Rome Trip Report: A mother/daughter Christmas trip to the Eternal City
Jan 13th, 2008, 02:37 PM
#41
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 2,478
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Day Six, December 28th
Mom and I started out early this morning it was our Scavi tour day!
This was not part of the RS tour group. While planning for this trip I came across a lot of posts on Fodors about the Scavi tour and how great it was, so last February I sent off an email to the Scavi office in September I got the email notification that I had 2 places for December 28th at 9:15am, I promptly sent in my payment, it was 10 Euros each and we were scheduled!
We were on the metro by 7:45am, not know how quickly we could get to The Vatican during that time in the morning, we left early. We got to the train platform and in mere seconds a train was there. We arrived at St. Peter’s Square just after 8am. We took advantage of the almost empty square and took lots of pictures. We then went into the basilica for another look around.
At about 9am we went to the Swiss Guard with our Scavi reservation email and were allowed in and directed to the Scavi office. We were a few minutes early and told to come back in 10 minutes, so we stepped outside the office and waited. We got our tickets 10 minutes later and a few minutes later the tour began.
Our guide was Katerina and she was a wealth of knowledge. It was truly amazing to be able to walk along the ancient streets and see the mausoleums with the mosaic floors and colorful walls. But the most interesting part was seeing the box the bones of St. Peter are in. There were only 11 people on our tour and the whole tour took about one hour.
Once we finished the tour we made our way to the #40 bus and took it to Largo Argentina from there we popped over to a shoe store I had spied during the Jewish Ghetto and Trastevere walking tour on Christmas Eve. The shop was now open and I wanted to try on a pair of shoes. But the shoes gods were not in my favor because they didn’t have my size in the color I wanted; well at least I saved 150 Euro!
We then walked over to the group meeting place near the Capitalini Museum to depart for the group cooking demonstration. I have to say the day before we were going to pass on attending this demonstration and do something else, but we hadn’t decided what that something else would be (expect finding the shoe store!) and Donato really encouraged us to go to the cooking demonstration…we are VERY glad we went!
We took the public bus to the restaurant. It was Ristorante Lumie di Sicilia located at Via Fratelli Bonnet, 14. I believe this area of Rome is called Gianicolo, but I’m not positive about that. This restaurant specializes in Sicilian cuisine and it was Excellent! It clearly made up for the mediocre meal the night before. The cooking demonstration was fun, we just got to stand in the kitchen while the chef and owner explained how each course we would be having was made. We started with a salad with proscuitto and parmesan cheese, then 2 pasta dishes…one pistachio pasta the other pasta alla norma (with eggplant) they were both TOO DIE FOR!! The second course was a pork cutlet rolled and stuffed with cheese and breadcrumbs served over eggplant. The finishing touch was canola and espresso which were both out of this world good! I had originally declined having the coffee, but after one sip my mom said, “You have to have one”. Donato was sitting with us and offered me his…see, a great guide…but he did go back into the kitchen to get himself one too!
I am so glad we went to this group activity. The restaurant was terrific; typically a regular meal there would cost about 50 Euro per person.
Lunch ended at about 3:30pm and we took the bus back to Piazza Venezia. From there we went up to the Victor Emmanuel monument and took some pictures. We did not take the elevator to the very top, but just walked up to the middle level and still had a good view! From there mom went back to the hotel on the “packed like sardines’ #40 bus and I spent some time wandering around the Piazza Navona area and did find the Santa Maria Novella shop. I had read about this shop on Fodors and wanted to go in and check out the soaps, and creams, and lotions. I did purchase some wonderful foot cream and cuticle cream…my big purchases for this trip! I decided to walk back to the hotel instead of taking the bus and had a great stroll through the Centro Storico…lots of people were out and about.
Because we had such a big lunch, we decided to skip dinner and get a good night’s sleep for the next day’s trip to Ostia Antica!
Mom and I started out early this morning it was our Scavi tour day!
This was not part of the RS tour group. While planning for this trip I came across a lot of posts on Fodors about the Scavi tour and how great it was, so last February I sent off an email to the Scavi office in September I got the email notification that I had 2 places for December 28th at 9:15am, I promptly sent in my payment, it was 10 Euros each and we were scheduled!
