Now, I know that some of you have been feeling jealous, and I may have a way to help you work through that. First of all, you should know that Rome is not all romantic evening strolls and gelato. There is a good deal of that, yes, but there is another side to everything. For starters, one should never travel from London to Rome directly, the culture shock is almost too great. A few examples:

London: A well organized public transportation system which can get you anywhere and back in a relatively short amount of time. Multiple subway lines, bus routes, and trains, maps, instructions and helpful people abound.

Rome: No apparent improvements to the transportation system since it was a village on the Tiber. For 6 million people (plus tourista) there are TWO subway lines, buses which may or may not come and extremely few maps or helpful people.

London: Tube station TVs tell you exactly which trains are slightly delayed on multiple lines.
Rome: Subway TVs play car racing and fashion shows (I am not making this up).

London: Virtually no graffiti or litter, signs posted telling you will be prosecuted if you try it.
Rome: Can't see into some subway cars because of the graffiti, lots of litter.

London: Police and guards very present and attentive to their duties.
Rome: Police and guards stand around and try to look cool while you walk yourself through security.

There is so much more, but yo ushould be getting the idea. It is absolutely no surprise to me that this is the culture in which the mafia was born. Everyone seems far more concerned with looking beautiful than any practical aspect of life and it shows up in all that they do. I am pretty sure this how Rome fell the first time...

Oh, one last thing to help get you through that envy: every time you need to use the bathroom today, try to do it with no seat on the toilet. That's right- squat. For the full Roman experience try to imagine no elevated bowl at all, just two footprints and a bowl in the floor. Hope that helps. ;)