Thursday: Campo de' Fiori and Departure

I woke up feeling a little sad as it was our last day in Rome. Boo hoo!

We were served breakfast at 7:30 am in our room. We had omelettes, croissants, toast, bananas, coffee and juice. Breakfast was good - my only complaint is there was egg shell my omelette. Lol. 

We quickly packed our stuff away, showered and headed out around 10 am. The plan was to go to Campo de' Fiori to buy sauces and oils and whatever else before returning to the B&B to meet our taxi to the airport for 2:45 pm. We caught a bus a few steps away from our B&B and were on our way! I instantly loved the vibe of Campo de' Fiori! I loved seeing the stalls with the contrasting colours of the fruits and vegetalbles on sale. The boyf bought a fruit salad from one of the vendors; and we munched on that as we walked around. We purchased some good stuff: pesto sauces, tomato sauces, hard cheeses, colourful pastas with kool shapes, dried herbs, olive oils (plain and flavoured). I was also on a mission to find the tool we used to shape the gnocchi at the cooking class; and was thrilled when I found it as we intend to make all of that yummy food on our own! 

It was 1 pm when we got back from Campo de' Fiori. We had lunch at McDonalds and walked around for a bit after after we ate. We returned to the B&B about 2:15 pm to gather our luggage and wait for the taxi. The taxi arrived thirty minutes late but that was fine as we still got to the airport with time to spare. Our flight to London was delayed by about forty minutes but we didn’t fret. We relaxed and watched the activity on the runway (it was visible from our departure gate). We shared a yummy focaccia sandwich with ham and cheese and some fruit. We lucked out when we boarded as we realised the flight wasn't full.  We were able to get an entire row to ourselves! The flight would've been much better if those loud annoying teenagers weren't seated near us though! Less than three hours later, we arrived safely in London - excited about what the next eight days held for us!

Wednesday: Cooking class and last night dinner...

We got up about 6 am to pack up our stuff to move to another B&B for our last night in Rome. We had  originally planned to spend all four nights at one B&B....but a mix up with dates on our part forced us to have to spend our last night elsewhere. Things worked out nicely though and we were able to located a B&B just around the corner that accepted bookings for one night. In a high season like May, that's great! We wanted to check in early so that we could leave our luggage there before going to our 10 am cooking class in Trastevere. We checked in easily without issue and walked about a minute to the bus stop and took the 23 to Trastevere.

We arrived to the cooking class with 20 minutes to spare.  I will review the class separately on its Trip Advisor page...but let me  just say that it was the highlight of our time in Rome! Our class was filled with some pretty kool people and the instructor, Chef Andrea, knew his stuff! As an icebreaker, we sat around a table and sharing some cheese, homemade jam and toasted bread. We cooked, talked and ate until about 4:30 pm. We made zucchini parmigiana, gnocchi, beef with cherry tomatoes and arugula and ricotta and dark chocolate pie! Heaven!

The plan was to take a walking tour of Trastevere using Rick Steves' audio guide but we didn’t do that. Instead, we just took our time walking around and taking pics before we hopped on the bus back to the Vatican area. Though stuffed from the cooking class, we were craving gelato so we got off the bus and made our way to Old Bridger Gelataria – only to to be met with a longggggggg line. Ugh. We thought about going over to a Blue Ice we’d seen nearby but decided we were being greedy anyway...and should go straight home. Lol. On our way to the B&B, I saw the phone place and decided to pop in and sort out the issue with my phone (BB messenger not working). After 30 minutes or so it was "sorted" (and the guy assured me it would take about 2 hrs to work) and we headed home - collapsing in bed as soon as we were in our room. A few minutes later, my phone started going off with tonnes of message alerts (two hours to work huh? More like 2 mins! But I wasn't complaining!) I had missed since Monday so I was caught up replying to messages while the boyf rested.

 

At about 7:30 pm, we started to get ready for dinner. We had 8:30 pm reservations at Ad Hoc. I was a little worried we would still be full from cooking class...but we weren’t. Great! This was to be our special last night dinner and I hoped it would be nice. We both put on some dressy clothes and left. We walked a few steps to Ottaviano metro station, got off two stops later at Flamino and took a three minute walk to the restaurant. We were greeted warmly and seated. I was immediately fond of the ambience. We were given a welcome glass of prosecco and it was divine.  We had a smoked salmon mousse thingy compliments the chef. I was about to take pics when it happened - the camera started acting up and some images were coming out  fuzzy and weird and I kept getting a  lens error message. I was soooo upset! Nevertheless, I remained focused on the occasion and really enjoyed it. I had calamari with spinach and potato cakes to start and my boyf had the seafood platter which included the calamari, smoked salmon (one of his favs) and sea bass.  Yum! My boyfriend then had the best pasta dish ever created in life. Rabbit ragout pasta. Sooooooo good. I had veal and potatoes. The veal was sooo soft and falling off the bone but I had food envy and wished I had ordered the rabbit ragout. I didn’t even consider it, as I've never had rabbit before and didn’t want to commit to ordering it as a main course at that time. We both finished our meals with a trio of crème brulee - vanilla, poppy seed and cinnamon. Dessert was ok...just ok. I was a little bummed that the tops of the crème brulee weren’t all scorched and sugary as is usually the norm. We got 10% of of the bill since I booked online (I knew we would and was prepared to mention this if we failed to receive the discount) ; and also received  a complimentary bottle of spumante. Our bill came to 82 euros after discount. It was a great night. We took a kool walk back to the metro and noticed an exhibit with police vehicles throughout the ages in a nearby square. As my camera had died, I used the cam on my smartphone and it sucked as usual so the pics were awful. We went to bed quickly after arriving home.