We were on the metro by 7:45am, not know how quickly we could get to The Vatican during that time in the morning, we left early. We got to the train platform and in mere seconds a train was there. We arrived at St. Peter’s Square just after 8am. We took advantage of the almost empty square and took lots of pictures. We then went into the basilica for another look around.
At about 9am we went to the Swiss Guard with our Scavi reservation email and were allowed in and directed to the Scavi office. We were a few minutes early and told to come back in 10 minutes, so we stepped outside the office and waited. We got our tickets 10 minutes later and a few minutes later the tour began.
Our guide was Katerina and she was a wealth of knowledge. It was truly amazing to be able to walk along the ancient streets and see the mausoleums with the mosaic floors and colorful walls. But the most interesting part was seeing the box the bones of St. Peter are in. There were only 11 people on our tour and the whole tour took about one hour.
Once we finished the tour we made our way to the #40 bus and took it to Largo Argentina from there we popped over to a shoe store I had spied during the Jewish Ghetto and Trastevere walking tour on Christmas Eve. The shop was now open and I wanted to try on a pair of shoes. But the shoes gods were not in my favor because they didn’t have my size in the color I wanted; well at least I saved 150 Euro!
We then walked over to the group meeting place near the Capitalini Museum to depart for the group cooking demonstration. I have to say the day before we were going to pass on attending this demonstration and do something else, but we hadn’t decided what that something else would be (expect finding the shoe store!) and Donato really encouraged us to go to the cooking demonstration…we are VERY glad we went!
We took the public bus to the restaurant. It was Ristorante Lumie di Sicilia located at Via Fratelli Bonnet, 14. I believe this area of Rome is called Gianicolo, but I’m not positive about that. This restaurant specializes in Sicilian cuisine and it was Excellent! It clearly made up for the mediocre meal the night before. The cooking demonstration was fun, we just got to stand in the kitchen while the chef and owner explained how each course we would be having was made. We started with a salad with proscuitto and parmesan cheese, then 2 pasta dishes…one pistachio pasta the other pasta alla norma (with eggplant) they were both TOO DIE FOR!! The second course was a pork cutlet rolled and stuffed with cheese and breadcrumbs served over eggplant. The finishing touch was canola and espresso which were both out of this world good! I had originally declined having the coffee, but after one sip my mom said, “You have to have one”. Donato was sitting with us and offered me his…see, a great guide…but he did go back into the kitchen to get himself one too!
I am so glad we went to this group activity. The restaurant was terrific; typically a regular meal there would cost about 50 Euro per person.
Lunch ended at about 3:30pm and we took the bus back to Piazza Venezia. From there we went up to the Victor Emmanuel monument and took some pictures. We did not take the elevator to the very top, but just walked up to the middle level and still had a good view! From there mom went back to the hotel on the “packed like sardines’ #40 bus and I spent some time wandering around the Piazza Navona area and did find the Santa Maria Novella shop. I had read about this shop on Fodors and wanted to go in and check out the soaps, and creams, and lotions. I did purchase some wonderful foot cream and cuticle cream…my big purchases for this trip! I decided to walk back to the hotel instead of taking the bus and had a great stroll through the Centro Storico…lots of people were out and about.
Because we had such a big lunch, we decided to skip dinner and get a good night’s sleep for the next day’s trip to Ostia Antica!
Jan 13th, 2008, 02:44 PM
#42
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 2,855
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
So far, I am very impressed with the Rick Steves tour. Sounds like you had a lot of free time. How many persons were in your group? Was it an average size or are the groups larger at other times of the year?
Jan 13th, 2008, 05:11 PM
#44
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 707
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Rick Steves tours are 24 - 28 people. I went on his Best of France in July 2007. We had free time, but were kept busy enough to make it far worth our money. I rate the tour a 9.5 out of 10. I am going on the Rick Steves Best of Britain in July 2008. www.ricksteves.com
Jan 13th, 2008, 05:23 PM
#45
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 2,478
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
LCBoniti...
