Rome has over 100 hostels and budget accommodations. With so many options it becomes difficult to select the right place to stay. In fact, many hostels in Rome require a minimum stay of at least 2 nights. The typical backpacker approach of, “I’ll stay one night, if I don’t like it, I can find another hostel,” doesn’t work with Rome.

Rome is an old, ancient city, in which every square foot is priceless. Keep in mind that most hostels and budget accommodations will be in old buildings and space is in short supply. Rome hostels tend to be small.

Selecting your Rome Hostel:

• How far is the hostel from a metro station? What is in walking distance?
• Are the bathrooms unisex? Will I have a hot shower?
• How big is the kitchen? How many individuals share that same kitchen?
• What are the amenities? Is there a place to hang wet clothes to dry?
• What type of security is offered?  24-hour front desk?  Lockers?

These are great questions to ask before committing yourself to a hostel. In fact, our first mistake occurred after booking a hostel in Rome. Justin and I later found out that they did not have security lockers, or lock the rooms. This was a huge concern.

However, after arriving, checking in, seeing our beds, and chatting in Italenglish, we discovered that an individual sits at the 24-hour front desk monitoring who comes and goes. In fact, after staying out past 10pm (which we did), we needed to hit an entry button on the front door. Then they would verify that the two of us were currently checked in, before pressing the automatic release on the door. Our hostel in Rome was so secure, that we couldn’t believe we had so many previous concerns.

We loved the Color’s Hotel & Hostel in Rome; they even had a rooftop terrace. This offered a great place to relax with a cup of coffee in the morning as we enjoyed the beauty of Rome. The terrace also doubled as a place to hang our laundry to dry. Fortunately, the covering provided keeps Roman Pigeon poop from meeting your fresh and clean threads.  It proved to be a great hostel in Rome.

The Color’s Hotel & Hostel was the perfect location and accommodation for us. We selected our hostel and got lucky. This is a big part of finding a hostel in Rome. Some locations are amazing, while others lead to nights you don’t want to remember. Reading online reviews can be helpful. Try hostels, hostelbookers, hostelworld and hostelz. The reviews can be less accurate than we wish they were.  At the same time, these websites provide information on location and nightly rates.  Sometimes it costs extra money to book through one of these sites.  See if the hostel has their own website.  The hostel booking websites are a good place to start.

Other than that, travel is about risk! Know what you want to do in Rome and then decide where you want to stay, and book it! If you are really adventurous, find a hostel when you arrive. However, in the high season (Mid-May to early September) you might want to book ahead so you don’t sleep outside a Gelato shop near Trevi fountain.

A few months ago, before I became dive certified, I read about the top 10 places to scuba dive.  Of course, New Zealand’s Poor Knights Islands made the list.  I couldn’t decide if it would be worth it.  It would take time to drive up north, it costs a lot of money to dive (still living off the Kiwi dollar), and we could potentially waste several days waiting for safe weather.  I had not previously realized that ‘Dive-cations’ are weather dependent.  When someone travels to a destination to dive, it is important to have backup days, incase a big storm rolls through the dive spot.  This can mix and turn the water and ruin diving for around 48 hours.

Inevitably, Justin and I took the risk.  We drove into the Northland to try to dive the Poor Knights Islands.  After my first dive (we did 2 dives total), I knew why the Poor Knights Islands made the Top 10 list.  The water was crystal clear and oceanic blue.  I saw bright colored fish everywhere.  Blue!  Green!  Yellow!  I felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, shortly after arriving in Munchkin land, while seeing all of the spectacular colors swim and dash before my eyes.

While we were swimming along I noticed a small opening in the reef.  Justin (my official dive buddy for life) and I looked at each other and motioned that we were going to swim into the opening.  I swam through the narrow opening first and the narrowness widened slightly.   I was able to swim completely through the reef tunnel for about 30 feet.  I looked behind me and didn’t see Justin.  Within another second, I saw bubbles and then Justin popped up through the tunnel.  While I was in the tunnel I saw a bright green fish that was about two feet long.  It looked like a cactus.  I later found out that this is a scorpion fish and they change colors.  We even saw a sting ray that was 4 feet wide!

During our second dive, we swam through an area known as ‘the labyrinth’.  This provided even more opportunities to venture inside reefs and tunnel in and out of them like my favorite Disney princess, Ariel.  I know it sounds a little silly, but the Poor Knights Islands are on the top 10 list for this magical reason.  While diving the Poor Knights Islands you feel as though you have entered a hidden treasure few experience.  Diving the Poor Knights Islands was the best thing we did in New Zealand.

Justin described it as, “swimming in a tropical aquarium.”  I spoke with experienced divers who told me the Poor Knights Islands were the best reefs and underwater life they had ever seen.  These divers had even dove the Great Barrier Reef.  They told me to forget about the Great Barrier Reef, its overrated.  How do I figure out what’s overrated verse what truly deserves its spot on the top 10 list?  Whether it’s diving or other elements of travel, sometimes I will just take the risk and hope that the experience is fantastic and trust the top 10 list.

