So predictable...(the movie should've been just about Baldwin's story)

First of all, let me say I didn't like Midnight in Paris. It just didn't seem that original to me, or funny or anything... Just a pretty average film.

I'm not a fan of cliche Western European capitals either. Sure, everyone loves Rome, Paris and London... But once you go there (and I've been to them several times) you realize that they are not what you expect or what they used to be. Good luck finding an actual Parisian in Paris between all the immigrants and tourists. Good luck taking a picture in the Colosseum without being pestered by guys dressed as gladiators and other tourist traps. London is fine... If you're a fan of Orwell's 1984, that is.

But anyway, I started watching "To Rome with Love" expecting some sort of tame, average story like in Midnight in Paris, trying not to pay much attention to the overused setting (there are so many more beautiful cities in Italy, Allen should know being a Fellini fan). And, between the *beep* of characters, I realized that the stories weren't that interesting and quite predictable. It was nice to see Allen acting again but it kinda fell flat.

Guy that sings in the shower: As soon as he started telling them that he wasn't a singer, that he just liked singing in the shower (before his bad audition), I knew that there was gonna be something "wacky" related to him having to be in the shower on-stage. After all, Allen's character had done a play with everyone dressed up as white mice.
So, when they actually did it, I wasn't surprised. The only thing I was expected but didn't happen was that the water would stop working in the middle of his most important performance.

The one about the couples: While I was interested on the thing about him using the prostitute as his wife, the rest was pretty much like any other Allen story about infidelity (i.e. almost all of his movies).

I still have no idea what the point of Benigni's story was. Maybe if they had just dropped one of the other stories and given more time/attention to this one it would've been more interesting.

Lastly, Alec Baldwin's story... I think this one was actually the most interesting one. Heck, I would've preferred if the whole movie had been about this story! A guy meeting his past self about "one terrible mistake" he made. That would've been pretty cool. Allen tends to do many of these interactive flashbacks, but it's usually for just a scene. So maybe a whole movie with that premise would've worked.
But instead, due to the quantity of stories, not enough attention is paid to this one, so we don't really feel bad for the character when Monica leaves him (after all, it almost seems that they only slept once. Sure, he says he's in love, but the rule is "show, not tell", and we don't really feel it). I honestly was expecting much more than that, especially because of the buildup that Baldwin created since Monica was first mentioned.

Hopefully next year we get ONE good story. Sometimes it's ok to have multiple stories (Crimes and misdemeanors, for example). But this time I think they were too many and he failed.