Sunday
Our train from Venice to Rome took about four hours. We had splurged on first class, and with the COVID measures still in place, we had a lot of space to ourselves. We enjoyed our sandwiches and wine, and then settled in for the afternoon.
After arriving at Termini station, we took a taxi to our friends’ rental home for the month. They had stayed with us during our month in Burgundy in 2016 and were taking a similar approach to living in Rome. We were greeted with hugs, proscuitto & melon, and Negronis, with dinner already prepped. They had gone to the trouble of getting both red and white Burgundy to go with salad and steaks. Everything was perfect and we went to bed tired and happy.
Monday
Rome was extremely hot the entire week, so we needed to make sure we did any errands before 10am. So we were up early and off to the market at Campo de Fiori around 8:00am. We picked up cheese and produce and walked back to avoid the worst of the heat.
The day was mostly slow. Our friends were working while we read books. We convened for a charcuterie lunch – cheese, figs, meats, olives, and toasted bread.
Once it started to cool off, we took a taxi to the Testaccio neighborhood. Our destination was ristorante Angelina, where we had a wonderful (and large) dinner of antipasti, cacio e pepe, pappardelle with duck and olives, saltimbocca, lamb chops, and rabbit, with a 2012 Lazio white (funky!) and a 2013 Brunello de Montalcino.
We all felt a strong need to walk off dinner, so we wandered through ancient Roman ruins for a while before taking a taxi back to our neighborhood. We had gelato for dessert and then off to bed.
Tuesday
Our friends were staying next to Vatican City, so naturally we wanted to visit the Vatican Museums as they were so close. Also, we’d skipped them when we previously visited Rome because of the long lines. Because of the pandemic, they had switched to timed tickets AND there were very few tourists. So we bought tickets the day before and left early to walk to the museums. It was almost unsettling to have no lines but it made for an excellent experience – plenty of personal space and time to look at everything. The Sistine Chapel was quite impressive, even with the high expectations we had.
By the time we finished at the museum, the sun was high in the sky and we were blasted by the heat. We stopped for cheese, water, and Prosecco, and then went back to the house for lunch and a quiet afternoon.
We went to the Jewish Quarter for the evening. We started with an aperitivo at Bar Totó, and then walked to Il Giardino Romano for an excellent dinner. We shared Jewish style artichoke, fried codfish fillet, fried courgette flowers, and falafel, followed by our mains: bucatini amatriciana, fettucine with shrimp, coda alla vaccinara, and osso buco. We paired everything up with two wines: Cantina Alois Greco di Tufo 2018 and Arnaldo Caprai Sagrantino di Montefalco “Collepiano” 2015. We ate outside, which allowed us to soak in the atmosphere of people congregating all along the street.
Wednesday
We woke up a little later than we’d previously been, but still had time to run morning errands before settling in for the day.
We walked out in the early evening — first stop: the Spanish Steps. From there, we walked through central Rome toward Il Goccetto, a wine bar I’d heard about and wanted to visit. It turned out that it was both a wine bar and wine shop. So we each had a different glass of white wine, plus I purchased two Produttori di Barbaresco riservas (Asili, Montestefano) to have back at the house.
Happy from the wine, we walked a bit further to Giulia where we were guided upstairs to sit outside on the terrace. We opted for the tasting menu and wine pairings, once again reveling in Rome at night as we ate and drank. (It’s a theme, and one we try to return to when we can.)
Thursday
We were flying the next day, so we needed to start thinking about that departure. It being 2021, it meant we needed to take antigen tests and get certified results to get on an airplane for the United States. So we had a quick breakfast with our friends and then left them to find a pharmacy that offered testing. Fortunately, Italy made testing highly available so it didn’t take too long to find one. We got our test results and met back up with our friends for lunch…
…which was at Papa Rex, a neighborhood restaurant close to the house. We shared rigatoni carbonara, fettuccine with seafood, and whole roasted fish with potatoes with a bottle of a local white wine. After that, we headed back to the house to relax, enjoy the outdoor space, have a picnic dinner, and play games.
Friday
Our last day in Rome. We packed up early, then joined our friends for breakfast (that they picked up while we were packing). We played Bananagrams with coffee before getting going.
We had lunch at ai Vittorio di Trastevere, which was known for its pizza. We had to try it out, so we ordered a salad and three pizzas – pizza alla diavola with mozzarella salami and chili; sausage, mozzarella, zucchini, and chili; mozzarella, anchovies, and zucchini flowers. All were excellent and paired well with a white blend called Stardust (who could resist a wine named for David Bowie?). We then walked next door to get gelato at Otaleg. So many options! Virginia had Mascarpone, lamponi, nocciole e brigidini, while I had Pistacchio al quadrato, Ricotta della domenica, and Fior di latte al miele.
Completely stuffed, we said goodbye and thank you to our friends, and then walked to the tram. The tram led to the train that conveyed us to the airport. Check in and security was reasonably easy.
We were flying Turkish Airlines, so we flew to Istanbul first. The flight was uneventful, though it took an unfortunately long time to taxi and deplane. We went to the Yotel for a few hours’ rest and the opportunity to be horizontal. The check-in process was inexplicably manual (paper forms and the like) so lines seemed unnecessarily long. We finally got our room and crashed for a nap.
Saturday
We woke up from napping around 4:15am and got ourselves moving. We went straight to the gate, which was good because of the relatively long passport check and bag check process. The flight was good overall and we were comfortable for the long flight home. Once we landed, we raced through Global Entry and into a taxi. We were home within 90 minutes of landing, a possible record for us.
record of m. 
1 Comment