Rome - go or cancel?

[IReallyLikeYorkshire]

I've booked a weekend in February next year but for some reason I just can't get excited about it. It just doesn't fill me with excitement as it did before I started looking on street view. It looks... quite run down and just not what I expected. But then sometimes the best trips are the ones that surprise you.

Go or cancel? I'll not lose much £ if I cancel soon...

Which bits? I don't find that at all. And driving in London is madness, why would you do that? I never have to worry about roadworks as I'm always on foot and it's so easy to get around.

I’m not as effusive about Rome as some here (I went; it was ok, colosseum was a highlight, Vespa tour was fantastic, but didn’t enjoy it as much as other European cities, wouldn’t rush back) but even I don’t remember graffiti having any impact whatsoever on my stay.

Rome is incredible! But if you don’t want to go, then don’t.

I wasn’t being snobby. OPs user name is I really like Yorkshire. Logically I concluded therefore that she might prefer to holiday in Scarborough than in Rome (which she’s said she’s not that bothered about). I like Scarborough on some memories as a child level (I haven’t been since), but I prefer Rome.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Rome is amazing, especially the Forum. I also really like Yorkshire, so it's possible to enjoy both 😁

Street view can make anywhere look a bit of a dump tbh.

That's my experience of Streetview, too. It makes places I've already been to look so dull. You're not feeling the sunshine, seeing the best views or even seeing inside the shops. You're just going down the streets which are open to cars, looking at buildings, lamp posts and dustbins.

This is hysterical. It’s a capital city ffs! Of course it will have graffiti! It’s URBAN. let me guess, Paris is a disappointment too because of it’s graffiti?!

I went this year as my child is really interested in Roman history. I fell in love with it at first sight. Probably the best city break I've been on, everything there is beautiful.

There was a recent thread about visiting London.

The OP had not clicked that Street View pictures are taken VERY early in the morning when there are no people and no traffic
and before the road sweepers have been through.

She had a wonderful time once she realised that the area around Tower Bridge is thriving.

If you are judging Rome based on street view
it will be wasted on you

No it's the cones and orange plastic barriers etc.

I don't know where they are today, only that every time I venture out in central London there seems to be so much of this.

I do think it's changed vibe in the last ten years and that's not a political statement, just a nostalgic one.

I agree I am not religious at all and I didn't find the Vatican at all.boring! It's beautiful

And there is no perspective.

I don’t mean to be that person but really 🙄

I've worked in central London for over 25 years and I can't say I notice more roadworks than usual or more per mile than where I live in rural Kent, though obviously there is traffic, it's a city. Either way, it seems an odd thing to focus on, particularly when it's so easy to get around without worrying about traffic.

I've been twice to Rome and first time was in September with a friends and it was great, loved it.
2nd time was with the family in April last year, 2 teenagers and it was a bit of a let down. I think it totally depends on your circumstances, where you stay and whether it's crowded or not. We stayed a bit too far away from the city which I thought it would be fine as we were there for quite a few days. But it was a drag having to get a tram from the accommodation through graffiti filled, grotty streets. It was so very crowded, it really ruined the enjoyment of the main sites, although beautiful. Very little green space to escape to, even the main park was not nice and dried out.
Go out of season and not with grumpy impatient teenagers!
Love London by the way, any time of year, with anyone, can't beat it.

Please please please go! I was exactly the same when I went, wasn't fussed and was pretty happy to cancel (as was my DP) but we went and wow what an amazing trip!! I would go back in a heartbeat :-)

My father in law lives in Trastevere, a hip, bohemian area of Rome where, yes, there is a lot of graffiti. It goes with the territory. As someone else up the thread mentioned, the locals really do not notice it.

My mother in law lives in Borgo, right next to the Vatican (in fact, you can see the Swiss Guards from her roof terrace) and there is no graffiti in her area.

I honestly don’t think you need to be concerned at all, Rome isn’t run down the slightest.

Now had you said you were going to Paris…

Further to my earlier point - our favourite thing in Rome was going down the Appian Way, that was amazing, and the catacombs. We hired bikes, it was a glorious day.

Well I don't know about rural Kent. I'm really meaning very central London.

It just doesn't have that self-composed, slightly luxurious feel it used to have. One of my best memories of London is beetling through the parks in a black cab, breeze through the window, en route to somewhere lovely for a dinner out with friends. Now it feels like there's always a detour through plastic roadworks grilles, the driver keeps slamming on his brakes and cursing, complains the whole time about something or other. I dunno: it's just a depressed feeling.

Yeah cancel that Colosseum, is falling apart in places

Philistine

Seriously? Graffiti is nothing more than youngsters having fun with a paint bottle. Yes, it's not civic but it doesn't detract from the life of the city.

You can always go to Vienna if graffiti offends you. It's beautiful, great monuments and dead as 2 day fish out of water unlike Rome.

Paris is lovely.

(though beautiful in the snow!)

London has never felt "luxurious" to me apart from in very specific areas or even just particular streets within particular areas, and they have always rubbed up against a more down to earth atmosphere, sometimes one street being very different from the next. That is London to me and what makes it good. It sounds to me like you've never known it very well.