Posts Tagged With: gelato

Day 22: The Colosseum, The Vatican and Naples

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Mel

More Rome exploring today. After a late night because a school group checked in to Hotel Stella (I will admit, I took great pleasure in slamming our hotel room door at least 17 times at 7am this morning…) we were off to the Colosseum! We explored both the Colosseum and the Roman Forum in the morning, beating the majority of the crowds.

roman forum

ripped my 3/4 leggings so having to pair loose pants with joggers….ever the fashion icon! Haha

Then we caught the metro (with a line change, gah) to the Vatican Museum. That took about 40 mins for anyone planning this as a future option. B had pre bought his ticket and I had opted to skip it altogether since I have been before and walk down the street to Castel Sant’Angelo. B thought “the Vatican Museum was kinda cool with all its art and stuff but the Sistine Chapel was significantly underwhelming”. He didn’t go to the St Peter’s Basilica as the line was ginormous.

cool statue

pretty ceiling (not the sistine chapel, he ignored my request for a sneaky pic!)

My experience at the castle was a bit of a fail, beautiful to look at but apparently closed on Mondays…although their website doesn’t say that! On the plus side, I had time to go to the post office and send postcards to the Donaldson clan and B’s mum.

panorama of the castle

bridge near the castle (i walked over this last time i was here! there is a photo of Percy hanging out with the castle in yhe background waaaaay back on my blog)

Instead of castle exploring, I sat in the shade and read a travel swap book while eating gelato. Two of my favourite things combined 🙂

We met up again and spent an hour people watching near the Spanish Steps, the guys trying to rip people off with “free” flowers are absolutely fascinating. At 5pm it was off to Naples! The train ride this time had been pre booked months ago and we must have scored a higher class as there was free chips and wine. I was a happy camper.

Our hotel here (Hotel Toledo) is three stops on the metro out of the central area and seems to have a lot of local character. Dinner was delicious at Pizza e Baba.

entree: mozarella and prosciutto (my go to entree now) with local wine, napoli pizza and risotto

Laying in bed now with the window wide open I can hear restaurant owners shouting, children playing and lots of scooters honking as they zoom up and down the cobblestones. Lovely.

Steps today: 28000! Crazy

Tomorrow: POMPEII!!!

Mel

P.S. Apparently self service laundromats are not a thing in Naples. Seriously. Google supports this, lots of other equally confused bloggers out there too. Just hand washed all my travel knickers in the sink (they are made for that but I have been lazy and had a backlog) and we are sniff testing our shirts….

6 more sleeps to my birthday!

Categories: Europe 2015 | Tags: Europe, food, gelato, Italy, naples, Percy, Rome | Leave a comment

Day 19: Rome!

Posted on October 31, 2015 by Mel

Off to Rome today! We caught the bullet train (300km an hour) direct to Roma Termini which took about an hour and a half. Our hotel is very close to the train station. New pet hate: street sellers who put things into your lap and then tell you to pay for it…or push it into your hands while touching you. Mel’s solution: it alternates between dropping the item on the floor, shoving back, or shouting NO BUGGER OFF loudly and in a very off putting way. Success varies for all methods.
We have done a bit of a sneaky and are room sharing with someone tomorrow night. We will be in Venice but still have the room for the luggage and to save checking out and back in the next day…so to save her spending her last night in a crappy hostel, we are loaning her the room key on the sly. Sneeeeaky. Very Australian! Haha.

We started our first afternoon in Rome with a walking tour courtesy of our intrepid leader, it was a very long tour! We started at the Spanish Steps which unfortunately were closed for works, but from the side you can hardly tell (lol) and the best part of this photo was no tourists on them!

We then visited a bakery that makes the best Tiramasu in Italy (apparently) and B gave it a big thumbs up.

That was the point where Andrea (our leader) told us he would take us to the three best gelato places in Rome so we could compare. Pretty sure it was meant to be a joke but I took him literally….

gelato place 1: il gelato disan crispo.

gelato place 2: Grom

gelato number 3: Fatamorgana

The verdict? I thought number one was best but number three was a close contender.

Aside from gelato, we also explored some well known sites in Rome including the Trevi fountain, Piazza Novona, a number of cathedrals, the Pantheon, the Parliament, the colloseum and others. We saw a political protest which was pretty cool. It was a beautiful warm afternoon wandering in the sun and a nice cool evening.

parliament

Piaza Novona

this is a pretty picture taken at last light near the palace

trevi fountain (under renovation so only the top part)

After our walk, we had a short rest and then it was off to our final dinner with our intrepid group. We did the whole envelope/card tip collection thing on the sly and Andrea (Andy!) was happy. The food at Hostaria da Vincenzo was delicious and very well priced, I highly recommend it.

prosciutto and mozzarella

veal for both mains omnomnom

lemon meringue pie and a dessert that started with M and had two double L’s in it!

limoncello to finish

We finished this feast with a leisurely walk back to the hotel and lots of goodbyes. There were hugs. I’m a terrible hugger dammit.

Steps today: 22571

Kilometres: 15.6kms

Tomorrow: VENICE! Looking forward to a romantic gondala ride with my special someone 🙂

Categories: Europe 2015 | Tags: barcelona to rome, Europe, food, gelato, intrepid travel, Italy, Rome | Leave a comment

Mercato Centrale: a must do eating experience in Florence

Posted on October 29, 2015 by Mel

A must do! Amazing fresh food, so many choices. Kinda like a fancy food court….with alcohol! Location and opening details below.

B and I split our meal, so entree was delicious tortellini cooked fresh right in front of you (12€)

Then there was the wood fired pizza (10€):

Followed by banana and chocolate chip gelato (3€ each)!

