Well as always its been far too long...but we had a recent Roman Holiday which was any thing but PAXful (get it) because it was a whirlwind trip with much to do including Kel's 27th b-day. Geez, I cant believe we've been dating since she was 18, very strange. Also, half way through this is a rant so if you don't want to see me being negative and complaining then skip that part.
DAY 1:
Well like most of our holidays we got some cheap tickets which means we leave from London Stansted at 6 AM. Stansted is an hour outside of London and in order to get there to check in at 4:30 we have to sleep at the airport. Not a lot of fun but we did manage to catch a few Z's before our flight. Flight was smooth and flying over the Alps in the winter is an amazing view. When we arrived we managed to get to the Termini station in central Rome was easy by shuttle and get on the Metro to get to our apt. Lately we've been using this Airbnb.com website to book trips and so far we havent been disappointed, its usually 50-75% cheaper than hotels and the places are bigger and nicer than hotels/hostels and always has a kitchen to save some cash and cook your own food. This was the apt we got, along with a picture of our host,
http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/80612, and it was amazing. Pina met us at the metro stop and said, "Do you like coffee, come we will take our coffee here" and pulled us into the coffee shop we would eat breakfast at every day because the coffee and pastries were amazing. This was the first of many amazing things that Pina would tell us and places she recommended to go. She showed us to the apt. and we were thoroughly impressed. Clean, big, modern, and well located next to two aqueducts that are 500 and 1800 years old respectively. I wont get too into it but Pina talked to us for about 2 hours just giving us suggestions, mapping out walks we could take, and telling us where things are in the neighbourhood. She was incredibly nice and as excited for us as we were. She even gave us a local phone to contact her with any needs or questions we might have so we wouldnt have to pay roaming charges, Wow.
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| Pina is awesome! |
We did take a nap since we were incredibly tired after a night of no sleep, but got up at 4pm to hit the Metro and go on a little walk that Pina had mapped out for us. 1st stop was the Spanish steps that also have a pretty cool statue called, "the ugly boat" at the bottom. Glad we started with the steps because they were...well...steps. Cool, but after 5 minutes we were ready to move on to the far more impressive Trevi fountain.
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| Cool, but... |
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| The Ugly Boat |
A very short walk down the street and we came to the Fountain, which was absolutely huge. Its stunning and we just stared for a while. It was packed with people but its still kind of magical. One of the most stunning fountains I've seen and it just kind of takes your breath away. We were feeling tired but after this, we really woke up and were ready for the night.
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| Kel Kel at the Trevi. |
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| Take the picture already |
As spectacular as it was looking at the fountain we decided to get some Pizza by the slice. The Roman method for this is to take a massive Oval shaped pizza, cut of a strip of pizza according to how big you want it, throw it in the oven to heat up, and fold it in half to make a little sandwich. We also grabbed a Peroni beer (which complements the pizza very well FYI) and walked a minute back to the fountain. You can tell by the picture that with some food in our bellies we liven up a little.
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| Roman pizza time. |
Next up, the Pantheon. From Wikipedia "The Pantheon is a building in Rome, Italy, commissioned by Marcus Agrippa as a temple to all the gods of Ancient Rome, and rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian in about 126 AD. The ancient Roman writer Cassius Dio speculated that the name comes either from the statues of so many gods placed around this building or from the resemblance of the dome to the heavens." It is now a Christian church.
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| The Pantheon |
But walking up to something so spectacular, old, and well preserved...well again to repeat my self, it took our breath away. You just kind of see something like this and you just stand and stare speechless for a while. We went in and checked it out. It has a huge dome open in the middle, but yeah wow. You'd think we'd get jaded after all of these old buildings on all of our travels, but its still just wow.
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| Open dome in the Pantheon. |
After this we just walked around for a bit and ended up heading home. Well on our walk we went into a few other churches, and also stumbled across some 2000+ year old ruins (they're everywhere, but its still cool). Rome thus far was amazing, and considering that we thought we'd be too tired to do anything this day, and thought it might be a wash. We saw quite a bit of stuff that we needed to see. We didnt have any pennies to chuck into the Trevi, but we vowed to come back while we were here and toss a few in. Bed and Sleep.
