Board of European Students of Technology
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BEST LBG ROMA Board of European Students of Technology |
ROMA - The Survival Guide |
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© Sabina Brufani & Michelangelo Calabresi
The whole group of Rome wishes you a very very warm...
WELCOME TO ROMA!
This little guide wants to be something more complete than the usual 'pre material' sent by mail; we just tried to think about the common questions that a newcomer like you would have about Rome and Italy in general, some paragraphs will not be essential, but some others may contain essential information that will, in our hope, give you a useful overview of this new environment in which you will spend those days.
Anyway we encourage you to read at least the paragraphs 5, 6 and 8, as we consider them very important.
Other paragraphs will tell you about the habits of our country, living with us you will understand the differences that exist between the various European cultures and sometimes maybe you'll be surprised how Italians think or act differently than other populations, while some other times you'll discover how close we are; in all those case, just open your mind, we have to become a single country but this doesn't mean that we have to ignore our individuality, instead we have to know each other as much as possible, and this will make easy to co-operate and work together.
After a more or less dramatic selection you finally came to Rome. The
whole group here longly prepared this course and we'll do our best to make
it working in the better way; on the other hand your co-operation will
be essential, attending a BEST event means giving capital importance both
to the didactic part and the social part. This means that you're really
going to have very few free time with us; your good mood and your enthusiasm
will be the capital component to fulfill one of the main objectives of
a BEST course:
TO HAVE FUN!
Italy, placed right in the middle of the Mediterranean sea, is a 56 million people country formed by a main continental piece of land almost completely surrounded by the sea, plus two large islands (Sicilia and Sardegna) and a great number of smaller islands one of which (Lampedusa) is placed almost in front of Libya and far beyond the island of Malta.
The main land is approximately more than 1000 kilometres long and I think that his "boot" shape is definitely well know by everyone. Also Italians use sometimes to nick-name their country as "Lo stivale" (The boot, in Italian).
As every other Italian, we are of course proud of our messy, but still beautiful town. Rome is since 1870 the capital of Italy, but Historically it was always considered the most important city of our country.
Rome is a very ancient city, so it's difficult to say when it was 'founded' if ever it was; The legends says Rome was planned by the Gods themselves. After the fall of Troy, it was the Gods who led a band of Trojans to a promised land in the west. There Romolo and Remo were born to a Vestal Virgin and nursed by a friendly She-wolf.
Upon reaching manhood, the twins founded Rome on the banks of the river Tevere.
This happened on April the 21st of 754 BC, more than 2500 years ago. Soon after digging the borders of the new city Romolo claimed and promised on his own life 'anybody who dares to trespass this borders without permission will find here sure death!'.
His brother Remo, then, wanted to challenge Romolo and crossed the borders. Without esitation Romolo killed Remo and became the first king of Rome.
Don't be surprised of how many legends are involved in the story of Rome, since it's very difficult also for the researchers to make distinction between what is true or not, ancient romans were used to write history books changing a lot of things just because they wanted to hide that the 'Caput Mundi' was originally just a small group of people living on a hill, caring about some sheep and controlling the commercial traffic which had to cross the river Tevere.
But in a case or in the other, this small group of people held a very important position and all the surrounding populations began to attack them. After defeating the invading armies, this first little fierce group of primitive Romans took revenge conquering the surrounding kingdoms, turning them into Roman provinces.
This is the beginning of the huge spreading of the Roman Kingdom first, then Roman Republic and finally Roman Empire, who took over all the populations of the Italian peninsula and began to spread beyond, in central Europe and in the northern part of Africa.
After the transition from Republic, the Roman Empire reached its biggest extension under the Emperor Traiano, soon after he conquered the Dacia (Old Romania). It appeared evident that the Empire was too big and so it was divided in two smaller empires, the Western Empire and the Eastern Empire. The Eastern empire could survive quite well till the arrival of the Muslims, but the Western one had a quite short life due to several invasions by barbaric populations mainly coming from Asia and in Italy began the long middle-age in which only the Church was able to keep culture and knowledge surviving. During this period also the dimension of Rome decreased and for centuries a lot of foreign kings (mainly from France and Germany) tried to restore the Roman Empire. From then to one century ago, Italy was rarely a whole country but more often it was formed by a lot of smaller states, often fighting each other.
The definitive reunification of Italy was operated around 1870 after a lot of attempts against the occupants (mostly Austrian in the North and Spanish in the South) with the co-ordination of the Kingdom of Piemonte (a northern Italian region) whose king became the king of Italy.