I have a new hope in top 10 lists.  Perhaps they are not all hype and ploys to gather more tourist dollars.  I intentionally avoided buying into top 10 lists in the past.  They always seemed lame and overrated.  Why would I want to experience something as commercial as a ‘Top 10 List’?  In the future, I plan to skim over top 10 lists, but not base our entire travels on them.  It can become dangerous if too much emphasis is put on other individuals opinions and ratings.  I might swim with sharks, but basing our time as backpackers on top 10 lists is far too dangerous to imagine.

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For example: On a plane, train, boat, whatever, I like to read and don’t wear my contacts. The next day, experiencing jet lag will make my eyes tired and I will probably go without contacts. Then I might want them for an activity in which I will be hot, and not want to have sweat and oil collect on my glasses (that’s gross). If I open a 1-2 week pair but only wear them 3 of the 14 days that they are usable, it just seems wasteful.

Overall, it’s nice to have a choice. Although, I am still not sure if we will go with the “daily wear” lenses or if we will buy 1-2 week lenses for backpacking.

I have a biased view, due to the fact that while trialing a sample pair of lenses yesterday, I was able to see better than I have in a while. My night vision was incredible!

What do you think? Should we go with the ease, comfort and flexibility that “daily wear” lenses offer? Or should we bring 1-2 week contacts like we have always used?

These items tend to fit into 4 categories:

Things that: – we already use

- may not be available in another country

- are great to “MacGyver” our way out of a tight spot

- we have never heard of before but other backpackers have recommended it

So, here we are buying items, some of these we have never purchased or used before. However, if it was a lifesaver for a certain backpacker, who says it was the best thing they brought, what do we have to lose? If we discover we don’t need something, and we don’t feel like carrying it anymore, we can always throw it out or give it away to someone we meet. Who knows what people we may meet? They might really need some duct tape.

This is a picture of some of these items, but not all of the things that will be in our backpacks.

What do you think? Is their any items in the picture above that you would leave behind? Why? What is something, you think we should remember to bring, that is not on our packing list?

Let us know what you think. With a lack of experience in the laxative department, perhaps we purchased the wrong brand. Maybe you have advice for us?

Or perhaps you are an athlete, and you know a product that works better than Bengay? Has anyone ever used something called Tiger Balm…we have heard about this…

Over the next few months until we leave, I would like to focus on: W.W.Y.B.

What Would You Bring?

Using the library to assist in initial research is something I would highly recommend.

1. It’s FREE! I don’t have to spend money Justin and I are trying to save for travel and transportation on 100′s of books.
2. We cannot carry lots of books. I am not sure how many we will bring at this point but it’s not going to be a ton. We will have to plan on buying additional informational books and maps as we go.
3. It’s a great way to see whats out there, new and old resources. Whereas a large book store will only carry the most recently released travel books. These are great! But their are other good resources that only library’s can offer.

An example of a lesson I learned from some items I checked out today:

Book: “Spectrum Guide to Maldives” The islands south of India (yes, in the Indian Ocean). After looking into the islands I realized that they are tiny islands (most that you can only reach by boat, not even enough land for an airplane to land), that house upscale resorts. I plan on returning this book on my next trip to the library.

Book: “Driving Over Lemons, An Optimist In Andalucia” This is a book by Chris Stewart (a guy who originally grew up in the states) who moved with his wife, Ana, to El Valero, a mountain farm in Andalucia, Spain. His book is a tale of his adventures that resulted in “both hilarious disasters and blissful serendipity”. He still lives in Spain today with Ana (his wife) and they have a daughter, Chloe. And I think he has a dog too, because his official author photo was taken with a dog. However, Chris could have stolen the dog to look extra awesome in the photo.

DVD: “Hairspray” That’s right, the movie based on the musical. John Travolta plays a woman and I heard he can still shake it and look good on the dance floor. I’ll have to put him to the test and find out. What can I say? This is not directly related to becoming a nomad backpacker. The last two DVD’s I checked out contained factual information on two different countries. I think it’s important that I do not become obsesed with other cultures and loose focus on my own culture. Which at times may mean John Travolta as a woman.

Maps: Alright, so I didn’t “check” any out. And you can’t actually check out maps at the library I have been currently going to. However, they have a used book section; they sell used books, magazines, travel brochures and even maps. I took a look to see if any of them would be helpful. A few of the maps I came across today would probably come in handy, including maps of Amsterdam, London, and Southern France. But as a nomad backpacker, I believe it will be important to wait and buy maps once we will need them. Instead of traveling with a backpack that could be mistaken as an atlas. Once we know our first few destinations, I plan on having a few maps and resources prepared in advance.

I got a few other books today too. So far it is proving to be the best way to explore resources for FREE without accumulating loads of books that I could never bring in the limited (size and weight) capacity our backpacks will offer. I think this is a great way to begin to educate myself during this initial stage of planning