When in Rome
Kendrick and I are resting at home, tired and happy after our Roman holiday this easter weekend.
To save money, we booked a hotel outside the city, and took public transit into the city on Thursday, our first day. Thank you Rome, for introducing me to the dingiest, dirtiest, most grafitti'd bus I have ever ridden. For only 1 euro!
The weather was sunny and fine on the first day, about 15C, so Kendrick and I decided to do one of the walking tours that are published by Frommers: across the Tiber in the quieter part of Rome. These walking tours are one of my favourite ways of exploring a city - it's a mix of a scavenger hunt and a tour, and it's really good exercise. The difference between this tour and the one I did in Venice with my parents were the cars. Everywhere we went we had keep a lookout for a car coming around the corner, even on the tiny cobblestoned side streets. Dodging cars was undoubtedly the exercise we needed to work off all the rich meals we had.
We ate very little spaghetti at our meals but quite a bit of every other kind of pasta. My particular favourite was the ravioli with sage leaves. Kendrick's fav was the oso buco - veal with bone (and marrow) in a fresh tomato sauce. The price was also right, consistently half the price of good italian food in Copenhagen.
Every night we took a cab back to the hotel. The combination of sore muscles and full bellies made us much too sleepy to attempt to navigate public transit. Our cab driver on Thursday night was a young guy who used GPS to get us back for 15 euros. But our driver on Friday night was an old man who only had to take one look at the address to figure out how to take us home - no need to consult GPS or a map. Nor the speed limit for that matter. His harrowing driving techniques managed to shave off 4 euros from the cab fare. All I can say is that it sure beats walking!
We walked all over the city on Friday in search of the Colosseum. The thing about Rome is that it is chock full of archealogical sights and beautiful/striking landmarks. Although we planned to reach the Colosseum sometime Friday morning, we got so lost and distracted in other parts of the city that we did not line up for tickets until 1pm. It turns out that every year the Pope does a procession from Vatican city to the Colosseum, and because of this they close the Colosseum at exactly 1pm on Good Friday. 'Twas but a minor setback: we had no trouble filling up the rest of the day with other sights (including the Pantheon, the Vatican City, and the outside of the Colosseum).
One of the more time consuming distractions on Friday morning was our impulsive stop at Antica Barbieria: Peppino. Kendrick indulged in a very traditional straight edged razor shave while I chatted with Piero, one of the owners. That is, I chatted in English while he chatted in Italian. He told me that Peppino was "kaput" and asked me to sign his fascinating guest book. Piero was also naturally curious about where we were from, and when I told him we were Canadian, he made a wild guess that we were also Japonese. At this point, one of the younger barbers started chastising Piero in Italian, and then stalked out of the shop. The content of the conversation, according to Kendrick, was that the younger accused the elder of appearing like a "bruto" for asking for my ethnicity after telling him that I was Canadian. The elder protested by saying he simply wanted to know. He then went off and made some expressos for us.
Saturday morning was our last chance to see the Colseum, so we braved the pouring rain and made it there at 8:20am, 10 minutes before the doors were supposed to open. We were in line behind a British family. They had a young daughter, about 4 years old, holding her own umbrella and getting bored very quickly. She was constantly complaining and fussing, but in a very amusing way. "I wish we could go for coffee and cakes" she piped, "I've been waiting sooo long". In contrast, there was a very well behaved German boy in line behind us.
After wandering around the Colosseum all morning, we picked up some food downtown and caught a cab to get back to the hotel and then to the airport. By the time we made it to the airport, our shoes, socks, and pants were completely soaked from traipsing around in the rain. In the lounge, we changed out of as much of our wet clothing as possible. Kendrick had to be satisfied with a change of pants and socks, and I had the lucky option of packing my wet shoes and switching to sandals. My thin capris, however, were not going to cut it for me so I went out into the airport to shop for a new pair of pants. At the first clothing store I hit, the italian salesgirl brought me a pair of jeans that she figured would fit me - but when I tried them on they felt a little tight. She managed to convince me that tight jeans were the way to go (which explains a thing or two about italian fashion) and I partly agreed to it because if I sized up, the length would be prohibitively long.
I'm hanging out now in my tight (but comfortable) jeans, waiting for the laundry to finish. Kendrick and I have two days to relax before heading back to work on Tuesday. Hope everybody is getting a good rest this weekend too!
