Rome

Rome was amazing! I loved it and I want to go back immediately and stay for twice as long haha. Dave and I took off to Rome for 5 days a few weeks ago, where we met up with a couple of our Canadian friends from back home who had asked us to join them on the Rome segment of their Italy vacation.  It was so nice to hang out with our friends and we had a great time in Rome. Here's a little summary of our days there and some pictures. Warning, this post is a little picture heavy, it was hard to choose which ones to post.

We arrived late in the afternoon on a Friday to beautiful, hot and sunny weather. The first night we took it easy and just wandered the city for a bit on our own. It still amazes me that you can be walking in a part of Rome amongst cars and buses and store fronts and then, BAM , Roman ruin right in the middle of it! It was crazy. We checked out the Pantheon, which was huge and very beautiful. And a few other sites. The best part about Rome is that there is running water sations all over the city with cold, delicious drinking water that is constantly flowing. It was nice because we drank a lot of water because it was so hot, but we didn't have to waste our money on buying water. We just brought an empty water bottle with us and filled up along the way. Refreshing!

Later in the night we went out for our first Roman meal, pizza. It was very good and I got to check the first thing off my "foods I must eat in Rome" list. Rome for me wasn't only about all the amazing sites, but also all the amazing food I could eat (are you really that surprised?!). I had priorities! Haha. And I'm happy to say that I got to sample everything on my list at least once, sometimes twice. More about the food I ate later in this post, but first a few pictures of our first day...

Dave and I in front of the "Italian Wedding Cake" , as our tour guide called it

Pantheon

The dome inside the pantheon, quite huge

Inside the Pantheon, this picture doesn't do it justice, it was huge

Random ruins in the middle of town

Apparently a colony of straw cats lives in these ruins

The second day was a busy one. We had a guided tour booked of the Vatican and St.Peter's Basilica. I highly recommend getting a guided tour for this site as you get to bypass most of the lines and it really helps you focus in on the important things to see and the meaning behind them. It would be easy to spend hours and hours in the Vatican without seeing everything, this way we still spent hours there but knew we had at least seen the most important things. Plus, at one point you get a tour of the Sistine Chapel and it's very spy like and mission impossible-esque. There are guards there that don't let the guides give tours of this part and everyone is supposed to remain silent. But, all the guards give tours anyway, which is quite easy considering they have microphones and everyone participating in the tour had a headset (which only added to the spy element). Our guide pretended not to know us, sat several feet behind us, and quietly whispered into her microphone while describing the significance behind the ceiling painting in the Sistine Chapel, while we all listened intently , finger to our earbuds....very secret service. It was fun.  The tour was amazing and afterward we had some time to climb the 533 stairs up to the top of St.Peter's Basilica. It was quite the climb, especially in the 40 plus heat and with the increasingly narrower and steeper staircase,but it was worth it for the spectacular view. I enjoyed the view from a safe distance far from the railing for fear I would fall to my death....but  it was indeed spectacular. We also had some time to explore St.Peter's Basilica on our own for awhile. It is quite a huge basilica and is very beautiful. I bought a few souvenirs for some family members and had them blessed with the holy water from here. As for our own souvenir...well Dave picked out a shot glass. Maybe not very holy, but a souvenir none the less. I also have to admit that  I totally bought a vile of holy water from here....that's right....they sell the holy water. It was a busy day. We headed home after our tour, exhausted and sweaty! As would become our daily practice while in Rome we showered for the second time that day and got ready for our evening out. We had a few drinks by this fountain in the middle of town where we had noticed groups of people gathering to drink the night before. It was a fun night!

In the court yard at the Vatican, the dome of St.Peter's Basilica behind us

One of the many famous paintings in the Vatican

The Laocoonte, a famous statue found by a farmer in his yard

Climbing up the dome of St.Peter's Basilica

No railing, just a rope for the steep parts

worth the view

Holding onto Dave for dear life, braved getting near the edge

This famous statue is now behind glass after a crazy person tried to destroy it with a hammer

Inside St.Peter's Basilica

In front of St.Peter's Basilica

The third day we had to ourselves and we spent it traveling and exploring Rome. We went to all the good sites and many churches (Dave's favourite....he wanted to go into almost every church we walked by, but who could blame him when they were all so beautiful and full of famous paintings). We also saw the Trevi fountain which was very impressive. Dave and I made wishes, which I later learned may have not counted because apparently you are supposed to throw the coin over your left shoulder? I'm not sure, but here's hoping I win that million dollars anyway. It was fun and exhausting, but we covered a lot of ground and saw a lot of sites. After yet another shower (it was really really hot people!), we headed out for one of my favourite evenings in Rome. We happened to walk by this little hole in the wall Italian restaurant down a side street that looked like it was busy, so we got a table. We ended up having one of the best meals of the trip at this restaurant. We had buffalo mozzarella with olive oil to start , it was so creamy and delicious. So much more flavourful than any buffalo mozzarella that I've ever had before. Next we had pasta. I ordered the spaghetti carbonara, a cheesy , eggy , bacony spaghetti. It was so good I get hungry just thinking about it. I ended the meal with a delicious tiramisu. It was the best meal ever and I want to go back to Rome just to eat at this restaurant. Mmmmmmmmmmm....

On the Spanish Steps

Trevi Fountain

Thinking about our wishes

Ignore my wish making face, I had to concentrate

Do you see the joy in my eyes while eating this mini tiramisu cupcake?

My spaghetti carbonara

Dave's ricotta pasta, so good

Tiramisu

Dave's amaretto panacotta thing, yum!

The fourth day we had another booked tour of the Roman Forum and the Colosseum. We started the morning with a cappuccino, from a little hole in the wall cafe near our apartment. It was so creamy and delicious and a great start to the day (another thing off the list!).It was really neat to be walking amongst all these Roman ruins and see the amazing arches that are still preserved. The Colosseum was pretty huge and it was crazy to see in person and imagine all the people that would gather there to watch the games. Our tour guide was very good and he provided little humorous tidbits and stories to make the tour more interesting. Later we explored the Palatine Hill on our own, which was also quite interesting and had some more amazing views of the city. This is the site where Romulus and Remus were discovered with the She Wolf, you may remember the famous story. We enjoyed a late lunch at a restaurant near the Colosseum where I had a pasta arrabiata, which was spicy and of course delicious. Later that evening, after a rest and of course another shower to wash the dirt off (my feet were literally black from the ruins), we headed out for another memorable Italian meal. This time we headed to a place we had heard about on Trip Advisor (a great website to check out before you travel anywhere). We had a great salad to start with oil and vinegar, bread, I had a penne amatriciana , which was in a red sauce with bacony meat and was delicious (yes, that's right, I did have pasta twice on this day, got a problem with that?). For dessert we had the special, a cannelloni. I think I forgot to take pictures of this meal, but trust me, it was delicious. A  good way to spend our last evening in Rome.

Ruins in the forum

Arch

The Colosseum

Tuesday we headed back to the airport a little sad to be leaving.  I had the last item on my list, a gelato, to ease the pain of having to leave such a beautiful city. We had a wonderful time and I definitely want to go back. After all there are still so many sites to see and so many pastas to be eaten!

Until next time....
Au revoir