There were 23 people on this RS tour. I don't think the time of year had an effect on the numbers.
The other RS tours I have been on have had between 25-28 people. That's one of the things I like about these tours, the numbers are manageable. And on the longer tours where we are on a bus, it's always a 50 seater bus for 25-28 people, it's kind of nice to be able to spread out!
There were 23 people on this RS tour. I don't think the time of year had an effect on the numbers.
The other RS tours I have been on have had between 25-28 people. That's one of the things I like about these tours, the numbers are manageable. And on the longer tours where we are on a bus, it's always a 50 seater bus for 25-28 people, it's kind of nice to be able to spread out!
Jan 13th, 2008, 06:07 PM
#46
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 2,478
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Day Seven, December 29th
Today was another great weather day. Sunny skies and about 57 (F). We left the hotel at 8am and took a motor coach to Ostia Antica. This was ancient Rome’s seaport. There were remains of warehouses, apartments, shops, baths, and a theater. I was amazed to see how big this place is and much is still intact. We arrived just around 9am and there were hardly any other people there…we almost had the whole place to ourselves…I had prime picture taking opportunities!
Donato walked with us for about one hour pointing out significant areas and then we had about an hour to just wander around on our own. Because we had such great weather I took over 100 pictures! (I will post a link to my online photo album).
Lunch was on our own, but since there is only the cafeteria near the museum, we were a captive food audience. Mom and I decided to have lunch and the food was excellent there. We had quiche and a sausage and peas with ham dish that were both very good. We split each item in half so we could both taste each one. And we capped it off with 2 cappuccinos.
We left Ostia Antica at about 1pm and went to the Catacombs of San Callisto. It was a pretty large complex and we participated in one of the English speaking tours. It was fairly interesting, but it couldn’t beat the Scavi tour at The Vatican. The tour of the catacombs lasted about 40 minutes.
We were back on the bus and returned to the hotel at about 4:30pm. At 5:30pm we decided to walk down to the Centro Storico to do a little shopping. It was another crowded evening on the streets of Rome. The plan was to have dinner at a restaurant I knew about via Fodors called Amando Al Pantheon, but they were closed…on a Saturday night! My back-up place was also near the Pantheon called Ristorante Pigna but they were closed until after January 1 for the holiday. Thank God I remembered a Fodorite (Ekscrunchy) recommending a place called Ristorante Archimede Sant Eustachio located at Piazza die Caprettari, 63 (www.archimedesanteustachio.it), near the Sant’ Eustachio café where we had cappuccino earlier in the week! We found the restaurant, but it didn’t open until 8pm. So we had about 50 minutes to kill.
We went over to the Piazza Rotundo where the Pantheon is located and had a drink in an outdoor café equipped with outdoor heaters. Before we sat down I warned my mom, these will probably be the most expensive glasses of wine will have. Her reply was how much could they be? I said probably around 25 Euro…guess who was right? Yup, looking at the menu one glass of one was about 10 Euro. However, I decided I wanted a glass of prosecco and mom ordered what we thought would be one glass of wine, instead she got a half liter bottle that on the menu said 10 Euro. If I knew it was going to be a half liter bottle we could have ordered one with 2 glasses, but in the end it was only 15 Euro, so not as costly as I thought it would be.
Shortly after 8pm we headed over to the restaurant. I was a bit apprehensive because we didn’t have a reservation, but we were warmly greeted when we entered and we were seated with no trouble. The waiter was very friendly and helped me stumble through my very limited Italian, I’m sure he could speak English, but he helped me along when I tried to pronounce the items we wanted to order…it was lots of fun!
We had a bottle of wine, and started with the fried artichokes which after sitting down and reading the menu I started to remember one of the comments I had read about this place and recalled that it was known for the fried artichokes and it was good move to order them, they were delicious!
Mom had spaghetti carbonara, and I had the bucatini alla amatriciana, both were terrific. We split the second course of eggplant parmigiana which melted in the mouth. We ended the meal with biscotti and espresso. The bill for this meal was 80 Euro and this was another meal we thoroughly enjoyed!
