Gwen had a huge birthday this weekend and all she wanted was a trip to Italy so as the obliging husband we headed to Rome on Friday evening returning on Monday morning. We stayed at the Romanico Palace Hotel which just off Via Vittorio where much of the movie “La Dolce Vita” was centered around.
We arrived late Friday night when Gwen experienced her first ever meal on Italian soil at Cafe Strega which was basically just Pizza and Pasta but oh boy how good the pizza and pasta is over there and that pretty much set the tone for much of our activities over the next few days as we visited so many other street cafes to sample as much food and as many Chiantis that we could.
Saturday morning we started at Pepy’s for unbelievably good coffee and pastries like I have certainly never tasted before. We then hit the Trevi Fountain and Spanish steps (as one does in Rome) building up a good appetite for a Panini Lunch at the famous Café De Paris where coincidently my brother and wife had their wedding reception back in 1994. After lunch we took the metro to the Vatican and Vatican museums where we spend hours getting completely overwhelmed with all the statues, art, frescos, tapestries etc.. We must have walked ten miles on Saturday. There was quite a funny incident on St. Peter’s square later on where a car full of older ladies managed to avoid all the security and drove right onto and around the square completely oblivious to all the Italian police men chasing behind them.
After all the walking we took a well deserved rest at some lovely café (cannot remember its name) and sat outside under an awning as it lashed rain for a while. Being stuck there we took the opportunity to enjoy another margarita pizza and another nice glass of Chianti. Once the rain stopped we headed back to our hotel to rest, freshen up and head right out again for dinner. A margarita pizza as appetizer, Spaghetti alle vongole for Gwen and a seafood variety with pasta for me. I am pretty sure there was some nice Chianti in there somewhere. We had desert and coffee in another café after dinner and then hung out for a while at the Trevi fountain which you really do need to see at night time.
Sunday we started with breakfast at a Café on Nazionale and then spend a good few hours touring the Coliseum, the Forum and The Palatine. Truly amazing sights and the size and scale or the Coliseum really does take your breath away. I had seen all these places back in 1994 but was way too young and stupid at the time to properly appreciate them (or Rome) so the trip was like a first for me too.
As you can guess we visited two more Cafés on the way back from all day’s sightseeing. One called the Theatre Café and the other I forget bit it was on Via Firenze. Seriously they are very difficult to walk by when you smell and see what they are serving!
Later that night we met Derek and Amy Able for dinner who coincidently happened to arrive into Rome on Sunday. We know Amy and Derek from Dallas and were in Rome celebrating their 10 year wedding anniversary. Facebook was the reason the dots were joined that we all happened to be in Rome that same weekend!
Derek and Amy – congratulations again on your big milestone, it was fantastic catching up with you and we hope you enjoy the rest of your time in Rome and Paris. After dinner (really nice restaurant near the Trevi Fountain) we sampled a few more street side cafés and our final Chiantis while catching up on all the latest Dallas news!
That was it! We headed back home on Monday morning. It was a brilliant weekend and Rome is truly one of the greatest places on earth to visit.
..and again Happy Birthday to my beautiful wife Gwen who is now a quadragenarian! You did it in style babe!
Ciao!
Some pictures from the trip are located here - http://picasaweb.google.com/dazzerb/Rome2010#
PS: Gwen says thank you to everyone for all the birthday emails and texts over the weekend. She got hundreds of messages!
