Monday in Rome

Day 2 in Rome. We have our food tour today which is so exciting. I cannot wait to just walk around Rome and see the different parts and enjoy the foods of Rome and learn a little bit of history. We had an early tour- around 11am. The point was to go to the food market area, enjoy the tour and then be able to find some other fun things to do around Rome for the day. We set out early to try and find the Piazza where we needed to meet. We wanted to get there early to make sure we did not miss the assigned time. We figured since it was near an outdoor market we could walk around if we were early and get a cappuccino or something else. We did get a little lost trying to find it, although it was very close. But we got to the statue of philosopher Giordano Bruno in plenty of time. We somehow never got hooked up with the tour. We saw a bunch of other tours meeting at the same time. We never found ours. I got so upset and so frustrated. But I just took a deep breathe we sat at a café on the square and tried to get an internet connection. We could not get a connection and the hostess was so kind she let us use her personal wifi on her cell to connect. Once connected I was able to speak with the company who allowed us to reschedule for the 2pm tour. So I was finally relaxed, enjoyed my aperol spritz and salad and did not let it ruin our day. Turns out our picture from that cafe (Il Baccanale) is one of my favorite ones from Italy.

After the early lunch we had some time to kill before the 2pm tour. So we did look around the market. We purchased some gifts for friends/family of truffle sets and I purchased my own truffle cream. Ronnie got himself an Italia ball cap. There was a really cool cheese shop that just set up shop there. I wish we had a kitchen at our hotel. I would love to be able to buy some of these amazing items at this market.

Fresh cheese and veggies. They set up and take down this market every single day.

And then we walked around to churches. You know we needed to walk in and light candles in every church.

Chiesa Sant'Andrea Della Valle

After we had walked around the market, brought our stuff back to our room, and walked around the church we decided to do a little appertivo before the tour- and make sure we did not miss it this time!

We went to Giordi just to get a few drinks, and of course as we have newly discovered you get snacks. The snacks do vary by locations and these were pretty good here as well. The pizza was soft and more just like a flavored bread. Then the ball is a fried mushroom. The inside was soft and flavorful. As we enjoyed our small bites and a drink we watched as they fully dismantled the many many stalls of food, clothing and other goods knowing that tomorrow they would just be setting up again. Many of the restaurants then started to expand their outdoor seating further into the square as well. Some had couched they brought out to create an outdoor lounge area. It was so neat to just see this transformation from day to evening in Campo Dei Fiore.

IT was now 1:45pm and we were not going to miss this tour. So we sat right at the statue waiting for the tour guide. So this was our first stop. homemade wine and meats.

Suppli, not risotto balls

Roman pizza sold by the weight

The fried artichokes in the Italian Jewish getto, yes that is the appropriate spelling.

We continued to just walk around afterwards and explore Rome. We did see the Italian tomb of the unknown soldier. It was a ton of stairs and an amazing view from the top. It was so beautiful