When in Rome.....

We made it to Rome after a long flight starting Sunday morning from St. George--- SLC--- Atlanta--- and then onto Rome. Sheldon, Karma, Adam, Marci, and Whitney made it to Rome early Monday morning.  After arriving at the airport, we had our shuttle driver take us to a luggage storage area near our apartment, and then we started exploring the streets of Rome. It really was unreal that we were there, walking the streets, and seeing the sites. It is one of those places you always hear about and hope to visit one day- and we were finally there. It was supposed to be a rainy day but we were pleasantly surprised by a gorgeous day.  We started our adventure by making our way to the Colosseum. As we got closer there was a bunch of road construction but even with the construction fences it was so cool to see. I know I took a lot of pics but it was seriously awesome.  Just to think that this was around Thousands of years ago. We were walking where people like Julius Caesar walked. The lines were huge to get into the Colosseum so we booked a tour and headed in to learn a more details about it all.  Def. worth doing a tour and hearing about all the history of the building it self and what went on in it.  

After the Colosseum we headed out to Palentine hill and through the Roman Forum (which was the main city center of Rome back in the beginning).  Everywhere you looked and walked was something so miraculous. 

After exploring the forum for a couple of hours we started back to check into our apartment.  But we first had to make our 1st Gelato Stop--- first of lots of ice cream on this trip. As good as was expected.

We checked into our cute little place in Campo Di Fiori and then headed over to Piazza Navona to do our 'Secret Food tour'.

This Picture of Adam in from of the fountain of 4 rivers was a the first of many photo ops here. This sculpture is beautiful and by far a favorite of ours here in Rome.  

We met our tour guide Robbie (and about 7 others who were on the tour with us) who was and Australian/Italian who introduced us to what we were up for for the night. Our first stop was supposed to be famous Italian latte at the 'Coop Latte Cisternino'. --- but we opted out of the coffee and instead asked if we could get hot chocolate. Lucky for us he made a call and was able to get us some. It was thick and very rich.  (The best part about asking for hot chocolate was that once we asked for it, almost the rest of our entire group asked for it as well) Robbie thought that was pretty funny.   

The next stop was Pizza at a little bakery place called 'Forno Campo De Fiori'. It was actually really close to where we were staying and we ended up going back a couple of time for other baked goodies. Anyway, Roman pizza is quite different than other areas of Italy. For starters, the dough is extremely thin, with an almost cracker-like crust. The dough is shaped into a long, oblong base, then sold by weight, rather than by the slice or whole pizza. Simply inform the person behind the counter how much you want and they will weigh the slice and charge you accordingly. The pizza is often eaten cold.  Weird.  Lucky for us they had made fresh pizzas for us so we got to try them mostly warm...We tried margarita and marinara and the flavors were good but we def. prefer hot fresh pizza.  

Next up we got to try some cheeses---  We went to a place that has just about every kind of cheese you could imagine.  We tried some fresh ricotta as well as a runny mozzarella that was very interesting.

To me it tasted about what it looked like. haha.

One of my favorite stops was at 'Supplizio' to get Suppli (Fried Rissotto balls).   They have all sorts of flavors but the classic suppli is made with tomato and basil flavors with a heart of warm and stringy mozzarella.  We tried a few other flavors and all were delicious.  The inside of the little restaurant was cozy and cool as well. 

We took a stroll around the streets of Rome all while Robbie was explaining much of the history of the different areas.  If we weren't stuffed enough we were headed to a little place in the Old Jewish Quarter. We got a little lesson about the history of pasta in Italy and how carbonara came about.  We then tried two typical Roman pastas which included spaghetti carbonara and a delicious tomato based penne pasta. They were both delicious but we were surprised at how 'al dente' Firm they like their pasta.  Def. different from what we are used to here in America.  After we had eaten all the pasta we wanted we went on a little walking tour of Jewish Quarter.  It was def. somewhere we would not have gone not had we been on this tour.  The streets were narrow, old and beautiful and Robbie showed us so many incredible secret places that only the locals know about. We also saw some neat Roman ruins hidden in these back streets.

After dinner of course we need some sweets so we took a little gander over to 'dolce di Nonna Vincenz'a for some mini cannolis, which is a crunchy shell filled with soft, sweet, vanilla-scented cream. They were the perfect little bites of yumminess.

A short walk later we arrived at another little cheese shop, 'Beppe e i Suoi Formaggi.' Here we were offered wine tasting (we got some fancy water) and a full cheese/cured meat tasting. The glass display cases were filled with all kinds of cheeses. Some had been aging their for many many years.
It was cool to look at but as far as the eating goes this was def. my least favorite. haha.

