Thursday, September 20, 2012

Passegiatta in my Jimmy Choo's


Tuesday would turn out to be my favorite day in Rome so far but I didn't think it would be when it began.  Getting to bed at 3-4am was gonna make things a bit more difficult I imagined.  We had an 11am appointment at The Borgese Gallery and Gardens and that did leave a lot of time for sleeping or slowly waking up after a few too many Gin & Limon's.  The morning begins:
Kris:  What time is it?
Dan:  um.....hold on........11:30 am 
Kris:  OK
Kris and Dan:  zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


Our actual day began a few hours later with a third buzzing on our door.  Housekeeping really wants to clean our room badly and are not happy with our grunting responses when they try to come in.  We are now forced to get up and get our day going as they will wait no longer.
(at least that is how I remember it....could be totally wrong about that)

This afternoons plans call for a walk to the Spanish Steps to get us started.  Ok, time to guess:
1.  We walked straight there without getting lost 
2,  We get lost, it takes twice as long to get there and our feet are killing us.

What's your guess......................................?

HA HA.......WRONG!!!!!!!  We got there on-time without taking even 1 wrong turn.  I am really getting this Rome thing. 

We arrive at the top of the Spanish Steps and it sure is a beautiful site to see.  Massive marble steps that are great for stepping on or sitting on.  Why do they call them The Spanish Steps, I have no idea.  I think they were build for the Spanish or by the Spanish or have something to do with the  Spain and its people.  All I know is that they are huge, and you are supposed to sit on them and eat Gelato.  We sat on them and took pictures and enjoyed the throngs of people doing the same.  No Gelato for us yet as our stomaches were not quite ready for something that sweet.

Off for some shopping.  We cut down a little street and head toward the main drag, Via del Corso, on our way to Piazza de Popolo.  Again we arrive without getting lost and the Piazza is lovely.  Much different than Piazza Navona as there are just a couple restaurants and almost no vendors.  It seems a little more Italian and a little less touristy.  We find a seat on the steps of the main fountain and just relax.  People watching is excellent here as there are lots of young italians getting ready for their evening stroll and enough tourists getting snookered by the 10 middle eastern men giving out free Roses that turn out not be free as soon as they force them into your hands.  We read about this ahead of time and were very forceful in our NO's!!!!!!!

As the sun went down behind a large building we followed the throngs of young italian boys and girls on the Passeggiata (the art of taking a walk in the evening)  back down Via del Corso.  Joining us were throngs of tourists, italian lovers, those wanting to be italian lovers and men in capri pants.  More on that one later.  Via del Corso is the main shopping area in Rome.  It is kind of a cross between Rodeo Drive and Venice Beach.  Really the best kind of people watching.  We had a wonderful stroll dancing in and out of shops and churches and just watching life go by.

As the shopping district came and went, we decided to go back to The Pantheon again as it was so amazing the first time around.  It did not disappoint the second time.  We actually got inside and got to enjoy it for 15 minutes before it closed.  It is truly a spectacular place.  We will be heading back there for dinner tonight.


Piazza Navona for dinner here we come.  No getting lost this day.  I know exactly where it is...just a couple blocks that way.    Um right....it turns out I haven't figured anything out.  I probably failed to mention that we didn't get lost earlier as we only had to turn once a block from our hotel and then walk 20 blocks straight to get to the Spanish Steps.  I had gotten cocky and Rome made me pay for it again by getting lost again.  Finally we arrive after many twists and turn and actually find the restaurant Cul De Sac on a small side street.  Cul De Sac came highly recommended by our friends Dean and Ally and since we hadn't found any restaurant we had looked for yet we were very excited to find this one.  After a short 10 minute wait we were seated and had a fantastic meal.  Amazing how this place was so crowded and the place next door was empty.  It was all about the food.  The meatballs melted in your mouth, the pasta was divine and the wine went down like a lead weight.  Pretty sure we were the problem on that  one.  Kris will blog more about food in another post so I wont go into much detail, but I will say I have had something different to eat at every dinner and am really enjoying the great pasta...especially at Cul De Sac.

No more walking, no more getting lost.  We catch a taxi and head home in what I am quite sure is not the quickest or fastest way as we saw half of Rome in our 1 mile trip back to our hotel.  To bed early tonight as we cannot miss our 9am Vatican appt in the morning.

This is a day I want to repeat over and over.  Despite it's slow start, only having to walk 7hrs instead of 12 made it much more enjoyable and the sites were fabulous.

1 comment:

  1. They're called the Spanish Steps because they're opposite the Spanish Embassy! Funny eh?

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