Insights and guidance for exploring Europe on a budget and other non-budget related issues
"All good things must come to an end", an idiom meaning that even enjoyable experiences cannot last forever, signifying acceptance of the feeling nature of positive things. This was a phrase which kept popping into my head as our days enjoying exploring Europe, were rapidly counting down to our return home to Johannesburg, South Africa.
We had an incredible time with some challenges and had underestimated the number of tourists who would be in Rome and Florence at a time when schools and universities are in session. We were under-prepared for the weather and I know that to invest in a good waterproof jacket is imperative even if just to have a very unflattering emergency rain poncho with me at all times (I saw one at Cape Union Mart the other day and had a lightbulb moment).
I will always do extensive research as I do believe advice and guidance from people living in the cities you are travelling to, is crucial especially if you are keen explorers of areas off the proverbial beaten track and it is really helpful l to have recommendations from people who live and work in the cities, towns and villages, about where to eat so money is not wasted on "tourist trap" eateries.
There is an eatery in Rome (there are a few 'branches' of it) which is apparently over 100 years old and boasts "high quality Roman food", called Tonnarello. I was told about this eatery by a former colleague who had travelled to Italy earlier in 2024. It is highly praised on social media but was educated when I found a You Tube from a Roman who went to have lunch at Tonnarello to see what all the hype was all about (and long lines of tourists). It was a live video so you saw him receiving 1 meatball in a dish where he expected to receive 4 meatballs and he was very underwhelmed and disappointed. There was zero value for money and this was confirmed by a trio of brothers who I do follow on social media, the Sambatis (they made great content and go deep into Roman neighbourhoods, they are Roman and while they do offer expensive (for us) vespa tours etc; their recommendations, not related to their tours, are spot-on). We saw Federico Sambati (the brother I initially followed on Instagram) on our first Monday in Rome at the Fontana Acqua Paola in Trastevere (he was doing a vespa tour) - can you believe, I was too shy to approach him and say "Ciao" and ask for a photo. So Tonnarello is a big no from me (and this is corrobated by other Roman content creators).
Free attractions and free entrance
The beauty in both Paris, Rome, Orvieto and Florence is that there is so much to see and experience which is free which is really beneficial when you are travelling on a budget. From parks to piazzas, fountains and bridges you can look, see, take incredible photos and soak up the ambience and experience of being somewhere away from home. We did not pay any entrance fee for the Eiffel Tower and yet got amazing photos of it; same with the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps and the incredible bridges, piazzas and ruins from Rome to Florence. The entrance into the Duomo in Florence is free though entrance fees are required for certain parts of it as well as the tower; an entrance fee was also payable for the Duomo in Orvieto but if you want to see and visit St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City, entrance is free. We paid a small fee to see the Pantheon which is a new change since our visit in 2019 when it was free. The majority of other churches from Rome to Orvieto and Firenze are free to walk in and marvel at the incredible art and architecture in each of them. Most of the well-known churches in Paris do have an amount to pay to visit these churches though Basilique du Sacré-Cœur de Montmartre and Église Saint-Sulpice are free to visit.
In all these cities there are museums which are free to experience, while others require visitors to purchase an entrance ticket.
We are, as you will know from the previous blogs in this series, big fans of free walking tours which give you unique insights into various aspects of the city you are visiting. All this is required is a gratuity to be paid to the tour guide at the end of the tour, to thank them for their time, sharing their insights and knowledge and they will also provide guidance in terms of their personal preferences for things to see and places to eat and drink.
Social media and internet resources
Romewise and Florencewise
Romewise and Florencewise are brilliant sites for information and recommendations. We would not have exited Santa Maria Novella station in Florence so easily and emerged within a short and safe walking distance from Mercato Centrale without Elyssa's very useful tips and guidance. She has pages on Facebook for Romewise and Florencewise; a You Tube channel and is so open to receiving e-mails and providing assistance. She is American, has lived in Rome for many years, is married to an Italian and while sometime the content is clearly aimed at American tourists (and those with no budgets), I am a big fan. She was very open to my e-mail requesting a budget-friendly neighbourhood restaurant for us for my birthday dinner. She recommended the incredible ristorante, Ristorante Romolo e Remo for my birthday dinner on Friday, 4 October and it did not disappoint. It is in her neighbourhood in Rome, very budget friendly and the food was amazing.
The Bittersweet Life
Planning for our Rome trip in late 2019, and needing a distraction from the chaos we were living in, I found the podcast, "The Bittersweet Life" another very useful resource. Tiffany is American but again has lived and worked in Rome for many years and is married to a Roman (he is a guard at the Vatican Museums and this is how they met - I think - as Tiffany used to conduct tours in the Vatican Museum. Another trivia fact - when we were exploring the Vatican Museums on 5 October, I saw Tiffany's husband (recognised him from her Instagram posts). I was not going to dash up to him and appear to be a lunatic stalker ha ha ha. Katie, the other half of "The Bittersweet Life" is in Seattle and she and Tiffany were friends from school and started the podcast when Katie was in Rome for a year because her husband was doing some studying - I missed Katie being in Rome by hours; she assured me that she would love to have met up and had a coffee which I do believe (and yes, we are friends on Facebook).
