Thank You Roma.....Hello Firenze!!!!

This is our last morning in Rome as we need to catch a train in 4hrs to Florence.  I think I am going to leave this post open on our iPad and Kris and I can jump in and out with our throughts on Travel and Rome one last time before we head north.  So here goes:

1.  Yesterday was a wonderful day.  We decided that the Via Del Corso Walk from Piazza de Popolo through the Spanish Steps ending at the Trevi Fountain was what we wanted to do again on our last day.  We left our last day open on purpose so we would have the opportunity to do whatever we wanted with no schedule.  We left the camera and backpack in our hotel room.  We just wanted to be one with Rome.  We walked, shopped, ate and talked at our own pace with nowhere to be.  It was just a perfect way to spend our last day.  We ended with dinner at The Pantheon and drinks at
Campo de Fiori, the last Piazza we wanted to see before we left. It was a perfect finale to our 5 days in Rome.  (Dan)

2.  Eating in the Piazzas and famous places is definitely an expereince, but it is true the the food and drink is much more expensive and of far less quality.  It is fun to expereince that atmosphere every so often, but the trade off is real so make your choices wisely.   When eating in the Piazzas, I would go with something pretty standard...like pizza.  Once you venture into the more difficult sauces and pastas, you will go down hill fast.  You will also probably not want to drink the house wine as it is very aveage.  Pay a little more and get a good bottle and enjoy yourself.  Forget about how much it is costing and just enjoy the experience.  Just my 2 cents.  (Dan)

3.  If I see another man in capri pants, I'm going to have to pay for Stacy and Clinton to fly to Rome and take care of the situation. These are not Roman men who are wearing them. They are men from other lands. Roman men have too much fashion sense to commit this atrocity. (Kris)

4.  Don't worry so much about a dress code.  I read so much about everyone wearing long pants and that shorts are not ok.  Hogwash.  Locals are outnumbered by tourists and you are going to look like a tourist anyway.  Wear whatever you want.  Other than churches, there is nowhere I could not have gone wearing shorts anytime day or night.  Wish I would have brought another pair.  Absolutely loving my Keen Sandles....great for walking around Europe.  (Dan)

5.  Living in this city must be like living in a Museum.  Amazing ancient, baroque and renaissance architecture is around every corner.  We are not just talking the tourist sites but the embassys, churches, hotels and so so many other buildings and statues.  It is like going back in time.  Rome is something that must be experienced.  Pictures and movies just don't do it justice.   (Dan)

6.  Romans eat and walk slowly in direct contrast to their driving and speaking which are both done with a sense of urgency. (Kris)

7. Always bring a water bottle of some kind with you. There are public fountains everywhere that are spewing clean, cool water. Fill up whenever you can. That's what they are for. These are not modern inventions, these are part of the ancient infrastructure. Pretty smart, these Romans. (Kris)

8.  I know people told us a lot about pick-pockets and gypsies and I'm sure it happens. Our experience, however was quite different. We took all the prudent precautions...carying all of our cash and cards in money belts, putting little locks on the zippers of our backpacks/luggage, watching out for people who approach you, being extra careful and aware in crowded situations (train stations, airports etc). However, we did not see anyone even closely resembling a gypsy (sorry, Payton, I know you wanted a photo of a real live gypsy) and never had anyone approach us or bump into us or creating a diversion or anything. We also didn't see it happening to anyone else. Believe me, we were looking out for it. We were in plenty of crowded situations, but we never felt anything but safe and respected. Well done, people of Rome. (Kris)

Angels and Demons

Our third full day in Italy is the day we chose to see the Vatican. We bought our tickets via the internets before we left home and had a 9:00am reservation. The Vatican doesn't open any sooner than that so we were hoping to beat at least some of the crowds. As our taxi pulled up to the entrance, we were SO happy that we had purchased tickets before hand. The line for those who didn't was really long already (even thought the taxi driver was actually surprised at how short it was compared to what he usually sees). Because we had our printed reservation in hand, we simply walked right up to the gates and went in. We then went through "security." I say that in quotations because our experience with Italian security is that there really isn't any. We passed through a detector but even though it beeped the guards, who didn't stop the conversation they were having, waved us on.

We made our way to the area where we were supposed to exchange our printed reservation for actual tickets. The lines were long here, but luckily I had written down instructions that you could also go to an upstairs area to get tickets. We made our way to the next level where there was no line at all. A little research had saved us about an hour in line, at least, already this morning. We ducked into the little souvenier shop as I had a very important task at hand. I wanted to bring my grandmother a rosery from the Vatican. She is very Catholic (Irish Catholic) and I knew this would be something she would cherish. We found the perfect set. Mission accomplished.

