I had been the previous evening with Tiziana and Federico to a big supermarket on the outskirts of Rome called Panorama. It's a little like a small version of Bluewater with a big supermarket at the end. We went purposely to get some meats etc without paying the extortionate costs in the city centre. I have never seen a deli in a supermarket like it! It was unbelievable. The choices of meats and cheeses were unreal. I decided what I wanted and Tiziana went to the counter and helped me order. I came away with prosciutto, mortadella and salami along with some buffalo mozzarella, gorgonzola, some peccorino and scamorza which is a smoked cheese. I was reliably informed that it is best served sliced and with a pile of prosciutto on the top and then grilled.
So mum and dad arrived mid evening on the Thursday and I had everything ready obviously alongside some chilled Prosecco. We sat, ate, drank and chatted and it was great. The food tasted so good, better than anything I have ever had before and it really wasn't expensive at all. We all went to bed that night with a nicely full tummy!!
The Friday morning I had my last morning at school and then I came back meet mum and dad and we were to go into the city centre. This was to be their first experience of buses in Italy. Basically the motto is... "Get on and cling on!" The buses are rather rickety and they throw them over the cobbles, up hills, down hills and round corners and it can be rather hair raising. Luckily it is such a picturesque journey that somehow doesn't seem to matter. So off we went into town and we walked up past my school and wandered through to Piazza Navona. We sat to catch our breath and to enjoy the view. We then made our way towards the Pantheon via the back streets and we stopped in a great little restaurant with red and white table cloths. I had pizza, dad had ravioli and mum had tagliatelle with lemon. That alongside some white wine was absolute heaven. Perfect start to the weekend :) We then walked up to the Pantheon and grabbed some gelato before sitting on the fountain taking it all in. We then hopped in a taxi home so that dad could go for a rest. Mum wanted to see the area that I live in so we went for a wander down the road taking in all the shops and bars and restaurants. We eventually got to the tram stop so we decided to hop on and go to the Trastevere for a drink. There is a little bar that we have been in before and it somehow seemed right that we sit and have an Aperol Spritz.
After our drink, we grabbed a cab (bit of a long walk!) and we went back to the apartment. We decided to have some more meats and cheeses for dinner that evening and we just relaxed.
On the Saturday we wanted to go to the market Campo di Fiori, so on the bus we went taking in the view before wandering down. The market is full of fruit and vegetable stalls and people selling kitchen gadgets you never knew you needed, and then there are a few stalls selling tourist rubbish such as glass boots filled with limoncello and multi coloured pastas costing a fortune. We wandered through the stalls and then chose one of the many bars and sat for a drink which was well needed in the heat.
We then decided that we wanted a light lunch as we were planning a large meal that evening. We walked through to get the tram to the Trastevere and we ended up in Ginos where we shared a pizza, some meatballs and a salad, and it was lovely. Just what we wanted.
We then went home and mum and I went for a walk to the park of the Villa Doria Pamphilj. Its a beautiful green space and was full of large Italian families enjoying a day out. We walked up the hill and sat for a while. We then went a little further up the hill and discovered a huge lake that was full of turtles. There were families feeding the swans and the geese, you could see the ruins of the Villa in the distance... Somewhere I will be investigating further.
Saturday night, we got the bus to town and wandered into the top of the Trastevere... I have never seen it so busy! I have never been to Rome over a weekend before this trip and I hadn't been to this district on a Saturday night. I wanted to take mum and dad to a place I had eaten at before that was really good and not that pricey.. We walked up... and as we turned to corner I have never seen so many people! There were people queueing to get into restaurants. Luckily there was a table being cleared just as we got there so I managed to nip in! That's it... phew, settled for the night. We had a fabulous antipasti to start and some prosciutto and melon.
I then had the osso bulco, dad had veal and mum had chicken. The food was rather good... and the wine wasn't half bad either! We leisurely enjoyed our meal and then made our way to the Santa Maria in Trastevere. We stood here for a while watching a man perform creating giant bubbles which the children loved and then we went to grab a taxi.