This was another great day capped off by a wonderful meal.
Today was another great weather day. Sunny skies and about 57 (F). We left the hotel at 8am and took a motor coach to Ostia Antica. This was ancient Rome’s seaport. There were remains of warehouses, apartments, shops, baths, and a theater. I was amazed to see how big this place is and much is still intact. We arrived just around 9am and there were hardly any other people there…we almost had the whole place to ourselves…I had prime picture taking opportunities!
Donato walked with us for about one hour pointing out significant areas and then we had about an hour to just wander around on our own. Because we had such great weather I took over 100 pictures! (I will post a link to my online photo album).
Lunch was on our own, but since there is only the cafeteria near the museum, we were a captive food audience. Mom and I decided to have lunch and the food was excellent there. We had quiche and a sausage and peas with ham dish that were both very good. We split each item in half so we could both taste each one. And we capped it off with 2 cappuccinos.
We left Ostia Antica at about 1pm and went to the Catacombs of San Callisto. It was a pretty large complex and we participated in one of the English speaking tours. It was fairly interesting, but it couldn’t beat the Scavi tour at The Vatican. The tour of the catacombs lasted about 40 minutes.
We were back on the bus and returned to the hotel at about 4:30pm. At 5:30pm we decided to walk down to the Centro Storico to do a little shopping. It was another crowded evening on the streets of Rome. The plan was to have dinner at a restaurant I knew about via Fodors called Amando Al Pantheon, but they were closed…on a Saturday night! My back-up place was also near the Pantheon called Ristorante Pigna but they were closed until after January 1 for the holiday. Thank God I remembered a Fodorite (Ekscrunchy) recommending a place called Ristorante Archimede Sant Eustachio located at Piazza die Caprettari, 63 (www.archimedesanteustachio.it), near the Sant’ Eustachio café where we had cappuccino earlier in the week! We found the restaurant, but it didn’t open until 8pm. So we had about 50 minutes to kill.
We went over to the Piazza Rotundo where the Pantheon is located and had a drink in an outdoor café equipped with outdoor heaters. Before we sat down I warned my mom, these will probably be the most expensive glasses of wine will have. Her reply was how much could they be? I said probably around 25 Euro…guess who was right? Yup, looking at the menu one glass of one was about 10 Euro. However, I decided I wanted a glass of prosecco and mom ordered what we thought would be one glass of wine, instead she got a half liter bottle that on the menu said 10 Euro. If I knew it was going to be a half liter bottle we could have ordered one with 2 glasses, but in the end it was only 15 Euro, so not as costly as I thought it would be.
Shortly after 8pm we headed over to the restaurant. I was a bit apprehensive because we didn’t have a reservation, but we were warmly greeted when we entered and we were seated with no trouble. The waiter was very friendly and helped me stumble through my very limited Italian, I’m sure he could speak English, but he helped me along when I tried to pronounce the items we wanted to order…it was lots of fun!
We had a bottle of wine, and started with the fried artichokes which after sitting down and reading the menu I started to remember one of the comments I had read about this place and recalled that it was known for the fried artichokes and it was good move to order them, they were delicious!
Mom had spaghetti carbonara, and I had the bucatini alla amatriciana, both were terrific. We split the second course of eggplant parmigiana which melted in the mouth. We ended the meal with biscotti and espresso. The bill for this meal was 80 Euro and this was another meal we thoroughly enjoyed!
This was another great day capped off by a wonderful meal.
Jan 13th, 2008, 06:50 PM
#47
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 2,478
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Day Eight, December 30th
The day began with a walk to the Borghese Gallery under sunny blue skies, another great weather day!
It took about 30 minutes by foot to get to the Borghese from the hotel. We met Francesca at about 8:40am and got set-up with the whisper audio system. We had a 9am reservation and went right in. Francesca took us through and pointed out the major works by Caravaggio and Bernini, they were absolutely amazing. And Francesca really helped me understand what these sculptures and paintings tell us. Instead of just looking at them, Francesca pointed out what the artist’s wanted us to see. She was a GREAT guide.
