Tag Archives: italy

Travel Notes: Agrigento and Segesta

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In May and June of 2011, I spent 5 weeks traveling around Europe. This post is one of a series chronicling the different places I visited on that trip.

Our last day in Sicily was filled with ancient Greek temples. On the trip, I heard many people say that, ironically, you can probably find better preserved Greek temples in Sicily than you can in Greece. And, truly, the ones we saw on our last day were stunning.

We started by visiting Agrigento’s “Valley of Temples.” Located high up on a hillside, this was a spectacular collection of temples. Here are a few of my favorite shots:

We also saw a group of overturned stones that looked suspiciously like the Michelin man:

From Agrigento, we headed onto our farewell lunch – our tour would officially be over the next morning. Our tour guide referred to this lunch as our “Sicilian wedding feast” – and it was perhaps our most spectacular meal yet, with course after course of awesomeness. Some of my favorite parts of the meal:

Pasta rolled in eggplant. These were so delicious – I wish I could recreate something like this:

Calamari. I know, I know – this doesn’t seem like anything special. But it was way more delicious than calamari I’ve had elsewhere (likely because it wasn’t from a frozen bag, which I would suspect is the case at most restaurants).

Cannoli. Yes, it seems no Sicily post would be complete without mention of cannoli. And for our last meal, we each got not one, but two – one traditional, and one with a chocolate-pistachio shell. Excellent.

After lunch, I coma-slept on the bus until we reached Segesta, site of a Greek theater and temple. The thing I loved about the theater was that, because it’s located up so high, you got gorgeous views of the surrounding countryside from the theater.

We walked downhill from the theater through some mildly treacherous paths, and then back uphill to reach the temple at Segesta. This temple, like the ones we’d seen earlier in the day, was magnificent. We arrived as the sun was just beginning to set, so the light was beautiful.

From Segesta, we headed back to Palermo. In the evening, we didn’t eat a full meal because we were so full from lunch. But, we did head out to grab drinks and gelato with our tour group to say our goodbyes. I have to say, we traveled with a pretty cool group of people – I definitely felt sad about saying goodbye to everyone, and to Sicily.

And I suppose here would be a spectacular time to post some profound reflections on Sicily and what it all meant. And while this may not be particularly profound, my main thought is how impressed I was with the food (when is the last time I’ve eaten better?) and the beauty of the landscapes. Another treat of this trip was getting to learn so much about the culture and customs of Sicily – from how to make the perfect pizza dough to the proper way to give a toast (eye contact!) to the art of crossing a busy Sicilian street without getting hit by a car (also eye contact).

Ultimately, the simple truth is that Sicily was not quite what I expected, but it was also more than I expected. More art, more antiquities, more food, more stunning countryside. Just more.

Travel Notes: Siracusa, Caltagirone, and Piazza Armerina

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In May and June of 2011, I spent 5 weeks traveling around Europe. This post is one of a series chronicling the different places I visited on that trip.

After Taormina, our next major stop was the town of Siracusa. Where we were staying – the old historic center of town – is quiet, with tiny streets and some abandoned buildings (apparently, many people moved to the “new town” after WW2). At first, we weren’t really impressed. But then, we took an orientation walk with the group and things started to click. We wound through some tiny back streets until suddenly, we found ourselves walking into a big, open space with beautifully colored buildings – Piazza Duomo. We didn’t take the most direct route to arrive there, but we took the route that offered the most beautiful view of the cathedral and square upon arrival (you can only see a building for the first time once, our guide said). It was amazing:

After our walk, my mom and I headed to a little place that was sort of a hybrid grocery store/butcher shop/deli. We were a little intimidated because we had to custom-order our sandwiches – but I was able to get sandwiches for my mom and I, and afterward the sandwich guy told me I spoke Italian very well. Not going to lie – I was pretty proud of myself. We headed back to our hotel and ate our sandwiches while watching Top Chef dubbed in Italian which, in case you were wondering, is hilarious (note: there is no translation for Carla’s “hootie ho.” So you hear a rapid stream of Italian punctuated with cries of “hootie ho.” Amazing).

