There is a reason Rome is called the Eternal City. In its first thousand years, it grew from a small Italian town into one of the most impressive empires in history. Rome's next thousand years were filled with violence, collapse, and renaissance.
Rome remains one of the most popular world cities. Each year, more than four million people go on holiday in the Eternal city, which makes it the third most visited city in Europe, after Paris and London. But Rome is not immune to the vicissitudes of history, as we have seen.
Like most global cities, Rome has reported a decline in visitors in the wake of the recession. International arrivals, which account for a significant portion of their visitors, have fallen by about ten percent. As a result, many businesses have been forced to lower their prices or offer special deals. This includes companies in the service sectors of the economy like hotels and restaurants. What about apartments in Rome All across Europe people are taking shorter, less expensive trips. Travel in Europe fell by six percent in 2009 and expenditures or travel budgets were off by even more. This tells is us is that even when people did travel they were looking for bargains wherever they could find them.
Holiday or vacation rentals are probably the easiest way to save a few hundred pounds on a trip to Rome. If you have never stayed in one, they are really nothing more than furnished apartments that agencies rent out for a night or a week. Savings of up to twenty percent over the big hotels are quite common.