Our last stop of the night was of course some Gelato! We got a little sampler of 2 different kinds.  The perfect way to end the night.  Such a fun tour. I loved exploring and learning about Rome through it's food.  Even after traveling the entire night before I was so glad we decided to do this!

After the tour we decided to get a few more pics at Bernini's Fountain of 4 Rivers.

 After a good night sleep---- the next morning we walked basically our our door to explore the Campo Di Fiori Market. The whole square was filled with vendors selling their goods. A fun place to get breakfast.

Here we are at the same little bakery we went to on our food tour.  Yummy little pastry bites. We werent ever quite sure what we it was going to cost us but usually I was surprised it wasn't that much.

 After grabbing our breakfast we walked over to St. Peter's Basilica and Vatican City to meet up for our tour.  More people and more lines but it really was amazing to see.

For our tour we got little ear bud pieces so we could hear our tour guide and basically we were herded around like cattle (because of the huge amounts of people all wanting to be in this same place).  We could have spent hours and hou,  rs inside but they rush you through everything so you try to soak in as much as you can. There really are no words to explain the Sistine Chapel and all the work and time that went into Michaelanglo's work there (No pics allowed inside). It was all so unreal, inspiring, and amazing.   

The 'Pieta' by Michelangelo was very inspiring. This famous work of art depicts the body of Jesus on the lap of his mother Mary after the Crucifixion.

We next explored St. Peter's Basilica on our own. This included the Dome, the canopy and alter, peter's Crucifixion site, and we were lucky enough to be able to walk through the holy doors (that are only open every 25 years) and have our sins washed away. Yipee. ;)

 Outside in the square was just as cool as the inside.  Here we are in St. Peter's Square  complete with all the statues by Bernini.  Adam us hugging the columns for a reason--- he has a serious man crush on Bernini and all of his work.

After finishing up in Vatican City we were starting to get hungry for some lunch--- of course it started to rain--- so we found a little place just across the Tiber River to eat some classic Rome pasta/bruschetta.

 After lunch we continued exploring the city on foot and walked up to the Borghese Gallery. Such an amazing museum filled with so many famous works of art.  We loved it here because the numbers were limited, you had to get reservations, and you were able to take your time and really study and get a good look at the art without the crowds of people. Here are some of the pieces of Work.
  'Rape of Persephone' by Bernini

 'Apollo and Daphne' by Bernini
This was one of Marci's favorites.  Loved the detail and the story it told.

Adam as David by Bernini and Marci as ?

Artist Caravaggio - Self portrait and more work.

We loved the Borghese Gallery.
Other random pics from Rome:
These trees called Umbrella Pines were all over Rome. :)  

Little cars rule the roads here. The would park anywhere they could. Fun to see the little cars zooming all over the place.

They also had Roasted chestnut stands all over the city. We had to try them out and lets just say they were nasty.... at least we thought so. Not much flavor and a little mushy.

Spanish Steps:  Cool but we were bombarded by the locals trying to sell us roses or other souvenirs so that was annoying.   

 We finished day 2 by stopping at the Trevi Fountain.  Lots of people here but we made sure to toss a coin over our shoulder into the waters.. It means we will be visiting Rome again sometime. :)

Day 3 we woke up and walked up to the Pantheon! Great photo ops and it was cool to learn about the history of this place.  

 The most fascinating part of the Pantheon was its giant dome, with its famous hole in the top (The eye of the Pantheon, or oculus). It was open to the sky and you could see the blue sky or on a rainy day you would most certainly get wet.  The dome was the largest in the world for 1300 years and until today it remains the largest unsupported dome in the world! The diameter of the dome is 142ft (for comparison, the United States Capitol dome is 96 feet in diameter) and is in perfect proportion with the Pantheon by the fact that the distance from the floor to the top of the dome is exactly equal to its diameter.

The 16 massive Corinthian columns supporting the portico weigh 60 tons each. They are 39 feet  tall, five feet  in diameter and brought all the way from Egypt.  The Fountain of the Pantheon is also a beautiful work of art.

 Of course before we left Rome we had to take one more picture in Piazzo Navona's Fountain of 4 Rivers. Pretty sure we took 10 pictures of us in front of it from different angles. :)

 We didn't get any pictures inside our little apartment that was in Campo Di Fiori. This is a picture of Adam standing in the front. It was perfect for the 5 of us and was in the perfect location. We walked everywhere--- really so fun to be right in the heart of it all.  I love that we were immersed right in the city and felt like a local.   We loved ROME and def. need to go back. 2 1/2 days was not near enough time to see all that we wanted to see.