During our trip to Europe, we’ve made a few observations on what we should have packed and how we should have improved.Our packing list after the jump Read the rest of this entry »
During our trip to Europe, we’ve made a few observations on what we should have packed and how we should have improved.
K and I landed in Florence, the birthplace of Italian Renaissance. We conveniently planned this on a Monday since most museums in Rome are closed on this day. The main purpose of this trip was to see the David at the Academia.
We started the day early at the Termini station where we purchased our fast train tickets. Usually a train to Florence could take about 3 hours, but the fast train (about 88 euros) got us there in about 1.5 hours.
We waited at least 2 hours to get into the Academia. Note – Book your reservation in advance! This gallery is small. The only main attraction here is the famous sculpture of David by Michaelangelo (which I couldn’t sneak a picture of). There were a few other statues and paintings, but nothing too famous.
An hour later, we were out… and hungry. We scoured Florence for its famous Bistecca Fiorentina, a t-bone steak seasoned with high-quality olive oil. We found some for 50 euro, some for 30. Alas, a steak for 20 euros. K got the trademark dish, while I had the spaghetti carbonara, pasta with an egg and pancetta sauce. You know, you get what you paid for. The steak was satisfactory. Perfectly medium-rare, but too tough and flavorless. The carbonara was pretty good, but it could’ve use more pancetta. More “bacon” always makes things better.
We were going to do the Ufizzi Gallery, but we didn’t want to stand in another line AND I figured we’d be sick of museums after this trip. So, we headed for the Ponte Vecchio, a medieval bridge filled with shops. A few snaps here and there and then we were off to the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. This church is probably the largest structure in Florence. The domed cathedral in it’s gothic style is Florence’s crowned architectural jewel. The entrance was free, so we took a peek inside. It is massive, but for some reason, they didn’t let us into the dome, so I don’t have any good pictures. For 3 euros, you can also take an elevator up the tower for a city-wide view, but we, unfortunately, didn’t have the cash.
I did, however, have enough cash for gelato. While roaming through the streets of Florence, we found a HUGE crowd around this gelato place called Grom. I can never turn down ice cream, so by instinct, I stood in line. They had such interesting flavors, but the one that caught my eye was salted caramel. “Oh yeah, that’s what I’m getting,” I thought. K got coffee. Man this was good. The caramel was very dark and rich, almost bitter, but slightly sweet. The coffee was super strong, as if we were drinking an actual espresso. I can’t say this was better than Giolitti’s, but it’s definitely different.
The one thing I regret not doing in Florence is buying something. Florence is famous for its leather, so I should’ve purchased a pair of boots or a small cross-body bag. Leather is pretty cheap here. K got a small wallet for 10 euros and I could’ve got a pair of real leather boots for 30 euro. Ugh, I’m kicking myself. Shoulda, coulda, woulda.
We headed back for Rome in the early evening and caught a few more sites before we headed for dinner. We checked out Piazza di Popolo and Piazza del Repubblica. Both are large traffic circles that are beautifully lit at night time.
For dinner, I tried to make it to this restaurant in Trastevere that Anthony Bourdain went to, but it was closed! We landed at this other cute restaurant by the Tiber River called iVascellari. We started with a spinach and cured ham salad with some fresh pecorino cheese and really good olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Spinach in Rome is nothing like the spinach back home. The leaves here are larger, thicker and heartier. For our main course, we had the cacio e pepe, spaghetti with parmesan and pepper, and the amatriciana, rigatoni with a tomato and dried pork cheek sauce – both are very traditional Roman dishes. I’ve had tons of pasta on this trip and this dinner was the best. The pasta was perfectly al dente and they were both seasoned perfectly. My cacio e pepe was way better than the one I had our first night. It wasn’t drowning in a mysterious cream sauce. It was buttered and topped with tons of shredded parmesan. And the pepper in the dish, which is the main ingredient, was freshly ground and not overpowering. The amatriciana was very flavorful. You could taste the sweet chunks of tomatoes and the hidden pieces of salty pork in each pasta.
And that was the end of day 4…
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Day 3 of our Rome trip was dedicated to the Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica. During this trip, we visited the Vacitan Museum, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Square. We, unfortunately, did not make it to St. Peter’s Basilica that day because it was closed off for a meeting of the bishops. We ended up coming back here on our last full day in Rome (which I will write about in another post).
