, Eire, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand need only a valid passport to visit Italy for up to 90 days. You may bring into Italy personal items with the following quirky limits: 400 cigarettes (or 550 grams of tobacco), 2 cameras, 10 rolls of film, a pair of skis, two tennis racquets and a litre of alcohol.

Most businesses, churches and some museums open at 8 or 9am, shut for riposo from 12:30 or 1pm until 3 or 4pm, and close around 6 or 8pm.

Italy is on 220V/50 cycles. To operate a 110V device you need an adaptor (most laptops and camcorders have this built in). You will also need an adaptor if your equipment has pronged plugs rather than Europe’s two round pins.

Most 3-star hotels and above have satellite TV with CNN and BBC news. English-language newspapers such as the International Herald Tribune (with an “Italy Daily” insert), USA Today , New York Times and magazines are sold at most newsstands. The weekly Roma C’è (“This is Rome”) beats the tourist office’s handout for events, entertainment listings, plus sightseeing information and special tours (section in English).

Rome has a temperate climate. August heat is oppressive; February snow flurries are possible. Spring’s middle ground keeps hotels booked; autumn is less crowded, but prone to downpours. High season is Easter to July and September to October. Rome is deserted much of August as residents head to the beaches or mountains to escape the heat and most of the city’s shops and restaurants are closed.

Public holidays include 1 and 6 January, Easter Sunday and Monday, 25 April, 1 May, 15 August, 1 November and 8, 25 and 26 December.

Airlines, large travel agencies and tour companies offer discount packages combining airfare and hotels. Many, however, stick to large international hotel chains, usually in uninteresting neighbourhoods. You can often do better at a small hotel in the centre.

Tours, booked by your travel agent, leave the driving, hotels, language barriers, and all decisions to the tour company, but they often take out much of the fun in the process. You see the company’s neatly packaged idea of Rome, not the Rome you can find travelling on your own. It’s also hard to meet the locals when surrounded by a large group of compatriots.

Art history is so much better when the teacher can show you real paintings. History, culture, painting, cookery and language courses are all available. The following websites have more information: www.specialtytravel.com, www.shawguides.com, and www.infohub.com.

City-run ATAC bus No. 110 makes a three-hour circuit around 80 sights with no guide. It leaves daily from outside Termini every 25 minutes from 8:35am to 8:15pm Mon–Fri, every 20 minutes from 8:40am to 8:20pm Sat–Sun. The €13 ticket allows you to hop on and off. If you want a guide’s commentary, take a ride with Green Line Tours, American Express or Carrani Tours.

Enjoy Rome runs three-hour walks of Ancient Rome, Rome at Night (both daily), the Vatican and Trastevere and the Jewish Ghetto (both thrice weekly). The tourist office has recently been sponsoring free guided walks, usually at weekends.

Enjoy Rome also runs very cheap, four-hour bike tours of Rome, including bike and helmet rental. Or rent a mountain bike (the ancient cobbles are very rough) to ride down Via Appia Antica on a Sunday (see Appian Way on a Sunday).

A company geared toward holiday-makers is Italiaidea, offering courses lasting two to eight weeks, a 15-hour “survival Italian” crash course, and walking tours, weekend trips, and cooking classes geared towards language skills.

Rome certainly doesn’t lack for inspiration. To bring out the Michelangelo in you in a one-week course contact the Canadian-based company Art Association for the Revival of Traditional Training. The Istituto Italiano Arte Artigianato e Restauro will teach you about art restoration in a weekend course, or the techniques of fresco or stained glass in two-week courses.

Some churches, museums and ancient sites offer guided visits, often for free. Many museums also feature self-guided tours on portable tape players for a nominal fee.

British Airways (www.britishairways.com), Ryanair (www.ryanair.com), easyJet (www.easyjet.com) and Alitalia (www.alitalia.com) all fly direct from London to Rome. From Ireland, Aer Lingus (www. aerlingus.ie) flies direct from Dublin; British Airways and Alitalia route you through London.