Day 2: Kelly's birthday.
We thought that today would be a good day to go to the Vatican since it was a weekday and we thought it would have relatively short lines. Kelly put on a little black dress and asked me, "Is this too short?" and said of course not (and I was thinking conservatively mind you) because you're also wearing black nylons, totally church appropriate. We got coffee, took in a bit of the blue skies, hopped the metro and headed to the St. Peters Plaza out in front of the basilica.
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| Square out side of St. Peters in Vatican City. They should take their tree down. |
After a few pics outside and taking note of the post office, which I only then remembered as the rarest of all postmarks (and stamps I think), we decided to go through security and into the church. Kelly and I noticed that even though we beeped going through security they let us right go right by. I then remembered and informed Kelly that the reason for this is that the rest of the world profiles and isnt afraid of offending everyone. We go through but right at the door, security stopped us and told us that Kel's skirt was too short and she could either tie my jacket around her waist or we couldn't to in. We decided to forego the Vatican until the next day, that way we could mail a few postcards from the Vatican back home. No big deal, and good story about how the Catholic church turned Kelly away for the length of her skirt. Im sure there's a catholic school girl skirt joke or other joke here but you can make it for yourself. Just a few short stops away was the Coliseum. Again as we walked up its entirely surreal to see such an iconic thing up close and personal. Again it was amazing, and we just wandered around taking it all in.
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| The re-enforcements are holding what remains of the Coliseum up. |
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| Inside the Coliseum |
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| What the Vatican turns away, the Coliseum gladly takes. |
RANT TIME
1. Americans - At all of these attraction you hear quite a few American accents and man do a lot of us sound ignorant and obnoxious. Not all but most of the people talking at these attractions just sound inane and vapid, trying to spew off information about the sites that is often incorrect. Its like they're talking just to talk when they should really only be talking when they have something to say.
2. Having other people take photos of you - I finally vocalized something Ive known for a while here. If you want a good picture taken of you by someone else, ask someone who already has an expensive looking SLR camera around their neck . Everyone that I ask to take a photo of us that already has an SLR, takes a nice, well framed photo, and is always really really nice about it. I can't tell you how many times we've had a shot of us ruined by someone who insists on getting all of us in the picture while cropping out the thing we obviously want a picture in front of. "Hey thanks buddy, you got only half of the gorgeous church/monument/etc in the shot, but at least I can see my legs, shoes and all of the trash at our feet. Photogs, they know how to frame a shot.
3. More on pictures - Can we as a human race stop telling people how to work a camera. We had many people ask us to take pictures of them and every time you hear this phrase, "Just press the button". We can collectively as people stop saying this. I think at this point we, as a species, can stop this ingrained phrase when asking others to take a picture. No one ever just stares dumbfounded at the buttons wondering what to do. We stopped, and aside from shot-framing issues, everyone has figured it out just fine.
END RANTS.
After the Colliseum we had to skip the forum because there was some sort of strike on for the day and it was shut down (as well as the metro, but more on that later). We decided to get lunch in the Jewish Ghetto quarter of town that Pina had strongly recommended to us for amazing traditional Jewish Roman food. Pina again texted us on the phone to see how we were doing and we told her where we were. She then recommended a place called Sora Margarita to eat. We, had the address and a map and looked and looked and looked and couldn't find the place. We were getting very hungry and had been walking all day so we all most called off looking for the place, but Kelly reminded me the Pina is never wrong so i asked a guy at a butcher shop close to where it was supposed to be. Needless to say he said it was on the other side of the building and we ended up finding the place marked only by a small chalk sign the size of a half sheet of paper. We got our name on the list and were seated fairly quickly in a tiny, skinny room packed with people eating lunch. We got excited because the place was covered in restaurant reviews from throughout the years and they were all glowing. Most said not only did it have the best food, but it also was the most authentic to how things were a few decades ago. This place was not nice, or special in any way, just packed full of people, paper table mats and plastic mismatched outdoor chairs. Our waitress was awesome as well, because she saw we were not Italian and only asked for our choice of red or white wine. At that point she just started bringing out food. The first anti-pasta course was artichokes, fried and pickled. So good, except for the fact that we didn't really know how to eat the things and tried our best at the end Kel had eaten all but the middle, and I had eaten all but the stem.
