Sara Archives - RommelGans

Cinque Terre

Meet the bread lady, last minute decision to go to Cinque Terre, long day in the throng of over tourism.

The Bread Lady

We had read about the Borgo bread lady on the HGV owners group on Facebook. She drives into the resort around 9am, and she sells bread and pastries out of the back of her car. She probably has a full bakery and makes the rounds in the morning. We got a couple croissants and some focaccia (which was still warm!) for a total of maybe 7 euros (Village Bakery in Flagstaff charges that per ‘croissant’ – hardly seems fair), so that was a good start of the day.

As we were waiting for the bread lady, we heard that there was rain in the forecast for Thursday so we decided to not stay back and go to Cinque Terre today. The only issue is that I have no clue about what is even there, and by the time we were finished with our breakfast it was already 10:30. We did not let that hold us back so we hopped into the car. The DeNiros had told us that the best Cinque Terre experience is to park in Lerici (pronounced LEH-ree-chee, not luh-REE-chee) and take the hop-on-hop-off boat to the villages.

Alternate Plans

We found the parking in Lerici and walked to the water. The guy at an info booth was very helpful in telling us all about the boat service. The way we understood the situation, this boat would be going back and forth every ten minutes or so, but as it turns out there are just 5 of them over the course of a day, and it takes like 2 hours to get to the last of the 5 Terre. If we wanted to see all 5 of them, there was just barely enough time left to get on the boat, drive that to the end, and then just stay on the boat to get back. This would get us on the last boat back into Lerici at 7pm, but we would not be able to stop at any of them. We were simply too late to see all 5 of the Terre, so we had to make a choice where to stop. It took a lot more discussion than I need to write up, but we decided to just do two stops – first at Riomaggiore (the first of the 5 Terre), take the boat back to Porto Venere (pronounced Porto VEH-neh-reh, not veh-NEE-ray, and it’s not even one of the Terre), walk around, take the last boat back to Lerici.

The next boat out wouldn’t leave until 2:30 so we had plenty of time to get some lunch. As we were walking into the restaurant we found the DeNiros already sitting there. Seems like we are in synch with these guys, and they invited us to join them for lunch. They obviously went through the same discussion as we did, and to make a long story short we decided to join their plan for the day – take the boat to Rio Maggiori, walk to Manarola, find something to eat, take the train back to La Spezia, taxi back to Lerici. Lunch was a pizza diavola (spicy salami) and cold beers, very tasty. Don’t remember the name of the restaurant but there are like two dozen of them right on the water in Lerici,

Over the Water

We got one-way tickets to Riomaggiore, which meant switch boats in Porto Venere. K DeNiro (the daughter, who has adopted us as siblings) was able to get off the boat again to hop into a store and buy a bottle of cold wine. This was some sort of dare for her because her dad (M, our tour guide for the day) had told her ‘no’ and that means two different things to them :). Good for us because everybody got a cup of wine on the next leg on the water.

We arrived in Riomaggiore, onto a TINY dock, more like a little path outcropping of rock that juts out of a super steep rock face of the Italian coast. I thought I had the whole arrival on video with narration, but forgot to press ‘record’. It looked REALLY harrowing though, that cannot be the safest way to disembark in the world.

The walk into the village was very idyllic but at the same time we were walking into town with about 7 million of our closest friends. It’s kind of amazing how you can be in this super nice place that the entire world wants to see, and you end up being rustled through these places like cattle. You don’t get an authentic experience, everything is SO expensive, the locals look at you with this peculiar mix of disdain and utter disgust, and it seems to be a sport to confuse the hell out of the tourists, or at least make them feel like every question is fucking stupid. For sure food for thought when we get back to FLG, because I am not always too willing to be gracious to visitors to our town.

Over the Land

Our tour guide (M DeNiro) had been to this place before, so he took us to the footpath to the next town over, which is called Manarola. We got to the path where we were stopped by a guard. Turns out that you need a ticket. M says ‘but this used to be free’, to which the guard says ‘that was more than ten years ago’ in a not-so-friendly tone of voice. It took more time than I need to write down, but we ended up getting train tickets to Manarola. You can only buy a full ticket to walk to all 5 of them, and we didn’t want to spend 17 euro per person for a 10 minute walk.

