Ron In Rome

In Google search for Ron in Rome there is a note within one of the hits that says to re-publish this site soon. Perhaps that is the plan, these things usually take longer than anticipated. It sure had a lot great info though...

This is where sites like the Internet Archive at www.archive.org come in handy...try this link for an earlier snapshot of the Ron in Rome site:
http://web.archive.org/web/20160328132237/http://www.roninrome.com/resources/site-search

Of course! I do forget about that.

ZIDEK - you are a MIRACLE WORKER!! I clicked the link and virtually EVERYTHING from the old site is there!! YAY!! For anyone visiting Roma this is like having 10 guidebooks with infinite details about everything you might possibly want/need to know. Funny, but I just now got a reply to my email. Was from someone named Jessica who is a travel consultant or something. When you google roninrome and get the travel company One Day in Italy it has absolutely NOTHING to do with Ron. Whomever runs this company has "Ron In Rome" in large caps on the home page and mentions that he used to use Ron's website.

His new site is ronphillipstravel.com

Susan,

The Ron In Rome website will hopefully return, possibly some time this fall or winter. It needs a lot of maintenance which is very time consuming. I suspect he's busy with his "day job" at the moment, so will get to it when he has time. Hopefully the website will be back with improved look and content soon.

Yes Zidek - thank you!

I think he is now in Atlanta working as a travel consultant. He may even have his own travel agency, but I'm not at all positive about that. His old web site provided me with a lot of very good, free, and accurate information in the past. If, in the future, I need travel agency / consulting assistance I'll certainly keep him in mind. A quick google search should locate him.

TC,

"I think he is now in Atlanta working as a travel consultant."

Actually, Ron is now based in Vienna unless he's moved since last September.

Thank you for all the interest in the Ron-in-Rome site.

To clarify, we took the site down in early May 2016 for some much-needed maintenance work. A lot of the information on the website should be updated and some programming changes need to be completed. The website is huge, with over 1,200 pages of printed text and 3,000+ photos.. Unfortunately, the size of the website and the scale of the work to be done is time-consuming and/or expensive.

The site was created in 2008 as a response to many of the questions I heard from Americans I met when living in Rome. Our goal was to build a site that would make traveling in Rome - and Italy - easier and more enjoyable. Before we shut the site down, we had millions of visitors - this was quite unexpected.
( "I wish I had a nickel for.... ")

Since my time in Rome, we've also lived in Copenhagen, Atlanta, and now we are living in Vienna. When I returned to the USA after a five-year odyssey in Europe, I started work as a travel advisor and Independent Affiliate of Brownell Travel, a Luxury Travel Agency. Brownell is an incredible group to work with and Brownell Travel Advisors are among the most knowledgeable travelers in the world. It has been an exciting learning experience and through Brownell's relationships we've been able to DISCOVER MORE!

I do have a new website and it's located at www.ronphillipstravel.com. As we have built our new business, this website has been our focus (and I have about 45 articles "in the works!" for this website). We've been so busy coordinating travel for our clients the last eighteen months there has been little time to work on either website.

Since we moved away from Italy, we've been fortunate to "head home" and visit Rome 14 or 15 times. We still have many friends living there and talk often. Living in Europe, we're very much in-tune with the challenges occurring daily in Italy. Unfortunately, we don't have the time to write about them!

Upon reading these posts, I did read through parts of the One Day in Italy website and to her credit, Jess is very straightforward and credits all her sources - including the Ron in Rome website. Kudos to her!

When living in Rome, I posted often on this Forum and it was the inspiration for many an article. Folks wanted to know "how do I do that" and I'd head down the street to find out, take a lot of photos and write about it. Now that I'm not in Rome, it's harder to do updates and with the success of our Travel Company, even more difficult to write about the things I see when we do return every few months. (I have 750+ new photos of just Rome!)

The future of the Ron-in-Rome site will depend on when we can find the time to make the necessary changes. I enjoyed building the site and look forward to when I can re-establish it as the information-site that is has been. But as with any "info" site, the "info" has to be correct and updated. The outdated info has led to many negative statements regarding about the site. Unless you've built an "info-site", you have no idea how difficult it is to keep one current! As the travel season slows down (soon?), we hope to streamline the R-in-R site and republish updated articles.