The next morning, we started out by visiting the National Archaeological Museum. We were led by Rosa, an awesome local guide. She was hilarious and had an irrational hatred of Romans – so any time we came across a Roman artifact, her disgust was pretty funny.

The highlight of the museum was definitely the coin and jewelry collection. The jewelry was beautiful – so colorful. And the coins were incredibly intricate – I was blown away by the level of sophistication that these ancient artifacts had. The coin engravings also went way beyond your standard faces – some had animals and other complicated shapes. I even found a set engraved with octopi!

After the museum, we headed to the outdoor archaeological park. By this time, it was extremely hot and sunny out, so things got a little gross. The first thing we saw was a gigantic Greek theater (the second largest in the world, after Epidavros in Greece – which I’ve also seen. Apparently I’ve been on a tour of the world’s best ancient Greek theaters without even knowing it). The second thing we saw was the Ear of Dionysus – a gigantic cave named for the fact that its incredible acoustics allowed rulers to eavesdrop on the prisoners kept there. Our tour guide sang “Amazing Grace” so we could get a sense of the acoustics. It was a goosebump-inducing moment; she was seriously talented!

After exploring the ruins, we headed back into old town. Mom and I walked around the water for a bit before grabbing lunch at a seaside restaurant. I didn’t like my meal, so mom traded with me. I ended up with a delicious calzone. Don’t tell her, but I for sure got the better end of that deal.

In the evening, we went to a traditional puppet show. I’m fairly certain the story was based on Orlando Furioso, which I read (or attempted to read – old school Italian is no joke, people) back in college. Even though we didn’t really understand what was going on during the play, it was really cool to watch. The costumes and sets were very beautiful!

The whole operation was family run, so afterward the entire family came out and answered our questions. The little girl who “helped” with the puppets was so adorable!

The next day, we headed on to the town of Caltagirone, which had one of the most unexpectedly wonderful sites of our trip. All our guide would tell us was that we were visiting a church that had “something special” inside. That something special turned out to be a gigantic nativity (presepio, in Italian) scene. Everything about the nativity was hand made – intricately carved figurines, animals, houses, bridges, rivers, and barns. Everything was also mechanized, so the little figurines were moving. It’s hard to describe the level of detail and the quality of execution – suffice it to say I was blown away!

After the presepio, we headed down the street to a ceramics workshop where we saw how the beautiful pieces were made, from start:

To finish:

I thought the most fascinating part was the painting – it’s all done by hand, and the precision with which they execute it is pretty phenomenal.

After the demonstration, mom and I headed to lunch at Non Solo Vino. The highlight of this restaurant was an antipasti buffet – there were some many delicious things to choose from:

Of course, no meal in Sicily is complete without cannoli, so after lunch we headed to a bakery to pick up a few:

From Caltagirone, we headed to the Villa Romana del Casale, just outside the town of Piazza Armerina. The Villa contains a huge collection of Roman mosaics. Everything is under construction, which was a little disappointing, but the mosaics are still pretty cool – and I’d love to see what it looks like once the construction work is finished; I’m sure it will be pretty spectacular. The most famous piece at the Villa is the mosaic with the so-called “bikini girls,” which I gather was a little ahead of its time thousands of years ago! We were there in the afternoon, so the light was not cooperating with me and this was the best shot I could get:

Our final stop of the day was our hotel, an agriturismo near Piazza Armerina. The agriturismo was lovely – we had a few hours to relax and walk around before yet another spectacular meal that night. Here are a few of my favorite snapshots from around the agriturismo:

 

Travel Notes: Taormina, Etna, and Catania

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In May and June of 2011, I spent 5 weeks traveling around Europe. This post is one of a series chronicling the different places I visited on that trip.

After Cefalu, we headed to the resort town of Taormina, which ended up being one of my very favorite spots in Sicily.

We started out by attending a pizza making demonstration at Ristorante Pizzeria Villa Zuccaro. A man named Nino led the demonstration, and he told us he would share “some, but not all” of his secrets with us. It was fun to watch him work – and spin the pizza dough around.

After learning about making pizza, we naturally got a chance to eat some pizza too – and it was delicious. We sampled several different kinds – in the first picture, we have pizza margherita and capricciosa (which is topped with things like ham, peas, hard boiled eggs, and olives. You might expect this to be gross – I  did – but it’s not). In the second picture, we have a pizza called “Regina di Bronte” and a four cheese pizza. We also had a mushroom pizza, though I didn’t get a picture of that one.

