yes @bardamu I speak Italian. I would answer you in Italian, but I don't want to get in trouble with the boss @Vitaliy_Kiselev again :) We must keep English as the language of the forum, but I think we can communicate however is best when we meet. Are you available in late June?

Best meetup location yet! I'm looking forward to any videos your gathering might shoot.

Hi @bardamu, sorry I didn't get your message till now (I think there should be no space between the @ and the username, or it doesn't call our attention). I will be in Rome starting the weekend of June 29. If people are meeting up, I'd be interested in joining.

@Branson @bardamu What's about a meet-up at Trastevere buffet on July 4? I will be there that week.

@bardamu @tinbeo I'm in Rome from 24-30 June, but then I will be out of town until later in July. If you meet up on July 4, I hope it's at a nice trattoria in Trastevere. I agree with @htinla, it might be nice to see impromptu footage of anything you might shoot. I'll reach out to you again before I come back to see if you want to meet (again).

@tinbeo

FCO --> ROMA CENTRO There's an express train from Fiumicino to Stazione Termini, the central stop in Rome, which connects to the metropolitana (subway to Americans, tube to the English). When you get out of arrivals, follow the signs for the train -- I think they're yellow icons that show a caboose on tracks -- and you can buy the ticket from the machines or the manned kiosk near the platforms. It's €14, and when I took it earlier this week, it arrived to pick us up an hour late, so not very 'express'. Normally it should get you to Termini in about 30 mins.

**You must validate your ticket before boarding the train or the 'train fare police' may levy a €200 fine on you. Or you can try your luck playing the 'ignorant tourist' card. You'll see yellow or gray/green machines about the height of a parking meter labeled 'convalidare'. Just put the ticket into it and depending on the size ticket you get (the machines issue a full size ticket and the kiosks a smaller one) you may have to slide it to the left of the slot to get validated.

FYI: There's a lot of renovation going on at FCO which has made all efficiency levels drop to even lower than you'd expect from an Italian airport. So be prepared for delays and possibly for other things not to go as planned.

In case it matters, you also won't be able to buy a local SIM card at the airport. At least not at arrivals. The only airport location that sells SIMs is the Vodafone at departures, once you've passed security. So not very international traveller-friendly, I'm afraid. I'm considering doing a mini-documentary on the Italian way of stepping backward two steps to move forward one. Once you're in the city, though, Vodafone and Wind offer some prepaid cards with summer deals on talk, text, and internet. Which brings me to your other question...

INTERNET I've been in Italy for a week now, in Umbria and Lazio (the province where Rome is), and while I can say there is generally more wifi in more places -- for example, Villa Borghese, the city's largest park just north of Piazza di Spagna, has free wifi hotspots (which I haven't tested yet) -- the connections vary from low-end cable modem to pathetic 786kb DSL. I bought a Wind SIM and tether it to my laptop. Its 4G speeds outclass the home internet speeds I've been using.

And while I wouldn't rely on my prepaid SIM to upload some raw footage from my GH2, the 3GB datacap I got for €12.50 beats the hell out of anything I'm aware of in other countries (a.k.a. USA). *I'm actually not sure it's 3GB, the offer I read said 1GB at full speed, plus a 2nd GB at some unlabeled lowered speed, but after registering the plan I received an SMS saying I had 3GB to use until there was a speed cap placed on data. These contradictions abound, so just be prepared.

I haven't tried the wifi at Piazza San Pietro so I can't really comment on it. As for meeting up, I'm always up for it, but as I leave Rome this weekend, I fear we will miss each other this time round. If you're still in town when I'm back, the third week in July, let me know. Otherwise, some of the others in Rome @bardamu seemed keen on getting together when you suggested, July 4th?

Best of luck to you, and if there's anything else I can help you out with, just shoot me an e-mail.

@Branson

Let me know if someone is interested in orgamizing winter meetup.