Friends and Food

July 2nd, 2015

After our late night out, we ended up sleeping until 1pm today…whoops. Once we finally dragged ourselves out of bed we headed toward the Spanish Steps in 100-degree heat. They were beautiful but with no shade we decided to grab pasta from a nearby shop before venturing up them. We tried a place that was suggested to us, and they only make two types each day, so we went with one of each. That meant Chuck actually ate pasta with mushrooms!

We wandered this area a bit more until we found the Trevie Fountain. Typical for our travels it was under construction (just like almost every major site when we are on a trip) but it was still mind-blowing to see just how huge this fountain is. And it was pretty entertaining to watch people throw their coins into the tentative foundation set up, which was really just a small bin of water with a blown up picture of the fountain behind it.

We made our way toward Trajan’s Column and popped into another church nearby (the number of churches throughout Rome is insane). We walked through the ruins of the Imperial Forum and Anna was stunned at how all throughout Rome you can be walking down any street and there are ruins all around you. We walked towards Trajan’s market and passed an open door with an Italian opera practice taking place. The sound of the opera with cars and scooters rushing by was quite unique to Italy.

We decided it was time to make the walk up the Spanish Steps and made it up with more than a couple breaks. The view from the top was well worth the walk up. We wandered around a bit more to get to Piazza Popolo, where of course the fountain here was also under construction. Anna was impressed by how when buildings are under construction here they cover the scaffolding with an image of the site.

We headed to the Loyola Rome Center so Chuck could reminisce to his college days and took a tour of the campus. It may have been when he saw his old dorm was turned into an office that he realized how old he is. We met up with Sander for dinner at one of his favorite restaurants. Le Villetta was quite the experience. We tried all kinds of fresh meats, the most delicious mozzarella (buffalo and smoked), and focaccia with figs. We both had the best pasta dishes. Chuck was happy to finally find a true carbonara. Although we were stuffed, we had to try their tiramisu that was made with nutella. It doesn’t get any better than that. We finished with Limoncello, a first for Anna.

Another great day in Rome.