There are several direct flights on US carriers, plus Italy’s Alitalia.

Alitalia flies to Melbourne from Rome twice weekly. Qantas (www.qantas.com) flies thrice weekly from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Cairns (plus Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch in New Zealand) to Rome, via Milan. There are more flights (and it’s cheaper) to fly to London first, then on to Italy.

Most major European carriers fly to Rome from their main hub cities.

Most airlines now use websites to promote last-minute bargains and internet-only fares. Most have banded together on www.orbitz.com and collate the best regular fares offered, but only from the US, UK or Canada. Flexible schedules can take advantage of E-savers fares (weekly emails of bargain rates for trips over the coming weekend) and sites such as www.lastminute.com.

Rome’s international airport is 30 km (18 miles) west of the city. Taxis cost about €45 to the centre, with bags. Hourly express trains to the city take 30 minutes, but arrive at Termini’s track 22, a 15-minute hike from the ticket area (thankfully there are now moving walkways downstairs to help). Or you can catch a local train, getting off at Trastevere station and riding the No. 8 tram to central Trastevere or across the bridge to Largo Argentina (see Largo di Torre Argentina).

Ciampino, Rome’s smaller airport which is used mainly for domestic and European charter flights, is 15 km (9 miles) south of town. CO.TRA.L buses leave every half an hour for Anagnina, a stop on metro line A. Taxis cost about €40 into the centre, with bags.

From London, you can take the Channel tunnel to Paris and pick up a daily or overnight train to Rome (13 hours). The Eurostar (ES) bullet train speeds in 3.5 hours from Milan to Rome via Florence. Regular Italian trains range from express EC/IC/EN (all require high-speed supplements), to the speedy IR, to stop-everywhere diretto and espresso trains.

Rome’s main railway station has ticket windows and automated machines in the outer hall, shops, restaurants and travel agents in the inner hall and a shopping centre in the basement. The tourist office is in the inner hall (see General Information). It also has a left-luggage office and 24-hour pharmacy.

Rome’s ATAC bus network has central hubs at Termini, Piazza Venezia, Largo Argentina and Piazza San Silvestro. Newsagents sell maps; fermata (bus stop) signs list the routes of the lines which stop there. Buy tickets at newsstands, tobacconists or machines at major stops. Stamp the ticket in the machine on the bus; they are valid for 75 minutes with unlimited transfers.

Not always of the greatest use to visitors, the two lines intersect at Termini, mainly serving the suburbs. Good tourist stops include Spagna (Spanish Steps), Colosseo, San Paolo (basilica), Ottaviano (six blocks from St Peter’s), and Cipro (six blocks from Vatican Museums). It uses the same tickets as buses.

The historic centre is increasingly pedestrianized, but many streets are narrow, clogged with traffic and lack pavements. The cobblestones are hard on your feet, so wear sturdy shoes.

Taxi ranks are found at the airports, train stations, major squares and tourist sights. Base rate is €2, plus 50 cents per kilometre in 1-cent increments. Extra fees are charged for luggage, from 10pm to 7am, on Sundays and airport runs. Tip the driver about 10 per cent of the final fare.

Cars are useless in Rome itself: traffic is bad, and parking expensive and rare – if you are on a longer trip, pick up the car on your last day in Rome. Local outfits are rarely cheaper than international ones. Most companies require theft protection; check if your credit card covers this insurance. Petrol is expensive but diesel is available everywhere. Most petrol stations close on Sunday but many have automated machines.

Official speed limits are 30–50 kmph (18–30 mph) in town, 80–110 kmph (50– 70 mph) on two-lane roads outside town, and 130 kmph (90 mph) on highways, where left lanes are for passing only or heavy goods vehicles.

