This past summer, Tom and I got the chance to visit..dare I say it…my favorite European country that I’ve visited so far. ITALY!! I had been before with my sister and completely fell in love with the culture and knew I definitely wanted to come back. The atmosphere, the food, the sights, it seriously can’t be beat. And as a lover of carbs, particularly carbonara pasta and charcuterie boards, I was so excited that I had the chance to go back.
I’ve discovered that Im not really into museums and stare at art in silence type of person. I still like to visit museums to the get to know the culture and the important of how it contributes to a country’s history, but Im more into the ambiance and experience that an attraction can provide. This is what I love about Rome, it literally is a walking museum. All the tall and grand sites such as the Trevi Fountain, Coliseum, and Pantheon are integrated into the city as normal buildings and are just amazing to walk by. I can dine by the Pantheon for lunch or walk by the Coliseum on the way to work, no big deal. You can feel so much history without feeling like you’re going into a museum.
You gotta enjoy the city as the Romans do…not having a care in the world with a beer by the Coliseum. Ok, maybe that just my way.
We started getting hungry so we headed back for our hotel. We walked by the Roman Forum on our way back, stopping at the Parliament building quickly.
After stopping by the hotel for a bit of AC lol (it is HOT in Italy during the summer) and a quick change (its very very hot), we wandered the neighboring cobble streets and decided on this restaurant Antica Trattoria Pietro Al Pantheon that was close to the hotel. The huge silver bowls of pasta looked so good, I couldn’t pass it up! They even gave us free champagne for waiting.
As a tip for when you visit: at the restaurants, the servers will almost always drop down a basket of bread and bottles of still water. You will have to pay for these if you open the water and eat the bread. To avoid this, when the waiter brings these items out, let him know that you will not eat the bread and that tap water is fine! Then save all those carbs for the pasta 😀