We spent the bulk of our time with the statues before we realized we were running out of time for our 12:15 Catacomb tour, so we booked it over to the Sistene Chapel. We saw some very interesting stuff and could have easily spent a few more hours browsing. Sistene Chapel was an amazing site – and what was also amazing was the number of people in the chapel looking up. Fire hazard much? Moving onto our next adventure - an undergroud tour of St. Peter’s Basillica. Ok….this was interesting. We were in a tour of about 15 people. We were told that it was hot and humid underground. That was an understatement – we saw ancient Rome unearthed, and I almost passed out due to a combination of lack of oxygen and no goldfish. (I have been carrying snack packs around). I had to move a nun so I could sit on a million year old step. I feel bad now, but it was better than throwing up on a 1000 year old casket thing. I’ll let someone else tell you about what we learned, I checked out trying not to pass out. As Joanna just said, “I checked out trying to stay alive.” I will say that the tombs were cool.
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| St. Peter's Basillica |
Next stop…lunch. We ate at a nondescript sidewalk café and it was delicious. Right outside of Vatican city. Every single one of us finished our plates and we headed out to get expresso and gelato.
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| Matt's lunch - delicious! |
We had to hurry home so we could meet Tim’s family for dinner in the evening in Pomezia. We left at 5:45 for dinner…this trek included a 20 min walk to the subway, 2 subway runs, and then a bus. We JUST missed the bus so we were a little late in meeting his family. When we arrived, they could not have been more friendly. We met Tim’s grandmother’s sister (Lena) and her family (her son Vittorio, daughter Bianca, Carlo, Giuseppi). We met at her lovely home and then made our way over to dinner. Vittorio drove the four of us to Torvainicca (beach town) to eat pizza at Vessovio. (side note, this pizza place is on a street called Boston. We had pizza in Boston hehe). Ok, now I love pizza. Any of you that know me know that. We had the BEST PIZZA IN THE WORLD. Vittorio ordered for us - we thought we were sharing. Oh no, we each got our OWN PIZZA. Joanna and myself each had tomato and mozzarella pizza, Matt and Tim and Tomato, Mozzarella and Anchovies. I can’t stress how good these pizzas were. Just truly heaven. Very big too. Oh – missed our appetizer – we’re in Italy here, NEVER just one course. We had spuffi - I’m calling it Rome’s take on Arancini. It is truly delicous. We had some sort of fried potato that was awesome. Bruschetta. And who knows what else. It was delicious!
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| BEST PIZZA in the WORLD - this is just HALF! |
We thought that was all she wrote until we heard that a great gelato place was just around the corner and we had to try. How can you pass up gelato? You can’t – especially when an Italian family is telling you to take some. You don’t say no. For any of you out there that think you can say no, you can’t. Trust me. Why would you want to - the food is so damn good. Just eat and hope you don’t get sick. So back to the gelato – we ate at La Dolce Vita. JoJo had Nutella (ok so random side note, JoJo loves Nutella and nearly died when she saw it was a gelato flavor), I had Taco which is basically nuts, chocolate, vanilla, carmel and whatever else the kitchen sink can hold, Tim had mint (Tim likes mint as much as Joanna likes Nutella), and Matt had Zuppa Inglese. Vittorio then drove us back to Rome. Thanks Vittorio!! All in all a truly fantastic experience. Tim’s family treated us like kings and fed us the best food they could find. They welcomed us like their own and we are all truly thankful! Thank you!!!!
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| Lena, Bianca, Tim, Giuseppi, Vittorio outside of the Geletaria |
--Katie
Pasta, pizza and gelato. Heaven!
ReplyDeleteKudos to Tim's family. It brought tears to my eyes to know how well they treated all of you. And, boy, does that pizza look great
ReplyDelete