Few hotels have garages, although many have agreements with local ones or a few free spaces on the street. Round blue signs with a red slash mean no parking; white-lined spaces are free (though often restricted to residents); yellow spaces off-limits; blue spaces available for an hourly fee you pre-pay at a nearby machine. The only decent parking rates in the city are at Parcheggio Borghese under Villa Borghese park and Gianicolo under that hill.

Roman traffic makes cycling or scootering dangerous. Sundays are calmest and several roads close to traffic for bikers. Rental outfits include Roma in Scooter and, offering discounts to those with train tickets, Treno e Scooter.

Although for far-flung sights you catch trains at Termini, some sights within Lazio are serviced by local train lines including Ostia Antica from Porta San Paolo station, near Piramide Metro stop. Many are also accessible by CO.TRA.L coaches, including Tivoli (see Tivoli).

Traditionally, a ristorante is the most formal and expensive eatery; a trattoria is a family-run, moderately priced place; an osteria anything from a simple trattoria to the equivalent of a pub with a few dishes of mixed meats and cheeses along with wine.

Italian meals, especially dinner, are drawn-out affairs of two to four hours, followed by an espresso (small, strong coffee) and liqueur (digestivo ) such as grappa (see Grappa). Breakfast is traditionally just an espresso or cappuccino (coffee with steamed milk) with a sweetened croissant (cornetto ). Many hotels lay out a large breakfast buffet.

The appetizer course is traditionally bruschetta in pizzerias (toasted bread rubbed with garlic, olive oil, salt and often topped with tomatoes) and/or cured meats such as prosciutto and salami. And most places have a buffet table of vegetables where you can help yourself.

The first course. Pastas include bucatini all’amatriciana , spaghetti alla carbonara , gnocchi di patate and cacio e pepe (see Cacio e Pepe). Soups (minestre ) include minestrone (vegetable) and straciatella (egg with Parmesan in chicken broth). Risotto (creamy rice) is usually cooked with vegetables.

The main course. Meats include bistecca or manzo (beef), vitello (veal), agnello/abbacchio (mutton/lamb), pollo (chicken), maiale (pork), cinghiale (boar), coniglio (rabbit) and anatra (duck). They are usually grilled (alla griglia ) or roasted (arrosto ). Fish include branzino (bass), acciughe (anchovies), baccalà (cod), sogliola (sole), orata (bream) and rombo (turbot), usually grilled, roasted, or all’acqua pazza (simmered in white wine and seasonings).

The dessert. Most popular are simple cantucci con vin santo (biscuits with dessert wine) or ice cream such as the tartufo ice cream ball. Custards of milk (panna cotta, latte portugese ) and egg (crème caramel ) are also favourites, as is tiramisù (trifle of sponge fingers soaked in espresso and perhaps alcohol and layered with mascarpone cheese and dusted with cocoa).

No Italian meal is complete without red (rosso ) or white (bianco ) wine (vino ), either a carafe (un litro ) or a half-carafe (mezzo litro ) of the house wine (vino della casa ), or a labelled bottle (see Top 10 Wines and Liqueurs). Italians temper their wine with water, either fizzy (gassata ) or still (non-gassata ).

The pane (bread) charge of €1–€4 per person can be avoided, but this won’t endear you to the waiters. If the menu says “servizio incluso ” service charge is built in, although it is customary to round up by a few coins each. If not, tip a discretionary 10 per cent.

Jacket and tie are almost never required, although in more up-market places reservations often are. Waiters expect you to linger over your meal, and won’t rush you (some mistake this for slow service).

Italian hotels are categorized from 1-star (basic) to 5-star (deluxe), based largely on the amenities offered rather than location. At 3 stars and above, all rooms have at least private bathroom, TV and telephone.

The tourist office (see General Information) has a list of these invariably cheap options which can range from a lovely room with semi-private access or a cramped spare bedroom in someone’s modern apartment. Amount of contact with the family varies, but it can be a great way to meet locals.

