A sweet taste of Rome

We are boarding a cruise ship today in Civitavecchia, so we planned this trip to Rome as a short buffer in case our flights from the U.S. were delayed.

Our flight out of JFK was delayed for three hours on the tarmac—our first time being on a plane that taxied and then turned around to offboard a passenger—and it took us a while to make our way from the airport in Rome to our hotel, so when we finally did arrive at The Hoxton we were pretty wiped. We enjoyed a good, early dinner in the hotel’s restaurant, and set out after an excellent breakfast the next morning to see some sights before it got too hot.

A leisurely stroll through the Villa Borghese Gardens was a great way to start our exploration. From there we made our way to the Spanish Steps, weaving our way through many fellow tourists as we descended the much visited, monumental 135-step stairway. A few years ago, fines were enacted for sitting on the stairs (€250) or dirtying them (€400) but no one seemed to be concerned about enforcement while we were there.

It has been scorching hot and humid in Rome, so from the steps, we made our way to a sidewalk cafe to cool down with some sparkling water before heading on to the Fontana di Trevi.

There were lots of people at the the largest Baroque fountain in the world but we were able to get close enough to take a few photos, in alignment with Google Maps’ assessment of it being “not too busy.”

By then we’d walked about 5 kilometers and were ready to take a cab back to our hotel. We made a “confirmed” dinner reservation online to eat at a nearby restaurant, known as a great place for pizza, or “pinse” as the Romans call it. Unfortunately, we were greeted by a “closed for vacation” notice when we got to the establishment that evening. After some quick online searching and a couple of phone calls, we took a taxi to Giano, a Sicilian restaurant at the W.

The food at Giano was delicious and the courtyard seating a pleasant way to wind down our day. We had a grouper carpaccio and a slow cooked veal antipasti, and “bottoni” stuffed with shrimp and spaghetti with clams as our pastas. A shared Sicilian cannoli capped our meal and was a sweet way to mark our time in Rome.Read more