Living Like a Local: Two Great Nights at a vrbo Apartment in Rome

We were only a few hours into our first day in Rome when it hit me. And we may never travel the same way again.

I’m on the road maybe three months a year, but 99.9% of the time my out-of-town stays take place at a hotel. Most are terrific, with comfortable beds, nice amenities and more. But a hotel isn’t made to make you feel like a local.

So, when my wife and I recently decided to stay a couple of extra days in Rome prior to a cruise on the MSC World Europa, we opted to get a vrbo unit.

I contacted my friends at vrbo, who were kind enough to give us a list of potential units in the Trastevere area, a popular area for vacation rentals in Rome. I took a few hours one day and settled on one that sounded good; a two-bedroom, two-bath unit with a large terrace overlooking what looked like a beautiful area of the city.

The unit’s interior looked great, but it was images of the terrace that really got my motor running. I immediately had a mental image of al fresco morning coffees, with everyday Romans going about their business below my feet and a warm Mediterranean sun warming my face over an evening glass of Italian wine.

Travel seldom works out exactly the way we dream it up, and the weather didn’t cooperate as well as I would have liked.  But it was a tremendous experience that may have changed the way my wife and I want to travel forever.

With vrbo, you don’t know the exact numerical address of the place you’re booking until you’ve booked. But you get the street name, and if you look carefully at the clues and measure distances to popular places that the website lists as being nearby, you can usually get a very good idea of where you’ll be.

A LIVELY CORNER OF ROME

I knew we were on Via del Moro, and I deduced fairly quickly that we’d be staying near the Ponte Sisto, a pedestrian bridge that crosses the Tiber River. I knew we’d be close to popular destinations such as the Spanish Steps and Piazza Navona, but also comfortably far enough away to avoid the crowds.

Once I booked, I was able to find the exact address and scope out the area on google maps, seeing where I might find nice shops and restaurants. I was delighted to find we were smack in the middle of an area filled with smart-looking cafes, and just a block or so from the river. Piazza Trilussa was just a few steps away.

We arrived early afternoon on a Friday and rang the bell for the unit we were to be staying in. A woman who works for the apartment’s owners answered and gave us the code to enter the building.

We had booked an apartment on the fifth floor, and I was desperately worried I’d be lugging heavy suitcases (we were about to start a 10-day European trip) up five flights of stairs. But I joyfully discovered a teensy, tiny lift, which my wife and I managed to squeeze all of our bags, and somehow ourselves, into.

The owner’s housekeeper opened the door and revealed a tidy, sunny two-bedroom apartment that definitely fit the bill. The decorations were simple, but there were two bathrooms, a nice kitchen with all the amenities and a living/dining room with not only the terrace that had captured my heart, but also a small patio with doors that opened to a view of a pretty church dome in the distance. After thinking about it for a minute and checking the map, I discovered I was gazing at the dome of St. Peter’s Cathedral, and how good is that?

We dropped our things and took a quick look around the ‘hood, which we found delightful. We settled on a quick bite of terrific pizza at Pizza Trilussa, followed by a jet-lag beating cappuccino around the corner at a pretty gelato place on Vicolo del Bologna.

We walked back to the apartment so I could relax and scout out the next couple days. And that’s when I had a bit of an epiphany.

 

WHAT, YOU LIVE HERE?

As I said, I almost always stay in a hotel when I’m visiting another city. But, this time, my wife and I walked along along Via del Moro and stopped in front of our building. A young man and a woman I presumed to be his wife or girlfriend were standing in front of our modest front door, fumbling with a map.

“Scusi,” I said politely, walking toward the door and trying to sound like a lifelong Roman. The man and woman stepped aside and I entered the code to get into the building, then swung the door open so we could head down the hall to our elevator.

I’ll never know, but I had this feeling the couple were looking enviously at us and saying to themselves, “Wow, this is the coolest street in the world and these people LIVE HERE.”

I don’t know that we were on the coolest street in Trastevere, but it was certainly chock-a-block full of cool shops and restaurants. There was a beautiful wine shop right across the street, with a sophisticated-looking owner listening to sophisticated classical music while I perused the bottles. Just a few doors down was a delightful looking book store, an art gallery, and a restaurant with small tables taking up a reasonable section of the road.

I wanted to get some groceries and had found something that sounded good on a map, so I left my wife to catch up on her reading while I headed down the road for what I thought was a normal-sized grocery store. It turned out to be slightly smaller than the bedroom at our apartment, but I found bottled water and wine and milk for my coffee, and spotted a place nearby called Santini Panetteria that had tremendous pastries, cheese, and more.