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| Kelly will hate this pic but its the only I have of the artichokes. |
It was at that point (and mind you, all conversation was done by pure gesturing) that the waitress asked if we liked the artichokes. We said yes and she gave us a look, like, "really". At that point she cut the uneaten artichoke in half and just shoved it in Kelly's mouth. She then took my stem and shoved it in my mouth. It was great, but slightly embarrassing to be fed, but hey it was good. The next course aside from bread and wine was pasta. A huge bowl that was so basic yet literally one of the best things I have ever tasted. Just red sauce, meat, and al dente pasta.
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| Fist Pasta Course |
After this much food we were stuffed and wondering when she would bring out some desert when another massive plate of pasta arrived. This one was even better than the first. It was some sort of dumpling with a small meatball in the middle covered with Ricotta and Parmesan cheese. We wouldn't have been able to finish it except for the fact that it was so good.
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| Some sort of wonderful |
We said to here that we were full and got the check. So freaking good, and with full stomachs we walked home to the Metro stop and laid down for a nap. When we woke up we headed down to the Metro. The plan was to get gelatti at another Pina recommended place only to find out that now the subway was shut for the night due to the strike. Well, a text was placed and Pina recommended a place for some drinks that again turned out to be amazing. It was located right by our place, had good music a nice atmosphere and was located in between the two aqueducts. Prices were amazing as well.
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| Between two ancient aqueducts. |
After that it was late and we were a bit hungry so we found some more street pizza, which was good and retired for the evening.
DAY 3:
We woke up early but not nearly as early as before and headed to the Vatican (more appropriately dressed mind you) to try our luck again. We took coffee at the local place and headed to the metro.
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| Italian Breakfast. |
There were noticeably more people pouring off the subway and heading towards the Vatican, and man the people selling tours are annoying. They kept on saying, "English, American, Would you like a tour, skip the lines". I would say no politely and they would get rude like we were stupid for not paying them an extra 20 Euro per person to take a tour and skip a one hour line, irritating after a while. Any ways when we got there we decided to buy some postcards and mail a few friends and family from the Vatican post office.
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| Vatican Post Office |
After that we stepped in line for St. Peters basilica when I remembered something Pina had said, more on that later. We got out of line and walked up to the Vatican museum which is the other part of seeing the Vatican where the Sistine chapel is. We paid to get in and took in some of the highlights like this crazy hall of artwork where literally every square inch of ceiling and wall was artwork.
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| Crazy tapestry art hall |
We wandered around seeing stuff but really i just wanted to get to the chapel. When we did, man, it is amazing. Not just the Creation of Adam, but The Last Judgement (see here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Michelangelo,_Giudizio_Universale_02.jpg). We stared for quite a while taking in all of the pieces and parts of what many consider to be the pinnacle of renaissance painting. There were no pictures allowed so I was only able to snap this one of the actual ceiling.
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| My sneaky picture of the ceiling. |
We were in there for about an hour and I could have spent all day. It is simply spectacular. When we walked to the back to exit, Pina's advice kicked in. She said that if we exited where we were supposed to we would have to walk out and around to the Basilica, wait in line to be searched and metal-detected and then let into the church. BUT, if we walked out the exit to the right (which is for tour groups only) then it would take us down 1 flight of stairs and straight into the church, which is why the tour guides advertise that you get to skip the lines. We waited until a group went out the special exit and jumped on at the end, the security didnt even give us a second look and we went right into St. Peters. Thanks again Pina. The church was impressive in not only scale but in statues, and Michaelanglos 'Pieta', which is again stunning. It portrays Mary as young and if you look at the robes it's absolutely ridiculous how he made marble look like cloth.