Next stop....the Vatican Museum. So much to see here. It is, to say the very least, overwhelming. I can't even begin to describe it.

 Paintings, sculpture, artifacts and the building itself was unbelievable....

The next stop was the Sistine Chapel. Hoards of people fit into this place all at once. It's everything you think it would be. Dan, being the renagade that he is, decided to snap a photo with his iPhone even though it is explicitly forbiden. Glad he did.

We found the "secret door" where you can exit the chapel without having to then walk all the way back through the museum before going to St. Peter's (saving about a 20 minute walk). Thanks to Rick Steves for that one.

We walked into the basilica and were totally stunned at the size and grandure of the whole thing. YOu really do have to see it to believe it.

Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. It has been 45 years since my last confession.

When we walked out of the building, we heard a bit of the Pope's address (from Germany I think) and then they were so kind as to ring the church bells for us.

And there it is. The Vatican. Back to our room to nap during the storm that was blowing in. I must say, napping in Rome during a rain storm is absolutely decadent.

Dinner in Trestevere

Our second night was a trip to the Trestevere neighborhood which is on the Vatican side of the Tiber river. It has a more "local" vibe and in fact, there are people that live there that brag that they have never been to the "other side of the Tiber." While it was, in fact, a more quaint part of town, it still had its fair share of touristy shops and guys peddling little trinkets in the streets. We had a couple of places to eat in mind when we wandered over there, but alas, we couldn't find them (this is becoming a major theme for our trip). 

So we wandered about and finally landed at a cute little place with mostly outdoor seating called Osteria Romana. The view from our little table (tables are all little here, by the way) was of the Church of Santa Maria. Stunning. Do notice the laundry hanging in the upper right hand corner. About half way through our meal, the woman living there reached out of her window and brought in the dried clothing. Priceless.

We started with a caraf of the house white wine, which was good but not great. After we ordered we asked for the house red, but our waiter kind of shook his head and hurried off (in a very nice way). When he returned, he brought us a 1/2 bottle of a chianti that he said was much better at a similar price. He was dead on. SUPER fantastic wine and we had a couple of bottles (or maybe it was 3...).  Dan is seen here making the tough decision of what to eat. There were a lot of great choices.

And the food parade began. Dan and I both agreed that the star of the show was the lasagna. It wasn't  much to look at but, oh my....We also had a quatro fromagi pizza that was really good as well.

Some how, some way....we managed to save room for desert. I won't post all of the photos here as I want to do a post or two specifically about food. Let's just say, it was worth saving room for. We finished our dinner while conversing with a table of older Irish gentlemen. What an absolute treat!

The rest of the night is a bit of a blur as we found a little joint on the other side of the plaza that had cocktails for about 5 Euros. We talked a bit of football with the guys serving the drinks and then we began our walk home. A stop along the banks of the Tiber was a great way to wind up the night. Nothing like a good long talk with your loved one in a romantic setting. We then picked up a cab and headed home.

The food was as wonderful as the wine

Today was our first full day in Italy and we headed straight for the Coloseum. Actually, we had to buy our Roma pass first which would allow us to bypass the nasty lines at the Coloseum and many other places. We were going to go to a Tourist Information booth to buy them which was a little bit out of our way, but then Dan remembered that often times you can buy them in tobacco shops etc. He  remembered this tid bit of info, just as we were passing buy a shop so we ducked in and sure enough! Smart thinkin', Danny.

We made our way to the site that Rome is perhaps the most famous for. There were hoards of tour groups being dropped off by big buses. We did, indeed save a LOT of time being able to go through the special "Roma Pass" line that had about 5 people in it. We then went through "security" which was really just two Italian men in uniform having a conversation with each other while people walked by. Easiest security check I've ever been through.

Inside we were treated to all the sights you would expect here. It's just like it looks on TV. Big, old, and amazingly still well in tact after all of these years. The best part of it, for me, was that it was so accessable. There were marble pillars and sculptures and other things that were just right there for you to touch. Not much was behind baracades or glass or anything. Artifacts are usually things you see in a museum setting. But these were right there, just waiting for you to approach and interact with. It was really a treat.

Next we made our way to the Forum. This was something I was particularly looking forward to. It was really hot, but luckily there are these really neat public fountains where you can fill your water bottle. More on that in another post. It was a bit crowded and we actually skipped seeing some of the stuff because of the masses of people. One of the cool things we stumbled upon was an area that was fenced off for studends who were doing an archelogical dig. They all had various tools and were meticulously brushing away dirt from the stones that lye beneath. How they were able to tell old stones and dirt from the new stuff, I'm not sure, but they looked like they knew what they were doing.

