Never eat...

...on a piazza, in front of a monument, or in front of a fountain. 

This was the advice given to us by a local in Rome. It was good advice. Restaurants in those locations often have mediocre food at exorbitant prices and target tourists. So, we sought out the advice of locals and stayed off the beaten path. Tripadvisor was also very helpful!  Below, you'll find a list of the restaurants we tried in Rome.  Tom often ate a meat dish and I targeted pasta. We always had wine and dessert. I miss the food already. 

Osteria Barberini - truffles are included in many dishes. Warm atmosphere, small place and wonderful pasta. Friendly waitstaff.

La Gelateria Frigidarium - the absolute best gelato I've ever had. Hands down. The chocolate is to die for. To go to Rome and not have this gelato should be a crime. 

Enosteria Capolecase - the most upscale restaurant we ate at in Rome. Good food, attentive waitstaff, but I'm not sure the food was any better than the less expensive places we found. 

Ristorante Santa Cristina al Quirinale - great family run restaurant. The only place we ate at twice while we were there. Fabulous pasta, good house wine and homemade dessert. 

Da Francesco - crowded, fast paced but great pizza. Pistachio tiramisu was good, so was the chocolate mousse. Veal scallopini was also really yummy. Go early, it gets busy. 

Gelateria Valentino - good, but not as good as the Frigidarium listed above. 

La Matriciana - great food, service, but you get the feeling you're eating with a lot of businessmen. 

That's our list!  I hope it helps future visitors to Rome. There is such fantastic food there, I would return just for the food and drink alone!

Home, then not home.

We'll, we made it back Saturday around 9pm. Rome was fabulous. I really do love that city. Such old buildings, history, great art and architecture.  

What I thought would be my favs changed a bit. I have to say Pompeii was probably still my favorite and I expected it to be. No shock there. BUT I think Tom and I would both put the Vatican next on the list, a surprise to both of us. Neither of us are catholic, but the sheer size and number of pieces of art and beautiful buildings is impressive, no matter what your religious affiliation.

Of course, the food was out of this world. Pasta is one of my favorite foods and Rome did not disappoint. I'll post the restaurants we visited in another blog post. We found great ones by asking the locals, no tourist traps for us. The wine was fabulous as well, inexpensive and yummy. And, oh, the gelato - I'll never look at ice cream the same way again. But with all that food, I think we both lost a few pounds. We put miles and mile on our shoes, walking no less than 5 miles a day, sometimes much more. 

What I will miss are the fountains of Rome, and I'm not taliking about the beautiful artistic fountains. I'm talking about the drinking fountains!  They are all over the city, flowing fresh mountain water. They are old, rustic and full of charm (and sometimes graffiti), and the water that ones out of them is fabulous!

And now, a few days at home until my friends arrive and we head to Steamboat Spings for a long weekend of skiing and playing. Come on fresh powder!!!

Arrivederci, Rome!

Another day of walking this great city. Wonderful food and beautiful weather (finally). More pictures to come as soon as I sort through them. 

This was our last dessert in Rome. Second gelato of the day. We'll miss you, frozen creamy goodness. 

Rome summary to follow...must get some sleep before catching a train to the airport tomorrow morning!

Pompeii

Tom and I hopped a couple of trains to Naples/Pompeii today. These ruins have long been on my top ten list of places in the world to visit.  They are beautifully excavated and easily accessible by train, and most definitely worth the all day trip from Rome. 

We walked for 6 hours non-stop!  Seriously - no lunch, no cappuccino break, no rest, and we didn't even cover everything (almost though). And, many areas were closed off, probably due to off season work. If all of those were open as well, we would not have made it through the whole site. If you go, try to get there when it opens, you'll need the time. I'd also recommend getting a guidebook. We rented the audio guide, but I would've liked to have a bit more info on some of the locations in the ruins. 

Plaster casts of victims. Surreal to see how they perished. 

Market area with Mount Vesuvius in the background. 

Actual wagon wheel tracks worn into the streets from centuries ago. Amazing. 

Our last day in Rome is tomorrow.  We hope to explore a few off the beaten path places or maybe even hop another train to Tivoli for the day. We will see how late we sleep!

I also hope to do a top ten myths and truths about Rome soon, hopefully tomorrow, provided I leave myself enough time to pack as well!!

Getting some religion.

No, we didn't spend the day attending church, but we did spend almost the whole day in Vatican City or in churches/below churches.

We visited the Vatican first thing today. Little did I realize that I actually booked our tickets for the Vatican museums during the time of the weekly Papal audience outside of St Peters Basilica. Too bad, we could've seen the Pope Mobile (and the Pontiff himself)!  As it was, we saw the aftermath of the crowd and St Peters Basilica was still closed so we weren't able to go inside. But we visited the museums and St Peters Square (or Piazza San Pietro) about an hour after the Pope had left. 