The best sources to help you find an apartment (for a week, a month, or a year) are the English-language twice-monthly Wanted in Rome (www.wantedinrome.com) and the twice-weekly Porta Portese (www.porta-portese.it) want-ad magazine. People also post apartment notices on message boards at English-language bookshops and Trastevere’s Pasquino cinema.

These self-catering apartments, with limited maid service, are popular with long-term tourists (two weeks or more) and those who prefer more privacy. Rome’s official website (www.roma turismo.com) lists several residential options.

Rome has several camp sites (campeggi ) ringed around the periphery, including Camping Flaminio, Seven Hills, Camping Tiber and Roma Camping. Italians tend to eschew tents for camper vans. You end up paying almost as much as for a cheap hotel: a fee per person and for the camp site itself.

Cheap beds in single-sex, shared dorms cost about €18 per night. They are full of students, and usually impose a curfew of midnight. The official IYH hostel is in the bleak Foro Italico (see Foro Italico and Stadio dei Marmi). There are better, smaller, private hostels listed at www.hostels.com and www.hiayh.org.

The newest category of Italian lodging falls somewhere between rental rooms and hotels, a sort of reincarnation of the old pensione , offering a handful of rooms along with breakfast and, usually, a friendly family reception.

Reserving the first and last nights of a trip is always wise. The best-known hotels can fill up months in advance, so book ahead. Rome tends to be very crowded in May and June, but you should have no problem finding a room when you arrive, either calling around from the train station payphone or asking the tourist office.

The HR hotel consortium at Fiumicino airport and Termini railway station (see General Information) will book you rooms for free, as will the private agency Enjoy Rome (see Tours and Specialist Holidays). As yet, internet booking services have highly erratic stables of hotels in their databases.

Most shops follow normal business hours and open at 8–9am, shut for lunch until 3–4pm, and close around 6–8pm. In tourist areas and at larger stores, the lunch break (riposo ) is slowly disappearing in favour of orario continuato (open all day).

Expected in markets (see Top 10 Markets), but hardly ever in shops. Many market stall-holders now hail from Middle Eastern countries where bargaining is an art form, so be ready to do the full ritual, including acting less and less interested, while the merchant acts ever more offended and claims he can go no lower. He will not sell it for less than a profit, so any price agreed upon is acceptable.

Italy’s Value Added Tax (IVA) is a sales tax already added on to the sticker price of every item. If you are a non-EU resident and spend more than €155 in a single shop, you can get the tax refunded. Ask the store to help you fill out the forms; then take these and the receipts to the customs office at the airport of the last EU country you’ll be visiting to complete the paperwork. Your refund will be posted but it may take months. Stores marked “Tax-Free Shopping for Tourists” speed up the process, giving you a cheque for the customs office to stamp, then you redeem it at the airport’s Tax-Free Shopping desk.

UK and Irish citizens can bring home virtually anything duty-free (although theoretical amounts such as 90 litres of wine apply). US citizens are limited to $400 worth of goods duty-free, including 1 litre of alcohol, 200 cigarettes and 100 cigars. Canadian, Australian and New Zealand limitations are similar. Only British and EU residents may export flowers, fruits, vegetables, meats (unless tinned) and soft cheeses.

Rome’s best souvenir, although heavy to carry. Shipping is expensive, so save it for when you discover a vineyard whose wines aren’t exported and buy a whole case.

Designer fashion is rarely cheaper than back home, but there is the cachet of having found those great shoes in Rome. Stock houses sell last year’s styles, overstock, slight irregulars or items that won’t sell in boutiques, offering a variety of labels at prices from 40–80 per cent lower than normal.

As the heart of the Roman Empire and an epicentre of the Renaissance and Baroque, Rome is full of antiquities, paintings and sculpture from the Middle Ages to today. There’s also a good market in furnishings from Renaissance-era to Art Nouveau to simple, country-style pieces.

