Viva Italia - Day 4 (Rome)

SATURDAY, JANUARY 16TH

Only about 7 miles today, mostly because we "slept in," not allowing enough time for a leisurely stroll AND coffee prior to our tour. We clearly needed the latter, so cabbed it straight to our meeting point and grabbed a cappuccino in the square nearby. 

The weather was cloudy today, a bit chilly without the sun shining, but that did not halt the outdoor tour plans. At least there was no rain! 

After our coffee stop, we met our guide for the day - Fabio. He was young, energetic, and had a good sense of humor. Definitely made the day enjoyable! The first stop of the day was the Roman Forum. There is so much to "see" in what little is left of the original city. Having Fabio there to not only explain things as they once were, but physically show us through renderings he carried in his man bag really made it possible to imagine what these fallen structures used to be. This area of Rome is difficult to explain, truly just ruins of what once was, but something that must be seen for oneself to really appreciate and understand its beauty. Super powerful...

Following the Forum, we headed to the Colosseum where we were greeted by a private guide. In reality, she was a cranky young girl, noticeably annoyed with Fabio, but she did grant us VIP access to the dungeons below the main stage as well as the upper ring - all of which is not accessible to the public.  For a brief moment, Fabio managed to ditch her and our group snuck into the elevators to avoid a steep climb - one of many, yet the only one we successfully dodged!

In the dungeons, which is very misleading and not at all housing the Game of Thrones dragons or skeletons a plenty like I had imagined, we got to appreciate the extraordinary engineering and creation of a concept that still exists today. Think about your favorite sports team, or a theatre show, for example. Everything is back stage or in the locker room, below main level, before the game/show begins. The same holds true for the purposes of the "dungeons" in the Colosseum. This is where the gladiators came to both prep and, sometimes, die with dignity. It is also where the animals were stowed, just before being tricked into a cage and hauled up by a system of levers and pulleys - a manual elevator, if you will... Despite the lack of human remains I had my heart set on, this was still a very cool experience. Even crazier, back when the early Romans would have been experiencing the Colosseum in all of its glory, this area would have been completely pitch black in darkness. Tucked away, underground, this would have been rather terrifying to wander around in...

Last on the Colosseum docket took us to the very top, in the third ring. The structure in itself is a work of art, but those steps to get to the top? Uh, hell no. They were insanely steep! We carefully made our way to the top, and boy was the view worth it. There was not much else to do other than look around and take it in, snapping some pictures in the process. Probably the highlight of this experience was witnessing a middle aged couple attempting to use a selfie stick.... They were apparently unaware that to properly use said stick of ridiculousness, you must take a photo as if looking at your phone. Poor fools, they were using the stick as an arm extension, not clicking the reverse camera button to see what the photo looked like as they took it!

Fabio concluded the tour while atop the Colosseum, and we were left to find our way down and out. Ahem... Sounds easier than it actually was. Brandon and I snapped a few last shots once we were outside and then quickly hailed a taxi. It had been far too long since our last feeding, so we headed back to the Trastevere neighborhood to walk around and find a good lunch spot.

We stumbled into Voglia Di Pizza Snc. Much to our surprise, it was both gluten free (don't worry, we did not order from the gluten free menu, because...it's Italy - duh!) and also run by an Indian family! Further proof that there are NO other acceptable cuisines in this country. I went for some local fare, ordering a suppli and bruschetta, and Brandon a pizza with Italian sausage and mushrooms. One very important item to note - Italians DO NOT share pizza. When you order one, it's like three personal pan pizzas all to yourself. I'd say he was in heaven not having to share.

Nothing too exciting the rest of the afternoon, just a long walk back to the hotel to prep for our 2-Michelan Star dinner later tonight! We relaxed, took our time getting ready, drank some full bodied red wine....and once the clock struck feeding time again, we called for a cab.

Two things to note: 

1. When you travel the world in a carry on, it's very difficult to bring many bulky or high end items like shoes, blazers and hand bags. And for Brandon, dress pants are out of the question. 
2. When you travel in the winter, space is even more limited. 

Needless to say, we were under dressed for our high end meal, but really gave zero shits about it. We had indulged in wine earlier, remember?! We got shuffled to our seats and appeared to be among the first to dine that night, so I'd say we dodged most bullets of judgment.

Brandon and I were given our menus and were astonished to discover we had a choice of water. As in, what region do you want your water to come from? What. The. Hell? I'm guessing the one draw back to our attire was that they did not in fact give us the option to choose when we asked for water. Jerks. 

Another interesting observation, my menu did not come equipped with the prices listed for any of the menu items, only Brandon's! Super sexist, no?! It was only when I mentioned a certain wine looked good, and Brandon laughed, that we realized this interesting piece of information. For I had obviously chosen the most expensive wine on the menu. What can I say, I have good taste in reds?! 

Once the important items were sorted - like why they don't offer wine pairings (people would get too drunk. America's tasting menus would disagree), confirmation of their wine recos for the tasting menu as a whole, etc. - we moved to the main event. 

Wine #1 - Gorgona white wine. I usually despise whites, but this one was exquisite. The waiter did not steer us in the wrong direction, definitely off to a great start! 

Wine #2 - must not have been memorable, because I failed to write it down. Oops! It was a smooth red, but perhaps I've grown so accustomed to all of them being that smooth here in Italy, that it didn't jump out at me the way the white did?! 

Tasting Menu:

• Pumpkin mousse with tomato "biscuit"

• Steamed bread bite and yogurt beef gelatin mousse (square)

• Deep fried ravioli with mascarpone mousse and tofu/escargot/anchovy taco

• Breadstick, Flat bread with rosemary

• Baby shrimp, bean paste, crispy chicken skin and black carrot

• Oyster with beet and coffee sauce, frozen buratta and radish disc

• Dark spaghetti with sea snails and sea urchin 

• Homemade ravioli stuffed with Osa Bucco in a beef broth

• Turbot with fried chard, cauliflower purée with green tea sauce and lemon drop

• Pigeon breast with liver mousse, endive and pigeon leg broth with chocolate sauce

• Goat cheese ice cream with sage dried compote and diced pear

• Lime sorbet with rose water gelato 

• Apricot biscotti with yogurt cream and apricot sorbet with burnt caramel 

• Coffee and truffles

Tasting menus are always a funny thing. Any food "issues" are seemingly thrown out the window, but I really don't know why?! I guess because you realize you are dining for the experience and science of it all just as much as the taste. As grossed out as I am at times, knowing what's on my plate, I'm always pleasantly surprised at how good everything is - the tastes are totally transformed into deliciousness. Dinner at Il Pagliaccio was definitely worth the experience, but I'm kind of mad at myself for wasting a dinner in Rome on something we would easily have experienced in the States. I fully understand how snobby that sounds, but.... SPAGHETTI! When in Rome, a pile of carbs on a plate would have made me equally as happy. C'est la vie!

As we are scheduled to travel to Florence tomorrow, Brandon decided we were running a bit low on Euros and set off to find an ATM once we were back to the hotel. I, however, chose to put on my pajamas and jot down the notes you see above. A solid 45 minutes later, Brandon returned. Euros in pocket and gelato in hand....and steam blowing from ears. He had walked 1.5 miles in search of said ATM! Oh, and the gelato? My husband knows me so well... He must have sensed I was feeling quite cheated on the dolci front following our high end dining experience. Tiramisu and Stracciatella gelato as a night cap?! Grazie!