Last November I went to Rome for a mini break! This was my only trip abroad in 2019 and I wanted to try make as little environmental impact as possible. Here’s some of the things we did that you might consider the next time you’re heading away.
- We packed as light as possible. Less weight on the plane means less fuel is consumed and less carbon emissions.
- We travelled as off season as we could! This puts less strain on the countries resources and spreads the economic uplift for locals.
- We offset our carbon emissions with Vita Ireland.
- We supported small & family run restaurants.
- We ate local food and had mainly veggie meals. We did eat some local meat and cheese too.
- We brought our water bottles and filled up from the many fountains in Rome.
- We avoided single use plastics (See our fails below).
- I’d advise to bring headphones for walking tours.
- We took the public bus and metro to get to and from the airport.
- We walked everywhere else.
- I also brought a reusable coffee cup and shopping bag which I didn’t need in the end.
Other things you might consider:
- Don’t bargain heavily.
- Respect the local culture and learn a few words of the language.
- Don’t engage with animal tourism.
- Use local tour companies.
- Use reef safe sunscreen like Rokai and Amazinc, both available at Green Outlook.
We had some plastic failures too! You can’t always get it 100% right!
We did a walking tour and both received a set of disposable headphones for the radio set. We also ended up with one large plastic water bottle and one plastic ice cream spoon, not bad overall, both were given to us before we had the chance to refuse and we were sure to place them in the recycling bins provided.
Rome restaurant tip: One evening we stumbled upon an organic resturant and loved it, one of our more expensive meals but still worth it: Hosteria Del Mercato
We didn’t get the chance, but we would have also loved to have tried Ginger which came recommended.
