Rome,Italy Days 2 & 3

Like receiving a chemistry set from Santa one Christmas, our visit to Rome was kind of disappointing. My thought of Rome before our visit was one of a city with incredible beauty, history and food. After visiting Rome, I can say it has some cool history. As for the food and attractiveness.....

Our first day in Rome, as you can tell from the earlier post, went well. Our second day in Rome was OK. By our third day in Rome (and twelfth day in Italy) we were checking on getting an earlier flight to Athens.

What I haven't mentioned in my earlier posts on Italy is the complete lack of any non-Italian food in Italy. THERE IS NO OTHER FOOD IN ITALY BESIDES PIZZERIAS, GELATERIAS, CAFES, AND OSTERIAS. NONE. And Italian food isn't that good. We've eaten at a few nice restaurants, a few mid-priced restaurants, and lots of street vendors and mom-and-pop fast food joints. Lara and I both had a nice pasta dish at two separate nice restaurants. My dish was a spaghetti carbonara (very similar to a great dish my mom makes) and Lara's memorable dish was a pesto pasta dish in Riomagiore. Besides these two meals, not a single Italian meal has been memorable for a good reason. What we've found is that nice Italian restaurants will actually make your food. Mid to lower tier Italian restaurants reheat your food. This applies to pizza, pasta and focacia, the only meals you can find in Italy.

If you would like to try an authentic Italian pizza at home follow my recipe:

1) Call Dominoes Pizza and order a thin crust plain cheese pizza

2) When the pizza is delivered proceed to put it in the refrigerator

3) Let rest for 24 hours

4) Thaw pizza for 3 hours at room temperature

5) Place pizza in toaster oven for 5 minutes at 200'

6) Serve (but charge any guests $3 for a glass of water)

If you would like to make the pizza focacia style follow steps 1-4, fold pizza in half, then place in a George Foreman Grill on medium for 2 minutes.

I digress.

We decided to see the Roman Coliseum and Forum our second day in Rome as well as some other sights. When we arrived at the Coliseum we were approached by a man selling tours of the Coliseum and Roman Forum. Since we weren't too impressed by the audio guide in St. Peter's Basilica we decided to give the guide a try. We paid our $50 and waited for the tour to start. 40 minutes later we actually started. The guide of the Coliseum was a little lady who spoke into a megaphone and showed us pictures in a book. Her 'tour' was basically just reading the Lonely Planet - Italy's description on the Coliseum word-for-word. Very lame. The Colosseum is cool though. By the time our tour group organized again we were about to leave and go off on our own. Just as we were about to leave we got a new tour guide who gave us a bang-up tour of the Forum that lasted 2 hours. Overall, the tour guide was worth it, but it definitely started on a bad note.

After our Roman history lesson we walked to the Italy's tomb of the unknown soldier and huge monument to the Republic. At the monument we watched an Asian lady let her toddler sit and pee right in front of the tomb, awkward, but very entertaining.

We walked around Rome for the rest of the evening, struggling to find a good looking place to eat.

I also got in a height measuring contest with a Roman truck, I won.

We did find a pastry place that makes cannolies. Lara was in search of good cannolies and after 10 days in Italy we finally found a place. The lady at the shop made it right in front of us. We were later told that cannolies are actually Sicilian and Italians don't make them.

In our last day in Rome we took the subway straight to the Vatican so we could hike the dome of St. Peter's Basilica. On a side note, Rome's subway is efficient and timely, but dark, gross and everything is covered in graffiti. The dome was awesome. We hiked all 551 steps to the top where were treated to incredible views of the city. On the way to the top of the dome we walked around the catwalk inside the dome where we got to be up close to the frescoes in the ceiling. From the floor of the Basilica the pictures look like paintings but the dome is actually covered with small-tiled frescoes, amazing.

We walked back to our hostel from the Vatican stopping at a few sights. We stopped at Trevi Fountain and tossed our coins into the fountain (we both forgot to make wishes though). We spent some time at the Spanish Steps. One of the most annoying things in Italy which we haven't mentioned are the rose peddlers. These men, almost all Pakistani, Sri Lankan, or Bangledashi, walk around with roses and try to sell them to people. We were first approached in Venice when we were having a nice dinner (the scenery, not food). The rose seller approached us, asked us if we wanted a rose, and we said no. The rose seller then gave us the rose by putting it on the table, smiling, and walking away. We thought, 'what a nice gesture'. Wrong. The rose seller then stood 20 feet away and stared at me for 5 minutes until I gave him a euro to leave me alone. Since then, we've discovered that these rose sellers have a standard protocol which we watched on the Spanish Steps. They see a couple and offer to sell a rose to the couple. If the couple rejects it they will give the couple a rose and smile. They then follow the couple and make it well known that they want payment. If the couple doesn't pay the rose seller will walk over and grab the rose away. The worst trick they have is when a couple is taking a picture at a nice spot the rose seller will smile and offer to take a picture, using the couple's camera, of the couple. The rose seller will even give them a rose to hold for the picture. When the couple then asks for the camera back, the seller refuses to give it to them until he receives 5 euros for the rose they didn't ask for. It's truly disgusting when they do this, but from a distance it is entertaining watching their schemes.

We eventually got back to our hostel and made it over to the train station to get to the airport for our flight to Athens.

Parting thoughts on Rome. Tradition states that when you are at Trevi Fountain you are supposed to toss two coins over your left shoulder, like we did. One coin will grant a wish and the other coin means you will come back to the city. I wouldn't be disappointed if the tradition doesn't work out.