Rome

We arrived in Rome pretty late from Athens, but luckily Italians eat dinner pretty late. Also, we heard from our Taxi driver that we're staying in a "hip" area of Rome called Pigneto that has all sorts of good bars and restaurants.

We’re in an AirBnB owned by a guy named Marco. On AirBnB he has many positive reviews commenting on his wonderful hospitality. Now we understand why. When we arrived he told us that if they had known when we were coming they would have waited so we could join them for dinner. Then he spent the next half hour telling us all about the places in Rome we should go see. He gave us a map after marking it with all his recommendations.

We asked Marco for recommendations about where to eat but he wasn't sure what would still be open (at this point it was nearly 11pm). We headed out anyway and found a really good pizza place that was open until midnight! The pizza was great, and we learned a few words of Italian from the family that owns it/works there. Especially important, "Cheers" is "Saluti." It’s a family run restaurant, and we were the only two guests there, so we got to know them / connected a little. We spoke with them some (though the language barrier meant a lot of Spannitalian), Monisha asked if the husband if she could watch him make the pizzas, and he showed her the pizza oven. We walked by their restaurant the next night and exchanged happy “Ciao!”s, and the night after we had yet another pizza there (as half of our dinner).

We spent two full days in Rome. On the first we walked through ancient Rome. The Rick Steve's guide we took pictures of in Athens recommended that we get a "Roma Pass" for €20. The pass lets you skip lines and get free or reduced admission to various sites in Rome. Unfortunately, when we went by The Colosseum, we discovered the price of each Roma Pass is now €38.50 :(. We didn't feel like spending nearly €80 on Rome sights, so we decided not to buy it. The outside of The Colosseum is already very impressive, so we decided to come back later when the lines would be shorter. As it turned out, we never returned. Luckily Monisha has seen it before, and Nolan isn't too sad about missing the inner part.

The rest of the day we spent wandering around Rome. This city is really something. For one, it seems that on every third block is some amazing piece of ancient ruins or something else of ancient historical importance.

Some beautiful views:

For two, there are interesting and awesome things happening on every street it seems (in the lively areas). We stopped by a number of street musicians, artists, and even a speed spray painter!

Piazza Navona: it’s hyped up for good reason! It has a wonderful atmosphere, fantastic street musicians and artists, great people watching, and Bernini’s impressive Fontana di Fiumi in the center. Additionally, there was a large area of fake snow in the middle of the square next to the fountain, which we soon discovered was the set for filming (the second one we’ve come across this trip!).

One of our favorite parts of our time in Piazza Navona was a charming guitarist street musician who really played the part: he had a nice hat and vest, a very Italian look, an old wooden amp, and an audience engaging character. Nolan noticed him first while Monisha was inside a café because he was playing a song she had just shown him the previous day: Father and Son by Cat Stevens; she was reminded of the song because it has parts that sounds lot like a song Nolan played for her: Fight Test by The Flaming Lips. He excitedly ran in to find her so we could listen together. To Nolan’s satisfaction, a couple right next to us recognized the song and were trying to remember who it was by; Nolan was able to inform them it was Cat Stevens, which greatly impressed them. We listened to four or five more songs before wandering on. The next day, we found ourselves in Piazza Navona Again. To our amazement, the same street musician was there again…playing Father and Son by Cat Stevens! He only played one more song after that before packing up, and it was not one that we had heard the previous night. So it was quite a coincidence! We then went to the other side of the square where we sat on a bench and listened to another street musician who was playing more technically impressive songs, and was very talented, but seemed to draw many fewer people. Part of it was maybe that she was on a less popular part of the square. We think a lot of it was just the look / character; he really played up the Italian street musician role, whereas she didn’t have the outfit, box, or as much audience interaction.

We spent some time talking, people watching, and enjoying the atmosphere on the Spanish Steps. Something you see all over Rome (and Venice as well, we have since discovered) is people selling these light up flying thingies that shoot way up in the air and spin as they fall slowly-ish back down. Monisha remembers these from her previous Europe trips as well. She noted to Nolan that while our instinct is to totally disregard anything touristy like that being sold like that, we could actually enjoy it. He challenged her to haggle for one, and she got one for 1 euro (starting price was five)!

 

The next day, we decided a trip to Vatican City was in order. It seemed like a good idea to cross another country off the list, especially when all it took was a 45min metro ride.