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| This picture does not do it justice, It is also very big. |
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| Inside St. Peters Basilica |
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| Kelly being blessed by Christ. |
As far as churches go it was impressive as evidenced by the pictures, but its getting hard to describe all of this stuff. Too overwhelming. Up next was lunch with Pizza on the street and then off to the forum. The forum is just uncovered ruins in different states of disrepair laid out all over the place. It was a nice change of pace to the other sites because it was so spread out and you could really get away from other people. It was quiet, peaceful, and really nice just to take a stroll. It also had a cool lookout where we got more pictures of the Coliseum.
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| Thought I'd break off another piece. |
We were originally going stay out for the rest of the day but were fairly tired so we headed back to the place to rest and re-group for the evening. While we were there I decided to look up the best pizza in Rome. There were multiple lists online but I noticed that in the comments sections of almost all of them someone would mention how they couldn't believe that Formula 1 pizza wasn't on the list. I looked it up and read some reviews saying that this is not very tourist friendly and very localized pizza joint that is absolutely packed out after 9pm. We headed out for the second time and decided to hit up the Trevi and Pantheon again just because they were worth seeing again and to get some Pina recommended gelato that was right by the Pantheon. It was called San Crispino and its was again great. They had a bunch of unusual flavours so I decided to try the Whiskey flavour mixed with the honey flavour and it was very good. Kelly had the Hazelnut mixed with Straciatella (similar to chocolate chip) which was also very good and I had to try a few bites.
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| San Crispino Gelato |
We stared at the Pantheon for another good while, but since it was getting late and we were getting hungry we tried to find Formula 1. It was not easy and took us around a pretty seedy looking neighbourhood near the train station but eventually we located it in a neighbourhood very much reminding me of Brooklyn; run down, yet vibrant. We found it easily after getting to the right area because of the mass of about 90-100 people standing outside. We got in line for about 10 minutes before we realized there really wasn't a line and we had to get our name on a list. I shoved Kelly inside to the absolutely packed out place to try and find the guy. I always make her do these kind of things because I figure that a cute girl will be given a lot more cultural leeway rather than some doofus guy.
I eventually went into check on her and the place was just chaos of Italians going crazy (a very passionate people are the Italians) and we managed to stay out of the way and ascertain that it was going to be quite a wait. We decided to stick it out because we knew it had to be good and eventually we were seated just after 11pm. It took a while to get food but man, it was the best pizza I've ever had. Kelly just got plain cheese and i got cheese with prosciutto and some light beer called Moretti that complemented the pizza perfectly. Mind you that we did get our food just after midnight and managed to order even though they again spoke no English whatsoever.
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| After midnight, still packed out. |
It was a perfect end to the last night of our trip and man that pizza, oh I want another one right now. We walked home with full bellies and ready for a good night of sleep.
DAY 4: Headed home.
Well we didnt have to meet Pina to turn in our keys until 3pm and we hadnt bought any gifts yet so we decided to check out a flea market that was big, old, and only ran from 6AM-2PM on Sundays. We first got to it and it was nice because it was just two rows, easy to navigate and on just one street. We kept on seeing the end just up the way but it never seemed to come. We did however manage to find the gifts we wanted and even negotiated some fairly good prices. We just kept thinking, we'll just get to the end, turn around, and go home. But it just kept getting bigger and bigger as we walked. It was gigantic, we tried to leave multiple times but we couldn't exit. Every side street we turned up was just more flea market. We did make a cool find and bought some old 1920's -1960's post cards. The man wanted 1 Euro a piece for them and wouldn't come down in price. We had 7 and i was trying to get him to 5 but he wasn't having any of it. I decided to try a tactic I read about and just took out a 5 and put it in his hand. He relented, they can't resist the feel of the cold hard cash.