Then on we went to a crypt and catacomb tour. Unfortunately we couldn't take photos in the any of the churches or catacombs.  We saw lots of tunnels and bones and very cool caverns, you'll just have to trust me on this. 

However, just after we left our drop off spot, a big rainstorm hit. Since we didn't have rain gear with us, we waited it out on a corner step and were approached by no less than 7 umbrella street vendors in the course of 15 minutes. Seriously, I'm not sure if these guys monitor weather radar or what, but they are on the street just as the first raindrop falls. However, this time I managed to snap a picture of one. Definitely the "picture of the day". 

Low key day.

Well, we were a bit forced into a low key day today for two reasons. 1) Ostia Antica, our chosen archeological site for today is closed all week due to flooding. And 2) I woke up a bit under the weather.  I think I'm battling the bug Tom has had for a few days. So, I slept in and we took a much shorter walk around the city than yesterday. We took in the Spanish Steps and some of Villa Borghese Gardens. It was a bit colder and blustery today. I'm hoping we eventually get to see some Roman sun. 

The Spanish Steps

Our afternoon cappuccino break was topped with quite possibly the best foamed milk I've ever had. 

We also had an absolutely fantastic dinner at Osteria Santa Christina al Quirinale in our 'hood:

http://www.ristorantesantacristinaalquirinale.com.  Their zucchini flower pasta was simply fantastic. By the way, Italians eat so late, I'm pretty sure our dinner time (7:30ish) qualifies as blue hair dinner time over here.  But the upside of this is that we haven't had a problem finding a table yet! 

Tomorrow we see the Vatican museums and the Sistene Chapel in the morning and the catacombs under Rome in the afternoon...a much busier day for sure. Thursday is...drum roll please...POMPEII!!!  We are very excited, it's been on my top ten list for years. Friday is TBD, although we've thrown a day trip to Tivoli into the hat as a possibility. 

Picture from the top of Rome below. Vatican in the distance. 

Ombrelli Frogger

You know how in some cities, even if they get a lot of rain, few people use umbrellas?  Rome is not one of those cities. Umbrellas are everywhere. It's honestly hard to walk on the sidewalks when it's raining because you're constantly playing Umbrella Frogger. And not only that, but Rome has tons, and I mean TONS of strolling umbrella street vendors. If it's raining, you get asked no less than once per block if you'd like a very cheaply made umbrella (this is not an exaggerated number). 

So, today we braved the rain, wind and umbrella street vendors. We visited the Colosseum, Roman Forum and Pantheon, and passed dozens of great ancient buildings, plazas and fountains along the way. Rome has wonderful architecture along virtually every street. Pictures below. I couldn't narrow it down to just one today!

Tomorrow we venture to Ostia Antica, the old port of Rome, now in ruins, just a bit outside the city. 

The Colosseum

Temple of the vestal virgins, with the sun barely peeking out.

Impressive columns with a background of our weather today...

A very flooded Tiber River

Dog Parking along the street

Cave Canem

How fitting, when we (finally) find our B&B, the mosaic below greets us at the front door. It looks to be a pittie!  It literally means "Beware of Dog". 

The (finally) comment above comes from our very rainy hike to our hotel from the main Roma Termini train station. Suffice it to say, inkjet printed maps do NOT hold up well in the rain. But we made it, after a bit of wandering with full backpacks and our very wet feet.  

We explored the somewhat crowded streets for a bit after a hearty nap, ultimately taking in the Trevi fountain and some cool architecture. The fountain was mobbed with folks all clamoring to get a picture and toss in a coin. We hope to sneak back by late at night this week for a quieter experience. 

Our dinner tonight was fabulous. Osso Bucco for Tom and a killer homemade pasta with fresh pepper and reggiano cheese for me. This, of course, was followed up by cappuccino and tiramisu. Yum yum yum. 

Off to bed!  Hopefully the weather partially holds tomorrow as we hope to see the colosseum and other historical sites. 

Countdown to Rome...

T-5 days and counting!  Vacation here we come. On our list of must do places to see are:  Pompeii and Mt Vesuvius, the Coleseum, the Vatican and Sistine Chapel, and the Catacombs under Rome.  We are staying in the heart of the historical district and very close to the main train station, so getting around should be super simple!  We plan on putting LOTS of miles on our walking shoes next week for sure. 

Other items on our to-do list?  NONE!  We are not planning out a thing until we get there.  We will eat good food, drink good wine, see lots of great historical sites, find cafés and bakeries and just enjoy Rome.

 

As usual, I'll keep the blog updated, hopefully nightly with our adventures and the picture of the day!