After the Borghese we walked through the park and it is probably beautiful in warmer weather. We then walked down the Via Venato and made our way to the Spanish Steps which was a sea of people. After a brief history of the steps and a general orientation of the area Donato let us lose for our last final day in Rome. Mom and I started down Via Condotti an stopped in Café Grecco, a famous haunt of Keats and Shelley. We each had a cappuccino freddo and they served it with little butter cookies. The café has been there since the 1700’s.
After our coffee break, we hopped on the metro and came back to the Repubblica stop. We found a specialty food shop and got some porcini mushrooms in oil, artichoke cream, red pepper and pistachios to bring back home. Then we came back to the hotel to start getting ready for our departure tomorrow!
At 6:45pm we met the group for our final group dinner. We walked to the restaurant in the Centro Storico. The name of the restaurant was The Sacred and Profound. And I forgot to take a business card, so I don’t have the address. The building used to be a church and the owners have had frescoes painted on the walls and ceiling. The cuisine was Calabrian. We started with a huge selection of antipasto, which included bread, spicy fish paste, swordfish, potatoes & yellow & orange peppers, and eggplant parmigiana (my favorite). The second course was veal saltimbocca, which was very good. For dessert we had tiramisu…it was another good meal.
At the final meal Donato passed out the recipes from the cooking demonstration. After dinner we all strolled over to the Trevi Fountain to throw our coins in. While at the fountain it started to rain. Rather appropriate since when we arrived in Rome it was also raining…we had come full circle!
We all went back to the hotel and said our goodbyes. Mom and I wouldn’t be seeing anyone at breakfast the next morning because are taxi was picking us up at 7am.
Day Nine, December 31st
We were up early and our taxi was at the hotel right at 7am on the button. We booked our return to the airport with Rome Cabs and had a different driver this time. Unfortunately I didn’t get her name, but she was just as good as Luca who drove us on our arrival. We rode to the airport in a Mercedes sedan, we were making such great time the driver even asked if we wanted to stop for a cappuccino, but we declined and were at the airport by 7:30am.
There was no line at the check-in counter and we had our boarding passes and were through security by 7:45am. We stopped to get our last cappuccino and cornetti and even at the airport they were good! We had about an hour to wait at the gate and then it was smooth boarding and we took off on time!
The flights home were pleasant, well, except for the annoying boy across the aisle from us, but I mentioned that at the start of this report. We arrived at home just in time to ring in the New Year, but neither of us was able to keep our eyes open until midnight!
Mom and I had some really great experiences on this trip and some really great meals! I enjoyed being in Rome for Christmas and would do it again in a minute…hmmmm maybe next year??
Thanks all for reading and posting the great comments…mom and I are now planning for a 3 week trip to France in September/October 2008…so that means I’ll be asking lots of questions on France!
The day began with a walk to the Borghese Gallery under sunny blue skies, another great weather day!
It took about 30 minutes by foot to get to the Borghese from the hotel. We met Francesca at about 8:40am and got set-up with the whisper audio system. We had a 9am reservation and went right in. Francesca took us through and pointed out the major works by Caravaggio and Bernini, they were absolutely amazing. And Francesca really helped me understand what these sculptures and paintings tell us. Instead of just looking at them, Francesca pointed out what the artist’s wanted us to see. She was a GREAT guide.
After the Borghese we walked through the park and it is probably beautiful in warmer weather. We then walked down the Via Venato and made our way to the Spanish Steps which was a sea of people. After a brief history of the steps and a general orientation of the area Donato let us lose for our last final day in Rome. Mom and I started down Via Condotti an stopped in Café Grecco, a famous haunt of Keats and Shelley. We each had a cappuccino freddo and they served it with little butter cookies. The café has been there since the 1700’s.
After our coffee break, we hopped on the metro and came back to the Repubblica stop. We found a specialty food shop and got some porcini mushrooms in oil, artichoke cream, red pepper and pistachios to bring back home. Then we came back to the hotel to start getting ready for our departure tomorrow!