All of the pizza was excellent, but for my money, the simplest pizza – margherita – was the best. I had it again and again in Italy, and I never regretted a bite.

After lunch, we took a walking tour of Taormina. The town, located right on the water, was just lovely:

My main impression of Taormina was flowers – they were everywhere you looked, but especially on balconies. I took what seemed like a million pictures of well-decorated balconies – I just couldn’t stop myself.

The highlight of the walking tour was the very last stop – a huge Greek theater. The theater is still in use today, and I kept thinking how cool it would be to see a performance there. Our local guide told us that, recently, Elton John, Sting, and Liza Minnelli have all performed there. Who knew?

After the theater, we were pretty hot from standing out in the sun all afternoon. On our walk downhill back into town, I saw a granita stand and knew we had to stop there. As for the taste of granita, the closest comparison I could make would be to a Slurpee, though I’m pretty sure they are made with fresh fruit in Sicily rather than some sort of processed Slurpee chemicals. Whatever the case – they were perfectly refreshing.

After a quick rest to enjoy our granita, we headed on to the botanical gardens. I really enjoyed the gardens – they were big and beautiful, had lots of interesting memorials inside them, and had great views of the water and of the city.

After the gardens, we continued exploring Taormina, poking into stores here and there and doing some shopping. Here are a few other things that caught my eye as we were wandering around:

After we finished our shopping, we headed back to our hotel to rest for a bit before going to dinner. I had a great meal – fried mozarella balls for an appetizer, stuffed fish for an entree, and tiramisu for dessert. It was the tiramisu that I was most excited about. I had been on a quest to get real Italian tiramisu at least once during this trip. Mission accomplished!

The next day, we left Taormina (much to my chagrin – I wish we could’ve stayed longer) and headed to Mt. Etna. We were able to climb around a crater of Etna. Pretty cool:

It’s also amazing (and a little scary) to see and think about all the destruction a volcanic eruption can cause. We saw areas where lava rivers flowed, destroying everything in their paths and burying entire homes:

As we descended back down the mountain and I saw homes dotting the road, I started to wonder – why would anyone live nearby, with such a threat of imminent disaster present? But then I thought – disaster can strike in most places. A tornado in Missouri, a tsunami in Japan, a hurricane in New Orleans. Maybe there isn’t anywhere we’re truly safe, and so you go on living in a place you love, a place that’s home, no matter what.

And with that thought on my mind, our bus continued on toward the town of Catania. I don’t have any pictures there, because we made just one stop, and you weren’t allowed to take any photos. We visited the Museum of the Allied Landings. It wasn’t anything fancy, but I found it very thought-provoking, particularly because this is one area of WW2 I know little about. You always read so much about the landings at Normandy, but not so much about the landings in Sicily. I wrote in my journal that more troops landed in Sicily on July 10, 1943 than landed on D-Day. I want to verify that fact, but if that’s true – wow.

After the museum, we drove to the countryside (our guide said the nearest town was Lentini) and had lunch at the home of a contessa. We began with an outdoor antipasti buffet:

After our appetizers, a woman named Simona gave us a little demonstration on making Sicilian pesto. It turns out that it’s pretty much like normal pesto, except you throw in some cherry tomatoes for good measure.

And, naturally, once we had learned about the pesto, we had to eat something with pesto on it. We moved indoors and had a feast of a meal. We started with two pastas – one with the aforementioned pesto, another with lemon linguini. For the main course, we had veal, potatoes, and meatballs. And for dessert, we had a cup of fresh fruit with ice cream.

Before we left, I snapped a few photos around the contessa’s estate:

It was a lovely afternoon – next up, Siracusa!

Travel Notes: Cefalu

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In May and June of 2011, I spent 5 weeks traveling around Europe. This post is one of a series chronicling the different places I visited on that trip.

