Roma!

Hi Auntie,

After four days of sunshine in Sorrento, we made our last stop in Rome to tour the Vatican. This being our third time into Rome, we were all looking forward to it. 

Arrivederchi Sorrento--Buongiorno Roma!

We picked a hotel on the famous shopping street of Via Veneto. We like the area because it is very quiet (quiet during the day anyway) and is near the Spanish Steps (lots of fun places to explore) and also the Trevi Fountain and Pantheon (no shortage of nearby Landmarks) – and just as importantly, the street that the Hard Rock Café is on.  We were eager for some familiar food. 

Our hotel room on Via Veneto --very nice, but...

Don’t get the wrong idea.  We loved the food – but our dining soon became too much, too late, and by the end of nearly 3 weeks, too unpredictable!  As Noelle says, it’s just never what you think you’ll get!

Charmingly, most restaurants were eager to show off their specialties.  They don’t take 'no' for an answer.  Among our free ‘house food’ we enjoyed  special pizzas, unique ciabattas, fantastic brusciettas, and the delicious liquer, limonchello.   

Complimentary House Ciabatta in Roma

 Some locally recommended choices (that stretched our envelopes) included seafood pizza, linguini with ink squid, sardine fettucini, marinated octopus with onion, fried baby eels (?) – not sure on that one--it sort of seemed like miniature tongues.  Just saying...
Anyway, we had endless choices of tartare – you pick the meat—along with tripe, tongue, etc.
All along the way we admired the gelatos and enjoyed what became our favorites:  canneloni, various risottos, white truffle sauces, chili oil spaghetti, broccoli flan, and one of our favorite local pastas,  Busiati- a corkscrew pasta from Trapani, Sicily.  We’ll not forget the breads and wines everywhere--our favorite of what Amanda coined, and we now call, "Roma Reds" – the red house wines in Rome. Fabulous.

TIP#1: You’ll never go wrong ordering the house wines in Italy.

But as you can see, we were ready to calm down our culinary experience. *Sigh*

Our lovely hotel room on the quiet street turned out to be very noisy.  We had to leave the windows open all night because the thermostat did not work and the room was overheated by the towel bar that warmed our bath towels in our bathroom.

So between the street sweepers, garbage trucks, Italian men and young Americans, we were awake for most of two nights.

Lookin' cool

So on our final day in Italy, we walked to the Vatican donning our new Italian sun glasses. 

Amanda on our way to the Vatican

Over the door to the museums

   The trek was a very enjoyable 2 miles, or so.  Once there, we picked up our tour with tour guide, Marguerite. She was all business. 

Awesome tour guide, Marguerite; Noelle being sure she 'gets with Marguerite's program' 

In spite of her solid instructions,  one lady left our group then after a lengthy delay of searching for her, she caught up and reamed Marguerite in front of the rest of us – 23 in counting and all supporting Marguerite.  This after one of the security guys wouldn’t let us into St. Peter’s Bascillica—Marguerite, a Vatican tour guide, stated that this was an "unbelievable organization".  She worked her magic by going to the top, and the basilica was enjoyed by all—well, except for the rude lady whose husband was now missing.

It surprises us how irreverent people are -- the Vatican holds many relics--but we can see why they are not shared.  The museums are basically collections of art -- not really relics, like we had hoped. There was a vault with remnants of the cross Jesus was crucified on, but that's about it on the relics.  However, we understand after being with the masses, for a half a day,  in this sacred place.

font

one of many ceilings of the museums

Another noisy night brought us to our trek to the Rome airport in a hired car.  It broke down.  But the pick-up car got us to the airport on time.  

waiting for our pick-up ride after our car breaks down

To me the hasty response to our predicament reflected the gracious friendliness of all the Italians we encountered on our three week trip – sans the manger at our first hotel in Rome (see blog #1). 

TIP #2:  Don’t believe the Italians are rude and Rome is to be avoided.  They aren't and it isn’t.

Back to the Brits – Ciao’

And Cheerio!