Well it only took us 3 weeks, but we have finally labelled and posted our pictures from our long weekend in Rome for Lauren's birthday. It turns out, there is actually a whole lot to see in Rome and we ended up with quite a few pictures. You can use the link at the end of this post to view them.
We had great weather for the trip, and apparently October is like the perfect time to go to Rome; it was not too crowded and it wasn't too hot, which was good because we did an enormous amount of walking which would not have been fun in the heat of summer. Rome has a metro system, which is great, but it only has 2 lines, a NS and an EW line. This meant that often it would be just as far to walk to a metro station as it would to just hike to our next destination. As a result, we probably walked 15-20 miles in the three days we were in the city, but they were scenic miles, with plenty of gelato and pizza breaks.
Rome is a great walking city, and we enjoyed walking along the river or getting lost in a dense maze of narrow streets trying to find the well-hidden Pantheon. None of the streets in the city-centre ever felt unsafe, and we found lots of cool little restaurants and monuments wandering off the beaten track. Our hostel was incredibly convenient, located on a main street just a few blocks away from St. Peter’s Basilica. Other than being the only people in the 38-bed hostel who wanted to sleep at night, we would generally recommend the place…more as a place to keep your stuff than sleep. We probably would have been better off on some park benches.
Other than a lack of sleep, the trip was fantastic, jolly good, a real hoot, etc. The food was amazing: we didn’t even understand how Italian food that looked pretty much like what we are use to in the States tasted like we were discovering lasagne, or pizza, or pasta for the first time. Perhaps the freshness of the ingredients has something to do with it, but we couldn’t find bad food in Rome. We would stop at some street stand for pizza, and, sure enough, it would be the best pizza we’d ever tasted. Any benefit we got from all our walking was certainly offset by the massive amounts of delicious food we ate. If Rome was a desert with a few Italian restaurants, we would still recommend going.
All in all, Lauren voted this her best big city (since no city can replace Pittsburgh) for the food, history, and beauty of the Italian capital. What are your favourite cities? We had a great trip, and we are very fortunate to have opportunities like this…not a bad 25th birthday!
Pictures, as promised.
We had great weather for the trip, and apparently October is like the perfect time to go to Rome; it was not too crowded and it wasn't too hot, which was good because we did an enormous amount of walking which would not have been fun in the heat of summer. Rome has a metro system, which is great, but it only has 2 lines, a NS and an EW line. This meant that often it would be just as far to walk to a metro station as it would to just hike to our next destination. As a result, we probably walked 15-20 miles in the three days we were in the city, but they were scenic miles, with plenty of gelato and pizza breaks.
Rome is a great walking city, and we enjoyed walking along the river or getting lost in a dense maze of narrow streets trying to find the well-hidden Pantheon. None of the streets in the city-centre ever felt unsafe, and we found lots of cool little restaurants and monuments wandering off the beaten track. Our hostel was incredibly convenient, located on a main street just a few blocks away from St. Peter’s Basilica. Other than being the only people in the 38-bed hostel who wanted to sleep at night, we would generally recommend the place…more as a place to keep your stuff than sleep. We probably would have been better off on some park benches.
Other than a lack of sleep, the trip was fantastic, jolly good, a real hoot, etc. The food was amazing: we didn’t even understand how Italian food that looked pretty much like what we are use to in the States tasted like we were discovering lasagne, or pizza, or pasta for the first time. Perhaps the freshness of the ingredients has something to do with it, but we couldn’t find bad food in Rome. We would stop at some street stand for pizza, and, sure enough, it would be the best pizza we’d ever tasted. Any benefit we got from all our walking was certainly offset by the massive amounts of delicious food we ate. If Rome was a desert with a few Italian restaurants, we would still recommend going.
All in all, Lauren voted this her best big city (since no city can replace Pittsburgh) for the food, history, and beauty of the Italian capital. What are your favourite cities? We had a great trip, and we are very fortunate to have opportunities like this…not a bad 25th birthday!
Pictures, as promised.
4 comments:
The slide show is awesome! (As are the shirts!)
Very cool. My favorite cities are Pittsburgh and New York City. Thanks for visiting my blog earlier this week!
Your pictures are ABSOLUTELY amazing, I loved them!! I'm so glad lauren got to spend her 25th birthday in such a beutiful place! Miss you guys like crazy... not too much longer!!! XOXO LOVE, MEG
Hey lauren and nick!
Awesome blog, really informative of what it is like being yankees living in a place where futbol means soccer. And your pictures rock!
your cousin, Jeff
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