After Palermo, our next major stop on our tour of Sicily was Cefalu, a lovely, small seaside town. We arrived in the late afternoon, stopping just outside the city to get a few pictures. It was spectacular:

On our first night, we took an orientation walk around Cefalu and then stopped with our group for some gelato in the town’s main square. This seems as good a time as any to proclaim that, much like cannoli, gelato in Italy is damn near perfect. It’s also super dangerous, because what with all the walking you do while exploring places, it’s easy to convince yourself it is okay to have gelato whenever you want.

Our walk continued until we reached the shore, and we arrived just in time to see a gorgeous sunset over the water. Also right around that time, a wedding party was taking pictures nearby, and our tour guide got us all to chant “bacia, bacia” (kiss, kiss!). It was a cool moment, and the bride and groom were good sports about it. The whole wedding party seemed quite amused by us, this group of American tourists chanting and taking pictures of them.

The next morning began with a climb up La Rocca, the big rock fortress Cefalu sits at the foot of. We didn’t go all the way to the very top, but we did get to a nice bluff pretty high up with great views of the town, harbor, and cathedral below. I’m not a huge fan of hiking, but – like most hikes – once we got to the top, it all seemed worth it.

After our hike, mom and I headed to a restaurant near the water for lunch. The place we ended up picking was a little too touristy for my tastes, and the food was unremarkable, but it did serve up a nice, strong midday cocktail – so at least there’s that. Then, we walked around near the water for awhile, just relaxing. It seemed too cold to swim, so we just dipped our feet in – and even that was a little too chilly for me!

Later in the afternoon, we visited the Duomo (cathedral) of Cefalu. It was beautiful but not quite as remarkable as other churches I’ve visited around Italy. However, one thing I do find remarkable is how such a small place can have such a big cathedral – and, it seems, you find these lovely churches in towns all over Italy, no matter how small the place.

Then, as our reward for our morning hike, we grabbed some gelato and sat in the square for awhile (okay, full disclosure – we probably would have eaten gelato even if we had slept all morning instead of hiking).

In the evening, we all met up on our hotel’s terrace for pre-dinner drinks. Then, we headed to dinner at Al Porticciolo, where we ate out on the deck, overlooking the water at sunset – which is obviously a pretty spectacular dinner ambiance to have. And – continuing a glorious theme on this trip – we had another feast of a meal, including this:

And this:

And of course this:

The dishes were:

  • Primi: 2 kinds of pasta: a risotto with asparagus and shrimp and a penne with swordfish, tomatoes, artichokes, and other assorted goodness
  • Secondi: a gigantic piece of swordfish (“very delicious,” I wrote in my journal that night.)
  • Dolci: a cannoli AND a piece of very rich, very sugary cake (because why would they give everyone just one dessert?)

As I write this, I realize my entries for Rome and Palermo ended the exact same way – with a delicious meal. We were very lucky in Italy, indeed.

Travel Notes: Palermo, Monreale, and San Cipirello

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In May and June of 2011, I spent 5 weeks traveling around Europe. This post is one of a series chronicling the different places I visited on that trip.

After visiting Rome, my mom and I flew to Sicily to take a 9-day Rick Steves tour. Our first stop was Palermo, and we arrived about a day and a half early to get our bearings before the tour began.

I have to say that I found Palermo to be a challenging city. I think it was a matter of expectations: I had this notion of Sicily as this beautiful, quaint island paradise, and loud, bustling Palermo just did not mesh with that picture. Plus, it was raining when we arrived – and grey, dreary skies most definitely did not mesh with that picture!

On our first day, we didn’t do much – wandered around a bit, caught up on sleep, and had two fine but unremarkable meals. On day two, however, we rebounded and actually began exploring some of the city. It still rained throughout the day, but in our better frames of mind, it didn’t seem quite so tragic.

While generally depressing, the rain did make for perfect museum weather. We started out at Palermo’s archaeological museum. It may not be world famous, but I still found it worthwhile. I was most fascinated by the collections of tiny, everyday objects – jewelry, small statues, pairs of dice, bowls. I always marvel at the fact that these simple objects have endured for so long.