I appreciate the support of the RS crowd and enjoyed being part of an RS Group in Atlanta. (We just spent a few days in Vienna and Lyon, France with friends we met in the RS ATL Group). In fact, another member of the RS ATL Group clued me in about this discussion. We try to stay in touch and re-connect, either in Europe or Atlanta, and through Facebook.

Hopefully we will be able to get the R-in-R site back online soon. I miss it too!
Ciao, ciao, ciao.....
Ron Phillips
(Ron in Rome)

Ron, grazie mille per la tua risposta! Great to hear from you and to know that you had not fallen off a cliff! As a faithful reader since I first found the RIR site, I have missed you, but fully empathize with the massive amounts of work to maintain such a vast library of information for your followers. At least a lot of it is still available on the archive that zidek found. Even if not up-to-date, it is still extremely helpful, especially for anyone who has never been to Roma. So thanks for providing such a marvelous resource for so long. I'll keep on the lookout for any new posts on your travel company website.

Thank you so much for the update - and to say, "Hi"! - dear Ron. I've seen you as a tremendous resource for both the new and also the experienced visitor to Rome.

Your photography, especially, really proved the old adage of a picture is worth a thousand words.

For me, I frequently used to refer to your discussions about trains and buses.

Favourite page? Coffee - by about a million miles.

Grazie. Ciao.

Susan and Nigel - thank you for your kind thoughts.

RinR was always a labor of love. I enjoyed learning about Rome, about how to build a website. and most importantly - helping travelers in Italy. With 5+ million visits over the years, it grew into something I never envisioned. I also learned some tips when building an "info-site" - like NEVER put in prices as they constantly change!

Fortunately, many of the processes have not changed. It is a tad frustrating to be aware or to experience first-hand the changes in Rome - like the revised security procedures at the Colosseo, the different starting location of the #8 tram, or the changes to the metro system - yet not have the time to write about these developments. (For example, I have 50+ photos just recently taken of "how to enter the Colosseo").

Susan, I was surprised the "archive link" worked as a consultant I reached out when I "closed the site" said the website would be inaccessible till repairs were completed? I want to present a "proper product" with information that is current and best meets the needs of the traveler. As a one-man team, this will take some time.

Undoubtedly, the airport and train posts were the most-read. They were also the subjects on which I received the most emails and questions. At it's peak, I would often get 100+ RinR emails a day. Trying to respond to all sometimes became problematic. Fortunately, today there are multiple "local" Rome websites that have developed to better assist a first-time traveler.

Nigel, I would agree that the PHOTOS were the stars of the site; certainly not my writing! The step-by-step photos - which are fairly basic in today's high-tech Instagram and Video world - were undoubtedly the most appreciated resource of RinR. Comments thanking me for being able to SEE what a traveler would experience weeks before they arrived in Rome were by far the most numerous. Sequencing the PHOTOS also helped me, as it forced me to "learn" the process.

I too liked the COFFEE post. Here in Vienna we have so many great coffee options, but I miss my little bar off Via Candia. Every time we return to Rome we stop in. It's fun to "go home again," meet up with our friends, and enjoy the city. You do appreciate Rome more when you don't live there!

I hope to get some down-time soon and can rework a few of the more popular posts to get parts of the site upgraded and viable. Again, thanks for your comments and support over the years!

@Ron: Any thoughts about a "Ron in Vienna" website?

Ron,

I figured you'd probably be made aware of this Thread. Thanks for the detailed explanations as I'm sure that's appreciated by your many fans.

Hope all is well in Vienna. I agree, they have great coffee there!

Hi Ken - yes, great coffee as you and I know! Hope you're doing well.
Robert, two websites to work on - with the time I have available - is probably one website too many.
A third would kill me!
That said, Vienna is a wonderful town to live in - quite different than Rome. Very diverse, very organized, quite beautiful, and filled with art, culture, and music. I still have many museums and sites to see here. We have had the opportunity to meet many contacts in the Travel Industry in Vienna (RS was in town last week)
Certainly there is demand for a "how-to-do" website in Vienna, but it probably won't be created by me!