We thought we would just drop off our luggage upon arrival at the hotel and begin exploring Rome, but they said if we waited about 30 minutes, our room would be ready! We stayed at this hotel in 2007 and requested the same room. After checking in and getting into our room (the one we requested), we freshened up and headed out for lunch. We wanted to try a restaurant that Tony Bourdain went to in his Rome episode of No Reservations. After about a 30-minute walk, we ended up in the Trastevere area and found Ristorante Roma Sparita (http://www.romasparita.com/).
We ordered an appetizer of the deep fried zucchini blossoms, pretty darn good, with a slight taste of anchioves.
After lunch, we explored the area a bit, got a little lost near the Colosseum, and eventually ended up back at the hotel.
Chris making an assessment of the Tiber River
We got to bed early, setting the alarm so as not to oversleep. The next morning we were up early and went to the café below the hotel to have a café macchietto and a cornetto. A cornetto is a lightly sweetened croissant that we came to really enjoy.
We checked out of the hotel and hiked over to the train station, which was not easy with all our luggage! Deb needs to perfect the art of packing light in future trips! We arrived after about a 20-minute hike. Unfortunately, the platform for our train was way outside the main terminal, so there was more trekking with luggage involved. Who knew that the trains going to Perugia would be absolutely packed with Italians heading to the EuroChocolate Festival. Luckily, we both found seats, but the train ride was a bit uncomfortable with all the people crammed into the isles. We purchased second class tickets for 9 euro, but in hindsight, we should have purchased first class tickets. The train ride to Foligno in Umbria was about 2 hours. It was fun watching and listening to all the locals on the train! We got off the train and headed to the Avis car rental office located outside the train station. We got the car without any issues, and we were soon off to our self-catering apartment.
Umbria Countryside
All the stores close for siesta from 1pm – 4pm, so we unpacked quickly and headed off to a market to pick up some items we would need. We did our grocery shopping in a small town called Bastardo.
We just had to get a picture of the "Leaving Bastardo" sign!
Our fireplace that we used almost every evening!
Front view of our apartment at Le Case Gialle
Olive trees on the Le Case Gialle ranch
A few more olive trees!
Olives almost ready to be harvested
View from our terrace
We visited many of the local hilltowns and villages in the Umbria region as well as many of the towns’ local markets. Chris was able to get some linen dish towels at the markets, and Deb managed to find a scarf that she liked. Umbria is an area where olive oil production and truffles are their main claim to fame! The new olive oils were just starting to show up. We found a restaurant that became a favorite in the town of Montefalco. Enoteca L’Alchimista is located in the basement of a food shop and offered complimentary bruschetta featuring local new olive oil. Chris brought home a bottle of it.
We had a few lunches at L'Achimista in Montefalco
Deb ordered gnocchi cinghiale (wild boar) that was so very good but large for a lunch entree. However, Deb did her best to finish it!
One of our many after dinner café macchietti!
Deb making a quick stop at the Bancomat (ATM) in
Montefalco for a euro pickup!
We visited Assisi, which had gorgeous architecture, but we felt underwhelmed by all the stores selling cheap souvenirs. Assisi is a small Umbrian town in central Italy, located 12 miles east of Perugia at an elevation of 1,300 feet. Assisi is best known as the birthplace of St. Francis of Assisi — patron saint of Italy, founder of the Franciscan order, and one of the most popular Catholic saints in history. Assisi has been a major Catholic pilgrimage destination for centuries and is today one of the most popular tourist destinations in Italy. We walked around Assisi for a while.
Assisi - Cattedrale Di S. Rufino -
Chris recalled seeing a picture of this church in one of his school day textbooks!
Assisi - Candy Shop
Assisi - Bakery Shop
Assisi - Inside the Bakery Shop
We wanted to explore the area around Assisi and ended up driving up a high mountain. There must have been some religious sites along the way because we saw many pilgrims walking up the mountain road. When we got to the top of the mountain, we were surprised by what we found up there!
We wondered if the cows would attack our car!
We loved the town of Orvieto, where we had to take a funicular (cable railway car) to get to the top of the town.
Lago di Corbara outside of Orvieto
One of Orvieto's tiny streets!
Market Day in Orvieto
Orvieto Market Day - Porchetta Truck
We had a great lunch at a small out of the way restaurant, Trattoria dell Orso, that we happened upon and had a nice chat with the proprietor who spoke English surprisingly well.
Should we try this restaurant?
Chris had pasta with truffles. The truffles here were the best of the trip. Deb had a bowl of rustic Zuppa di Farro. Lunch was delicious!
We also visited the hilltown of Spoleto, where we had to take 9 sets of escalators, recently built, to reach the top of the town. It was interesting that such a modern method of transportation was built on a town that was hundreds of years old!
Deruta was another hilltown we spent some time exploring on two separate days. Deruta is a small town known for its classical and modern ceramics and pottery. Many of the shops had signs posted that no picture taking was allowed, so we have few pictures.
They even have beautiful ceramic tiles implanted in the cement sidewalks.
A lovely dessert of profiteroles that did not stand a chance!
Market Day in Deruta. The gentleman in his porchetta truck actually asked one of his customers to step aside so that Chris could take his picture!
Chris loves the little cars!
Our last morning at Le Case Gialle, we woke to rainy cool weather. We tidied up the apartment and finished packing. After checking out, we returned our rental car in Foligno and headed to Rome on the train for the next part of our adventure.