It also took WAY more time to actually get there, but we did end up getting to Manarola. We tried to get into K’s favorite restaurant there, but we had to find another place. We had some Tennant beers there and some bruschette. Walked around some in Manarola and took the train back to La Spezia. We were lucky enough to find a van for a taxi, and we ended up back at the parking in Lerici with no issue. K DeNiro rode back with us to the resort, and we got back I think it was around 10 or so.

All in all, today was a wonderful day. We got to see really pretty coastal villages, and actually walk around in a place that you normally only see in pictures. I’m trying not to think of the overtourism and how that ‘ruins’ our experiences, because at the end of the day our experience was not ruined. We were in a wonderful place, with some wonderful company. Not going back here, but I am glad we did go and spend it exactly the way we did. Thanks to the DeNiros for taking us in, we had a great day!

Arrive in Borgo

Breakfast at the Anglo American hotel in Firenze, drive to the HGV ‘Borgo alle Vigne’ resort in Tuscany, lunch in town (Selvatelle), groceries at the Conad (yes that is really the name of the store), spritzes at the pool.

Ciao Firenze

Our swanky hotel had a wonderful breakfast buffet with fresh pastries and passable (although very greasy) bacon. Checked out, walked to the Avis that was about 5-10 minute walk from the hotel. They gave us a bright red Fiat 500, just like we ordered, a tiny little Italian car.

Google maps initially told us the trip was going to take 45 minutes, but it ended up taking close to two hours to get to the resort. I think the 45 minutes is highway miles, we were routed through a fantastic scenic route through the Italian country side. The Fiat is a fun little car that handles surprisingly well, although lacking some serious zip. I guess we’ll just have to take it easy. We pulled into the resort around noon-ish

Borgo alle Vigne

The last turn from the town of Selvatelle, the road winds up the hillside towards the resort. As you turn into the property, there is a black wrought iron gate that opens to a small parking area. The property itself is very small with a handful of small buildings and a larger building that has the reception at ground level and guest units one level up. A white gravel footpath leads down the hill, and it feels like it is designed to fill you with anticipation of all the relaxation ahead as you walk down the path.

Our room was not yet ready, so we drove into town to get some lunch and groceries for the room. The resort guy (we are calling him ‘Italian Oscar’ because he looks like our Spanish friend Oscar) recommended a local restaurant called ‘Carlo’ where they apparently have really good pizza. Funny because when we walked in, the first thing they said was ‘no pizza for lunch’. We had some sort of charcuterie plate and ice cold beers, and it was a very tasty lunch.

The grocery store is called ‘Conad’ and it is a good size supermarket. Sara was very excited to FINALLY go into an Italian store, she’d been wanting to do this ever since we got to Italy. Got some basic supplies, most importantly Spritz ingredients.

The DeNiros

As we were checking into the resort, there was a group of 5 Americans ahead of us. One of the ladies had a big Patriots (the football team) tattoo on her leg, and for whatever reason I remembered that I had seen that tattoo when they walked by the place where we were having drinks in Florence. I mentioned something about seeing them in Florence, and we chatted for a while at the reception. Went our different ways, and ran into them at the lunch restaurant. Went our own way again and ran into them again at the grocery store. Ran into them again at the resort pool. Seems like we are having the same vacation here, and because one of them reminded Sara of Robert DeNiro, we are now calling them ‘the DeNiros’.

Spritzes at the Pool

We settled into our rooms and filled our hydro flask with Aperol Spritz and went down to the pool. The water in the pool was nice and cool, and as the air was cooling down we spent a wonderful evening in Tuscany while enjoying a phenomenal view.

The plan for tomorrow is to stay at the resort and just relax.

Rome Day Two

We woke up VERY early (4am), which was of course expected due to the change in time zone. The hotel’s breakfast buffet was your typical European style buffet with lots of choices of breads, pastries, jams, cheeses, eggs, ‘bacon’, etcetera, etcetera. We both found something to eat, and we both had yummy coffees. Today’s planned activity: a guided tour of the Colosseum and the Roman Forum/Palatine Hill. The tour would start early in the morning, so we started walking right after breakfast.