On the Sunday we had planned to go to the market. This didn't end up happening as the buses have switched their bus routed back to the school timetables, but of course we didn't know this! The next 870 that appeared we took and went into town. We wandered in towards Piazza Navona and the Pantheon. We sat in a side street and had a drink before deciding on eating by the Pantheon. We walked through and chose a restaurant and settled in. The thing with eating in places like this, is that you are paying for the setting rather than the restaurant. If you are aware of this, then it doesn't matter. A bottle of wine was 22 euros... a litre is 8 in some small back street restaurants... but sitting beside the Pantheon, eating a fabulous salad, sipping ice cold wine in the Roman sunshine....life sometimes just doesn't get much better.
We grabbed a taxi home (after another gelato of course) and then just relaxed for a while before coming out for the evening. We found a restaurant near the entrance to the Trastevere which did a good menu and was really cheap... just as we were settling into our meal, 2 girls came and set next to us... lo and behold, if it wasn't the same 2 girls that had sat next to us the night before in the restaurant!! Just one of those funny coincidences! We had fabulous food... but the highlight was dads steak. He absolutely adored it, and it was cooked to perfection! It was so much quieter compared to the night before. It was just a lovely day all round, even if not planned!
On the Monday we had another unplanned situation occur. We had intended to go to the Palatine Hill as none of us had ever been there. However, with the change in the buses, it was very difficult to get there, so we grabbed the next 870 that came and we got off at the top of Gianicolo Hill. We stopped to admire the view, take photographs and generally have a relax. The views are some of the best in Rome and are well worthy of taking a trip up there, especially on a clear day. We waited for the next bus to come clattering through and went into town. As it wasn't quite lunchtime we went for a drink to decide where we wanted to eat. We sat in the same bar that we had been to the day before just off the Piazza Navona. As we were sitting there, a waiter came out and instantly I recognised him. He had been mine and mums waiter when we had had a long relaxed lunch in a restaurant last May, and then he had also worked in the same restaurant where we had celebrated my birthday this May with my family. It was great that he recognised us and we had a lovely chat. We wandered into the back streets of Piazza Navona to find somewhere cheap to have lunch. We found a tiny little restaurant on a side street where the pizzas were 6-7 euros and 8 euros for a litre of wine. Perfect, and the food was excellent. I think that meal was one of the best I have ever had in Rome.
We had plans later that afternoon to meet Tiziana and Federico for beer at a little pub near Piazza Navona which worked out nicely as that was where we wanted to have our final meal. We met for beer and had a great couple of hours. We laughed, chatted, talked about anything and everything and made firm plans for me to meet them on Saturday.
We made our way round to the restaurant where we had chosen to eat and we settled in. As the waiter came over he looked at me, looked at my parents and said "Have you been here before? It was your birthday?" He remembered us from when we had been there in May for my birthday. I just think that's amazing - that is 2 waiters that remembered us! We started chatting and we were talking about me staying in Rome for a while. He was such a nice chap, it just makes the evening a little more special when things like that happen. We had good food, good wine, good panna cotta and then got a taxi home :)
So Tuesday was the day that mum and dad were due to go home. We didn't want to go into town as it would be too tiring and stressful so we decided to go to the park with a picnic and spend some time there. Off we went with a rucksack full of food and drink and we made our way through the park to the lake. We took some old bread to feed the turtles and the ducks while dad sat and relaxed. We then wandered back through to a nice shady area, lay the blanket down and ate our homemade lunch. Not quite pizza but a mortadella roll and fruit with wine in a plastic cup was perfect for that day. We made our way back to the apartment until it was time for them to get a cab to the airport.
It was such a wonderful few days. Can't wait to see them again... Until Verona!!! :)
Ossobuc - Meat with a hole - vale shank yummy
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