Tuesday: Vatican Museum, Vatican City

We slept in...and it felt good! After having breakfast and  showers, we left in the rain for an offical tour of the Vatican Museum. We arrived in less than five minutes bright eyed and ready for an amazing tour. Sigh. The tour was far from amazing! :( The guide was dryyyyyyyy and very one note. I was impressed with the history and the artwork and such but totally stunned and floored by the Sistine Chapel. Amazing! We left the Chapel via the group tour door that took us directly to St. Peter's Basilica and saved us lots of walking! I knew about this exit thanks to a tip from RonInRome  so I had planned that I would find a way for us to use it even though our tour ended at the Chapel. Luckily, I didn't have to as our tour guide talked to the guard and he let us through. At least she served some purpose. Sorry...I know that was a little mean...but really...her tour sucked! St. Peter's Basilica was another wow! moment. Such a beautiful place! We admired it for quite some time then went downstairs to view the crypts of the Popes who are entombed there.

The boyf and I then battled the rain so he could climb the cupola (310+ steps in a dark, narrow, winding "staircase"). I am unfit and claustrophobic so I knew prior to arriving in Rome that the climb wasn't going to happen for me! We took the elevator to the roof and he climbed the dome while I waited for him. He started at 3:27 pm  and returned at 4:13 pm.  The boyf reported that the climb was fine overall but quite tough at some points. He said it was worth it though and the pictures he took certainly reflected this! Astonishing views of Rome! Point to note: When you get out of the elevator, you  still have to climb some stairs to enter the Basilica and walk along a path to the other area where another roof is and the dome climb entrance  and exit. I didn’t realise this and spent a few minutes on the roof by the elevator before heading to the right place. The other roof had a bathroom, gift shop and an area to relax.

Tired feet and empty bellies caused us to lose all sense of direction when we left the Basilica. When we left St. Peter's Square, we were approached by vendors! I was becoming very annoyed with one guy when I remembered that we needed to replace the B&B owner's umbrella so the boyf used his bargaining skills and purchased a 10 euro umbrella (madness!) for 6 euro. Back to the tired feet and empty bellies and lack of direction - I was so drained I had no interest in figuring things out so we took a cab back to the B&B. We relaxed for a bit and then met with the B&B owner to sort out payment. We told him about the umbrella situation and gave him the replacement. He seemed touched that we bought a new one and informed us that we really didn't have to as it was "just an umbrella". Due to the issue with the plumbing on our first evening, he took some money off of our final bill. We really weren’t expecting that but we obviously didn’t object to it. Lol. After the owner left we relaxed some more and then went next door for dinner  at L'Isola Della Pizza. Dinner was yummy! We shared  red wine, pizza blanca -  gorgonzola, mozzarella and sausage, fettucine bolognese and veal and potatoes. The boyf had tiramisu for dessert and I had black cherry gelato. Sigh. Heaven. Bill came to about 45 euros. We took the long 30 sec walk back to the apartment (lol), showered and called it a night.

Monday: Forum, Colosseum, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain

At  6 am, we woke up with no jet lag - refreshed and ready to explore. One look out of the window revealed that it was a rainy day! Ugh! We had breakfast of paninis, cereal, yogurt, coffee and juice, relaxed a bit, showered, dressed, put on our walking shoes with gel inserts and money belt (bra stash for me), grabbed our umbrellas and water bottles and headed to the metro! 

Today was the day of our Colosseum underground and 3^rd level tour so I was praying that the rain would not ruin it. When we got to the metro, we bought 3 day tickets for 11 euros and headed in the direction of Termini with a change to the other line so we could head to Colosseum. The metro rides were fine...a bit cramped tho. I wasn’t worried about the pickpockets because we had our money belt and bra stash...and the backpack the boyf was carrying was locked...

