When-a In-a Roooma

Part 1 of The Best Fall Break Ever: Rome.

Let me just preface this with the fact that I am a superb trip planner. Also I was "vacation mom" and brought a folder with a plethora of information about each city (complete with hostels, transportation, activities, and weather forecasts), plane tickets, train tickets, Vatican tickets, et cetera, et cetera. I am the master.

We left for Rome Wednesday morning. I was the first of the three of us to book my flight, so I booked it for the reasonable hour of 9:45 am. However, by the time my slow poke traveling partners got around to booking flights, my flight had filled up, and they had to leave Madrid at 7:00 am and sleep (slash not really sleep, more like shiver to death on the baggage ramp, as I was told) in the airport the night before. I slept in a real bed and the next day when I got to Ivanhoe Hostel (not to be confused with the 4-star Hotel Ivanhoe right across the street) I woke up Sofia and Caitlin from nearly comatose states of slumber and we hit the streets of Roma!

Our first meal in Italy was paninis off the streets. Obviously not LITERALLY off the streets...we did not wander the streets of Rome to find remnants of sandwiches. We found the cafe with the cutest waiters within a 5-block radius and ordered paninis--to go, para llevar, take away, whatever. We couldn't decide which language to speak. None of us speak Italian, so Sofia spoke Portuguese, Caitlin and I spoke a mix of Spanish and sign language, and we all wound up speaking English at the end, adding an over-confident "grazie!" as we left.

Lunch Menu:

• Caitlin and Elizabeth - Mozzarella and pomodoro foldover pizza thingy
• Sofia - Salami and cheese panini

We spent the rest of the afternoon in Vatican City, exploring the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel, the Basilica, and St. Peter's Square. We were anticipating a Pope sighting but unfortunately there was no such luck. Every hour or so we would try to think of what the Pope was doing at that exact moment. 3:45 pm, probably taking a nap. I mean, he is pretty old. 4:30 pm, maybe taking a stroll. 5:00 pm, praying? I don't know. What does the Pope do on a day to day basis? He certainly does not meander around the square like we were hoping he would...not even in the safety of the Pope mobile! Lame.



After a full day of religious sight-seeing and lack of sleep (for some), we were thoroughly exhausted. The only thing that could lure us away from our beds after our power nap was the thought of a delicious dinner ahead. We made the trek to the Pantheon Piazza and found......Pantha Rei. This restaurant was a real gem, just what we needed. We became best friends with the owner and had a simply marvelous time.

Dinner Menu:

• Caitlin - Penne with pesto and ham, no second course (lame)
• Sofia - Lasagna first, then grilled chicken with rocket, tomatoes and parmesan
• Elizabeth - Penne carbonara first, then same the grilled chicken
  
• When we asked the waitress which wine she recommended, she looked at us as if we each had 2 heads and 17 eyes and said "RED...because white is COLD." So red it was. I think she might have kicked us out if we had asked for white.
• Nutella pizza for dessert, FREE from the owner of Pantha Rei
  
• Necessary second dessert of gelato from Giolitti, famous gelateria in Rome

Pantha Rei gets an extra gold star too. Some quick mental math told us that our bill would end up being around 16-17 euros each. But after chatting with the owner for a while about studying abroad and our trip to Italy, he told us to pay 10 euros each, recommend his place to other students, and we'd call it a deal. I'll take that deal! So we paid our measly 10 euros, ate our second dessert, went back to the hostel and went straight to bed. Needless to say we slept very well that night.

