Rome, Italy - Rome Day and Night Walk

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Good morning, Rome!! To start the day off, Kalen went to the local store to buy something for breakfast. He returned with a wonderful panetonne, “Bauli, Il Pandoro di Verona”. Following the instructions (pictures on the side of the box…glad that they considered the illiterate when designing the packaging), we put it by the radiator to warm, then put the powdered sugar in the bag and dusted it. It is a sweet bread, soft and light, no fruit inside, and is yummy with the butter and hot espresso.

 


The tour plans for the day: Stroll across the city to the Borghese Gallery and see several noted landmarks along the way…in the daylight. Then return when it is dark to see the sites when they are lit at night. We all agreed to make it a nice and easy pace, to enjoy any shops and views along the way.

Off we went! My legs felt stronger…gradual improvement every day. We decided to meet at Piazza Navona by the fountain, so Sara and Karl took off at a strong pace, shopped, while Kalen and I walked a little slower pace. In Piazza Navona, we sat by the fountain and played with the camera settings to refresh our thoughts on how we needed to work the settings to get the fountain water to flow, or freeze.

We set off on a carefully determined route towards the Pantheon. A little comment on these Roman “Streets”. To me, it looks like there are a couple of main roads, and then “alleyways” in between. Yes, there are cars and those little scooters all jammed in to parking places, but these roads are basically cobblestoned and winding passages. They look like alleys to me. Cute little shops a long the way. I stopped in a bookstore to get an “Inglese” (English) dictionary. I have a collection of English dictionaries in various languages. Basically the same as an English “Italian” dictionary, but it looks more fun on the shelf.

We stopped at the Trevi Fountain...wow

Trevi Fountain

We had lunch at a little restaurant on a side street near the Trevi Fountain.  Golden Bar is in the Piazza Dei Crociferi. We sat outside under the tented area and enjoyed Antipasto Italiana 12€ (little plate of meats and cheeses), Pizza Funghi 10€, Pizza Proscuito with Funghi 11€, Pasta e Fagioli 9€ (pasta and bean soup), Risotto Asparagi 11€ (risotto with asparagus)...and wine 14€!  Service was added to the bill for 7€ (you need to be careful about this. Sometimes it is included, sometimes not, sometimes an extra line item.)

Pasta e Fagioli

After lunch, we continued our trek across the city.  Our next stop was the Spanish Steps.  I decided to try some roasted chestnuts that smelled good. I like the smell, but when I tried them decades ago in New York...didn't like them.  When in Rome...

Spanish Steps

Chestnuts roasted on an open fire

After allowing a half hour to get badgered by street vendors trying to trick us into buying roses and misc. junk, we headed through the metro and to the Bourghese Museum.  The metro route was the quickest, and with escalators and moving sidewalks....and NO COBBLESTONES.  Oh, sorry, did I yell?  I was thrilled with it until I realized that I had to climb two flights of stairs.  Kalen had found an elevator (but it was Non Functionado or something), so I had to climb the stairs.  As I neared the last three stops, Kalen started singing the tune to Rocky...and I doubled over in laughter and struggled to make those last three steps.

We walked through the park area to the museum and it was so nice.  The exhibits were incredible, one right after another.  I had to play nice and put all of my cameras in storage before entering the museum.  I have left a link here so that you can look at the website if you want to see all that was on display.  Sara had introduced us to Michelangelo Merisi called Caravaggio so we were drooling over all of his works. Of course, Gian Lorenzo Bernini  sculpture was incredible.
Click here to see all about the museum.

We retraced our route and saw "Rome at Night". It was beautiful.  The fountains and monuments were lit and took on a whole new character.  We returned to our first Italian restaurant and enjoyed a great meal with TWO bottles of wine.  It had been a long and active day.  And for dessert...


Chocolate Souffle with strawberries

We made our way home and went quickly to bed. It was an exhausting and fun day. We saw a lot of the "named" places, and had an opportunity to enjoy the streets and shops of Rome.  Oh, I almost forgot.  I had gelatto on the return trip.  I tried tiramisu and it was so wonderful, soft and creamy.