Italians are masters of industrial design, from Ferraris to Alessi kettles. If the Ferrari doesn’t fit your budget, consider shopping for elegant kitchen implements, homewares or lighting systems, many sketched out by top international designers on behalf of Italian firms.

Religious mementos, from kitsch, to solemn, to the classy, are hawked from stands and shops around the Vatican and, to some extent, across Rome. You can bring your purchase to the Wednesday Papal audience, during which he issues a mass blessing.

Rome is a ghost town in August and unbearably hot. Most Italians go on holiday for the month and while most sights are open and hotels are emptier, many shops and restaurants are closed, and you’re only seeing the tourist side of the city, not its true nature (see When to Go).

Pickpockets infest many of Rome’s streets, squares and metro stations but are worst and at their most aggressive at a few prime tourist bottlenecks: the narrow pavement around the Vatican walls from the museums to St Peter’s; around the Forum, especially the road from the back of the Capitoline; and the pedestrianized via dei Pastini and via di Pietra from the Pantheon to the Trevi Fountain.

Yes, you get in for free the last Sunday of each month, but the trade-off is that the museums – often claustrophobic even on a good day – become a crush of bodies.

With rare exceptions, the restaurants that cluster around Rome’s two prime tourist spots, advertising menus in six languages and often planted with a waiter waving you over, put the Roman dining experience to shame. No self-respecting Italian patronizes them, and you would be wise to avoid them.

The homeless and dispossessed congregating in the dull train station neighbourhood, home to a glut of budget hotels, make it unsavoury after dark. Generally, the streets south of the station are darker and more dangerous than those to the north.

The “Pickpocket Express” or “Wallet Eater” trundling from Termini to St Peter’s has long held the title for the worst pickpocketing bus in Rome. It now faces competition from the No. 40, an express bus on the same route. Keep your wits about you, and one hand on your wallet or purse.

The worst travel accessory ever invented. Nothing has pleased the world’s pickpockets more than the popularity of these pouches, which place all of your most important belongings discreetly below eye-level and at the perfect height for a light-fingered thief to rifle through at his leisure.

A car is utterly unnecessary in Rome: many of its sights are on pedestrian roads so you can’t drive to them anyway, and parking spaces at those accessible by car are almost impossible to find. All parking in the city is limited and preposterously expensive, and to the uninitiated, Italians seem to drive like maniacs (see Getting around Rome). Save renting a car until the last day of your stay in Rome and use it only to drive out of town.

Save these areas for a different day as two of the more important sights on the Tiber Bend are closed on Thursday: Sant’ Agostino with its unmissable Caravaggio works (see Piazza Navona) and the painting collection of the Galleria Doria Pamphilj.

The Vatican Museums (see Vatican City) are free the last Sunday of each month, but this is common knowledge and the museums are very crowded (see Vatican Museums when they’re Free). However the free day is useful if you want to return to tour some of the less popular museums and collections.

The Roman Forum is one of the top free sights in the world. Churches are free and hold some of Rome’s greatest art and architecture, however you often pay for entry into crypts, archaeological excavations and treasuries. Rome’s squares are free theatres of life for the price of a cappuccino .

Sights and museums are run by a variety of agencies, from national to municipal to private, so prices vary. National museums are free under 18 and over 60 to almost everyone save Americans (a complicated rule connected with reciprocity agreements). One of the best deals is the €20 7-day ticket, valid for sites such as the Colosseum, the Palatine, monuments along the Via Appia and the various museums of the Museo Nazionale.

Those under 26 can buy a Carta Verde for about €40 that offers 30 per cent discount on any train ticket; the same deal for over 60s is called Carta Argento . Available from railway stations.

Generally, prices get higher as you move towards the centre of the city and the hotel has more stars to its rating. A 1- or 2-star hotel (fewer amenities) or taking a room without a private bathroom will save you money, and is preferable to looking outside the centre or in the Termini neighbourhood where cheap hotels congregate (see Business Hotels). If you can get out of paying for the hotel’s breakfast, the same thing at a café costs a quarter of the price. Avoid making phone calls or using the minibar; both are overpriced.