Walk to the Colosseum

Selfie with a view of the Colosseum from the Via degli Annibaldi — View of the Colosseum from the Via degli Annibaldi

The colosseum is about half an hour walking distance from our hotel. The picture above was taken from the “Via degli Annibaldi”, the street that leads to the stadium. This was basically our first view of the colosseum as we were walking toward it from the hotel. As you get closer, where we are walking is actually a few stories above the street level entrance of the stadium.

We found a couple of stairs that seemed to be closed off, but some people had pushed the fencing open wide enough for us to be able to walk through. We were not really supposed to walk down there but there were actually stairs leading down and we didn’t know how else to get down there. It wasn’t hurting anything and hey we’re stupid tourists right… We had some time to kill before the tour, so we walked around the Colosseum a bit.

Start at the Forum

Tour guide leading us into the Forum — Following the tour guide into the Forum

Our guide was an archeologist, and he had a ton of information to share with us. The tour setup was really cool – you get this little radio with a single earbud, and the tour guide has a microphone on his end. You hear their voice loud and clear, well as long as you stay relatively close to them. Much nicer than walking around a cacophony of screaming tour guides. Came in handy a few times too, as we were stopping at the same spots with other groups a number of times.

We started up the Palatine Hill to visit the Forum first. This is important because you need separate tickets to see the Forum and the Colosseum, they are NOT on the same ticket. So many spots at the Forum with SO MUCH history. I could have easily spent the whole day there and read all the signs, maybe even get an audio tour and listen to all the detailed explanations of all the things there.

There’s one of the oldest churches in the world there, there’s an excavated Roman mansion that we basically ran through, lots of ruins with signs next to them. I feel like we really only skimmed the very surface of the Forum, I would love to go back there and spend maybe a whole day there.

Panoramic image of the Forum — The Forum from a high vantage point

On to the Colosseum

After the Forum we made our way to the Colosseum. Initially, we had booked tickets to go into the catacombs of the Colosseum. A few weeks before the trip, we had gotten a message from the tour company that the catacombs part had been canceled. Our guide told us that the city had imposed limitations on the number of people that they allow to go into that part of the stadium. He said that normally he would take 3 groups a day down there, and this year the last time he had even been down there was back in April. It’s a good thing that these sites are preserved, but we were REALLY looking forward to that part of the tour.

Selfie from the Colosseum arena floor — Colosseum at ground level on the Arena floor

Our guide took us through the whole place, and we got to see everything above ground there. We were on the arena floor itself, and we walked up the stairs to one of the outer rings to see it from above. It is a very double thing because of the violence that was part of its history, but at the same time it was SO cool to finally be there.

Selfie from the Colosseum upper ring — View of the arena floor from the upper ring

Panoramic view of the Colosseum arena from the upper seats — View of the entire Colosseum from the upper ring

At this point we had basically seen all there is to see at the Colosseum, and the crowd was again getting to me. We were also getting a little (meaning a LOT) hungry. I really wanted to go back to the Forum, because there was so much there that we had not seen. Unfortunately we didn’t hold our own tickets (the guide did) and we would not be allowed to return there anyway. Lesson learned about visiting this area: tickets to the Colosseum and the Forum are separate. The tour guide left us there to explore the Colosseum. I felt like the tour should finish at the Forum, because I felt like we would have been able to explore that a lot more than the Colosseum.

Time for Lunch

So lunch it is. Instead of sitting down at the first place we ran into, we decided to walk a few blocks away from the Colosseum and find some food in a less crowded area, off the beaten path so to speak. We walked around a bit and found a place called ‘La Folia’, where we had beers and food. Sara had a Caesar salad, and I had some lasagna.

Lunch at La Folia near the Colosseum — Tasty lunch in a local place (“La Folia”) near the Colosseum

The food was nice enough, not spectacular. As we walked back to the hotel, we passed some places that looked a lot nicer. Can’t complain though, we had a good meal after a great tour of the Colosseum and the Forum.