After the museum, we were ready for a snack, and we found a bakery with some delicious looking treats. However, in true Italian fashion, it was pure chaos. Actually, to the locals it might not have been – I got the sense that everybody else understood the “rules” of the bakery except us. We ordered at one counter, were ushered to another counter to pay, and then couldn’t figure out where we were actually supposed to pick up our food. It took several minutes, many streams of rapid Italian that I didn’t understand, and a few desperate looks, but we finally got our food. However – the cannoli in Sicily are so damn delicious that I think it might have all been worth it. Seriously, I don’t think I can ever eat cannoli in the US again without feeling wistful.

Feeling slightly disconcerted by our bakery misadventures (yet fortified by the tasty cannoli), we headed off to Teatro Massimo, Palermo’s opera house. We took a tour of the interior (no pictures allowed) and learned lots of interesting trivia, like the fact that the opera’s roof can open in the summer to let the air in. Also, we learned that this opera house was used in the Godfather 3 (Sofia Coppola’s character is shot on its stairs). It was truly a beautiful place.

After the theater, we headed to a nearby restaurant (Ristorante 59) for a late lunch. Our meal was solid, but what caught our eye was the platter of Sicilian cookies we saw on several tables. My mom in particular loves these type of cookies, and I’m pretty sure her eyes lit up when they finally brought the platter to our table.

In the evening, we met up with our tour group at the hotel, and our tour officially began. While I tend to enjoy the logistics of traveling – figuring out which sites to see, where to stay, and what to eat – I have to admit it’s kind of nice to have someone else figure that all out for you (and come up with a fantastic itinerary). I was in Europe for 5 weeks, and I planned out every detail of most of it – so I greatly enjoyed the 9 days on tour when I didn’t have to think about anything. Also, Rick Steves tours are excellent – this was my mom’s and my second one, and I’d highly recommend them to anyone.

That evening, we met the other folks we’d be traveling with, took care of some housekeeping/administrative stuff, and took an orientation walk (through the rain – it was relentless those first few days in Palermo).

Our third and final day in Palermo started out with a walking tour of the city, led by a local guide. We spent the entire morning exploring, so we saw tons of cool things. Some highlights of our walking tour:

We saw several churches on our walk. One of my favorites was Santa Caterina, which looked pretty unassuming from the outside but was magnificent on the inside – filled with gorgeous, ornate marble carvings:

We also visited the Cathedral of Palermo – a huge church with lots of impressive domes and towers. Inside, we saw the tombs of several Normans who had been kings of Sicily (one of them was also Holy Roman Emperor). Outside, there were plenty of lovely flowers, and as anyone who has ever traveled with me could tell you, I have yet to see a flower that I didn’t want to photograph.

Next we visited the workshop of a cart painter/puppet maker. I loved seeing all the brightly painted carts and puppets – they were delightful!

We ended our walking tour at one of Palermo’s open air markets. I absolutely love visiting outdoor markets – particularly when they’re this big, bustling, and full of colorful fruits and vegetables. I took many pictures of all the fresh, vibrant produce, but here are a few of my favorites:

After our walking tour, we were pretty tired and opted to spend most of the afternoon at a slower pace – we had a nice meal, walked around the neighborhood near our hotel a bit, and just relaxed. In the evening, we met up with our group for dinner at Vino e Pomodoro – our first in a series of truly spectacular meals on this trip.

Our tour guide explained that, while we’d be eating many traditional Sicilian meals throughout this trip, our first meal would be a more modern take on the island’s cuisine. In the photo collage above, going clockwise from the top left, we ate:

  • Antipasti: a plate of several different things – bruschetta, zucchini, artichokes, and fried triangles of bread (I loved it all except the artichokes)
  • Primi: two types of pasta, one that was more whole-grainy with fennel and fava beans, and one with olives, swordfish, and marinara sauce
  • Secondi: radicchio (very bitter) with stuffed fish and oranges. The fish was delicious!
  • Dolci: mint panna cotta and a glass of limoncello to finish the meal off.

It was simply delicious – man, do Sicilians know how to do food right.

We went to bed with full stomachs and woke up the next day to leave Palermo and begin our trip around the island. We stopped at two places nearby Palermo – Monreale and San Cipirello – before heading onto our next major stop, Cefalu.

Monreale is a hilltop town, known primarily for its cathedral. The exterior of the cathedral is alright, but it’s the interior that really shines (literally). The interior is covered in huge, gorgeous gold leaf mosaics – in fact, our guide told us that there’s something like 2 tons of gold leaf in the church.

