We had our final all-Italian breakfast on the farm, kissed the nice grey stallion goodbye and got on the road to Rome. Today was further evidence that road rules are somewhat optional in Italy - cutting the corner so much that you’re driving on the wrong side of the road is commonplace, use of indicators is optional (or why not use the opposite indicator to spice things up?) and if the speed limit is 30, 90 is probably a good pace.
We grabbed a quick bite whilst waiting for our room to be ready: Jess got a vegetarian version of a carbonara, which looked pretty tasty. I got a baked cheese situation, because we aren’t getting enough dairy in the land of endless gelato. Our 6th dorm room of the trip revealed the pleasant surprise of having its own ensuite. This is incredibly thrilling. We are also sharing the room with two lovely French girls (travelling separately) so it’s a nice way to finish the trip.
We are staying quite close to Trevi, so our first port of call was to go and say hello to the fountain. I hadn’t remembered it being in as much of an amphitheatre as it is - nor did I recall the amount of detail put into making the fountain’s rocks look like they are merging into the building behind it.
We then headed to the Colosseum, where I learned that the viewing platform was unfamiliar to me because it was only built in the year 2000. I last came in 1999. Jess says this means I am older than part of the Colosseum. Should I just leave her here?
We did find the best gelateria in Rome on our first shot, though: Gelateria dell’Angeletto is a little tiny shop down a side street, that has completely natural, perfectly balanced flavours like basil and lemon, and the best frutti di bosco on earth. There was also free frizzante water on tap outside the Colosseum, so I forgot to be annoyed at Jess quite quickly.
Mum, Jess, Gramps and I spent several Monday nights last year doing a jigsaw puzzle of the Roman Forum. We were very keen to find the exact point from which the jigsaw photo was taken, so we headed in. The problem was that there are security checks for the Forum now (but not the Colosseum???) so I skulled 1.5L of frizzante very quickly. As a result, we spent an hour walking around the Forum hiccupping raucously and scaring all the other tourists. This gull didn’t mind.
Finding the spot (not bad, no?), I then had my first scooter experience, to get up to the Spanish Steps (which really have nothing to do with Spain). My newfound obsession in Rome is the little tiny smart cars. They are so small that they can fit sideways in a normal parking bay. They are as long as normal cars are wide. And there are even Police smart cars.
Enjoying the people-watching, we meandered through some residential areas, where my other new favourite thing revealed itself: super old front doors. Imagine these being your door. The Pantheon was also on our path, but we’ll return back to that on another day.
We had burrata, tomatoes and lettuce for dinner, which is a feast that we will be recreating for days and years to come. Tomorrow is our Vatican City day, so we’ll be saying hello to a certain chapel, and the biggest cathedral in the world. Buona notte!
This featured blog entry was written by OaksGoWalking from the blog Hattie and Jess Go Walking.
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