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All roads lead to Rome
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All roads lead to Rome!
I need to start by going over what happened last night. We were going out for dinner after I finished posting the blog. We had decided to go and see the Trevi Fountain lit up at night as well. This meant getting the underground into the middle of Rome and about a 10 minute walk to the Trevi Fountain before dinner.
By the time we hit town Fiona was in a bad mood - she was hungry. I don't know how since we have been eating twice our body weight in food every day - infact she went feral! (note: Fiona has objected to the word "feral" and would prefer I use the word "snappy" - you chose!)
Fiona checked out a place for dinner on the way to the Trevi. I made a wrong turn and we ended up in the wrong place. That really set her off. We decided to eat first! We went back to the restaurant she had seen and sat down to eat. This place was a gastronomic delight. We had decided on a light mealbecause we had been eating so much so we had.........
Fiona:
Minced veal wrapped in vine leaves. There were two and they were about 10 cm long. Accomanying them was a large plate of fresh cooked asparagus served cold with olive oil, lemon, and salt and pepper.
Mark:
I had the pasta with fresh seafood of the day. This turned out to be spaghetti cooked with an octopus sauce.
Accompanying the main was of course bread, vino bianco for Fiona (a one third litre) and a bottle of mineral water for myself.
For dessert we shared a plate full of mixed cheeses and bread and a slice of fruit torte.
Fiona then finished with an espresso coffee.
All I can say is lucky we decided to eat lightly. All the food was absolutely delicious and sooooo fresh.
Personal Note #1 - Carmen: I have a card with the address for when you are here.
We left the restaraunt (with Fiona in a much improved mood) and went to the Trevi Fountain. It was fantastic during the daylight and even better at night. It was gettingon to about 10:15pm so we started the walk back to the station. We we got there the gates to the underground were chained shut!!!!
We were stuck about an hours walk from the hotel at 10:30pm and Fiona started to get stressed!
We started looking for buses to catch although we had no idea which ones went where. Eventually Fiona noted a bus that had it's destination as the last train station on our metro line. We took a punt and got on. I was using the map to try and plot where we were as were moving. We were heading the right general direction so I was pretty happy. We later found out the bus was actually going along the train route because the metro had been closed early for some reason (if I could read Italian I'd know why).
So the night ended at about 11:30pm. We were very tired - but our bellies were full!
......and so for today (All Roads Lead to Rome)
We had been eating so much that we decided to get up at 6:30am and go for a run before breakfast........Now when I say we, I don't mean Fiona, I mean my stomach - it has gotten so big it has an identity all it's own.
We ran to the Colosseum and then did a lap of Circus Maximus (where the old chariot races used to be run) and then back to the hotel - no map required!
We had decided to eat lightly today so we only had coffee, juice and a single pastry (custard and cherry filled) for breakfast. Mmmmm, pastries!!!!!
Fiona hit on the idea of visting a place outside of Rome called Appia Antica and the catacombs. We caught a bus and a train to the place and on the way I realised the Appia Antica was the Appian Way - One of the first long distance roads built by the Romans. Very Famous - I was quite excited.
We walked along it for about a kilometer to the St Callista catacombs.
These are the best preserved catacombs. We got a guided tour which was very informative. There were about 500,000 people buried in the fourlevels of the catacombs. Only about 5% is open to the public. They were used from about 200AD to 400AD. We were also told that sections of the
Appian Way were original and untouched from Roman times.
On our way back along the Appin Way to a delicatessen for lunch we stopped in for a look at the Basillica of San Sebastian and a Tomb built for San Cecilia Metella. Both very much worth seeing. We were basically in the countryside on a (very very) old lane on a glorious sunny day with hardly a breath of wind - it was idyllic. All this walking had made us hungry though!
We got to the delicatessen and ........well we just wanted a little taste of ........everything.
We had:
2 slices of proscuitto,
2 slices of hot salami
2 slices of mild salami
some green olives
some black olives
4 hunks of cheese
1 ripe truss tomato
2 slices of eggplant in olive oil
1 length of cabana (about 20cm)
1 artichoke (for Fiona)
1 beer (for Fiona)
1 pork sausauge - raw (for Mark)
1 coke (for Mark)
We took our haul and walked on further down the road. We found an absolutley perfect spot to sit under the shade of a tree on the side of the Appian Way (an original piece) with open fields
around us partitioned off with small stone fences. This was just perfect - we had ourselves our own little Roman Feast!
We headed back into Roma and visited another church (San Maggorie) and then got back to the hotel at about 4:30pm. It had been a perfect day and we had done it all at a relaxing pace.
After a bit of a siesta we decided to go out for dinner but strangely enough we could only manage a rice ball and a half each at a stand up bar in the city centre. We went and checked the Pantheon out at dusk and it looked very impressive even though it wasn't lit up.
We headed back home for an early night (before the metro was locked up).
What a simply marvellous day - the equal of any so far
Latest Comments (1)
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Aw... (reply)
May 8, 2008 16:07 EST by starlagurl
At least you got back safe and sound, even though there was some confusion it wasn't that bad. It's all part of the adventure!
Louise Brown
TravelPod Community Manager
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| 19. | All roads lead to Rome - Rome, Italy May 08, 2008 (  14 ) (  1 ) |
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