Italy: Rome, Friday 3/22/24

Beautiful as our apartment is, with its artwork and ceiling murals, the bathroom situation puts this Rome AirBnB into the "unsatisfactory" category. There are two bathrooms but only one shower, and that shower is a tiny, tiny, shallow little tray with a shower curtain around it. My elbow kept hitting the handle, turning off the water; the tray overflowed for Mom and Dad. Alas.

Our day began with caffe lattes, cappucino (Greta), and pastries at the Cafe Miami. We had a great day exploring the Roman Forum and Colesseum. We'd gotten advance tickets--a necessity--but there were still a variety of lines to go through to actually get in. Ruins generally aren't my thing, but we all actually loved visiting these sites. A couple of weeks ago I'd found at a library sale a book that shows then-and-now pictures of the Forum and the Colesseum, with transparent overlays that bring pictures of the ruins to life by transforming them into what they must have looked like in their time. Even the kids were into it. We walked all around the Forum--it was a gorgeously sunny day--and then made our way to the Colesseum for our timed entry. It was an absolute crush of people, but it was an excellent visit. I'd gone with Mom and Dad in 2006, and lots had changed--there were a lot more exhibits in the interior area showing more detail about the structure and what took place there. 

As we looked at some of the exhibits, Andrew periodically read from our guidebook, and at one point Lucia told me--in total earnestness--that she'd learned more in the brief time we'd been at the ruins than in an entire year of school. We decided, the girls and I, that they would be withdrawn from school and that we would start World School instead, traveling the world and learning. They loved the idea. And though I'm pretty sure their idea of World School is just endless months and years of souvenir shopping, I will continue to dream about endless travel and immersive educational experiences. But I digress.

We meandered around the Colesseum, and then headed to the exit when we our hunger became insistent. We wandered a little ways away from the Colesseum into the Monti neighborhood and found the cutest place for lunch--Gli Angeletti. It was full of angel figurines. We got an outside table and had:

Starter: a variety of fried things including zucchini flowers

Drink: a carafe of house white which had a delightful effervescence

Me: linguini with zucchini and zucchini flowers

Andrew: lasagna

Lucia: stuffed gnocchi

Greta: cacio e pepe

Mom: salad with chicken

Dad: salad with chicken

We took an Uber back to our apartment to drop off some things, then headed back out to try Two Sizes, a tiny storefront selling only tiny cups of takeaway tiramisu. We'd seen lines at this place since arriving, so we joined the queue--it was around the corner but went quickly. We all got the classic flavor, then stood in the street to eat it. One of my favorite Italian dessert experiences.

We checked a few more sights off our list in the afternoon: we threw coins in the Trevi Fountain, got scolded by a police for sitting down on the Spanish Steps, did a variety of browsing in shops (the kids each bought a small rabbit keychain they'd been eyeing), and then walked to the Piazza del Popolo, where we sat on the steps of the fountain in the middle and took a people-watching break. A violinist drew a crowd, and we enjoyed listening to him. Then we went into one of the two churches to look around. Every church in Rome is overwhelmingly ornate and beautiful. We sat at Rosati for a quick coffee, then headed home for a break before dinner. On the way, we stopped at an H&M so I could buy a trench coat--it seemed like every woman in Rome was wearing one with cute wide-legged jeans/pants and sneakers, and I wanted one too.

We didn't have dinner reservations anywhere and decided to just choose one of the bustling places near our apartment. A mistake. We had our worst dinner tonight at Fattoincasa--mediocre food and absolutely ridiculously awful service. Andrew and I were livid and took the only action available to us: we left one-star reviews on Google and Tripadvisor. What a waste of a meal. I'm still disappointed about it. Lesson learned.