In food-loving Italy, price or category of restaurant has little to do with how good the food is, so a cheaper osteria or trattoria is just as tasty as a fancy ristorante . Appetizers cost almost as much as first courses for less food. House wine is cheaper than bottled; tap water (acqua dal rubinetto ) is free. Tavole calde and bars offer cheap meals for those in a hurry (see Eating and Drinking Tips).

You can visit a string of small grocery stores (alimentari ), greengrocers (fruttivendolo ), bread and pastry shops (panetteria or pasticceria ), wine stores (vini olii , enoteca or fiaschetteria ) or simple street stalls and create your own picnic to eat on a square, take on a daytrip, or enjoy back in your hotel room.

Cash is sometimes preferable to credit, and will often secure you a discount in shops and smaller hotels. Just make sure you leave with some kind of receipt.

Roughly, late October to before Easter is low season in Rome, when rates on airfares and hotels can drop considerably, plus you visit without the crowds and long queues (see When to Go).

Rome isn’t fully accessible to disabled travellers, largely because many of its buildings are hundreds of years old and preservation laws prevent alteration to accommodate wheelchairs. However, most major museums have added facilities and many hotels (especially 4- and 5-star properties) have converted a few rooms. Several metro stops (but not the important Colosseo one) are wheelchair accessible. You’ll have the best luck at restaurants during warm months, when many have tables outdoors (though bathrooms may not be accessible).

RADAR (Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation), based in London, publishes a series of useful pamphlets. Holiday Care Service in England offers advice on disabled-friendly accommodation. In Rome, contact CO.IN or browse their useful website.

Older travellers are treated as respected elders in a traditional society such as Italy’. Discounts for anziani are often available at sights and for some transport from age 60 or 65.

The Latin lover is alive and well and women can expect to receive much more attention than at home. Open staring, verbal flirtation, bottom-pinching and even inappropriate rubbing on buses are all common. Be firm. Most of this is harmless, but can be annoying and unwelcome.

There is little in the way of official resources for women, but there is a women’s bookshop, Libreria delle Donne, which acts as a reference point and resource centre for women.

Rome has dozens of study abroad programmes, a huge university and tens of thousands of international students. Ask for a “studente ” ticket to get reduced admissions on sights. Students tend to hang out in the bars of Trastevere (see Enoteca Trastevere) and Campo de’ Fiori (see Taverna del Campo) and the clubs of Testaccio (see Rome’s Trendiest Nightlife), as well as around the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps (see The Spanish Steps and Villa Borghese) after dark.

While student ID cards are useful, the only one widely accepted is the ISIC (International Student Identity Card).

Italians love families and will welcome your clan warmly. Most hotels will add a cot to your room for 30–35 per cent extra and restaurants often offer children’s half-portions (mezza porzione ) for 50–75 per cent less than the adult price.

Homosexuality is legal in Italy and quite broadly accepted in as cosmopolitan a city as Rome, which hosted the World Pride festival in 2000.

Always change money at a bank (or, for American Express card-holders, at an Amex office) for the best rates and lowest commission charges. Bring your passport as ID. Exchange booths (cambio ) are good at a pinch, but have worse rates and/or higher commission. Never exchange a travellers’ cheque (or use one to pay) at a shop or hotel unless you have to; the rates are awful.

The fastest, easiest and cheapest way to get local currency is via an ATM (bancomat ), drawing money directly from your home account. No ID checks, no queues, and you get a better rate than inside the bank. Also no commission charge, unless your home bank charges you for out-of-network ATM use.

MasterCard and Visa are accepted everywhere except the smallest shops, trattorie or hotels. American Express is also accepted in many places. Diner’s Club tends to be valid only at pricier places. You can get credit card cash advances from ATMs, but interest starts accruing immediately and both credit card companies and issuing banks charge small percentage fees for the service.