I stopped 143 times on the way there and back to take photos of pretty churches and piazzas on a drizzly day, as well as doorways and small Italian cars and adorable shops, so my little grocery run took some time. When I got back to the apartment I found the owners had supplied a number of Rome guidebooks, which I took time to check out.

I had hoped to bask in the sun on our terrace, but it was cool and still wet, so I contented myself with sitting on the couch and reading the guidebooks for ideas for a Saturday morning walk. I opened the glass doors that led to our smaller balcony and admired the dome of St. Peter’s between glances at the book.

 I also went online to look for nearby restaurants. I wanted to scope out one we had spotted with a view of Piazza Trilussa, but it didn’t open until 7 p.m. and we were hungry, not to mention jet-lagged and desirous of an early bed time on our first night in Europe. I found another around the corner that our apartment housekeeper had recommended, but it, too, didn’t open until 7.

 

A GREAT LOCAL RESTAURANT – 20 FEET FROM OUR BUILDING

We had spotted a place directly across from our apartment called Vanda so thought we’d give it a go. We walked in shortly after 6 p.m. and got a nice table in a room with maybe a half-dozen tables and walls decorated with dozens of old plates and hundreds of bottles of wine.

Our waiter was outstanding, and we dug into plates of very good rigatoni alla amatriciana, a Roman specialty with tomato sauce, onions and guanciale (pork jowl), which is similar to pancetta but more flavorful in my book. We also ordered a nice salad to share, and glasses of Italian wine from Tuscany.

It was a fabulous meal that cost us about $80 CAD. And, when it was time to go, we walked out the door and crossed a street of perhaps 20 feet in width to get to our building.

It was too cool to sit out for long, but I did take a couple minutes to look out at a silvery moon and hear the bells pealing on a nearby church as locals and visitors passed five stories below us on Via del Politeama.

We turned in for the night around 9:30 p.m. and slept soundly until around 1 a.m., when the noise began to build from the numerous bars and cafes around Piazza Trilussa. It turns out we had chosen a very popular area for party-goers. The bars closed around 2 a.m. and we got back to sleep okay. In fairness, it was a Friday night. I’m guessing most weekdays would be much quieter, at least in shoulder season.

 

 

EXPLORING THE ETERNAL CITY

The next day we got up and headed out to explore some of Trastevere. We stopped for a second coffee on a small, pretty square a few blocks from our apartment, where a man was walking a very small dog that wanted nothing to do with it. The man tugged and tugged and tugged some more, but the dog refused to budge. I don’t speak Italian, but I gave the man one of those looks that says, “Dogs. What can you do,” and he smiled broadly. We finished our coffees and walked up a series of stairs and a small hill to Belvdere del Gianicolo, where we found nice views of the city and a singer belting out “Volare” (of course).

After walking back past  Gianicolo Park and through different streets, we got sandwiches (why are they so much better in Europe than North America?) at a local shop and ate on the terrace at our apartment. After lunch we headed to Piazza Navona, where we enjoyed the architecture and watched some lively street entertainers before heading to the Pantheon. It’s perhaps my favorite building in the city, but the lineups to get inside were way too long, so we enjoyed the view and watched the passing parade on a  cool but sunny day.

 

That night we stayed in so we could try out the kitchen. We had a quick glass of wine on the patio when the sun was out and then had homemade spaghetti Cacio y Pepe at the dining room table.

We had to check out the next morning at 10, but we had time in the afternoon to see the lovely and large Piazza del Popolo and the Spanish Steps. We also made our way (thank goodness for Apple Maps) to the Trevi Fountain. We found a nice, outdoor place for good pizza a couple blocks from the fountain (it’s almost always cheaper to dine a few blocks away from a popular tourist spot) and enjoyed lunch outside.

Later in the day I wandered along the Tiber River and checked out the massive Castel Sant Angelo before heading to our hotel for the night.

I can’t say we got to know our neighbors during our brief stay in the vrbo apartment. But we knew the streets and felt the rhythm of the city. We knew a couple of the waiters at Vanda by sight by the time we left. We knew where to get a good cappuccino, and where to find great bread, cheese and wine.W]

We really did feel like locals, and that’s a wonderful thing. Our next overseas trip will probably involve a hotel, but we hope to make vacation rentals like vrbo a more permanent feature of our future trips.

NOTE: Vrbo paid for our apartment in Rome. Vrbo officials did not see or review this post prior to publication. Vrbo lists millions of vacation rentals around the world, including everything from quiet mountain chalets to waterfront homes and city apartments.

We flew from Toronto to Rome on Air Canada. Their business class features lie-flat seats for a good night’s sleep. They also serve up very good food and have a new menu. I had a great dish of noodles with juicy shrimp and chilies. There are also new menu items in economy class.