Had to leave Bournemouth around 2.30am to get ready and make the journey to Gatwick for our 6.50am flight. As usual we parked with APH which consistently seems to give the best prices and have never had a problem with them.
We had to circle for about 20 minutes around Ciampino airport for a while before we were able to land. At least we got to see the coastline and lakes around Rome for a while. Getting the baggage was pretty quick as well, then again it is a fairly small airport in comparison. We must have only been in the bus taking us from the plane to the airport build at most 2 minutes.
On the first day, after checking into the hotel, we took the bus to catch the metro and Laurentina, to go to the Colloseum. Going up the exit stairs and out of the station we were greeted by the familiar (from TV and pictures) and quite awesome sight of the Colloseum. It is always quite striking to see with your own eyes something that you can relate back 2000 years or so back into history.
This was the start of a long walk that took us around the Collosuem (well only half of it), Constantine's Arch and through the Roman Forum. From the Forum we went up to Piazza Campidoglio, took the steps down the other side and around to the front of Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II.
We were making our way round to the Spanish Steps but took a detour to an Irish Bar, this one was called Trinity College, for a Guiness. This was to be a recurring theme through our hols. It was 5 Euros for a pint of Guiness! Before we got the bus near the hotel, we stopped off at the small cafe and had two large bottles of Peroni beer and a capucinno for 5 Euros.
I was quite taken aback by the architecture and inherent history as every corner took you back hundreds and thousands of years. But, outside the historic centre it is very much suburban sprawl and high rise offices and tower blocks.
On day 2, we stayed local to the hotel. There was a small communication problem at the cafe. A lot of pointing at food and other gestures. We got some pasta, but there was something that looked like peas in a tomato sauce plus something that was white. Someone started to do chicken impersonations, which seemed to strike a chord but I was not sure that we found success. Anyway this dish called "warra" or something like that turned out to be peas with eggs. I think they must have been either duck eggs or salted eggs. Anyway, I really liked it, and made something similar to it when I got home, but I used salted egg yolks which were in the freezer. I might try it with hard poached eggs next time.
After this we made our way up the road, along via castel di leva, and went into another cafe. We ordered a few beers and sat down at a table. It took a while for the beers to come, which was surprising as there wasn't many people in. When we got our beers, platters of food started to come out. We thought we must have stumble in at the wrong time and automatically ordered lunch. Anyway this was just part of what to expect when you order beers, in the same way that you might get tapas in Spain. What we got was lovely. There were small pizza squares, omlettes, crisps, sliced meat and even cream cakes to go with Angela's cup of tea. It was fantastic.
I'm sure they were free or near enough, as it cost us 30 Euros after about 8 beers, 1 tea and 2 coffees. It was nice to chill out this afternoon.
By the end I was absolutely full up on food and drink so had to have a snooze back at the hotel. Peter and Janet made their way to a small cafe type place they found the other night called Pizzeria Mash. Handily the place serves beer and hence Peter being there. Me and Angela did head back later in the evening. The staff were very nice and friendly and put up with us for the rest of the week. We had more food in the shape of potato croquettes, risotto croquettes with tomato sauce and mozarella in the middle.
On day 3 (Saturday), we finally made it to the Spanish Steps although the bullding works going sort of detracted from the views and atmosphere. We didn't bother going up the stairs as it was pretty crowded.
The next landmark was the Trevi Fountain. I know it is supposed to be the thing to do, to throw a coin into the fountain. However, Angela thought it would be easier to just lob it in from the street area and not walk down to the edge. Anyway, we did do it properly in the end. Some guy was going around picking up Euros, so just throw in crap coins instead.
Later on we went training, which was the purpose of the trip after all. We had some food at the restaurant by the sports hall. It takes some getting used to all, having starters and then two main courses before dessert. We were stuff after the lasagna, but then we had steak and chips after that. I had my first taste of grappa. It wasn't good, although Fernando say that the grappa we had was not good anyway.
We ended up back at Fernando's flat. Till 4am! More wine, this time we tried two young and lightly sparking wines and dry and a sweet one, but with Fernando's selection of cheeses which we dipped in honey.
Day 4. It was tough to get up for training. I think it was tougher for Fernando though as he had a couple more whilst doing the washing up. I couldn't wait till training finished as I must have been sweating alcohol from everywhere.
We headed back to the Fernando's flat which has a family restaurant just next door called "Il Cantuccio". It does fantastic grilled steaks in their own oven at the corner of the restaurant. We had starters, beers, steak and chips and digestive drinks for 30 Euros per head. We had a fantastic afternoon of food, drink and chat.
Talking about those digestive drinks, it is common practice that after your meal the restaurant just places bottles (straight from the freezer) of digestive type drinks such as grappa, limonchello and amaro. I didn't like the first two but took to the dark medicine tasting amaro. We must have gone through about half of the grappa and limoncello! There goes the profit then. The boys were mixing "grappa-chello".
Funnily Angela locked herself in the toilet. Fernando's Meg did hearing some knocking but we all just dimissed it. I did wonder where she was for so long but we were too busy talking and drinking.
Day 5 (Monday) We took a trip out from Rome and stopped off at Castel Gandolfo, which looks like a lake at the top of an extinct volcano. The pope's summer residence is right there as well. We then visited the town of Frascati, know here for its wine, but in the shops we saw gingerbread women with three breasts. This seems to be a local fertility tradition. Reminded me of Sacramanga from James Bond with the three nipples! We saw those in a coffee shop which had several circus type mirrors there making you look deformed and so on.
At night we went to a Chinese restaurant called Cheng Du. I was bemused by the menu and its prices. The starters were one or two euros and the main courses were 3 or 4 euros. This is a hell of a lot cheaper than in the UK. I thought the pricing for the starters meant for each spring roll or for each dumpling and so on. The decor in the restaurant must have cost a bit as well, so it was suprising to find the cost of the food.
Wow, there has been a lot of food eaten so far on this trip. Carbo-overload!
Day 6. No trip to Rome is complete unless you visit St Peter's Square and the Vatican. We got to Termini via the metro and then took the 064 bus to St. Peter's. Our Italian friends were saying beware of the pickpockets on that route, so.... beware! We had no trouble on that front all week, so maybe we were lucky.
We had a quick venture down into the crypt and inside the body of the church. We didn't bother with going up into the dome this time. We had lunch at a restaurant called Il Papalinos. This was how I like my carbonara. Not like the thick white creamy sauces you get in the UK, but the type with a bit of oil and egg yolk all mixed up. I also had the most soft and tenderest octopus I have ever had. Lovely.
After being fuelled up at the restaurant, it was a short walk to Castelo de St. Angelo, across the bridge, meander through the streets and into another Guiness bar, the Abbey pub.
The Via del Governo Vecchio seemed like a nice place with shops and eateries. We then walked through Ciampo di Fiori and found another Irish bar, called Mad Jacks. Luckily it was happy hour, otherwise it would have been 6 Euros for a pint.
We walked to Circo Massimo to catch the metro. Circo Massimo didn't look like much, just a big dip in the ground really. The sides of the Palantine looked more impressive but the light was fadind and night was settling in so we didn't get to appreciate it fully.
And so ended our last day in Rome.
Very enjoyable and very beautiful. We had loads of fun and would go back again. Thanks to Fernando and Meg for their hospitality and showing us around, and thanks to Pizzeria Mash for providing a hideout in the evenings, especially for Peter and Janet.