At 6:45pm we met the group for our final group dinner. We walked to the restaurant in the Centro Storico. The name of the restaurant was The Sacred and Profound. And I forgot to take a business card, so I don’t have the address. The building used to be a church and the owners have had frescoes painted on the walls and ceiling. The cuisine was Calabrian. We started with a huge selection of antipasto, which included bread, spicy fish paste, swordfish, potatoes & yellow & orange peppers, and eggplant parmigiana (my favorite). The second course was veal saltimbocca, which was very good. For dessert we had tiramisu…it was another good meal.
At the final meal Donato passed out the recipes from the cooking demonstration. After dinner we all strolled over to the Trevi Fountain to throw our coins in. While at the fountain it started to rain. Rather appropriate since when we arrived in Rome it was also raining…we had come full circle!
We all went back to the hotel and said our goodbyes. Mom and I wouldn’t be seeing anyone at breakfast the next morning because are taxi was picking us up at 7am.
Day Nine, December 31st
We were up early and our taxi was at the hotel right at 7am on the button. We booked our return to the airport with Rome Cabs and had a different driver this time. Unfortunately I didn’t get her name, but she was just as good as Luca who drove us on our arrival. We rode to the airport in a Mercedes sedan, we were making such great time the driver even asked if we wanted to stop for a cappuccino, but we declined and were at the airport by 7:30am.
There was no line at the check-in counter and we had our boarding passes and were through security by 7:45am. We stopped to get our last cappuccino and cornetti and even at the airport they were good! We had about an hour to wait at the gate and then it was smooth boarding and we took off on time!
The flights home were pleasant, well, except for the annoying boy across the aisle from us, but I mentioned that at the start of this report. We arrived at home just in time to ring in the New Year, but neither of us was able to keep our eyes open until midnight!
Mom and I had some really great experiences on this trip and some really great meals! I enjoyed being in Rome for Christmas and would do it again in a minute…hmmmm maybe next year??
Thanks all for reading and posting the great comments…mom and I are now planning for a 3 week trip to France in September/October 2008…so that means I’ll be asking lots of questions on France!
Jan 13th, 2008, 07:13 PM
#48
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 80
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
HEllo LowCountryIslander,
I'am enjoying your posts!I can hardly wait to read more!
We have a family trip planned, starting the end of July with our granddaughters for one week , followed by our sons and wives joining us the the next week in Holland.The last week of our family trip will be spent in Italy , hence our sons and family are flying out of Rome to go back to Canada. My husband and I, are planning on staying in Italy for 2 more weeks .
I have been looking for overnight accomodations in Rome for our sons and family and was so pleased to learn of the Aberdeen Hotel. I will definitely be contacting them.
I so appreciate this forum.
I'am enjoying your posts!I can hardly wait to read more!
We have a family trip planned, starting the end of July with our granddaughters for one week , followed by our sons and wives joining us the the next week in Holland.The last week of our family trip will be spent in Italy , hence our sons and family are flying out of Rome to go back to Canada. My husband and I, are planning on staying in Italy for 2 more weeks .
I have been looking for overnight accomodations in Rome for our sons and family and was so pleased to learn of the Aberdeen Hotel. I will definitely be contacting them.
I so appreciate this forum.
Jan 14th, 2008, 04:45 AM
#49
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 2,478
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Let's hope this works! Below is the tiny url link to my kodak gallery photo album from my trip to Rome. When I tried the link it did work, so I hope it works here. If not, post back to let me know and I will figure out a way to post another link.
Warning...there are 587 pictures!
http://tinyurl.com/33noom
Thanks again for reading!
Warning...there are 587 pictures!
http://tinyurl.com/33noom
Thanks again for reading!
Jan 14th, 2008, 09:34 AM
#50
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 2,855
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The link works great!
I don't have time to look at all your pictures now, but just wanted you to know that I really enjoyed your trip report. I'm looking forward to a nice evening browsing your pictures.
I don't have time to look at all your pictures now, but just wanted you to know that I really enjoyed your trip report. I'm looking forward to a nice evening browsing your pictures.
