I'm a Brit who visited Rome for the first time. Here are 12 things that surprised me about the Eternal City.

As a Brit living in London, Rome is a short, two-hour flight but I had never made the trip. I hadn't left the country since 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, but I felt ready to change that this March and booked a visit to the Eternal City.

As someone who enjoys history and art, my first impression was that the city is stunning, with its cobbled streets flanked by beautiful pastel buildings and ancient monuments.

Regola is a fairly tourist-heavy area. I would wake to the sounds of market stall owners setting up their stands for the day and fall asleep to the sounds of other holidaymakers staying out for drinks in the square.

While I wanted to stay in an area that would feel authentically Roman, I also wanted to be within walking distance of all the major monuments. Campo de' Fiori market is a 25-minute walk to the Colosseum, a 24-minute walk to the Spanish Steps, and 18 minutes to the Trevi fountain.

All these journeys were a lot shorter on a bicycle which I tended to use when I was in a rush, otherwise, I walked everywhere and the step count on my phone reached new heights. I only used the Metro once and it was quick and cheap at 3 euros, or around $3.30, per journey.

Despite temperatures during the day reaching as high as 64 degrees Fahrenheit — this is warm for me, coming from the UK — at sunset, it got significantly colder.

I expected colder weather in March but I was taken aback by how much the temperature dropped after sunset. According to Weather Spark, daily high temperatures in Rome are between 57 degrees Fahrenheit to 63 degrees Fahrenheit in March, meanwhile daily low temperatures from 40 degrees Fahrenheit to 44 degrees Fahrenheit.

A local who I made friends with joked that in Rome he was always overdressed for the heat or underdressed for the cold — there is no perfect outfit, he said, so always carry a coat.

Rome seemed quite affordable compared to London, with the average large pizza costing 8 euros, or less than $9. According to data by Vouchercloud cited by Cosmopolitan, a large pizza in the UK usually costs around £18, or over $23.

I also dined at a celebrity hot spot in the Trastevere neighborhood called Antica Pesa, which has a twin restaurant in Brooklyn, New York, and found the food at the Rome restaurant was slightly cheaper than its US counterpart. My friend ordered cacio e pepe, a cheese-and-pepper spaghetti that Rome is known for, and it cost 18 euros, or less than $20, while the same meal at the Brooklyn restaurant costs $23.

A local who I spoke to pointed out that the prices in Rome might seem cheaper to Americans and Brits, rather than Italians from other regions, especially Naples.

According to pizza blogger Giuseppe A. D'Angelo, who was born and raised in Naples and runs the food blog Pizza Dixit, the average price of a Margherita pizza is between four and five euros, or around $4.40 to $5.50. This is on average half the price of the equivalent pizzas I ate in Rome.

While it struck me as surprising to see a generous stash of condoms, sanitary products, and pregnancy tests, as well as sex toys, stocked on the street, on second thought I realized how healthy it was to destigmatize buying these products and having them readily available.

In the UK, these products are available at pharmacies and grocery stores within opening hours, whereas vending machines make the products accessible at any time.

I made the mistake of trying to have a brunch or a late dinner a couple of times, but the Romans weren't having it.

According to the blog Little Bites of Beauty by Ambra Torelli, an Italian-born university professor, Italians typically have their meals as follows: breakfast, or colazione, as they wake up, and lunch, or pranzo, between 12:30 p.m. and 2 p.m. Then typically an afternoon snack known as merenda between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m., followed by dinner, or cena, between 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.

Often restaurants will close in the hours between meal times, so it's up to tourists to adapt to their schedule or miss out.

Having found that restaurants were closed at the times I wanted to go, I cooked for myself on a couple of nights. Visiting a couple of supermarkets — both within the city center and a little further out — to buy ingredients, I found the options to be limited to Italian cuisine only and many of the groceries used an excessive amount of plastic and packaging, in my opinion.

The UK, and London, in particular, is a melting pot for different communities so most stores sell ingredients for anything from Mexican to Indian cuisine, in my experience. The supermarkets I visited in Rome tended to mostly sell ingredients for local recipes and didn't seem to offer many vegan or vegetarian alternatives from what I could see, which surprised me.

I did manage to find a few soy items in a Co-op store in Rome, but, after searching intently, I realized there weren't many specialist stores for meat-free diets in the area. That said, I did appreciate that the stores I visited had plenty of fresh vegetables available.