Almost Forgot Dessert

With our bellies full, we went back to the hotel for naps and post-nap drinks and appetizers at the hotel’s rooftop bar. Spritzes all around and more focaccia. As we were on our second (or maybe it was our third) Spritz, we decided we were in the mood for some gelato.

In preparation for the trip, we had found a YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/c/AplinsintheAlps) that had recommended a bunch of things to do in Rome. Can’t find the actual video itself right now but there’s one where they list some of their favorite food places in Rome, and one of those was a gelato shop called “Come Il Latte”. It was a bit of a walk to get there, and when we did, it looked like a little hole in the wall. OMG though, the gelato was out of this world. The best I had ever had. Stole the picture from the internet, I was too busy eating my stracciatella to think about taking pictures myself.

Come Il Latte gelato shop — Inside “Come Il Latte” gelato shop – SO worth the walk

Apparently, what you should look for is a gelato place that keeps the ice cream in covered containers. The ones that show the gelato in big heaping mounds have to put ingredients in there to keep the gelato from melting in the Italian heat. The ones that keep their gelato covered don’t need to do this, so it is less diluted with preservatives, and will taste better anyway. They are generally also less brightly colored, so less artificial chemicals in there just for the sake of making it look good.

Nightcap

Back at the hotel we decided to get one more drink to cap off a wonderful day in Rome. Back in the room around 11pm, hopefully a full night sleep.

Walking the streets of Rome is SO awesome. The hotel doesn’t feel like it is quite as central as much the Waterloo is in London for instance, but ‘stuff’ is still close enough to walk there. The GPS is taking us through lots of back streets though, and this part of the city doesn’t feel like it was planned very well, so it feels a bit like a maze. It is hard to get familiar with the layout of the streets and where they are in relation to each other. Good that we do have a GPS, so we always find what we are looking for.

First Day in Rome

We were SUPER excited to be in Rome. Our travel was uneventful (just the way we like it) and we were all checked into our hotel, read all about our travel day here. Having settled into our hotel room, we decided to walk into town and go explore this afternoon. We had deliberately not taken the nasty food on the plane, because we wanted to enjoy some real Italian food. It was about lunch time, and we were both very hungry.

Let’s Get it Started

The hotel is close to some major sights in Rome, and lots of places are within easy walking distance. Before we left Flagstaff, I had kind of figured out a little walking tour that would ultimately take us to this famous place called ‘Piazza Navona’, which is a large square with a bunch of restaurants and three beautiful fountains. On our way over there, we would walk by the famous Trevi Fountain, and also the Pantheon.

First stop: food! As we were walking toward the Trevi fountain, we passed a ton of places where people were eating all kinds of food. We didn’t feel like really searching for a place that would be off the beaten path, and we were REALLY hungry. We decided on pizza and sat down at the first available place that was moderately busy but with plenty of available tables.

You would think that when you travel all the way to Italy, that even mediocre pizza would be better than most of the stuff that you get in the US, but as we found out the hard way: it is definitely possible to get TERRIBLE food in Rome. Our pizza was bland, and not tasty at all. It is not even worth mentioning the name of the place. If we ever make it back to Rome, we will avoid restaurants near tourist places like the plague. We knew this, we had been warned about this, we should have known better.

Trevi Fountain

The Trevi fountain was super super SUPER busy. You get this impression from the movies that you can enjoy a relaxed stroll around the area, stop by the water and throw a coin over your shoulder. Nothing is further from the truth. You will have to share the area with about 75,000 of your closest friends, many of whom have no problem simply shoving you aside to get a better selfie.

Selfie at the Trevi fountain in Rome — It almost looks like we are alone here

We did go into the crowd to take some pictures close to the fountain, and it was great to be there. I had to get out of the throng of people within minutes. The sheer amount of people there (and their obnoxious behavior) was just anxiety-inducing. You get bounced around and shoved aside by all the people trying to get a good spot for pictures. To me it felt a little like a scene in a movie where someone steps on a beehive, the sound of the bees gets overwhelming, and the camera angle gets all ‘swarmy’. I never like being in large crowds, but I actually felt a panic come over me, that had never happened to me before.

