When you walked out of our apartment and looked right, there was the colosseum. I know. It never got old.
Cappuccinos and cornetti for breakfast every morning-two doors away from the apartment entrance. The coffee was SO good.
I loved walking around Trastevere and eating there at 10 Friday night made me feel like a real Roman. The food was amazing. This is the recurring theme of our trip.
I was disappointed in St. Peter's and I really disliked the area around it. Every other church we went into in Italy had such a reverent feeling and people were posing for silly pictures by St. Peters' confession booths and making "I'm cool" signs for pictures in front of the Pieta (thankfully, none of them were Americans). It just didn't feel like I expected it to and while I'm glad I've seen it (the scale is hard to imagine without actually being there), I was really glad to leave. We decided ahead of time we were going to forgo the Vatican Museum and I'm glad we made that decision. So, we did, in fact, go to Rome and not see the Sistine Chapel.
Dinner Saturday night at der Pallaro was one of the best meals we had on the whole trip. I loved they just bring out whatever Signora Paola is cooking that day. It was all delicious and unique. The lentils were probably my favorite, maybe because they tasted a lot my my grandmother's black-eyed peas? That's kind of what it felt like, eating at your Italian grandmother's house.
Trevi Fountain is way bigger than I expected and you should definitely see it at night. Same for the Spanish steps. The colosseum looks smaller from the outside than I expected, but bigger once you are inside.
Bafetto for pizza on Saturday night was delicious and quite an experience. I loved watching the waiters yell at each other (really wish I understood more Italian) and Margaret did get a smile out of the very gruff pizza maker.
Walking through Piazza Navona one night, watching the street performers and listening to a guy play guitar. He happened to be playing one of my favorite songs (Fragile) and it was a beautiful combination of sights, sounds, smells, etc. Oddly, that song was also on the radio in the car on the way to the airport.
We had great Gelato in Rome, at Gelataria della Scalla, the Crematorium, and ending at Giolitti (probably the most famous) on our last night there. My favorite combo is a tie between dark chocolate/hazelnut and chocolate/pistachio.
One down side to all of these sights, is the constant hawking of roses, toys for the kids, etc. These are not like NY street vendors where you approach them if you are interested. They get up in your face and won't leave you alone. I know they are trying to make a living, but it is irritating when you just want to enjoy the moment.
Our new German friends had the perfect description for how we wanted to experience Italy. They describe it as "inhaling" a place. We didn't want to go from place to place, take pictures, walk by the art and hurry on to the next thing. Some of my favorite times on this trip have been sitting and eating or having a drink and watching the world go by.
Like Scott has said in previous posts, we will post more of the details of the trip. I plan on captioning the pictures, putting together a slide show (want to come over and see the slides from our vacation?), etc. That's assuming I ever get the laundry done.