Ok.....here’s where I freak out... OHHHHHHHHHH...MYYYYYYYYYYYY...GOSHHHHHHH! I had no idea that the Colosseum would be so “in your face” when we exited the Metro station. It was an emotional / pathetic (lol) moment for me and I felt like I really arrived in Rome! Since our guided tour wasn’t scheduled for another 3 and a half hours, the plan was to go to the Forum and Palatine Hill before making our way back to the Colosseum. I had a feeling that we should go to the Colosseum first to pick up our tickets that had been ordered online....but i ignored it and headed to the Forum.  We crossed the road and kept right admiring everything while sheltering from the rain. At some point we saw the Forum on our left but could not figure out how to enter it....though I had my tips with me from Trip Advisor.  I left the map at the B&B (lol) and it didn’t occur to me at that moment that there was a map in my Rick Steves guidebook. I could see people down below exploring it and I felt quite jealous  - the boyf and I had clearly missed the sign. Many people passed us but were unable to provide directions. We killed time by taking pictures from our vantage point and finally headed back in the direction of the Colosseum when we had had enough of that. Then we saw it!  A little turn off that indicated the entrance of the Forum! Great! I took out my ticket receipt so I could get our combo tickets...but...because we had booked the guided tour, we were told we had to go to the pick up desk at the Colosseum to collect the tickets. Ugh. So we went to the Colosseum picked up the tickets and the stickers for the guided tour and  instructions on where to meet when we returned. We then headed back to the forum, used the bathrooms, played our Rick Steves audio guides on our mobile phones and explored the area, taking pics at will.  It was very cool outside as it was morning time (though the sun was fierce a few times) and we enjoyed walking around, sipping our cold fountain water and learning about this remarkable place.  We took a break and sat on some rocks and a few mins later, a tour group settled on the rocks behind us...so we paused Rick Steves and  listened to what the guide was saying for about 10 minutes.  We had decided earlier that we would skip the Palatine Hill so we left the Forum at 12:20 pm  to meet our tour guide and group at the Colosseum. As we were leaving, tonnessssssssss of people were arriving! We really did the best thing by seeing the Forum first thing in the morning!

The tour started at the arena level, went underground and then to the third floor. It wasn't strenuous at all...but steps were steep. Our tour guide's name was Barbara and she was good. We met a kool couple from the US. The husband had been to Barbados before and loves it. The tour was a little less than 2 hours and it was great! I tried to take myself back to ancient times and imagine what it was like. The massive structure of the place was intimidating and I couldn’t help but wonder if Spartacus had stood near where I stood on the arena level. Lol.

Our feet were on fire by the end of the tour and we both agreed that foot massages must be the order of the evening when we returned home! We caught the 187 (or was it the 87?) bus from the Colosseum to the Panthoen area. We used Rick Steves from the square outside the Pantheon and when we entered it was full...but not super crowded. The Pantheon is much larger than I thought it would be and I was amazed at its design and of course the oculus!  We left the Pantheon after thirty minutes or so and made our way to the Trevi fountain. We threw our coins in the fountain (in the manner our B&B guy instructed) and hoped we had secured our return to Rome.

I knew a McDonalds was nearby so I got directions from the “Trevi fountain police” (lol).  Do not judge me! I love McDonalds and there is none in Barbados so leave me alone! The boyf and I had Big Mac meals and it felt pretty good to relax and rest our legs for a bit. After we ate, we popped into a Blue Ice shop a few doors down for some gelato. My boyf had black cherry and caramel (2 euros for 2 scoops) and I had pineapple and frutti di bosco  (cup, don’t recall cost). The boyf enjoyed his gelato. Mine was ok....but not as yummy as Old Bridge. Bits of fruit kept getting stuck in my teeth and annoyed me so I soon grew tired of eating it. After about twenty minutes of deciding what we should do next, we took the 492 bus from the Pantheon area back to the B&B as I'd remembered seeing a 492 near our B&B the night before...

We stopped by the phone store our B&B guy had suggested so I could purchase a SIM card and a data plan for my smartphone. The cost was 12.50 euro and I was attached to the TIM network. After we left there, we picked up some juice and soda from a nearby store and used the ATM to make withdrawals.  It was at this point that I realised the B&B owner's umbrella was missing. I had bought one for our trip before I left Barbados and figured we could share it but when the B&B owner offered us one, we took it for extra protection since it was so rainy. 

We got back to the B&B around about 7 pm with sore, tired feet! We decided to skip dinner at Alla Rampa near Spanish Steps and go across the road again to Da Vito E Dina We ate around 9 pm. The boyf had ravioli and it was amazing...and I had rigatoni with bacon and cheese. The boyf’s dish was delicious...but my pasta was crunchy and took al dente to a  whole new level! I was disappointed and didn’t even feel like sending it back. We didn’t order dessert...in stead we decided we would eat chocolate and cookies back at the B&B. When we got back we found a note from the owner just saying hi and hoping we had a good first full day in Rome.