We arrived late on Thursday night, and since the Italians have a more
typical schedule - finding a place to eat dinner at 11 pm was a little
more challenging then here in Madrid. However, after finally finding
our hotel, we were able to find a local restaurant that was still
welcoming people at that hour. We had a wonderful meal. We had
fabulous bruschette to start with and then I had basic spaghetti
pomodora and Andy had one of his favorite Italian dishes - pasta
carbonara. I was just wonderful and very inexpensive. I was already
much happier there in Rome in one night than in Madrid.
The next day we journeyed into the old part of Rome and wondered
around on our own for several hours. As our pictures indicate, we saw
the Spanish steps and the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon. We saw
other fabulous things and again had a wonderful lunch. We both tried
calzones in a local restaurant. Also, the basic salad in Italy is
actually meat free - no tuna , no jamon, etc. It was sooooooo
wonderful. Eating there was just as easy as finding any place that
served food. Much more like the bay area. It was a welcome break
from Madrid.
Friday afternoon, we took a tour of the ruins - for those of you who
have been there, you know how great and amazing it is. For those of
you who have not made it there, it was amazing. Very surreal,
especially the coliseum. Between hearing what the tour guide was
saying, what I could remember from history in school, and from
movies, it just seemed impossible that a city or a place could be
that old and have so much violence and progression at the same time.
I can't even imagine how difficult life was back then. I'm also
amazed at the amount of wealth and power a few people had in the world
at that time. Anyway, many pictures and very tired legs later, we
went back to our hotel to rest a little before dinner. As for
dinner, we ended up in some small restaurant owned and run by a
family. It was great. The food was good, the service was good, the
price was good, and they had a really bad, unidentifiable Sly Stallone
movie from the 80s on dubbed over in Italian playing in the background.
We tried to get to bed at a decent our as we were to tour the Vatican
in the morning........
So, we arrived Saturday morning outside the Vatican walls around 9 to
meet our tour group by 9:15. By the time we went in, we had all been
waiting for quite a while, but that's okay. The weather was sunny and
mild. We had a group of largely Americans and other ethnicities that
could speak English. I think we were about 30 in all and were only
one of many, many tour groups. Our guide was excellent. We spent
about 4 hours with her in the Vatican between the Vatican Museum, the
Sistine Chapel, and then St. Peter's Basilica. Again, just
breathtaking. So much history and to actually see works by great
Renaissance artists was amazing for me. The history was very
interesting to me and, of course, to Andy who was just thrilled the
whole time in Rome for obvious reasons. I can't even begin to
describe the magnitude of these places. Even the floors were
amazing. I think the pictures are the best way to convey what is
there, but they are a poor substitution for seeing it all in person.
However, they are better than nothing for those who have never been
and may never be able to go.
We wondered around the city that afternoon, went back to the hotel
briefly and then went out for a nice leisurely dinner our last night
in Rome. I had the best Arrabiata sauce ever that night, Andy enjoyed
his food as well. We ate outside right at dusk on a very lovely
street. We ended our dinner with limoncello and then a little later
- gelato. One can never have enough gelato in Rome. Did I mention we
had the best Tiramisu the first night?
Anyway, we flew out early Sunday afternoon to head back to Madrid. I
was sad to leave Rome. I'm still not quite sure why I did....I would
recommend it to anyone. If you have to choose between Rome and Madrid
- um, for me, it's Rome, hands down. We had even done our usual
internet search for veggie places, of which they had many. But, the
happy thing is that we didn't even get that far - we didn't need to.
The normal restaurants were perfectly veggie friendly.
The sheer number of pictures we took should indicate our time in
Rome. I'm impressed that we were able to see all that we did in 2.5
days, but that is not really enough time there. But it's better than
nothing and a great reason to go back.
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