At this point all Italy was reunited again with the only exception of Rome, which was the capital of the Vatican State, ruled by the pope.
After a "formal" invasion, Rome was took by the Italian army on the 20th of September 1870 and became the capital of Italy one year later, on June 1871.
Later, Italy took part to both the two world wars of this century, in the first against Germany and in the second as an ally of Germany and Japan.
During the cold war, while in the NATO block, Italy was in the middle of the attention of U.S.A and U.S.S.R. due to a very strong Communist Party (always around 30%) which dropped to about 9% only during the last years.
Looking a very large-scale map you'll realize that Rome has a quite regular circular shape, bounded by a huge highway called 'Grande Raccordo Anulare' or shortly GRA. The main roads of the city follow the tracks of the ancient roman streets and lead always radially from the center to the GRA and beyond.
The city was once completely closed by this ring, but now as the population is increasing beyond 4 millions of people, a lot of buildings are being built around it.
The geometrical center of Rome is the Colosseo just 100 meters from our university. However the 'living center' of the town is mainly a little bit to the north with all the famous streets like 'Via dei Condotti' and 'Via del Corso' with the finest fashion and jewellery shops.
Last but not least, the political center of Rome is the Hill called 'Campidoglio', located above Piazza Venezia and which is worth a visit just to see the square in front of the City Hall, designed by Michelangelo.
About hills, maybe you know that Rome was called the 'City of the 7 Hills' but it will be hard for you to see them since now they're confused between the buildings. One of them quite visible is the Campidoglio; about the others, you will see some of them and just trust that there are also the other ones!
Of course the best way to move through a city like Rome is to use the underground, but unfortunately Rome has only two lines, so almost every time you'll have to use buses; the tickets for buses and underground cost 1500 Lt.
We have to warn you: DON'T TAKE TAXIS, they are terribly expensive, meaning that a short trip may cost you not less than 20000 Lt but going from the center of Rome to the Airport will cost you not less than 70000 Lt.
Beside public transportation, I personally suggest you, especially in the evening, to move around the center simply walking as it can be a enjoyable and relaxing experience, providing to avoid all the big roads and walking only through the narrow and ancient streets of downtown.
Coin operated public telephones are now equipped to accept any kind of coin, excluding the 50 Lire coin, but there are a lot of telephones in the center which only accept telephone cards so we suggest you to buy one even if you are going to make only urban calls. Their cost ranges between 2000, 5000, 10000 and (although difficult to find) 15000 Lire.
However if you use coins the minimum amount you should use for a short urban call is 200 Lt. and it will last for about 3 minutes, if you are using a 500 Lire coin and you spend only 200 lire the telephone will not give you the money back and you are going to let the next user to phone for free.
There are various telephone numbers for the various public services, but just memorize the 113 as it is the 'general emergency' number and can be used in any occasion and with any telephone (public or private) without charge.
The currency in Italy is called 'Lira', but you'll always hear about 'Lire' that is the plural.
The Lira is a very small currency, one ECU is more or less 2000 lire. For this reason there are no fractions like cents, ore or something equivalent.
Here are the currency units that you may encounter during your stay in Italy :
| 5 10 20 | These are really rare coins, not useful anymore. |
| 50 100 200 500 | These coins are commonly used nowadays, beware you may encounter several different kind of the same coin. |
| 1000 2000 5000 10000 50000 100000 | Come into paper form. |
Our city is not particularly dangerous, but it's still a BIG city, so some attention should be paid and some universal rules should be followed:
Especially in the area around our university, be careful about some small children, badly dressed who will soon go after you as soon as they will realize that you are a tourist. Don't panic, they're not dangerous, instead they'll try to steal your wallet, so keep a hand on it and just keep going straight.
Of course, like any other big city you should avoid certain zones like the main railway station during the night unless you are not alone, keep in mind that you can rely on our experience, so feel free to ask us about some doubts concerning 'places to be avoided', however I don't want to scare you, Rome has a very low rate of criminality compared with the other big European capitals.
If seeking for Police, keep in mind that Military Police (called CARABINIERI) has all the functions of the normal police and is only differently dressed (Almost all black).
Other kinds of police you can look for is the State Police (POLIZIA)
and the Urban Police (VIGILI URBANI). Unfortunately they rarely speak English
fluently.