While in Monreale, we also visited the cloisters, and spent some time exploring the beautiful courtyard. The columns surrounding the courtyard were fantastic as well – some decorated with colorful mosaic tiles; others with intricate carvings.

From Monreale, we headed to San Cipirello, where we visited the Calatrasi winery. We took a tour of the winery, learning about how the grapes are processed into wine. And, naturally, we had our own mini wine tasting. One thing I noticed throughout my time in Italy was how wine never gave me a headache (and, ahem, I drank my fair share of it). I’ve heard from various people that this is because Italian wines have less sulfites – I’m not sure if that’s true, but whatever the case, I’m glad of the fact.

We topped off our visit to the winery with a spectacular meal (6 appetizers plus bread, 2 pasta dishes, veal, lambchop, and several desserts – fruit and 2 pastry varieties). Needless to say, I slept slash went into a food coma on the bus ride to our next destination!

Travel Notes: Rome

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In May and June of 2011, I spent 5 weeks traveling around Europe. This post is one of a series chronicling the different places I visited on that trip.

The first time I went to Rome, I was only there for an insane 24-hour period. I say “insane” because it included sleeping at a camp ground, wandering down sketchy roads from Termini train station to the Trevi fountain late at night, sneakily cutting in line at the Vatican, sustaining ourselves on almost nothing but pizza, gelato, and Nutella Snack and Drinks, having to ask for directions to the Spanish Steps in three languages (English, French, and Italian), and surviving the craziest cab ride I’ve ever taken (I swear the guy was going like 100 on a tiny city street). I was 19, and while Rome was one of my favorite memories from my month-long study abroad program in Italy, I wanted to go back and explore the city further, and perhaps at a slower pace. My mom and I signed up for a guided tour of Sicily, and we decided to add a few days in Rome onto the beginning of our trip. So, here are my thoughts about Rome, Round 2.

Day One

We arrived in Rome in the morning and made it to our hotel by 10am. Luckily, they let us check in early, so we were able to drop off our luggage and freshen up a bit before heading out to explore. Our first stop was the Spanish Steps, which were a quick 5-minute walk from our hotel. I found it rather ironic that they were the first site we saw and that they were so close to our hotel, given the aforementioned problems I had finding them during my first Roman adventure.

However, we didn’t stay at the Steps for long, as we were in search of both a good meal and some ancient ruins. We hopped on the metro and rode over to the Colosseum, where we grabbed some lunch. I do not recommend heading to that area to get any sort of meal, as there seemed to be a distinct lack of non-touristy restaurants. I ended up with a good, not great, pizza margherita (the first of many on this trip – though subsequent versions were far superior).

After lunch, we headed to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. On my first trip, I remember being completely blown away by the Colosseum – in awe that I was standing where gladiators had once stood. I still found the Colosseum impressive, but on this trip, I was more awed by the Forum. I think it’s because, this time around, I spent more time pondering the sheer scope of the ruins and the fact that this was the center of all civic life in ancient Rome. Pretty mind-boggling.

After spending several hours outside in the sun (and feeling some nasty jetlag), we headed back to our hotel for a short nap before dinner. After our nap, we walked from our hotel to the Pantheon (the interior was already closed for the day), and then onto the Piazza Navona for dinner. I think there’s some sort of magic out on the streets in Rome at dusk, and perhaps one of the places you can feel it best is the Piazza Navona. When I think of Rome, I know I will think of places like this, so romantic and charming and just quintessential Rome.

We ate at a restaurant right on the Piazza, and I would gladly take a restaurant that’s slightly touristy in exchange for the ambiance we got. I had bruschetta and risotto ai funghi – a very satisfying first dinner in Rome.

We ended the evening by walking to the Trevi Fountain. The fountain was chaotic and crowded, as expected, but I still loved the experience. My favorite part about it is actually the walk to it – you can hear the water before you can even see it, and it’s a fantastic sense of anticipation.

Day Two

Our second day in Rome was primarily spent not in Rome at all, if you want to get technical about it. After a lazy morning (read: we got up late and didn’t rush to get out the door), we made our way to Vatican City in time to grab lunch before our guided tour of the museum.