Connections helped - maybe not immediately but I know all these connections will converge in the right place and time in due course.
Elizabeth and Sophie Minchilli
Elizabeth Minchilli and one of her daughters, Sophie Minchilli are an awesome duo who I follow on Instagram on their invidivual profiles and their combined company is Via Rosa. I love this description of Via Rose from Elizabeth Minchilli's website :
"Via Rosa
And so Via Rosa was born. Via in Italian means road, and Rosa was my mother-in-law’s name. Via Rosa sums up what all three of us think our new business embodies:
Traveling to Italy should be about discovering new roads that lead you to the traditions that hold our life here together. We firmly believe that much of that is inextricably tied to the culture of food. Who grows it, who makes it , who sells it, and, of course, who cooks it and places it in front of you at the table to share it with you. Just like Nonna"
I was following Elizabeth (who as a student from the USA working on her dissertation in Rome met her husband and the rest, as the adage goes, is history) for a while before finally having a lightbulb moment realising that her book, "Eating My Way Through Italy", was one my very good friend, Peter, 5 years ago, when Johan and I were in Rome, had recommended as he had just gotten it and loved it.
I am now the proud owner of Sophie Minchilli's book, "The Sweetness of Doing Nothing" exploring the Southern Italian philosophy of Dolce Far Niente and I am loving it - there are stories, recipes and gorgeous photos enticing you to try to embrace dolce far niente!
Kacie Rose
An American living in Florence, engaged to a Firenze chef, is funny, self-deprecating and has enjoyable and educational content. I loved listening to her debut book, "You Deserve Good Gelato" on Audible. Her tours most probably will always be out of my budget but she is refreshing and real.
HeartRome
HeartRome, is the instagram name for Maria Pasquale, an Australian Italian journalist who has lived in Rome for many years. She has written 3 books, The Eternal City, How to be Italian and her latest, Mangia, is not yet available. I have the other 2 too - stories, recipes, advice and amazing photographs.
The Beehive Rome
The Beehive Rome - Linda and Steve, two Americans who bought and opened The Beehive Hostel in Rome in 1999. They live in Orvieto and so Linda's posts are a great mix of Rome and Orvieto life, their children and other travels Linda enjoys around Italy (recently she was in Florence and not too many months ago was in Milano - I made notes!) During the pandemic and lockdown, Steve started baking bagels and is still doing so; so if you are in Rome and craving a bagel go to https://www.beehivebagels.com/ and find out how and where you can buy them, order them and devour the bagels.
Sammi _ Iam
Sammi_Iam, another American content creator, who has been living in Rome for 8 years, was a relatively new found for me and I have subscribed to her You Tube channel. She seems another great resource with travel tips and great content from travelling around Italy to funny content about tourists and Italians alike.
Local Aromas
My top favourite! Benedetta and Valeria, are two Italian sisters, who started Local Aromas along with their Mama and Papa. They enjoyed an international upbringing because of their Papa's work and they are fun, entertaining, clever and so engaging. Excellent English speakers and so knowledgeable - Benedetta is a wine sommelier, an olive oil sommelier and a professional cheese taster! This is the website https://www.localaromas.com/ and their YouTube channel and Instagram profiles are below. They are also super engaging and were happy to respond to a question I wrote in the comments to a You Tube video they had posted about eating in Rome on a budget and told me the name of a restaurant they were filmed in. (Some content creators do not respond at all, or in a very offish high-hand manner - not my type of people at all!)
Budget and transport
There are so many ways to explore Paris, Rome, Florence and Orvieto whether you are driving, renting a bicycle, vespa or electric scooter, using public transport, taxis or walking. I do not have nerves of steel so driving is not an option for me (and that pertains to a car, scooter, bike or golf cart) (also when you are travelling on a budget this is likely not an option either). We made the most of our passes for the public transport system in Paris and Rome. There are various options available and the 7-day passes were an affordable and great choice for us. As was walking - time does factor in this choice - and at a gentle pace as you (a) do not want to wear yourself out walking at breaknecking speed and (b) you can miss out on so much as, at the danger of being a stuck record, there is so much to see when you look up, down, left and right and getting lost down an alleyway is such fun (if you are not exhausted, sick and/or in pain) as it will invariably lead you to an unexpected gem of a find. If you are brave with nerves of steel you can hire a bicycle, vespa or electric scooter to scoot around and I am in awe of those who do that (Morgan and Alyssa) - when Johan and I had a trip to the seaside (Ostia Antica) we did not see any bikes and other rental options available. It could be that these are only available during the summer months when this seaside town (and others) are overflowing with holidaymakers.