Again, thanks to K’s expert planning, we cut through the long lines with our pre-purchased passes. We did get the package that included the 3-hour guided tour for 30 euros each person which I would not recommend. Rick Steves already had a guided tour in his Rome book and you can even download an audio guide right for your iPhone! Tickets without the audio tour are about 15 euros.
We unintentionally visited on a day when there was a meeting of the bishops, so St. Peter’s Basilica was closed for most of the day. Our guide was in such a rush to get us in before it closed, we did the entire Vatican Museum and Sistine chapel in 1 hour. We missed a lot of the explanations of the pieces in the museum because of this. Then, we found out we couldn’t get into the Basilica, so we walked through the entire museum AGAIN to get to the Hall of Raphael which we were initially going to skip to get into the Basilica.
The Vatican is filled with some of the world’s greatest paintings and sculptures collected by the Roman Catholic Church. We made our way through the Pinacoteca (the picture gallery), the sculpture museums, and the Sistine Chapel.
Seeing the Sistine Chapel in person is surreal as it was painted by the greatest Renaissance artists – Michaelangelo, Raphael and Bernini. I was able to sneak in a few photos. Hey, everyone else was doing it, so I had to grab a shot for the blog.
At around 3pm, K and I headed for the train station to a little town 30 minutes outside of Rome called Tivoli. Tivoli is famous for Hadrian’s Villa, ruins of a retreat for one of Rome’s emperors, and Villa d’Este, home to a beautiful Renaissance garden. For some reason, this garden was what I wanted to see the most on my visit to Rome. It’s probably because it was featured in the Lizzie McGuire Movie. The garden is definitely one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. Filled with ponds, waterfalls, fountains and tons of trees, I felt like I was in a scene of some kind of fairy tale or the Secret Garden.
For dinner, we headed back over to Rome to the Trastevere district to a cute little restaurant called Percento. It wasn’t intentional, but this was our expensive meal of this leg of the trip. Here we had beef carpaccio, Italian ceviche, seafood raviolis and pasta with duck ragu. Everything was extremely fresh. The pasta was home made, the fish was caught earlier that morning, the beef melted in our mouths. Things couldn’t be any better. Service was incredibly slow, but I wasn’t sure if that was because of the culture. We finished the meal off with chocolate ganache with coffee and pistachio ice cream. Yeah, that was a good day. I’ll try to write up our day trip to Florence for Day 4 tonight or tomorrow. Bye!
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We conquered a majority of Rome on our second day. Victor Emmanuel II monument, Capital Hill, Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, Colosseum and the Borghese Gallery. I’m glad to say we hit it all and even called in the night early. The trick is to buy the Roma Pass. It gets you in to your first 2 museums for free and gives you free metro rides around the city.
Although we should have, we didn’t take the metro this day. My legs are still throbbing from walking all the way from Camp de’ Fiori to the Borghese Gallery. If you know Rome, you’ll know that is a crazy long walk.
We started the day with a classic Italian breakfast – pastry with an espresso – at Giolitti’s, the world-famous gelateria. We initially wanted to get gelato, but thought 8:30am was a little too early for ice cream. So, we opted for the pastry. It was probably one of the best pastries I’ve ever had. Think a chewy chocolate croissant filled with Nutella.
First on the sightseeing list was the Pantheon. There are several “pantheons” in Europe, but Rome’s is definitely the first. It was initially built in 126 AD. That’s over 1800 years old! Once used as a church, the Pantheon now houses the tombs of Rome’s most famous artists and kings including Raphael and Victor Emmanuel II.
Next we headed over to the Emmanuel II Monument to take a few photos. This is probably one of the grandest buildings in all of Rome. The monument was built in the 1920s as an homage to Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of a unified Italy.
Just around the corner is Capitoline Hill. This hill houses a handful of museums filled with art, temple ruins, and statues and paintings from emperor Marcus Aurelius’ collection. The Temple of Jupiter was once ancient Rome’s most important temple and the little remains of this building are found in the Palazzo dei Conservatori. The Tabularium was by far my favorite part of this group of museums. Not only because it has a cool name, it gave me my first “wow” in Rome. The Tabularium houses the remains of the Temple of Veiovis and has panoramic views of the Roman Forum.
We headed for the Roman Forum for a walking tour of the most densely populated area of Roman ruins. The forum was the heart of ancient home with the city’s oldest and most important governmental buildings. Just reading through Rick Steve’s walking tour of this site taught me so much about ancient Roman culture and modern day culture. Like, how Star Trek gained inspiration for its names from Emperor Nero, Rome’s leader in the 50-60s AD who was against Christianity, and Romulus from “Romulus and Remus,” the two brothers who founded Rome.