Once through the Forum, we decided that we were pretty hungry so we found a little place to grap a couple of slices of pizza that were delicious. After the pizza, it was time for some gelato. There was a Whiskey Cream flavor that Dan and I each tried. DELISH! We then made our way back to the hotel for a little nap before heading out for dinner. We passed through some pretty amazing nieghborhoods including this one:

By this point we are getting pretty good at navigating the streets without getting run over  by taxis or Vespas. I wanted to take photos of everything and I think Dan was getting a bit tired of waiting for me.

Sorry, Danny. I just can't help myself sometimes. There were so many interesting stores to look at and people to watch. The beauty here is really never ending.

And so that was our day. I'll do a seperate post on our dinner. For now, it's time to sign off and say buona sera!

Gnocchi Day in Rome

Apparently Thursdays are Gnocchi Day in Rome.  Many restaurants will add a gnocchi special to their menu.

Therefore I am posting it here as a reminder.

DELISH!!!!!

Campo de Fiori to Trastevere

Found these easy directions on the blog An American in Rome.  Love finding little things like this that I just know I will use so I don't have to pull out a big map and be all touristy.

How to Get from Campo de’ Fiori to Trastevere:

• Walk away from the statue, down Via dei Giubbonari.
• When you see the crazy little church (Santa Barbara dei Librai) on your left, turn right.
• Walk straight down the narrow street and cross Ponte Sisto.
• Tah Dah. Welcome to Trastevere.

And by the way, Julius Cesar was assassinated at Santa Barbara dei Librai.  Pretty cool factoid I was unaware of until reading this blog.  Check it out. 

Off to Europe...but where should we go?

Well I guess the title of the blog kinda gives it away but here's how we got there.

My wife Kris and I have talked about going to Europe for years but just never pulled the trigger. We never really even got close until a couple years ago. After considering going in 2011, our friends invited us on a 14 Mediterranean Cruise in 2012. We were all in and ready to go. We had saved up enough frequent flyer miles to go first class both ways and just were not going to put it off any longer.

The cruise started in Barcelona and ended up in Rome after stops in Monte Carlo, Greece, Turkey and other exotic ports of call. It sounded like a great first trip to Europe, giving us the ability to see many cities and countries without us having to do a lot of planning. We researched the fares and started looking at different things to do in each city and were very excited.

Somewhere along the way we started to get less excited. Not about seeing Europe, but about seeing Europe on someone elses schedule. Drink, eat, sleep....Ok, 8 hrs in Rome...GO GO GO GO GO!. I mean how do you get a feel for a place like Rome or Athens in 8hrs. The thought of running from tourist attraction (ie. Historical Landmark) to tourist attraction just didn't sound all that appetizing. What about the neighborhoods...the cafes....the gelato...the wine...let alone the actual PEOPLE. Both of us realized that this was not really the way we wanted to visit Europe.

The cruise was out, but we still really wanted to go to Europe. Historically my wife and I have enjoyed traveling to more tropical places like Hawaii, Cabo or even just a tropical Las Vegas pool. I mean what's not to like about drinking cocktails in the water surrounded by bikini clad ladies and handsome pool boys??? Well there we go....Amalfi Coast and Greece...it's perfect. We get to do all the things we like and still be in Europe. Let's do it.

Not so much...been there done that here. While I am sure we will do that trip someday, it is not what we really wanted to experience this trip. We wanted to see the amazing history of a European city. We wanted to sit at an outdoor cafe with a baguette and some cheese and watch the world go by. We wanted to see the countryside, the beautiful old castles and the amazing art. Italy has always been the country we talked about seeing first. How can you truly live and not see the Colosseum or the Vatican? Italy it was going to be.

The Amalfi Coast was out....we will eventually do that on our beach trip through the Mediterranean. The two places that we both agreed topped our list in Italy were Rome and Tuscany. Rome with it's ancient history and Tuscany with it's more relaxed pace and natural beauty and Renaissance Art were must do places for us. We discussed hitting Venice as well, but after looking at the flights we had available to us we decided that another fantastic European City was available to us....Paris. We could not fly directly out of Italy with our miles on the dates we wanted to go and the best other option was Paris. Well why don't we just spend a few days in Paris on our way home??? There it was, out itinerary was set. We are going to see Rome, Tuscany and Paris in September of 2012.
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LET THE PLANNING BEGIN!!!!!