The Travel Medley

Hi, mom. Before you start worrying about seedy neighborhoods and my personal safety, let’s talk about this neighborhood. Yes, it’s called the Jewish Ghetto. No, it’s not Straight Outta Compton.

The name dates back to the 1500s, when Jewish Romans were forced to live in an overcrowded, walled community with a nightly curfew, strict rules, and crappy conditions. Thankfully, it’s not the 1500s any more.

This is now a cute, quaint neighborhood, with proud Jewish roots, amazing food, and adorable nonnas peeking out the windows at you.

You totally checked the windows for a cute Italian grandma, didn’t you? Sorry, I didn’t actually get a picture of one! You’ll have to trust me – they were adorbs.

Rome is a somewhat expensive city. We researched a lot of accommodations options, from youth hostels to budget hotels, but felt that Airbnb gave us the best value. We found a small studio apartment in the heart of the Jewish Ghetto and made it our home for the week. Here’s a glimpse of our place.

Mandatory picture of the door to our building (No dog bones this time.)

That door is huge, but the apartment was pretty compact. Standing by the door, I could take a picture of almost the entire unit.

The bed was a (surprisingly comfortable) pull-out sofa bed. Also, our host left us folded swan heart towels. Lol.

The bathroom: small shower, toilet with a push-button flush, and wide mouth sink (great for doing hand wash laundry).

Mirror #selfie. (Please note that this is a joke. I don’t really do mirror selfies unless they are a joke. Because ew.)

A small kitchen (really only one of us could be in here at a time), with microwave, stove, toaster oven.

And a moka pot! After some googling, Michael made us delicious espresso using that cute lil guy. They are a staple in most European homes, and a money-saver for morning coffee if you have access to a kitchen/stove.

So while a little small, our Airbnb was a great value and the perfect location for our stay in Rome. We literally walked to every single site (including Vatican City), and got a taste of one of the local neighborhoods.

If you’ve never used Airbnb before, I highly recommend it! You get more authentic accommodations and it’s often cheaper than a hotel. Plus kitchen access, with moka pots and legit Italian sugar. And you can even use my referral link for $20 off your first stay! (This will also give us a $20 credit, which will allow us to continue backpacking on a budget. Grazie amici!)

Click here to save $20 on your first Airbnb trip. 👏

(Okay, I don’t know what kind of drugs the folks at Airbnb are on, but sometimes my referral link will actually give you $35. If this happens to you, get excited! It’s like finding an extra $15 in your winter coat pocket.)