Because we got first class train tickets (18 euro), we easily found large comfortable seating in the first class coach. Poor Chris was a trooper hauling Deb's big piece of luggage.
Are we there yet? On the train from Foligno to Rome.
Pietro, the owner of the apartment in Rome where we would spend the next three nights, called to see if we made the train on time. He had called us earlier in the week, offering to pick us up at the train station and check us into his apartment. There was a nicely dressed gentleman in our coach who let us know when we would be arriving at the correct stop in Rome. Unfortunately for him, he did not have a first class ticket and he and the conductor got into a heated argument (in Italian!) and he ended up with a ticket! We met up with Pietro at the train station and he whisked us off in his van pointing our several historical sites and offering bits of information. The apartment building was located just down the street from the Colosseum, so the ride was not long. The apartment was on the top floor (6th floor) of the building and had a very small old fashioned elevator (http://www.vrbo.com/32035). We got into the apartment, with both Chris and Pietro hauling my luggage! The apartment was very nice. It had two floors connected by a spiral staircase. We are getting too old for those kind of staircases, but it was very beautiful. It was designed and built by Pietro, who is an architect. He showed us around the apartment and then brought us to the best part,,,the upstairs terrace that had a great view of the Colosseum. Pietro brought a bottle of wine and some olive focaccia and fennel and sweet rolls, and we sat around the dining room table talking about different places we could visit during our stay. After a while, he was on his way and we set out to do some exploring.
Some interesting looking flowers (Angel Trumpets) outside the entrance to our building
In the tiny elevator heading up to the 6th floor -
Good thing Deb is not claustrophobic!
The Colosseum and a chilled glass of prosecco!
The Colosseum at night from the terrace
Deb's favorite part of the apartment was the washing machine in the downstairs bathroom. For some reason, she loves doing laundry on vacation and was able to use it several times and hang the clothes out on the terrace!
We found a small grocery store where the man will fill up your empty wine bottles for about 1 euro. We went back there a few times! What a deal!!There was also a pastry shop called L’Antica Cornetteria right across the street.
We bought several cornetti while staying at this apartment.
We took the subway to the Vatican, where we got the treat of seeing the Pope in the PopeMobile in St. Peter's Square.
General audience with the Pope
The Fish Guy seemed quite happy to have his photo taken!
There's always time to stop for a quick gelato!
We even managed to have a margherita pizza!
We stopped at a great leather shop (La Sella) where Deb was able to get a case for her glasses and a wallet for her son-in-law, Jon. We ate gelato whenever we wanted. We went to the Pantheon and were struck by the beauty of something built so long ago and without computers! As the Colosseum and the Forum were just down the street from our apartment, we made several visits to both. Rome has so much to offer and there is so much you can do. We never made it to the Spanish Steps or the Trevi Fountain, but now we have a reason to return to Rome again!
We went to the Piazza Navonna and then off to the Pantheon.
Lots of naked guys hanging out at the Piazza Navonna!
The oculus in the ceiling of the Pantheon.
The beautiful marble floor in the Pantheon
Could we even fit in this?
There were several restaurants in the area of the apartment that Pietro had pointed out to us. We tried one of them, Ostaria I Buoni Amici, liked it so much we went twice. Their specialty was spaghetti with clams and moscardini (deep fried baby octopus). Both dishes were excellent.
Moscardini
Chris enjoyed the spaghetti with clams!
On our second visit there, we had the spaghetti carbonara. They had to move us to accommodate a large party and they gave us limoncello and Italian cookies on the house.
We also tried a few others on our list. One was il Ristorante Naumachia (http://www.naumachiaroma.com/). We really enjoyed our dinner here. Deb ordered an appetizer of the deep fried zucchini blossoms and Chris ordered brushetta. Deb had ravioli and Chris had tagliatelle with truffles for our main course. We had a liter of house wine and a limoncello and espresso. The total bill was 41 euro.
Another restaurant on my list to try was Ai Tre Scalini. We went there at lunchtime. It was a very nice restaurant as well. Our waiter must have been new as his hands were a bit shakey when he was taking our order. It was beautifully furnished, but the chairs were very narrow. We both barely fit in them!
Just before our order arrived a group of "gladiator" dressed men came in for their lunch. They stand along the street at the Colosseum to pose for pictures for a fee.
Chris ordered spaghetti with clams and Deb ordered the spaghetti carbonara. While we were eating, one of the gladiators said “bon appetito” as he passed on his way to the men’s room! It was also funny to note that they were drinking beer, while we were drinking wine!
Our last morning in Rome came, and we packed up the last of our stuff. The driver from RomeCabs was on time, and off we went to airport. Our flight was at 11:10am; however, there was a delay in taking off. We missed our connection in Washington, but the airline put us on a flight five hours later. We were both exhausted and were able to sleep in the lounge for a bit. We boarded our plane, and Deb was asleep before we even took off. She awoke when the pilot announced that we were landing in Providence! We got to our car around midnight and headed for home.
Our final impressions were that Umbria is a beautiful region of Italy, and the people are very friendly. It was unfortunate that the weather had turned cool, and we could not take advantage of some activities because of the weather. We also found that it was a pretty rustic area not filled with tourists in most places. We had to drive everywhere we wanted to go. Chris was not all that excited about the Rome portion of our trip, but once we got there that emotion changed quickly. He seemed to really enjoy the hustle and bustle of a large city and now asks…"So When Are We Going Back?"