Even if American tourists coming here are always surprised about this,
maybe you already know that in Italy you can buy alcohol in any quantity,
anywhere, at any age anytime and in almost all the public places selling
drinks and food. 
Italian laws, which are surprisingly liberal in this occasion don't restrict the alcoholic consumption unless you are going to drive (or piloting an aircraft of course). So the only way you can have trouble with police when drinking is becoming dangerous or aggressive towards other people.
Also the maximum amount of alcohol that you can drink before driving is not really strict and you should not expect to run into troubles with police if you drank a couple of glasses of wine.
According to the latest referendum, in Italy is legal to take drugs,
but it is illegal to distribute them; this means that if police is going
to catch you with any kind of drugs (including Marijuana) you are going
to be prosecuted only if the quantity that you are carrying exceed a minimal
quantity that is allowed for personal use. This quantity is not set definitely
but depends on the decision made by the court.
In any case you are not allowed to cross the borders of Italy with any kind of drug.
prices
can differ a lot from a place to place; when computing prices remember
that in a restaurant you have to pay a fixed amount of money for each person
(usually between 1500 and 3000 Lt.) and is listed somewhere in the menu
and in the bill, referred as "Pane e Coperto". This doesn't apply
to restaurants like Mac Donald's in which there's not table dressing.
A small tip is usually left of the table after paying and usually is between 5% and 10% but you don't have to leave it if you don't want.
In the period of the course shops will close mostly at 7.30 in the afternoon even if some of them will close at 8.00 or maybe at 7.00.
In the center of Rome you will mostly find small shops and little supermarkets, again looking at the prices is a universal advice, remember that VAT (in Italian called IVA) is always included in the showed price.
Especially if you are a girl you will want to wander around to see some clothes and shoes. There are some streets in the center of the town in which there is a high concentration of such kind of shops, some of them are Via del Corso (C5 on your map), Via Nazionale (D6), and Via del Tritone (D5).
The area between these streets is also very interesting and is worth a walk.
If you are going to seek a good Disco in Rome, you'll be surprised how expensive they are, compared with the other prices, and this is the reason why young Italians almost always go to Discos when outside Italy. You should expect to spend not less than 15000 Lt., but sometimes entry price rises up to 40000 Lt. and over. Usually the ticket includes a drink, while the other ones can be terribly expensive (Again 10000 ~ 20000 Lt.).
If you want to take a beer in a pub you can choose from a lot of places, and they are not too expensive (a beer may cost you about 4000-8000 Lt.) but again always look for the prices first. Pubs are quite popular between Italian young people and everyone of us will be able to suggest you a good one.
If you are looking for a pharmacy (in Italian: FARMACIA), then you have to look for a green or red cross on the streets. There are many of them so it will be quite easy to find one. Every pharmacy is open during normal shopping hours, but there are some who are open also during the night and during holidays.
Due to a recent law in Italy you should almost always have a medical receipt to buy even stupid medicines, but usually pharmacists will give them to you anyway as they consider this law stupid.
Should you need an ambulance, the 'Jolly' 113 telephone number is always the one to use, if possible ask to some Italian nearby to phone as the operator usually does some questions at the phone and he's not supposed to speak English.
The Italian race is the result of a quite strong mix of many European and non European races, but still some characteristics are predominant, like the black hair and brown eyes and things like that. But remember that thinking that all Italian are like this is like thinking that all people from Sweden are blond with blue eyes or that all Martians are green.
Italian people are open and friendly and this may leave people from the northern countries a little bit concerned as it is quite usual for people to talk each other on trains and buses even if they don't know each other.
While on the streets of Rome, you can ask people to help you and they usually do their best, but not every Italian is able to speak English and young people are more likely to.
When going around, sightseeing the streets of Rome, keep in mind that Rome's millenary and confused history is well represented by it's buildings and it's monuments.
In the center of the town most of the buildings are not less that 200 years old and if you look at their walls you can also find pieces of marble included in the walls, stolen from some ancient temple and used as construction material.
It is possible to see some buildings with a ancient-roman basement, a middle-age first floor and a more recent roof and if you enter some smaller churches you will realize that all the columns are different one from the other only because they were built within using the columns of several different temples.
The Ancient Rome had hundreds of buildings with magnificent marble columns, if you wonder where the hell they have gone, the answer is 'inside the hundreds of churches that you can see'. After the Roman Empire, many churches were built with columns taken from Ancient and broken temples. The Colosseo itself is partially missing due to the fact that it was allowed to use its stones as construction material.