Jan 14th, 2008, 09:54 AM
#51
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 1,072
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Thanks so much for sharing. My daugher and I made our first trip to Rome Jan. 2006 for a week. staying at the Aberdeen. Our first meal was at Dagnino. There is no city that can compare to Rome. Our 2nd trip was with a tour group May 2007 starting 3 nights in Romne. This time in our free time we tried to see things we had not done before like visiting the cat sanctuary. Also enjoyed a meal at Pallaro. Aventine Hill(beautiful rose garden in May before you go up the hill) looking through the keyhole at the city, and taking a guided tour through the Coliseum which we did not do the first time. Each time we did get to ST. Peters and the Sistine Chapel,but with the tour group I learned much I did not learn the 1st time on our own.
The guided tour this time was to see more of Italy to get to the Amalfi Coast, Florence, Tuscany and finally to Venice.
I wrote a post of our 1st trip,but never did write up the 2nd one with the tour company-Grand European Tours. There are advantages to each way of traveling,but I think when you are moving around it is much easier to have a tour company to get there. Also with a good guide you understand what you are seein so much better. Rome was very easy for us on our own.
Thanks for bringing back so many good memories.
The guided tour this time was to see more of Italy to get to the Amalfi Coast, Florence, Tuscany and finally to Venice.
I wrote a post of our 1st trip,but never did write up the 2nd one with the tour company-Grand European Tours. There are advantages to each way of traveling,but I think when you are moving around it is much easier to have a tour company to get there. Also with a good guide you understand what you are seein so much better. Rome was very easy for us on our own.
Thanks for bringing back so many good memories.
Jan 14th, 2008, 10:12 AM
#52
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 2,478
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Maryanne1...
I agree with you that there are advantages to both group travel and independent travel. I enjoy the group aspect because as you said you can learn alot from a good guide, things that I may have overlooked as an independent traveler. However, when I travel on my own it's nice to be able to set my own pace! I enjoy both ways!
Thanks for taking the time to ready my trip report!
I agree with you that there are advantages to both group travel and independent travel. I enjoy the group aspect because as you said you can learn alot from a good guide, things that I may have overlooked as an independent traveler. However, when I travel on my own it's nice to be able to set my own pace! I enjoy both ways!
Thanks for taking the time to ready my trip report!
Jan 14th, 2008, 12:20 PM
#54
Original Poster
Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 2,478
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
bfrac...
Thanks for taking the time to look at my trip pictures!
I use a Pentax Optio 4S (or maybe it's S4?) It's a compact digital that I have had for the last 2 years. It's a nifty little thing and takes pretty decent photos. It can actually fit into an Altoids mint tin!
I'm starting to become more interested in photography and have recently started to look around for the "next step up" digital camera!
Thanks for taking the time to look at my trip pictures!
I use a Pentax Optio 4S (or maybe it's S4?) It's a compact digital that I have had for the last 2 years. It's a nifty little thing and takes pretty decent photos. It can actually fit into an Altoids mint tin!
I'm starting to become more interested in photography and have recently started to look around for the "next step up" digital camera!
Jan 14th, 2008, 01:38 PM
#56
Join Date: Apr 2005
Posts: 273
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
LCI
Great trip report and I'm glad you enjoyed your trip and the tour. Our group also ate at The Sacred and Profound (Sacro e Profano) on our first night and I still remember the eggplant with the delicious tomato sauce and cheese. I still haven't successfully recreated it. I don't have the address either, but I do remember that it was very near the Trevi Fountain.
Great trip report and I'm glad you enjoyed your trip and the tour. Our group also ate at The Sacred and Profound (Sacro e Profano) on our first night and I still remember the eggplant with the delicious tomato sauce and cheese. I still haven't successfully recreated it. I don't have the address either, but I do remember that it was very near the Trevi Fountain.
Jan 14th, 2008, 02:36 PM
#58
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 2,832
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
We also dined at the Sacro e Profano during a RS trip in 2006 -- we were told that the name meant "Sacred and Profane", because the building had served in the past as both a church and a brothel! Still no help on the address, though.
Jan 14th, 2008, 03:13 PM
#59
Sacro e profano is this place, maybe? http://www.menudiroma.com/ita/locali...x?IDLocale=788 - via dei maroniti 29