To save money, we booked a hotel outside the city, and took public transit into the city on Thursday, our first day. Thank you Rome, for introducing me to the dingiest, dirtiest, most grafitti'd bus I have ever ridden. For only 1 euro!
The weather was sunny and fine on the first day, about 15C, so Kendrick and I decided to do one of the walking tours that are published by Frommers: across the Tiber in the quieter part of Rome. These walking tours are one of my favourite ways of exploring a city - it's a mix of a scavenger hunt and a tour, and it's really good exercise. The difference between this tour and the one I did in Venice with my parents were the cars. Everywhere we went we had keep a lookout for a car coming around the corner, even on the tiny cobblestoned side streets. Dodging cars was undoubtedly the exercise we needed to work off all the rich meals we had.
We ate very little spaghetti at our meals but quite a bit of every other kind of pasta. My particular favourite was the ravioli with sage leaves. Kendrick's fav was the oso buco - veal with bone (and marrow) in a fresh tomato sauce. The price was also right, consistently half the price of good italian food in Copenhagen.
Every night we took a cab back to the hotel. The combination of sore muscles and full bellies made us much too sleepy to attempt to navigate public transit. Our cab driver on Thursday night was a young guy who used GPS to get us back for 15 euros. But our driver on Friday night was an old man who only had to take one look at the address to figure out how to take us home - no need to consult GPS or a map. Nor the speed limit for that matter. His harrowing driving techniques managed to shave off 4 euros from the cab fare. All I can say is that it sure beats walking!
We walked all over the city on Friday in search of the Colosseum. The thing about Rome is that it is chock full of archealogical sights and beautiful/striking landmarks. Although we planned to reach the Colosseum sometime Friday morning, we got so lost and distracted in other parts of the city that we did not line up for tickets until 1pm. It turns out that every year the Pope does a procession from Vatican city to the Colosseum, and because of this they close the Colosseum at exactly 1pm on Good Friday. 'Twas but a minor setback: we had no trouble filling up the rest of the day with other sights (including the Pantheon, the Vatican City, and the outside of the Colosseum).
One of the more time consuming distractions on Friday morning was our impulsive stop at Antica Barbieria: Peppino. Kendrick indulged in a very traditional straight edged razor shave while I chatted with Piero, one of the owners. That is, I chatted in English while he chatted in Italian. He told me that Peppino was "kaput" and asked me to sign his fascinating guest book. Piero was also naturally curious about where we were from, and when I told him we were Canadian, he made a wild guess that we were also Japonese. At this point, one of the younger barbers started chastising Piero in Italian, and then stalked out of the shop. The content of the conversation, according to Kendrick, was that the younger accused the elder of appearing like a "bruto" for asking for my ethnicity after telling him that I was Canadian. The elder protested by saying he simply wanted to know. He then went off and made some expressos for us.
Saturday morning was our last chance to see the Colseum, so we braved the pouring rain and made it there at 8:20am, 10 minutes before the doors were supposed to open. We were in line behind a British family. They had a young daughter, about 4 years old, holding her own umbrella and getting bored very quickly. She was constantly complaining and fussing, but in a very amusing way. "I wish we could go for coffee and cakes" she piped, "I've been waiting sooo long". In contrast, there was a very well behaved German boy in line behind us.
After wandering around the Colosseum all morning, we picked up some food downtown and caught a cab to get back to the hotel and then to the airport. By the time we made it to the airport, our shoes, socks, and pants were completely soaked from traipsing around in the rain. In the lounge, we changed out of as much of our wet clothing as possible. Kendrick had to be satisfied with a change of pants and socks, and I had the lucky option of packing my wet shoes and switching to sandals. My thin capris, however, were not going to cut it for me so I went out into the airport to shop for a new pair of pants. At the first clothing store I hit, the italian salesgirl brought me a pair of jeans that she figured would fit me - but when I tried them on they felt a little tight. She managed to convince me that tight jeans were the way to go (which explains a thing or two about italian fashion) and I partly agreed to it because if I sized up, the length would be prohibitively long.
I'm hanging out now in my tight (but comfortable) jeans, waiting for the laundry to finish. Kendrick and I have two days to relax before heading back to work on Tuesday. Hope everybody is getting a good rest this weekend too!
posted by Gina at 8:42 PM
1 Comments:
sounds fun. {turns green}
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