Kurt,

I am glad to see that you are getting excited about your up coming trip to Italy. I can guarantee you, you will love Rome! I read Fodor/Europe about twice a day because I feel like I am there when reading about Italy.

I wish I could back to Rome on my next 2nd honeymoon (our first honeymoon was last January but I decided I love going on honeymoon) but I want to take my husband to Venice this time around.

Also I would recommend Nino's for lunch or dinner, it is located at Via Borgognona. Great grilled fish and steak.

Please give us your trip report when you get back.

Much Aloha

Nessundorma- I will make sure I do all of those..Thank you so much for taking the time! :)

CafeGoddess- Will look for Nino's for sure! Thank you again for writing me!!

Regards,

Kurt

We were in Rome this past September for the first time. So many wonderful things to see and do. We especially enjoyed walking around in Villa Borghese and going to the Galleria Borghese(you will need to reserve tickets in advance), where we were
enthralled by Bernini's works; hanging out in Piazza Navona day and night(with the requisite tartufo and gelato from Tre Scalini); taking a private tour of the Roman Forum and Colosseum, with a leisurely lunch afterwards at La Piazzetta, a wonderful little restaurant near the Forum with an amazing antipasto bar; mingling with the crowds around the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps in the evening; touring St. Peter's (the Pieta) and the Vatican Museums (Sistine Chapel, Raphael paintings and tapestries); the Pantheon; people watching at Cafe Rosati in Piazza del Popolo. We loved the gelato at Giolitti and Il Gelato di San Crispino(especially the sublime honey flavor). Enjoyed the pizzas at tiny Da Baffetto near Piazza Navona.

Kurt, The via Appia Antica is closed to most vehicular traffic on Sundays. You can rent a bike and travel out into the countryside past tombs and villa. Lots of folks out for a passiegiata on foot, bike nad horseback. popular for runners too

AndrewDavid

I have to 3rd the suggestion of the Tartufo at Tre Scalini...if you are a chocolate lover, you will simply die when you eat it. I ate one by myself after a multi-course dinner, and had to go back next day just to have one by itself.

One view that we found to be quite nice was from Castel Sant'Angelo at dusk. The view of St. Peters is great...you are just high enough up so that you get a nice view of the city, and the illumination of the bridges to St. Peters is very cool.

We also found a hole in the wall pizza shop that we considered the best pizza we had during our entire trip in Italy. It was right outside the Pantheon...if you are looking at the Pantheon from the front, it would on its right side. Don't remember the name, but it was fabulous.

Have a great time!

I like Sant Eustachio cafe...yummy hot chocolate...check it out if you are in rome
http://www.santeustachioilcaffe.it/

Uma- Thanks for your suggestions :) Got them all down! Much appreciated..

AndrewDavid- Never knew the road existed. I certainly will consider doing this on the Sunday were there. Mucho appreciato!

J- Will certainly try them...all of them!! Thanks!

FireDrago- I heard the chocolate is sublime there. Looking forward to it bigtime. Thanks so much

Regards,

Kurt

bookmarking for my trip this winter!

I want to offer you a few more restaurant suggestions. The first is just off of Campo de' Fiori and it is called Taverna Lucifero (http://www.tavernalucifero.it/). It is a small place and rather popular among several of my Roman friends; so, I would recommend calling for reservations. One of my favorites is called Babbo's (http://freeweb.supereva.com/babbos/english_home.html?p). It has quite good food at reasonable prices. Another small, untouristy restaurant with really good food is called Renato e Luisa. It is located just off Largo Argentina at Via dei Barbieri, 25; telephone number 066869660. Here's a link to one person's review http://www.slowtrav.com/Italy/restau...amp;s=pantheon.

There is no web site for the carriage rides. Go to the Spanish Steps and talk price with a few of the drivers. We did this in September and got a great deal with the third one, so don't give up. If you want the best fish dinner in Roma go to Quincy & Gabriella and enjoy the lobster pasta or the lobster piedmont style.... People watching and pastries and coffee, not to mention the gelato are wonderful at Canova at the Piazza de Popolo. We had one not so great meal at Antico Ferria, but all the others were super, you really can't go wrong in Roma.

Cap'n, Thanks so much for the restaurants. Mucho appreciato!! :)

Dorie- Thanks again. How much did you pay for the carriage ride, if you don't mind?

Regards,
Kurt

Each time I visit, I have a different "favorite". This time it was Trastevere, specifically Piazza Santa Maria. But we were there in a relatively non-touristy part of the year, still beautiful weather, but peaceful. I don't know if I'd want to hang out there in the middle of July!

Like a lot of the respondents here, though, I'd have to say that just being in Rome, sitting in some nondescript cafe, nursing a cappuccino, watching the world go by -- that's what I most enjoy. It's just the way the place feels. And smells. And looks.

btw, I read this somewhere, and in my experience it's true: the best cappuccini are to be had at the non-famous, corner cafes, the ones the locals frequent. Not at the "fashionable" places. At the less-glitzy cafes, the "baristas" * that work in those places are the real pros. (I happen to really love good cappuccino, always have -- so maybe this isn't important to most people. Oh, well!)

* btw#2: thankfully the term "baristas" isn't used in blessedly-Starbucks-free Italia!

Have Gelato at Giolitti's! http://www.giolitti.it/home-e.html

Hello again, Kurt !!

Just a few of my suggestions based on recent experience:

One of THE best meals we ate in Rome at a wonderful, elegant, vegetarian restaurant not far from the Piazza del Popolo - MARGUTTA VEGETARIANO, Via della Fontanella 15 (b/t Via del Babuino and Via del Corso). I actually took a picture of the fried zucchini blossoms stuffed with cheese which I'd be happy to share with you if I could figure out how to attach it !!

The torta di ricotta at EDY'S, also in the same neighborhood, Via del Babuino 4. I NEVER eat Italian cheesecake in NY but this one was out of this world - light as air and delicious !! (Can you tell there's a food theme here?)

Sit at any outdoor cafe at the Campo de Fiori but make sure you get there before 1:30 - the piazza is filled with gorgeous flowers, fruits and vegetables but all the vendors start packing up by early afternoon. More wonderful pictures if I knew what to do with them.

Take your camera (or not) and walk around all the side streets surrounding the Campo de Fiori - Via del Baullari, Via del Farnese, Via del Capellari. Wander down any of them, small and winding though they seem, to find treasures of small shops and workshops like jewels.

An expresso or cappucino at any outdoor cafe surrounding a piazza - near the Pantheon, the Piazza Navona - doesn't matter. Sip, relax and people watch.

Imagine yourself as Gregory Peck in ROMAN HOLIDAY and take yourself to the Trevi Fountain with your wife (she can pretend to be Audrey Hepburn). Hell, do the touristy thing, make a wish and throw a coin - or 3 - into the fountain, preferably while eating gelato from the shop right across from it.

The Fontana della Tartarughe (Turtle Fountain), Piazza Mattei, in the old Jewish ghetto. Charming fountain and you'll enjoy exploring the neighborhood, too.

Wow, would I love to be back there right now - just uploaded over 350 photos. Could you tell we loved Rome?

An out of the way coffee bar/cafe that isn't famous but has the utterly most delecious coffee I've had in Rome is Cafe 1889, at the top of via delle Scrofa. I've tried the famous places, but I like the coffee best here.

Thanks everybody!! I find myself salivating as a write down all this stuff! I'm really excited. Hopefully there won't be much rain or cold temps.

Regards

Kurtissimo