While still the safest way to carry money (if you lose them and have kept a list of their numbers separate, you can have them speedily replaced), travellers’ cheques are doomed by the evolution of ATMs. A few cheques are good for emergencies, however. Buy them in dollars, pounds sterling or euros. Personal cheques are useless, unless you’re an Amex card-holder, in which case you can cash them at American Express offices.

In 2002, Italy joined most of Europe in adopting the euro (€) to replace the lira. Euro coins come in 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 euro cents and €1 and €2. Notes come in €5, €10, €20, €50, €100, €200 and €500 denominations.

Most payphones in Italy now accept only pre-paid phonecards (scheda telefonica ) which you can buy in several denominations at newsstands and tobacconists (tabacchi ). Break off the corner before use.

There are international phone booths in major railway stations and a range of pre-paid carta telefonica internazionale for making international calls, but the cheapest way is with a calling card with an international plan tied to your home phone account. To reverse the charges from any phone, dial the international operator on 170. Never call from hotels, which charge very high rates. To call Italy from abroad, dial your international prefix then Italy’s country code (39), then the number, including the zero.

Internet parlours and cafés are popping up constantly (ask at the tourist office; they tend to appear and disappear frequently). Increasingly, hotels are installing a common-use computer with web access.

Italy’s post can be slow – letters might arrive home in three days or three months. You don’t need to visit a post office (ufficio postale ); just ask any tobacconist or newsagent for stamps (francobolli ) for the country to which you are mailing. Then drop it in the slot of the postbox (usually red) labelled “per tutte le altre destinazioni ”.

Dial 113 for general emergencies. Dial 112 for the carabinieri police, 118 for an ambulance, 115 for the fire department, and 803116 for car breakdowns (a pay towing service).

Italy is a remarkably safe country. Aside from pickpockets, there is little to fear. Violent crime is rare, and although women (especially young foreign women) may get a lot of attention, it’s mostly harmless. Italians do tend to drive aggressively, so be attentive behind the wheel.

On crowded buses, especially the No. 64 (see Pickpocket Bottlenecks), the metro, and around train stations and other areas tourists congregate, pickpockets work the crowds. Keep your wits about you and keep your passport, credit cards, plane or train tickets, and all money except for a day’s worth of cash in a money belt worn under your clothes, either around the waist or on a string around the neck.

Women dressed in colourful but dirty clothes, usually with swaddled babe in arms, tend to stick to forceful begging, but packs of small children will lift your valuables in a flash, and have been known to use force. A common ruse is to swarm you holding up pieces of cardboard with words scrawled on them while the pickpocketing happens underneath.

Scams, while not particularly rampant, are attempted on tourists. Act attentive and in charge and the unscrupulous are unlikely to try. Look out for taxis who might try to set the meter for “out of town” rates rather than local, and restaurants that try to pad the bill with items not ordered. They are also the most likely to try and double-charge your credit card.

There are two main police branches you might deal with, the regular polizia and the more military-trained, national carabinieri force. A police station is called una questura .

Check your personal insurance to see if it covers you abroad. Usually you must pay any hospital charges up front and file for reimbursement when you get home, although Blue Cross/Blue Shield members can visit affiliated hospitals in Rome using their card as they do at home.

Roman hospitals (ospedale ) are efficient and semi-privatized. The emergency room is called pronto soccorso . For uncomplicated visits not requiring hospital admission, they’ll usually give you a check-up, write a prescription if necessary and send you off with a smile, with no paperwork involved.

Italian pharmacies (farmacie ) are usually very well equipped and knowledgeable in helping you with minor ailments. At night and on Sundays, a sign is posted at each pharmacy listing those that are open all hours. Full-time 24-hour pharmacies include the ones at Piazza Barberini 49, Via Arenula 73 and outside Termini railway station where Via Cavour meets Piazza dei Cinquecento.