Lines for every sight in Vatican city are shockingly long. We decided we wanted to go to one of the three major amazing things to see there: the Sistine Chapel, the Vatican Museum, or St Peter’s Basilica. It sounded like they are all similarly incredible, so we settled on the free option, St Peter’s. On the way, we passed countless people trying to get us to pay for tours of the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museum, always emphasizing the lines and how we can skip them if we buy the tour, blah blah blah. We enjoyed scrutinizing why everybody (ourselves included) has such negative feelings about standing in lines; people enjoy having conversation, entertaining themselves on their phones, reading kindle books on their phone, people watching, all of which are possible in lines. Yet waiting in line is something people really strive to avoid. We also wondered why no one chats with the people before and after them in line. It seems like a good time to share stories, given that you’re stuck next to each other for an hour or so. We concluded if you took advantage of it, you could thoroughly enjoy yourselves and your line neighbors during your line time. We amused ourselves by imagining how the tour pushers would react if when they tried to sell us on skipping the line, we emphatically responded with, “What?! Skip the line! But we love lines!” Referring to lines as ‘the best part!’ of sightseeing for the rest of the day brought us a silly number of smiles and chuckles. While waiting in line, we talked mostly about Box. Our 40 minutes of line time flew by. We’re excited to be back home soon :).

To be fair, as perfectly enjoyable as our line time way, it doesn’t steal the cake as ‘the best part!’ of sightseeing in Vatican City. St Peter’s Basilica is awestriking. Monisha sounded like a broken record, because she just kept repeating over and over, “this is unbelievable.” Easily one of the top three most amazing buildings we’ve seen…probably top 2: La Sagrada Familia and St Peter’s Basilica. The place is breathtaking, enormous. The baby cherubs are bigger than we are! The whole place feels like a giant’s world. And it’s beautiful. So, definitely worth seeing. We didn't even take pictures of the interior. *

One of Marco’s most emphatic recommendation was a breakfast place in the Pigneto district called Necci dal 1924. He told us we have to go in the morning to get a cappuccino and one of the many kinds of croissants, insisting that they are really the best. No need to tell us twice! The next morning, we walked on over to Necci…at 11:00am. We got a cappuccino and…no croissants. They were all out! We did get two little sandwiches, including one vegetable sandwich with moist black bread (no idea what it’s made with! Squid ink??), as well as banana. All was very yummy, and cappuccino exceptional. But, we had not succeeded in getting the croissants! Marco told us that they actually have little pins that say, “I took the last croissant”; you can’t get there too late! So we set out earlier the next morning: at 10:15am. Alas, we were still too late for the elusive croissant! So we went to a nearby café to get cappuccinos and croissants. Both good, but the cappuccino certainly didn’t compare with Neccis. The plain croissant wasn’t particularly special, but we got a nut one that was excellent and tasted just like the maple syrup pecan pie Monisha’s family used to have for Thanksgiving. Anyway, on day 3, before catching our train to the Amalfi coast, we headed to Necci dal 1924. At 9:00am. SUCCESS!!! 1. Two cappuccinos. This time, Nolan got one too. He has been resisting coffee to avoid getting addicted. But after tasting my cappuccino the first day, he wasn’t going to pass it up again! 2. TWO CROISSANTS! One cream filled and one chocolate croissant. The chocolate croissant was very yummy. The cream filled croissant: no question the best croissant Monisha has ever eaten. Nolan thought it was delicious as well. But Monisha was in heaven. Also, they were only €1.20 each! So what did we do? Got two more croissants for the trip to Amalfi :) One plain, one cream filled. Mm mm mmmm.

On the way, Monisha quite enjoyed these flowers:

Oh, Italian food is amazing. Way up there in favorite cuisines of this trip. I would easily say Italian and Greek are the top two. Indeed, we’ve been having our fair share of pizza and pasta!We’ve also had some great paninis.

  

And we had a fantastic experience at a tapas bar. It was run by one man who was friendly, took his food and quality very seriously, and had great music taste. He and Nolan were both individually rockin’ out (discreetly) to Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd. We ended our tapas trip there with a delightful tiramisu, which was on Monisha’s list of must have things in Italy.

  

In Italy, we did also have one Greek baked potato stuffed with yumminess! And…a Greek yogurt with honey and cinnamon ^_^

  

*Yes, we are aware and have already had quite a laugh about Monisha’s idiomatic ignorance…but Nolan particularly liked Monisha’s variation on this one, so we left it as is.