Others in our group tried a huge variety of food including:

Ginger and orange juice, cucumber and kiwi fruit juice and kiwi fruit and apple juice

Fresh cooked scallops with salad

Raw meat pate with salad (ewwww not for me)

Two types of fresh cooked soup

Cannelloni

Other gelato flavours and a mixed desserts plate

Not to mention the wine! 🙂

Categories: Europe 2015 | Tags: barcelona to rome, Europe, Florence, food, gelato, intrepid travel, Italy | Leave a comment

Day 17: exploring Florence

Posted on October 29, 2015 by Mel

Definitely a big fan of Hotel Ester in Florence, the free breakfast at a local cafe was great value. I topped it off with some banana gelato!

selfies with banana gelato

Our day started with drizzly rain as we explored the cathedral and the square again in daylight. We then headed off with our reserved tickets to see Michelangelo’s David at the Galleria Academia. The line for reservations was about 30 people, compared to the general entry line which was about 300! Well done us on paying the extra 4€ and having a reserved time. The statue was amazing, really astounding to see that sort of craftsmanship up close.

what nice eyes you have…

token tourist mel

After seeing David we walked up the road to the Leonardo Da Vinci Museum and B got his geek on admiring all the cool, life sized replicas of Da Vinci’s inventions. He also added to his ever growing collection of laser cut blocks (I collect postcards from every location, just in case anyone was wondering).

my beloved doing his thing

Then it was lunch time. The place we chose was shit and touristy, but the afternoon wine tasting more than made up for it (more on that later). I went off to do some shopping and B climbed the bell tower and the Duoma (dome), which I had done on my last visit to Florence. He got some amazing photos:

view of the duomo and city from the belltower

Then it was wine tasting time! We went to the wine bar Entoca Alessi on the recommendation of our tour leader with another member of our group and holy crap it was amazing. Five wines, all indigenous to different areas of Italy plus this amazing food platter.

omnomonom

sniff them they said…it makes you an expert they said…smells like wine to me!

Tonight will be dinner at the local market place and then off to Siena for a day trip tomorrow.

Mel

Categories: Europe 2015 | Tags: art, barcelona to rome, david, Europe, Florence, food, gelato, intrepid travel, Italy, wine | Leave a comment

Day 12 – Rome!

Posted on October 6, 2012 by Mel

I ate so much food today! Mmmm.

It was a “no bus” day for the tour so we had to find our own way around Rome. We are staying about 30mins out of the city so it is a bit of a hike…we left the hotel at 8:30am and our guide hannah walked us to a bus stop where all of us (about 45) got on the bus…then a train…then swapped to another train! Miraculously we all made it in one piece. We started with the Vatican City tour which was the most expensive tour we have done to date (€33). I am assuming that includes the entry price though so when you consider that it probably isn’t too pricey. The Vatican is crazy – so many people just shuffling along looking at stuff and some of the tourists are unbelievably rude and just shove you out of the way. One of the boys on our tour took pity on me being trampled by a nasty Japanese man and elbowed him out of my way 🙂 I still owe him a beer for that! Other than the shuffling it was amazing. The sistine chapel just blew my mind and saint peters basilica was so big, so beautiful and so detailed.

The Vatican tour took about 2.5hrs and after it out main priorities were to pee, to sit down and to eat. We made it about 50m from the Vatican and collapsed at a roadside pizzeria where we ate pizza AND pasta for lunch – then gelato for dessert. Such fatties. After a rest we felt better and abandoned our hastily (lazily) formulated plans for public transport and instead opted to walk from one end of Rome city to the other so we could see the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum and the Roman Forum in daylight. With our trusty map reader Amelia leading the way we were off! Our first stop was the Pantheon and as it was day time we got to see inside, it is an active church and although I am not a religious person, I was impressed. The detail is amazing and there was a choir singing hymns which worked so well with the acoustics of the building. Next up we wandered to the Trevi Fountain which had looked amazing last night but in the day time it was even better…I threw in two coins which means 1) I will return to Rome one day and 2) it will be with a lover! Go me. By this point we were tired, grumpy, full of water and sweaty so after a 35min wait to pee (I swear, there is one public bathroom in all of Rome and it is in McDonalds) we slowly plodded onwards. Amelia navigated the back streets and when we suddenly popped out in view of the Colosseum there was much rejoicing! We opted to line up which was quicker than I thought (only 22mins) and wander through without a tour.

I think we spent well over an hour at the Colosseum. The views, the photo opportunities and the feeling of walking through something almost 2000 years old was just amazing. We sat down for awhile and just relaxed while soaking in the views. So far the Colosseum has been my favourite thing to have experienced in all of Europe.

We took photos at the roman forum and walked up a side street were we ate dinner at a street cafe nearby, we had beautiful views of the Colosseum. After a really long day we all rewarded ourselves with a few drinks…and more gelato! It was then off to navigate the train and bus home which was surprisingly painless. I was so excited that we arrived back just as the laundry guy rocked up which means I have lovely fresh, clean PJs to sleep in.

We came up to the room and sat around for a bit and then decided we felt like losers as it was only 8:30pm. We went back downstairs to the bar and one of the Canadian boys on the tour bought us a drink, so we socialised with them for awhile…they are all good fun but had been drinking all day so had a good head start on us. It’s almost 10pm now and I think bed time very soon as I am exhausted.

Tomorrow we are off to Florence and will see the leaning tower of Pisa on the way!

There are lots of photos for today as I took so many. There was just so many amazing things to see….

Huge pizza for dinner

Frolicking near the Trevi Fountain

Inside the Pantheon where the choir were singing hymns

Looking adorable at the colosseum

The colosseum

Percy at the colosseum

The trevi fountain

Percy at a roman castle

St peters basilica

The Swiss guards

St peters square

Inside one of the Vatican galleries (photos were allowed in this section)