Some insights re litter and trash in Italy
You may have read or been told of the "litter problem" in Rome. And it is true that there are lots of rubbish receptacles which are overflowing but this is in high-density areas and when we were in Rome, there were lots of tourists (mainly from other areas of Europe and retirees from USA etc) throwing their trash away. There are various rubbish receptacles for discarding your trash "thoughtfully" ie specially demarcated containers for glass, cans, paper, plastic etc. And we frequently witnessed the collection of the full rubbish containers by AMA Roma (the garbage authority in Rome). When having dinner the night we arrived in Rome, at Ristorante Il Postiglione, a mere 5 minute walk from our rented apartment, we witnessed AMA Rome travelling up the road collecting the full rubbish containers (we were sitting outside as it was a lovely clear and warm evening). The time was about 9.30pm on a Saturday night - this would never happen in South Africa where the rubbish collection is strictly from 08h00 to 17h00 Monday to Friday. In Paris, we also saw garbage being collected late into the evening.
We were disgusted to witness tourists simply discarding their empty pizza boxes from Bonci Pizzarium anywhere and everywhere, let alone in the appropriate trash bin. Bonci Pizzarium was around the corner from the second studio apartment we moved to near the Cipro metro station. This pizzarium is very popular as the owner, Gabriele Bonci, is a "celebrity chef" having had a cooking show on Italian tv and was the sole feature of an episode of the Netflix's series, "Chef's Table - Pizza" on 7 September 2022. Sidenote: We had gone there on the afternoon of Sunday, 29 September 2024 as Morgan was keen to try Bonci's pizza. It is so popular that on a Sunday they have a ticket system and by the time we got there, the tickets had run-out and when Morgan and Alyssa returned and tried the pizza, Morgan declared that the pizza we had eaten from Casa Manco at the Mercato Testaccio was better.
Souvenirs
People may roll their eyes at fridge magnets and keyrings from destinations, national and international but they are, in my humble opinion, fabulous mementos of travels - I love collecting both and am always so grateful to receive a fridge magnet or key ring from a friend who has visited somewhere I have never been to. I recently received a key ring from the Bahamas which is a destination I have not been lucky enough to visit and may never but would love to experience so a key ring from the Bahamas is greatly appreciated by me. Also, with our currency very much humbled and way weaker than the Euro, pound and dollar, fridge magnets and key rings are the ideal gift and souvenir. Souvenir shops are more than the adage "two a penny" in tourist attraction cities and often they have specials eg 5 fridge magnets for €5, so a very cost-effective way to buy souvenirs for family and friends, when you are travelling on a shoestring budget which is what we seem to always do (travel on a shoestring budget!).
You may also find souvenirs or other interesting items to purchase to take home as mementoes from markets and the informal type market stalls which are often near metro stations. Last year I found some lovely canvas bags with "Ciao Bella" printed on them and other sayings and/or pictures at one such stall and they were €3 cheaper than the souvenir shops and travelling with South African currency, every Euro saved, is almost R20 saved. And I love a bargain and a sale ..... if I see a clothing item I purchased at the original price, on sale for a fraction of that, I always feel so personally affronted and feel robbed! Another random piece of trivia about me that you really did not need to know.
Mangia (Eat!)
Travelling on a budget does not mean you have to starve. We found so many options to eat on our limited budget whether it was a sandwich from the supermarket, a croissant, tagliare la pizza (cut pizza cut to the size you want and weighed), trapizzino and suppli; buying foccacia from a bakery, the market or supermarket, cold cuts and cheese. Gelato which costs more than €3.50 for a piccolo cono (small cone) is too much; most excellent gelateria price their piccoli coni at €3.00 which will be for 2 scoops and a topping or panna (cream). And free water is available at either nasoni (water fountains) or the water dispensers at most metro stations (where still or sparkling water are the free available options!) Drinking a coffee at the bar counter is often cheaper than sitting down at a table to have your coffee - could be a difference in price of €1.00!
If you go to a Bar for apertivo hour, you will always be given free bar snacks (usually a dish or two of potato chips and olives) - depending on the place and the prices, you may get so many substantial snacks to accompany your aperol spritz, negroni, prosecco, bellini or hugo and for the cost of that one drink and all the free food, you may not need dinner, but then again you are in Italy where food is part of the bloodstream. In December 2019 when our budget was such a fine shoestring it was almost transparent, we would walk past a restaurant which offered apertivos for €10.00 each and an all-you-can-eat buffet of appetizers. That was exquisite torture - exquisite to see all the gorgeous food on display and available for only €10 per person and torture because we could not afford to indulge. C'est la vie!
Useful resources :
Local Aromas
@Local aromas
@sminchilli
@kaccierose_
@heartrome
Wanted In Rome and Romeing are great resources which I enjoyed reading. And while you are guaranteed to have free WiFi at your accommodation (and all McDonald's have free WiFi) I just discovered this article about the best cafes in Rome to find WiFi (especially if you need to do some work while having a coffee) https://www.romeing.it/free-wi-fi-in-rome/
Romeing
Wanted in Rome
I really hope this proves entertaining, educational, interesting and informative for you, and hopefully entice you to plan a trip to France and/or Italy (or both!)
Adieu, Au Revoir, Arrivederci!!!
“Espresso is to Italy, what champagne is to France.” – Charles Maurice de Talleyrand
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