We managed to find an exit and starving, we decided to grab some quick street pizza and head for home to pack and get out. Trouble was is that on Sunday's nothing was open and all the Pizza places were closed. All right, well, we decided to head closer to home and go to this fairly commercial place close to the apartment. We got to our stop, decided to pack first then eat so we wouldn't be rushing around putting stuff away when Pina showed up. We headed off to Rossopomodoro (it was like a Italian version of Macaroni grill, a chain, but good). On the way however I spied a pizzeria that Pina had recommended that was closer giving us more time to eat since we were on a time crunch. It was right up against the Aqueduct and was pretty full of Italian families eating Sunday Lunch. We sat, ordered a glass of wine, and a bottle showed up. I thought, no problem, I have 40 Euros, pizza is cheap, we're cool. Our waiter spoke very little English but did manage to ask what we wanted, I said Pizza, He replied, We don't do pizza on Sundays, hold on. So about 5 minutes later he brings out this older lady who's originally from Canada and speaks pretty good English. Turns out she's the head cook/owners mother who just happened to stop by. Like I said she was from Canada, but she said she'd been in Italy most of her life and rarely had to speak English so it was a bit shaky. She said that on Sundays you would only be able to get Pizza at night and that they kind of had a set lunch for 33 Euro's each which didn't include wine. I had to shamefully tell her that we only had 40 Euros total (they didn't take card either) and that we would happily pay for our wine and bread but we couldn't get the set menu. She said wait and went an got her son. They spoke back and forth in front of us very quickly and she said finally. My son says get what you want it'll be 40 Euro's. After that they just started to bring out food. The first course was Anti-pasta and it was huge a massive wooden tray covered with massive balls of mozzarella, parmsean, peperoni, salami, prosciutto, artichokes, salad, and a bunch more stuff. No joke we were full after the anti-pasta and it could have served more than just us. We were feeling pretty guilty about the money situation but the food was good and we were raving about it every time the cook would walk by. Up next was the pasta which was these two massive raviolis and this other pasta thing with tiny little pasta balls in some wonderful sauce. About halfway through I realized that there was a strong possibility that I would throw up on the way home because it was just too much food. They were serving us the same amount as the table next to us that had 4 people. We had to eat it all too because they were giving us such a discount. The cook walked by and said, Final Lap, so we were like, cool...some sort of dessert.
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| Huge Ravioli's and some other amazing pasta (Kelly also hates this picture but its the only I have of the food) |
We couldn't have been more wrong. No dessert in site but they served us this massive plate of pork, and yes, that is a hoof you can see in the picture. It was great but I went from "Might throw up" to, "I hope i dont throw up in the restaurant because i am definitely puking". I realized at this point that they were messing with us. They knew in order to be polite we had to eat whatever was put in front of us so they just kept bringing out massive portions. We got through the pork and finished the wine and I was not feeling good. They even offered us another bottle and some coffee and dessert but we refused it all. The cook came by and put down two champagne flutes in front of us and filled them to the brim with some syrupy liqueur and motioned that it was for digestion. We drank it and it was good and thankfully liqueurs don't have that much alcohol in them, except for this one, we had just drank a ton of it and we turned around the bottle and it was 33%. They were definitely messing with us, trying to make us puke through whatever means necessary.
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| Way too much pork forelimb. For the record this was after we took a first helping. |
Surprisingly the liqueur did make us both feel a lot better and we didn't feel nearly as sick so it worked. The Canadian lady came out and asked us how everything was and asked if Pina had sent us. The woman was prolific. We paid our 40 and the cook gave us some business card to give to friends at home. He figured we got a discount so we might as well advertise for him. We met up with Pina and her son and husband and they were of course awesome and even gave us a ride to the Metro. We made it to our bus that took us to the airport and Pina gave me a text. They had found my iPod and said they were driving to the airport to give it to us. Pina was amazing from front to back, if you ever go to Rome, get that apt. Our trip home was good, except for the English trains that delayed us from getting home at 11:30pm to getting home at 2am but that's an aggravating tale that doesn't need to be told at the end of such a wonderful trip. God truly blessed this little whirlwind of a trip and we had the most amazing time I think we could have. The food was the highlight, just ahead of all the amazing history we saw. I know this was long so if you made it to here. Kudos, we will see you soon, just a few short months. Up next, Poland in Feb. I will get a blog up about that too.
-Love Casey and Kelly.