Taking a guided tour of the Vatican was a pretty solid choice – we got to skip the ticket buying line, and we had someone to help us make sense of everything. The scope of the Vatican’s collection is pretty amazing – our guide even said that if you were to look at every piece of art housed in the Vatican for one minute, it would take you twelve years!

After the Vatican Museum, we wandered over to St. Peter’s Basilica. I hadn’t had a chance to actually go inside St. Peter’s on my last visit, so I was excited to finally get to see the interior, which was gorgeous, and Michelangelo’s Pieta, which was really moving. The size of St. Peter’s is also incredible – they have markers that show you where other churches would fit inside St. Peter’s. Pretty amazing.

From Vatican City, we took a taxi over to the Campo dei Fiori for dinner. Like Piazza Navona, I just love the atmosphere on this square – definitely a great place for a meal.

We ate a restaurant near the Campo dei Fiori, and it was a delicious meal: bruschetta to start, a delicious ravioli with pine nuts and pears, and baba rum for dessert. I particularly loved my pasta – the combination of pear with cheese is unbeatable.

As we walked back to our hotel after dinner, we passed by the Pantheon yet again, which was our touchstone during our Rome trip – we pretty much walked by it multiple times each day, going to and from our hotel. I snapped a few pictures of it in the fading light – it’s imposing during the day, but even lovelier at night.

Day Three

We began our third day in Rome at the Borghese Gallery. This was the one site I hadn’t managed to cram into my first trip to Rome, primarily because it requires a reservation to get into the museum. And, may I just say, that’s a pretty brilliant concept. Over the last few years, I have fallen in love with art museums across Europe, but what I have not fallen in love with are the overwhelming crowds, clustering around the best paintings, obscuring my views, and making me sweat. Needless to say, the Borghese Gallery was a nice change of pace.

You couldn’t take pictures in the museum, so I have no photographic evidence of my favorite pieces – the Bernini sculptures. Before this museum, my interest in sculpture was pretty much confined to Michelangelo and Rodin, but I have to add Bernini to the list. I find art (and the emotions it evokes) pretty tough to describe, but what appealed to me the most about the sculptures was that they felt so emotional and real. For example – you can see little details, like fingers pressing into flesh, and it is completely lifelike and evocative.

After visiting the museum, we hung out in the Borghese gardens for a bit. I saw this quotation on the base of a statue, and I think it’s very true.

In the afternoon, we went to San Giovanni, which is one of the major churches that people make pilgrimages to in Rome. The church has the steps that were transferred from Jerusalem to Rome and that were, according to Catholic tradition, walked on by Jesus during the Passion. Today, people come to walk up the steps on their knees, stopping on each step to say a prayer. I’m not particularly religious, but there’s undeniably something pretty powerful about seeing so many people doing that.

My mom at San Giovanni:

After visiting the church, we headed over to the Pantheon and stopped at an outdoor cafe nearby to rest in the shade (and enjoy some gelato):

And then, after two days of walking by the Pantheon at night after it had closed, we finally arrived early enough in the day to actually go inside. When you stand inside, right in the middle of the Pantheon, I think it’s pretty much impossible not to wonder – how the hell did they manage to build this, way back in the day, without any modern technology? Truly remarkable.

From the Pantheon, we wandered across the Tiber River to the Trastevere neighborhood, which we explored for about an hour before heading to dinner.

My guidebook described the neighborhood as “crusty,” but I don’t know if that’s the word I would use. Maybe warm, or homey, or cozy. I liked the vibe. I liked the colors of the buildings – lots of pinks and oranges. But what I really liked? The neighborhood contained the restaurant – Trattoria da Lucia – where I had the most mind-blowing plate of spaghetti alla gricia EVER. Behold:

It looks pretty unassuming, right? But rest assured, it was magnificent. It was quite simple – spaghetti noodles, olive oil, pancetta, cheese, and maybe a sprinkle of magic. But it was delicious. Seriously, I dreamt about it for the rest of my trip. And as this was our last night in Rome – I definitely left on a high note.

So, thank you, Rome, for your lovely ruins and breathtaking art and fantastic ambiance. But thank you most of all for the spaghetti.