This place is definitely one of those places that you have to see when you visit Rome, but you have to be prepared for this mass over-tourism. Oh and whatever you do, stay away from the food there!!

Pantheon and Piazza Navona

Next sight was the Pantheon. The fountain in front of the building was surrounded by fences and apparently under construction, so no chance to see that one. There was a massive crowd in front of the Pantheon. It was SO COOL to walk past this building and see it in person, I cannot wait to go in there and see what it is all about. As it turns out though, you can’t just walk in and visit. Sara found the website where you get the tickets, so we’ll get those and come back later this week.

The facade of the Pantheon — The inscription on the facade of the Pantheon

Walking past the Pantheon is the Piazza Navona, a very famous square with three beautiful fountains and lots of restaurants. Unfortunately, all three fountains were surrounded by fences and they were under construction. We found out later that 2025 is some sort of anniversary year and the city is renovating many (if not all) fountains. Great for Rome next year but sucks for us. We were looking forward to admiring these beautiful fountains, but alas. I’m actually not sure if the picture below was taken at the Piazza Navona, but that’s what they looked like all over the city.

Fenced in Fountain — Fountain under construction

We did sit down at one of many restaurants for drinks, a place called “Tucci”. Very friendly waiter who knew a few Dutch words. By the way, this is where it helps to be friendly to the guests, because now we knew a place with a friendly staff that we will go back to if we’re back in the neighborhood.

The travel had finally caught up to us and we were both almost falling asleep while having our drinks. We decided to go back to the hotel for naps.

First Proper Meal

After the naps we went up to the hotel’s rooftop bar where we had Spritzes, Negronis, and this amazing Focaccia appetizer. This place has a fantastic atmosphere with a great view, the wait staff is super friendly, and they have all the drinks you’d ever need and a nice selection of appetizers. We’ll definitely make this part of our daily routine.

The rooftop bar at our hotel in Rome — Cheers!

Appetizers are great, but we were meal-hungry at this point, so we walked to a restaurant that was recommended by the hotel staff called “Osteria Il Riposto”. The placemats had some handy cooking tips for Roman pasta sauces.

Il Riposto placemat with cooking tips — Handy chart to help build your pasta sauce

The waiter was super friendly and let us pick three meals for us to share. We decided on Ham/Melon, Bruschette, and Cacio e Pepe. All three were delicious, exactly what we had hoped for.

Cacio e pepe at Il Riposto — The Cacio e Pepe at Il Riposto was delicious

After dinner we walked back to the Trevi fountain to see if it is less crowded at night, but it was just as busy as it was earlier in the day. On our way back to the hotel we had some gelatos that were amazing.

Impressions of Rome

It is just fantastic to be in Rome. I’ve dreamed about going there for so long, and it is so great to finally be here. When we first arrived at the airport, I was a little disappointed in the attitude of Italian officials (not so friendly, impatient, almost rude) but the staff at our hotel and the restaurants that we have been to so far are great. Summer in Rome is fucking hot and humid, so you walk around all sweaty and sticky.

The double thing is the sheer number of tourists. I guess it’s just a sign of the times that so many people can afford to go places, and everybody wants to see the same famous places. What is not so nice about that is that it seems that the average tourist is less than respectful of the places and especially other tourists. Especially when it gets to be REALLY crowded, you get shoved around a lot. Just forget about your own personal space, that just doesn’t exist.

I’m on the fence whether I want to come back to Rome. If we ever do, we’d probably schedule it off-season, like in November or something. I’d rather walk around with a jacket and not have as many people surround me. Also, I’d probably try to go more off the beaten tourist path. Also, stay away from restaurants too close to the touristy places. If they have a guy trying to pull you in, and he’s handing you an English menu, keep walking!

Travel Day to Italy

Our 25th anniversary trip to Italy starts today! Travel to Rome was a breeze, and our room was ready when we arrived

Today’s the day!! Our trip to Italy starts, and we are both very excited about it. We’ve been preparing for this trip for months, even years.

Leg 1: FLG – DFW

We got up very early to catch the 7 am flight out of FLG airport to Dallas. Our friend Marcy was nice enough to pick us up from the house and drive us to the airport. We decided to check our bags to Rome, so we don’t have to haul them around everywhere. All we have to worry about is our brand new matching little backpacks.

