Rome, Part II

OK. So, I ended Part 1 of my Rome write-up at lunch by the Spanish steps. Spilling out from the foot of the steps, is Rome’s main shopping district; Everyone from Armani, Prada and Louis Vuitton, through to Diesel, Puma, Adidas and Levi’s has it’s own shop here. Good luck finding anything wearable below €30 - A single polo shirt from Lacoste will set you back around €80.

Sprouting off of the main shopping streets, are tiny little Cafés and restaurants, some more expensive than others. It was in and around these packed little streets, that we had everything from countless cups of Gelato, to crackling, wafer thin Pizza and €18 worth of rare and bloody steak, surrounded by crisp and tender Rosemary-roasted Potatoes.

Thankfully, not everywhere is quite as pricey, and the two sandwiches you see above and below, along with a bottle of water, came to exactly €3.

My smiley face Foccacia, with Prosciutto and Rocket - One of those olives fell off later on, which was a shame.

Alright, I’m a bit lost now…Because I don’t remember when or where these ones came from - All I know is, we must have been in a rush, because they were clearly taken on my digicam, with flash, so…

The Liqourice/Strawberry combination is a winner. Look at that drop shadow - I hate on-camera flash.

Possibly the most disgusting photograph, of the most delicious Calzone that I’ve ever eaten.

After all of that embarrassment, let’s have a look at the Gelato takings for part 2 shall we?

Day 4: Banana, Mint chocolate chip and Vanilla

Day 5: Coconut, Cappucino and Chocolate

Day 6: Strawberry, (From Venchi in FCO Airport) Chocolate, White chocolate and dark fruits sorbet

Back a bit now, and some clever soul had the brilliant idea to take a train to the Lazio coast.

“We’ll go to the beach and stroll! It’ll be fun” - It wasn’t. It was infact, quite possibly the worst beach I’ve ever seen, lol.

Isn’t it beautiful? Complete with a dead cat, which we decided had died of disappointment at the state of the beach it had come to see. On the plus side, I did get to claim that boat as my own.

(Digital photo by Tom; Made to look Holga-esque by me.)

*sigh* “Nevermind. Let’s go back and get lunch.” Yeah, that didn’t go quite as planned either. We went back towards the Colosseum, and stopped at a lovely little canopy-covered restaurant. After examining the menu, Tom and I decided to (attempt) to split a pizza. Easy right?

Apparently not. It seems so obvious now, but under the heading “PIZZA”, we saw what appeared to be some kind of “Chef’s own” pizza - ‘Insalata dello Chef’. Given that this was still listed under the “PIZZA” heading, we assumed it meant something along the lines of a Chef’s salad Pizza; A carefully selected and refined salad of ingredients, in pizza form.

Clearly, these two thought it was hilarious, that what we had ordered, was infact just that, a salad. A plain, undressed, Spinach and walnut salad.

That’s gotten me all worked up, so I’m going to end it now. We went to the Vatican - The girls went in, we didn’t. Kinda regret that now - I’ll have a look at their photos, it’s fine. I was shocked by the location of the Vatican. You know, you see it in TV, and because of it’s vastness, it seems as though it were completely separate from the outside world, not towering above and around a busy city centre.

Just before we reached the Vatican however, we did a bit of sleuthing, and happened across a tiny indoor market, selling everything from fruit and vegetables, cheese, meats and electric wire, to those huge cakes in boxes that you cannot seem to get away from wherever you go.

And there you go - Rome, my way (Awkward and angry most of the time.) Next stop - Wherever fits.

~ by gkbloodsugar on March 27, 2008.