Our university itself is an ancient building derived from a monastery and in the same building there is also a very ancient and important church called San Pietro in Vincoli (the same name of the university) and which contains one of the most important sculptures of Michelangelo Buonarroti: Il Mose'.
It would not be useful to list here the most important monuments of Rome, since it would be always incomplete, but almost immediately too long. But surely if you come to Rome, you can't miss some masterpieces as the Colosseo, the Vatican City, Piazza di Spagna, the Foro Romano, and some other tens of things which are usually concentrated in the inner part of the city.
The Italian language, straight derivation from the Latin language (Which has always been important for Italian literature) is a quite difficult language, due to the incredible polimorphy of his words and sentences and the large number of exceptions in its rules. Of course this doesn't apply for those who come from Latin countries such as Spain or Portugal since especially Spanish is very similar to Italian.
The only easy thing about Italian is the pronunciation: with just 5 or 6 rules you should be able to read correctly almost all the Italian words without mistakes and of course without understanding almost anything of them.
If you already can understand some Italian probably you'll sometimes find it hard to understand us when speaking each other. Don't worry, you still can understand Italian, but many of us, during informal conversations, are tempted to use pronunciation and words from the roman dialect that compared to Italian is much more smooth, chewed and lazily spoken. Other Italians usually consider this dialect quite funny to be heard.
Here are some words and sentences in Italian
| Hello/Bye | Ciao |
| Good morning | Buon Giorno |
| Good evening | Buona Sera |
| Good night | Buona Notte |
| Good-bye | Arrivederci |
| How are you? | Come stai? |
| My name is... | Mi chiamo... |
| Thank you | Grazie |
| Yes/No/Perhaps | Si/No/Forse |
| What's the time? | Che ore sono? |
| I don't speak Italian | Io non parlo Italiano |
| Street/Square | Via/Piazza |
| I don't understand | Non capisco |
| Where is... | Dove e'... |
| Where's the toilet? | Dove e' il bagno? |
| How much is it? | Quanto costa? |
| I want to pay | Voglio pagare |
| What is this supposed to be? | Che cosa e' questo? |
| My size is... | La mia taglia e'... |
| I want this | Voglio questo |
| Sale | Saldi/Saldo |
| Exchange Office / Money | Cambiavalute / Denaro |
| Wine / Beer / Water / Mineral Water | Vino / Birra / Acqua / Acqua Minerale |
| Coffee/ Milk/Tea/ Sugar/ Salt/ Pepper | Caffe' / Latte / Te' / Zucchero / Sale / Pepe |
| I like you | Mi piaci |
| I love you | Ti amo |
| Love | Amore |
| Honey | Tesoro (Literally Treasure) |
| Kiss | Bacio |
| Lips | Labbra |
| You have so beautiful eyes | Hai degli occhi bellissimi |
| Do you like me? | Ti piaccio? |
| You are handsome | Sei bello |
| You are pretty | Sei bella |
| I don't like you | Non mi piaci |
| Do you want to dance with me? | Vuoi ballare con me? |
| Don't even think about it. | Te lo puoi scordare. |
| I can give you a lift home if you want | Posso accompagnarti a casa se vuoi |
| May I show you my stamp collection? | Vuoi vedere la mia collezione di francobolli? |
| I want to make love with you | Voglio fare l'amore con te |
| Did you like it? | Ti e' piaciuto? |
| Let's do it one more time | Facciamolo ancora |
| I pratice safe sex | Io pratico sesso sicuro |
| It was supposed to be only a kiss | Doveva essere solo un bacio |
| We are in Italy, aren't we? | Siamo in Italia, vero? |
| I want to smoke a last cigarette | Voglio l'ultima sigaretta |
| I was needing a toilet, but it's too late | Dovevo andare al bagno ma non fa niente |
| Wasn't it a toilet? | Non era un bagno? |
| Kill me gently please | Mi ammazzi con cortesia, la prego |
Last update: 10/01/98 | by Michelangelo Calabresi |
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PHOTO GALLERY:
People singing and dancing with wine in their blood
Giulio Cesare leading the Romans?
Dense clouds hide the poor humans dipping in this inferno...
Well, it seems they're having fun...
A barbecue near the Dead Town, too bad it's raining
Singing can be a way not to feel the rain
Franco, the big father of BEST ROMA