Thursday morning we woke up bright and early at 9 am to go rent mopeds. We had grand plans of renting Vespas to scoot around and see Rome the way Romans do. However, when we got to Treno e Scooter, the nice man at the counter asked us if we had any experience driving scooters. We told him that it had been a while, but yes, we had driven them before. I think he knew we were lying because he went on and on about how it's really obvious when people are new Vespa drivers, it can't be learned in one day, we probably would die, blah blah blah. So we held a mini pow wow, weighed the outcomes, and opted for regular old bikes instead. Kind of lame, but still better than walking! It was actually mostly thrilling, since we had to ride in the streets instead of the sidewalks. So we were weaving in and out of cars just like the Vespas (only a little more slowly and awkwardly since we didn't have masked helmets to hide our faces from drivers and passersby) and we were hanging with the big boys (aka MOTORCYCLES) in the streets. Until the pedal of Caitlin's bike FELL OFF as we were riding by the Colosseum. We went back, traded it in for a new one, and were off. Also we dominated the side streets where bikes could go, but not cars. Bikes rule.

Bicycle mishap...dislodged pedal.

We toured all of Ancient Rome and its rubble (I mean...ruins). We saw the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, Palatine Hill, Circus Maximus and all that jazz.

The Bacon Wallet really enjoyed the Colosseum.

In the guide book that we borrowed/stole from the hostel we read about the Jewish Ghetto and their famous fried artichokes. Determined to try all the typical food of Italy (an impossible feat, by the way), we biked over there for lunch in search of a restaurant to get some 'chokes and it was kind of a failure. Only kind of. The waiter forgot that I ordered an artichoke so I didn't get it until the very end of the meal. Artichokes for dessert? Not my fave. It was still good though.

Lunch menu:

• Caitlin - Kosher pasta carbonara
• Sofia and Elizabeth - Kosher lasagna (meaning NO CHEESE. WHAT KIND OF LASAGNA HAS NO CHEESE???). Actually I didn't think it was that bad, but Sofia was fuming, so I'm expressing that rage on her behalf.
• Fried artichoke. Kind of weird, but not bad
• Free water
• Free bread

Our bike adventure continued on to the Pantheon, the Trevi fountain (where we got our lunch dessert of nutella crepes for Sofia and Caitlin and pistachio gelato for Elizabeth), and the Spanish steps (where we creeped into many a family photo with The Bacon Wallet).

After freshening up back at the hostel, we headed out for the night. On our way to find another dinner place as magical as Pantha Rei, stopped in at Miscellanea. Miscellanea is a restaurant/bar featured in Rick Steves' guide to Italy, so ergo they love Notre Dame students (Rick Steves' son is a recent Notre Dame grad). We went in to drop the ND hints to maybe score some free drinks from Mikki, the owner. However, upon arrival, we discovered that Mikki was not working that night. On duty manning the bar was Mikki's very-easy-on-the-eyes son, Romeo (no joke, his name actually was Romeo). Romeo lived up to his name and charmed us with his broken English and dashing good looks, followed by Miscellanea's famous "Sexy Wine."

Sofia: "Why is it called Sexy Wine?"
Romeo: "Sexy Wine because...when you drink it...it cause...problems." (wink, wink)

Cheers to getting free stuff from cute boys!

One bottle of Sexy Wine (plus an extra free glass from Romeo) and two bruschettas later, we left Miscellanea to go find real dinner. We went to Bafetto 2, a pizzeria near Piazza Navona and had the most amazing pizza everrrrrrrrr.

Dinner Menu:

• Caitlin - margherita pizza
• Sofia and Elizabeth - split a salami pizza and a four-cheese pizza
• Red wine recommended by the waiter (guess they don't like white wine much in Italy)
• Free beers from the waiter after dinner

Before we left Miscellanea, Romeo and fellow bartender Sandri (not a girl) made us promise to come back at 12 to go dancing with them. We couldn't disappoint, so we headed back and arrived at 12:15. After being scolded for our lack of promptness, we were served (FREE!) drinks and headed out for a night of Roman raging. With Romeo and Sandri. It was all fun and games until we realized we had an early train to catch. We cut the night short around 2 and headed back to the hostel to rest up for the next day...Florence!


Stay tuned for Part 2 of The Best Fall Break Ever: Florence.