all roads lead to rome. our road took about 3 hours from cortona. we arrived to the bustle of the big roman city around lunchtime so naturally we were hungry. we unloaded our bags at the hotel, the st. regis, and hit the roman streets. if we thought tuscany was hot, rome was even hotter. it’s also super crowded so there was no way of avoiding it, i overheated. maybe next time we won’t go during the hottest month. when we were in rome in 2011 we visited all the main sites – colosseum, roman forum, the vatican, st. peter’s basilica and the pantheon. so this time we did it all over again, other than the colosseum. we also visited san pietro in vincoli (st peter in chains). this church is best known for being the home of michalangelo’s statue of moses, part of the tomb of pope julius II, as well as hosts the chains that was used on st. peter.
for dinner we went back to one of our favorite restaurants from 2011, hostaria da pietro near the spanish steps. it was just as delicious as we remembered it. for an appetizer melon and prosciutto. primi, spaghetti alla carbonara and secondi grilled prawns, wow! i wish i could go back right now.
day two in rome our plan was to visit the vatican and st peter’s basilica, drink prosecco at piazza navona, do a quick visit of the pantheon and finish it with some shopping. when you get near the vatican there are many solicitors selling a tour of the vatican in which you don’t have to wait in any lines and all entrance fees are included in the price. we did this when we were in rome before so we should’ve known better not to do it again, but against our best judgement we agreed to a tour for 40 euros each. this is why it was a mistake: we had to wait 45 minuets to even begin the tour. last minute they told us this tour will be in french and english, so the tour guide would say everything in english then translate it to french, doubling the time of the supposedly 3 hour tour. by the time we reached the vatican museum and with the waiting time we were already at 3 hours. we skipped the line with the group and then went on our own. even if the line to enter the museum was long, I’m sure we would’ve been in faster going on our own than going with the tour. it didn’t help that it was 100 degrees out with 90% humidity, we just didn’t have the patience. also, the only ticket you need to pay for is the vatican museum. the sistine chapel, which is inside the vatican museum, and st. peter’s basilica are free to enter. we made our rounds and completed our itinerary for the day, with drinks at piazza navona and people watching being the highlight.
we were recommended to try to collide emiliane for dinner. while the atmosphere in the restaurant is very modern and you don’t feel like you are in italy at all, the food was good. i probably wouldn’t recommend going there with all the other restaurants in rome to try mainly because of it’s atmosphere.
ready to escape the heat, our next stop..positano on the amalfi coast.
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