It seemed like every neighborhood I visited in Rome had a few McDonald's or McCafés, a coffee-house-style food and drink subsidiary of McDonald's. The fast-food restaurants felt out of place to me on Rome's historic streets. I also didn't expect McDonald's to be a popular choice in a city that has so much good food.

Curious to see what Roman McDonald's was offering, I made a flying visit to one of the restaurants and found the menu had some Italian twists including a Parmigiano Reggiano cheese snack and McCrunchy Bread with Nutella. But neither could lure me away from my trusted diet of Funghi pizza and gelato so I left without ordering any food.

According to Statistica, a consumer data website, up to 40 European countries have McDonald's stores. In a statement provided to The Art Newspaper in January about the fast-food chain's failed attempt to open a drive-thru restaurant in the 3rd-century Baths of Caracalla — an ancient site in Rome — a McDonald's representative confirmed that it has 54 restaurants and 2,500 employees in the Eternal City.

When I'm in the UK and don't want a lot of caffeine, I'll swap out my coffee for hot chocolate. The drink I'm familiar with is typically made from cocoa or fresh chocolate and milk but in Rome, it was something else.

The thick, dessert-like drink I was handed in Roman cafes was a very indulgent beverage that I was unable to finish. It was only when I saw a woman next to me ordering cream with her hot chocolate that I realized I could make it less strong while I got used to the taste.

London's hard water has been found to contain a high amount of magnesium and calcium compounds, which cause limescale, according to the Evening Standard. The BBC reported that the Thames also has some of the highest recorded levels of microplastics for any river in the world. You couldn't pay me to drink from a public fountain at home, but locals in Rome reassured me that the city's water is quite drinkable and pure.

I found that you can scan a QR code on the fountains that takes you to the Waidy Wow website, where you can download an app that shows you "interesting water routes" and the closest water points near you while offering information on environmental impact.

According to Rome Vacation Tips, a local blog, taxi drivers in Rome lobbied to exclude regular Uber vehicles from the city. I also learned that Uber Black, Uber Lux, and Uber Van options are still available but cost more and are unreliable so your arrival time can become delayed.

I was told by a local to use an app called Free Now for local taxis or to rent a bike through an app called Dott. So, I downloaded Dott, where you can buy cheap daily or monthly passes that give you the first half an hour for free and then charge 27 cents, or around $0.30, per minute for additional time.

A pass for 10 sets of 30-minute rides for one day costs 5.99 euros, or around $6.60. Bikes and scooters are located all over the city and the app shows them on a map, which made it so quick and easy to use that I used the app every day for the rest of my trip.

While walking from place to place on my visit, I noticed a lot of army officers and a large police presence on the street.

The London Metropolitan Police currently has over 33,320 police officers, according to its website, but in my experience of living in London, I've seen more officers at busy train stations and large events rather than on regular street corners as in Rome. It's also highly unlikely that Londoners would see army officers or tanks on the streets unless a major event was taking place.

According to the Italian Ministry of Defence website, the Roman police and army presence is part of an initiative called Strade Sicure, or Safe Streets, which was launched in May 2008 and provides "urgent measures in the field of Law and Order." The website notes that these protective activities are carried out in "metropolitan areas and/or densely populated areas."

While searching for a new book to read, I headed to Almost Corner Bookshop, an English-language book store in Trastevere. I was greeted by Anita Ross, who has worked there for decades.

She told me that after the UK officially left the European Union in January 2021, the store suffered delays of over two months on their imports. She said this side effect of Brexit has left the business with lasting delays to this day.

In March 2021, Ross told Reuters that the store expected to face extra costs of 800 euros, or around $950, on a 200-kilogram, or 440-pound, consignment of books upon their arrival.

While exploring the Trastevere neighborhood, where the American University of Rome is located, I saw swathes of American students enjoying their study-abroad programs, sipping wine and talking about their exams beside the River Tiber.

According to The New York Times, Trastevere was once a very working-class area filled with port workers and laborers, but it has faced gentrification over the last few decades.

The New York Times added that the changing face of the neighborhood saw it lose its traditional shops and local artisans to tourist-filled bars and restaurants. Additionally, apartments became an income opportunity as many turned their apartments into bed-and-breakfasts.

With its many breathtaking churches and carbohydrate-filled meals, Rome struck me as the perfect place for someone who wants to learn about history and art, and relax at the same time — instead of just catching sun rays at the beach.

I can see what attracts so many people to Rome, and I'd happily come back for the gelato alone. I'll be dreaming about the pistachio flavor until I return.