Next on the list was Palatine Hill, the birthplace of Rome. Which is now ruins of a giant palace, Palatine Hill has a ton of history – birthplace of Rome’s first emperor, homes to several emperors after that, the hill in which Hercules defeats Cacus for stealing cattle, etc. Too much to go over here, but very interesting nonetheless.
So, believe it or not, we finished with everything above in the morning. We took an hour break at Cavour 313 for a quick lunch of traditional Italian bar food. K ordered the buffalo platter which included dry, cured buffalo and 2 kinds of cheeses made from buffalo milk with a drizzle of really good olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I had the spinach salad with pears and some kind of creamy herb cheese. Both were delish, but K’s definitely was the highlight.
In the blink of an eye, we headed for the Colosseum. THANK GOODNESS we had the Roma Pass, otherwise we would’ve had to wait in a line several hours long. We cut through the line in a breeze and began our self-guided tour courtesy of Rick Steves. That’s another reason why we’re quickly going through each destination. Not really because we’re in a rush, but because we’re able to guide ourselves around each site with commentary from Rick Steve’s tour books. The Colosseum is the Colosseum. Not much to say here, except that it was really cool to see in person. If you’ve watched Gladiator, you know everything about this place.
Last but not least, we headed for the Borghese Gallery way up north of Rome. Note: If you want to visit this museum, you must make reservations in advanced. It sells out quickly and you’re only allowed to be in the museum for 2 hours. Borghese was a famous cardinal in Rome and was an avid art collector. His villa in which the museum is housed showcases the works of Raphael, famous sculptor Bernini, and another famous painter Carvaggio. The pieces in this museum are very unique and it definitely stands out amongst other art collections. The most memorable for me is Bernini’s sculpture of Apollo and Daphne. This statue shows Daphne in the process of turning into a tree as she is escaping from the perusing Apollo.
We were pooped after this marathon of a day, so we rewarded ourselves with some gelato from Giolitti’s! They’re famous for their chocolate gelato, so we got that and I added a scoop of pistachio. Did you know they add home made, unsweetened, whipped cream on top of the ice cream? I’m still not sure if I like the combination, but I was impressed. At about 8pm, K and I headed back home to eat our leftovers from the night before and crashed for our next day of events. Stay tuned!
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Ciao! K and I are enjoying our first ever European tour together in which we will explore 3 of the most romantic and historic cities in the world – Rome, Barcelona and Paris. Our first stop of this adventure takes place in Rome. Rome, such a beautiful city. We’ve only had one full day here so far, but I’m already in love. But before I write about today, I’ll write about our very first experience as all visitors should experience.
We landed at about 12 noon at the Fiumicino airport and opted to take the train to our vacation apartment rental in the center of Campo de’ Fiori, a famous square with restaurants and a day market selling everything from spices to seafood to cured meats to touristy dust collectors.
After settling in, we headed to Trastevere for Rick Steves’ walking tour. Just like every other tourist in Europe, we’re strong followers on Rick Steves. His books are very detailed and they sometimes take you off the beaten path. Through this walking tour, we saw the Church of St. Cecilia, Piazza in Piscinula and the Piazza Santa Maria. Trastevere is a cute neighborhood inhabited by locals. We were instructed by our apartment rental manager to “get lost” in this neighborhood. We didn’t exactly get lost, since we always plan things out, but we did explore.
For dinner, we landed at a mediocre Italian restaurant called Taverna della Scalla for a classic Roman dish, cacio y pepe (black pepper and parmesan pasta), Napoli pizza (margherita pizza with anchovies) and mozzarella di bufala with parma ham.
From there, we took the Rome night walk tour since I am told… that is how everyone should first see Rome. Each of these destinations are beautifully lit. We started off at our apartment in Camp de’ Fiori then headed for Piazza Navona, one of the city’s most famous squares. The Piazza Navona is a lot larger than Campo de’ Fiori and it is filled with restaurants, street vendors and the famous Four Rivers Fountain. We headed for the Pantheon then to the Trevi Fountain. You can’t go to the Trevi and not throw in a coin, you just can’t. So, we did and left after a few dozen photos. Our last stop was the Spanish Steps. We hung out for a while, even sat on one of the many steps to people watch. It was beautiful. At the end of the walk, we were exhausted as that was a travel day. Stay tuned for our 2nd day of adventure!
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