This morning we tried the complimentary hotel breakfast. The customer service at Hotel Artemide is excellent. They are genuinely friendly. Breakfast is a nice selection including pastry (maritozza!), salami, prosciutto, cheese, salad fixings, bread, juice, and even bacon, eggs and sausage for the Americans. Also, the cappuccino is great!
First stop, the Forum, the five acre center of the Roman Empire.
After the Forum we hit the Colosseum. We had a skip the line ticket with a set entry time. This was the one place they were strict about the time. We were early and were told to come back in 15 minutes. We were happy to find a spot in the shade to sit and people watch while we waited.
The Colosseum was amazing. It is absolutely huge.
After the Colosseum we headed across the river to Trastevere. On the way we came across this very interesting man. It took us a few minutes to figure out his trick.
The walk along the river was so pretty and peaceful.
After we crossed the Tiber we stopped for grattachecca at Sora Mirella. It’s the Italian version of a slushy with hand-shaved ice and syrup. It was so refreshing! I had orange-lime and Trey had banana.
Trastevere is charming with fewer crowds than the historic center. After walking around for awhile we stopped for lunch at Le Mani in Pasta. Keeping with our theme of having pasta at least once daily, I had cacio e pepe (cacio cheese and pepper) and Trey had alla’matriciana. We did not take pictures, but trust me, they were both delicious.
Since we had already hit 10,000 steps for the day and our hotel was more than a mile away, we were able to snag a taxi for the trip back. When we got back to the hotel, Trey took a much needed nap and I went to the spa. Our honeymoon suite came with free spa access. I thoroughly enjoyed the sauna, steam room/fridgidarium (Steam room with handheld shower heads to drench yourself in cold water. Very nice.), ice bath, sensory shower and pool/jacuzzi.
Dinner was at Armando Al Pantheon, a tiny little place right next to the Pantheon.
During dinner we chatted with a young couple from NYC. He worked for the New York Times as an engineer in the cooking/food department. If you know me, you know that was right up my alley!
We started with a creamy zucchini flower toast.
Then we followed up with the obligatory, and much loved, pasta course. Trey liked my lunch cacio e pepe so much he had it for dinner. I needed to have carbonara before we left Rome so I went with that eggy, bacony, salty, creamy deliciousness.
Trey had salsiccia with white beans for his main course. The waiter suggested, almost insisted, that I try the Thursday night special, oxtail. He said people come from all over the world for it. I don’t know about that, but it was melt-in-your-mouth perfection.
For dessert we had strawberry ricotta cake, or rather, Trey mostly had the cake. While I was distracted chatting with the couple from NYC, he was steadily eating the cake. It was that good. I did have three delectable bites before it was gone. The tiny strawberries were packed with flavor. We saw them at the market the next day and didn’t buy any because we didn’t want to have to carry them around. As I write this, I’m regretting that we didn’t get some.
Full disclosure, we skipped the Pantheon visit earlier in the day. But, since the restaurant was literally next door, we were able to get a great picture of the outside.
On the way back to the hotel, we stumbled on a street performer playing the violin. The video is below. It was perfect!
Part 2, street performer in Rome.
Posted by Traveling TwoGether on Tuesday, June 25, 2019
We also stopped at the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps. We actually needed to walk up the steps per the directions to the hotel. Let me just say there are a lot of steps!
