Rome

Yesterday, we woke up to another grand breakfast and learned that hot dogs are considered a breakfast food in Italy. After breakfast, we headed out toward Vatican City where we wandered around as much as we could before finding gelato. As always, the gelato was delicious and reenergized us to continue walking. A little later, we found a cute Italian restaurant for lunch where we each ordered pasta dishes, both of which were amazing. 

After lunch, we took a hike up Aventine Hill to find the “secret keyhole” that lines up perfectly for a view of St Peters Basilica. We made it to the top and the view was definitely worth it. After enjoying the view for a little while, we were ready to head back down. Stephanie found a lime scooter which she was very excited to try out while Isabel walked. 

When we got the bottom, we realized that we had ended up in the Jewish Quarter and were looking up at the Synagogue. We spent awhile wandering through the neighborhood and looking at some of the shops before heading back to the hostel for a short rest. 

After resting, catching up on some emails, and  getting more organized for Naples and Florence, we headed out to find some pizza for dinner. We found a cute shop close by where we could get carry out and brought our pizza back to the room to enjoy with a bottle of local wine we had picked up the day before.  Everything was delicious and the wine paired perfectly with the pizza. After dinner, we went for a short walk around the neighborhood before heading back to the room to get packed for the next leg and ready for bed. 

The first line of business after checking into the hotel was to get gelato. Isabel got mango and strawberry and Stephanie got strawberry and lemon. All three flavors were delicious and we knew immediately that we would be eating a lot of gelato in Italy. After we finished eating, we headed back to the hotel to shower and sleep. 

The hotel is amazing! We decided that after the ferry we might need the private room so we booked a double room in a b&b in the Trevestre neighborhood and it has everything we need and more. It’s so cute and the owners are very nice and accommodating. To get to the hotel, you have to first enter into a courtyard that has a gorgeous fountain and we even found a turtle in it! 

I’m the morning, the hotel delivered us a full breakfast to our room. We eat had coffee, orange juice, a croissant, 2 pieces of toast, scrambled eggs, and a bowl of watermelon. It was all delicious and filled us up before we set out for the day. 

For most of the day, we wandered around trying to see as much as possible. We started at the Colosseum, headed over to the Spanish steps, then to the Trevi fountain, the Pantheon, Piazza Navona. 

Somewhere in the middle, we found a cute Italian restaurant and each ordered their menu of the day. It consisted of 4 courses, the first of which was a bruschetta on toast which neither of us liked very much. The toast was too hard and the tomato was, well, tomato. The second course was pasta. Isabel’s had bacon and egg while Stephanie’s had pepper and parmigiana. They were both delicious but we were starting to worry about how we would finish 2 more courses. The second course was the meat course and Stephanie ordered chicken while Isabel ordered a cutlet. They were both good, but less good than the pasta. We both ended our meal with tiramisu which was definitely the highlight. It was amazing and we ate every bite. 

After lunch and wandering, we headed back to the hotel, grabbed our laundry, and went to a laundromat. We decided it would be a good idea to do it in the middle of the day so that we got a break from walking around in the heat. Unfortunately, we didn’t think about the fact that the laundromat would be even hotter than it was outside, but it was still a good decision to get it done so that we didn’t have to worry about it.

We took a little bit of time to cool off before we headed back out again. This time we went up to Terrazza Gianicolo which is on a hill in the Trevestre neighborhood and has a gorgeous view overlooking the city. We spent a lot of time there taking in the view and trying to figure out what direction everything was in. 

We headed back down the hill and found a pizza place along the river for dinner. We shared a Davoli pizza and a spigarelli  mozzarella, both of which were good, but the pizza didn’t leave us feeling like it was that much better then American pizza. Guess we have to try some more places! After dinner, we ended the night with some gelato. We tried some pineapple-mint gelato which was amazing and refreshing (like a mojito). Isabel ended up ordering it with strawberry while Stephanie stuck with strawberry and lemon. Overall, it was a great day and we saw lots of Rome.