Boarding our flight from Flagstaff to Dallas — FLG Airport

It was a beautiful day in Flagstaff. As per usual there was no trouble getting through the security check, and we made it to the gate with plenty of time. The FLG-DFW flight was right on time, and it got us to Dallas without any trouble. Our travel day got off to a GREAT start.

Selfie on board our flight from Flagstaff to Dallas — Boarded our FLG-DFW flight

Courtesy of our credit card perks, we have access to airport lounges, and we found one close to the departure gate in the Dallas airport. So nice to sit in a comfortable chair rather than the airport benches with snacks and drinks close by.

Leg 2: DFW-FCO

The flight from Dallas to Rome left right on time, and we had an uneventful flight over there. We had booked the window and aisle seats. The strategy is that you leave a middle seat open, and hopefully on the travel date nobody will have claimed that seat. If it works, then you have 3 seats for two and you have some room to stretch out. This strategy hardly ever works out though, and inevitably someone will walk up to our row, pointing at the seat between us. Usually, one of us will take the middle seat, and the stranger is usually very happy to inherit a window seat. This time though, neither one of us felt like taking the middle, so we traveled with a stranger between us.

Having arrived on time at the Rome airport (full name “Leonardo da Vinci Rome Fiumicino Airport”), we found our way to the baggage carousel. After the monitors said that our flight was all done, the carousel was about empty, and our bags were nowhere to be found. The “customer service” guy (a lovely Italian fellow who likes to keep his communication very short and brusque, with no eye contact) did a quick check of our baggage tag and waved us away, saying that our bags were unloaded and are on the belt. We went back to the belt, and to our great delight both of our little roller bags came out of the chute.

On to the trains we go! It’s always fun to figure out transportation, I always enjoy that part of traveling. It took a while to figure out, but we eventually found the ticket machine and got our tickets to the “Leonardo Express” that would take us to the “Roma Termini” station.

One thing we both noticed is that the “service” staff at the airport were not the friendliest. First the baggage claim guy, and then this woman by the train ticket machine. Very little eye contact, and you get a bit of an impatient attitude like you’re especially stupid for not being able to figure it out yourself. We do understand the sentiment (tourists can definitely be SO stupid and obnoxious), but it’s not so nice to be on the receiving end when you need some help.

We decided that it’s probably a cultural thing, we’ll probably run into lots of that sort of attitude, and not to let that spoil our excitement. We had our bags, we had our tickets for the train, we had directions to the hotel, we are ALL SET!! We’re in Rome baby!!

When in Rome

The Roma Termini train station from the train — Arriving at the Roma Termini train station

The Leonardo Express took us from the airport to the “Roma Termini” station in about half an hour, with just one stop on our way there. We were surrounded by all sorts of tired-looking people, all filled with anticipation.

From the station it was a 20-minute walk to the hotel, and we arrived there around 10am. Given the early time we were expecting to just leave our bags and walk into town, but to our surprise, our room was ready for us. We were able to check in and put our stuff away. It was nice to be able to change into some fresh clothes, because it was HOT and very humid in Rome. We would have been miserable walking around in our travel clothes.

Towel swan in our hotel room in Rome — Towel swans in our hotel room in Rome

When Sara booked the hotel, she must have mentioned that this trip was for our anniversary, because the hotel had made us very cool towel swans.

Our hotel, the “DoubleTree by Hilton Rome Monti”, was very nice. Super friendly staff that was very helpful and patient. The lobby has nice comfy furniture and a few tables. You could easily order a coffee and sit there for hours with a book. From the lobby, you walk into the restaurant where they have a breakfast buffet in the morning and full dinner service in the evening. There was a coffee shop where you can get coffee (obvs) and pastries, but also alcoholic drinks. The breakfast buffet was awesome, we ate there every day. For lunch and dinner, we usually found something in the city.

Then there is the rooftop bar, which we visited just about every day. Our standard order was the focaccia bread appetizer with some sort of light cheese spread, and of course Aperol Spritzes, our drink of choice for this entire trip.