Orto Botanico

After lunch and a nap, we decided to go to Campo do Fiore to see the statue of Giordano Bruno who was burned at the stake for believing the earth revolved around the sun. There is usually a market around the statue, but it has wrapped up before we arrived. The square marks the spot where he was burned alive and where many people were executed. Apparently that's how many hotels in the area got their start as these executions were entertainment.

We walked a bit further to meet our tour guide for our food tour. His name was Luca and he would guide us for the next 3.5 hours around the foodie neighbourhood of Travestere, which is the neighbourhood we are staying in.

There were only 8 of us on the tour, so it was a great group. We started at a cheese shop that is so well known that there is no signage. We sampled so many cheeses! Parmigiana regiano, pecorino romana, buffalo mozzarella, and burrata to name the few I remember. We also had prosecco to cleanse our palates in between, of course.

The next stop was a place that serves only baccala- a fried salt cod. It is a typical Roman street food and it was insanely delicious! You have to believe that a place that only serves one dish does it well and this place wad so good that Evan wants to go back tomorrow for lunch!

A literal farm to table restaurant was our next stop. We had organic wine, toasted breads with a caramelized onion spread and one with a potato and veggie mix. We also had house sausages which were exceptional. The owners actually run the farm where almost all the ingredients are harvested, so the menu changes often.

We were hardly halfway done when we stopped at a typical pizza joint (rectangles that you fold in half) and had a slice. Evan also wants to return to this place!

Next stop was a sit down dinner with antipasti and primi courses. We started with bruschetta, melon and prosciutto, and caponata (a mixture of eggplant and celery and seasoned with sweet vinegar). For the primi course we had a sample of both the cacio e pepe and amatriciana, both were delicious! This was our first sampling of Roman pasta too!

You might think that our tour was over, but we all had a spot of room for gelato! Lucca taught us how to spot the real thing as opposed to the fake gelato and then we got to choose two flavours. I had pistachio and four-chocolate; Brad had crime brûlée and fig, cheese and almond; and Evan had four-chocolate and pure chocolate. It was truly spectacular - Evan said he would never enjoy ice cream again, although I doubt that is true.

We thanked Lucca and headed towards our apartment with a quick detour at Big Star, which is a bar. We got a table outside and Brad and I had beer while Evan worked on his journal. Another great day in Rome!Read more