Advertisement
Published: February 9th 2011
Rome
After a fantastic trip to Ireland it was finally time to make our way to Rome. We spent 2 more days in Dublin before taking a Ryanair flight direct to the Italian capital. Actually while in Dublin taking a bus back from the rental car office, we ran into an Irish friend of ours, Sarah, who worked at James Hobans but was back in Ireland now! It is a small world indeed!
Before we left Ireland, we had found an excellent website called 'Air B n B' in which people post their apartments that they are willing to rent out to anyone for either a few days to weeks/months. Mary and I liked staying in hostels since they had communal kitchens and we could prepare our own food (cutting down on food costs), but did not particularly enjoy sharing a bedroom with other people. The Air B n B website worked out perfectly- we got in touch with a woman who had a studio apartment in an excellent neighborhood about a 15 minute bus ride from the main train station, Termini. The neighborhood, called Pigneto, was removed from all the major tourist traps and overly priced restaurants. We were also lucky in that a local farmers market ran from early morning until about 1 PM everyday just around the corner from our place. My very rusty Italian was able to get us excellent local meats, cheeses, vegetables, and herbs. After all the beer and fried bar food in Ireland, Italy was a welcome relief! I forgot how good Italian parmesan cheese is!! I now understand why in the past my Mom had anyone going to Rome bring her some wherever we were in the world. I could go on and on about the food- local salami sliced at the butchers right around the corner was the best salami I have ever had. We began to look forward to every single meal!
Besides eating, we spent the days sight seeing as Mary has never been to Rome. My cousin Jill is also in Rome teaching English, and on our second day she met up with us outside the Colosseum. I must say Mary and I were thankful to have Jill around, she became our own personal tour guide. She had an excellent map of the city and we spent the day jumping from site to site (Pantheon, Trevi fountain, Piazza Venezia, Circolo Massimo, etc etc). Jill also took us to an excellent, real deal Italian gelato place, and we ended our day there.
The next day we got a late start and spent the day making delicious things using our market produce. Mary is going to describe a couple of those meals in another blog entry. We met up with Jill early evening in Piazza Campo di Fiori, and then she took us to this amazing restaurant. She ordered an incredible bottle of red wine that took me back to when I first started drinking wine in Florence during my year abroad. We did the usual bruschette, cured meats and cheeses as appetizers, and then I ordered the pasta carbonara which was rich and creamy and absolutely delicious. Mary had the nightly special, a fettucine pasta in a porchini mushroom sauce that was amazing. From there we rolled our stuffed faces over to a pub where I had a beer for the first time since arriving in Italy. We met one of Jills friends there, an Englishman named Steve, and after one pint it was over to the young hangout spot of trastevere. We ended the night at an Irish pub not too far from Piazza Venezia, and luckily caught the last bus to termini and fought over a taxi to get home.
The next morning it was off to the Vatican, where unfortunately we were too late to see the Vatican museum (somehow after living in Rome for three years I never saw the Sistine chapel and today it was not meant to be either). We did walk around St. Peters square and checked out St. Peters church. We then walked over to the bridge of angels as the sun was setting and got some great photos we'll eventually post as well. Exhausted, Mary and I returned home to make our last meal in Rome and pack for our journey down south to our first farm. We definitely were very appreciative of Jill and the good times we had in Rome thanks to her! She is quickly becoming a local Roman- thanks Jill!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.108s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 8; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0532s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Mom/Pam
non-member comment
:) !
OMG did that ever bring back memories! I never tired of emerging from the Coloseo subway stop with visitors and seeing the Coloseum in all it's glory! I can't believe that in 3 yrs. you never saw the Sistine Chapel--how is that possible?!? My mouth was watering during the whole reading and all I can say is, Thank God we can get imported Parmesan, both at Shaw's and the co-op! Can't wait to hear about the farm and environs, LOVE, M/P