We woke up late today because the weather forecast said it would shower the whole day and we didn’t want a repeat of last night. Funny… it didn’t rain… THE WHOLE DAY. Who is forecasting the weather here??? He should be fired!
On the walk to the Vatican, we had to cross the Tiber river, which has a muddy light green-brown color.
Once the Tiber River is crossed, you see Castel Sant Angelo, which was the backdrop to the cruise party in Roman Holiday.
Dad wanted to go to the Vatican, so we dropped him off there around noon and said we’d pick him up at the entrance at 6pm.
The Vatican is lined by medieval-looking walls with arches. We wanted to try out the “FOB pose.” Worked out well, no? ^.^
The Vatican guards’ dress:
We heard about the water fountains that are always running in Italy… although we didn’t quite trust the cleanliness of water, based on the color of the Tiber river!
There is a food specialty store that every travel guide recommends, Castroni, on Cola di Rienza, a street situated in the back of the Vatican. Although we didn’t find anything interesting to buy there (ha they sell Kikkoman sauce for 24 euros! And French foie gras marked up 30%! AND Chinese Tuo tea for 4.5 euros… when Marina Foods sells the same for $2.69! … so much for “specialty” food shop!!!), the street is very fun to walk down. There are many street sellers, selling scarves, jewelry, clothing, shoes… AND fake luxury purses. They had LV purses, D&G, Gucci, and Guess (although Angel and I didn’t get why anybody would buy a fake Guess purse when they are relatively affordable… yet we did see people walking around with them!). The outside of the purses all look so real! Until you open the purse and the inside is cheap fabric, not leather. We were under the impression that it is a felony to buy fake luxury items in Italy, but we did see other people buy them. Reminds me of Taiwan , especially as the sellers start running at the mere threat of police coming over.
There are two gelaterias on Cola di Rienza that we think are the BEST in Rome. The first one we stopped in at, the owner was very nice and explained all the flavors to us. We bought a large cup for 4 euros to share amongst the three of us~ pistachio, chestnut and tiramisu. We liked it so much that we went back inside to buy 2 other large gelatos! Mom was too busy eating to pay me attention:
The gelato at this shop is a lot creamier than any we’ve tried so far, plus they give more generous portions ~__^.
All done and happily full (look how greedy!):
The second shop had THE most incredible chocolate fondant/dark chocolate gelato! It was oh-so-dark and chocolate-y, thick, dense and creamy.
We also got the profiteroles flavor, which was a thick zuppa inglese flavored gelato, swirled with chocolate, and the kinder flavor, a vanilla base with cookie dough and chocolate swirls.
There is a department store on the street called COIN, with Billa supermarket in the basement. We bought some stuff, and after checking out, I realized the cashier short-changed me 1 cent. 1 cent is still 1 cent (especially when in euros!), so I went back and pointed this out to her. She spoke back in rapid Italian, of which of course I had no idea what she was saying. I just stood there, assuming if I stood there long enough, she’d open her register and give me my 1 cent back. The customer after me gave me 2 cents from her purse and spoke Italian to me… I’m assuming she meant that she would get the 2 cents back from the cashier after her transaction was done. I left at that point. This happened the first day with us as well (see Caffe Accadamia). Angel later said she had heard about this from her co-workers who have traveled to Italy before. They like to short-change tourists, assuming that we won’t double-check and they’ll get to keep the “profits.” I just think that yes, you get some extra money today from doing this, but it contributes an overall negative view of the country to the rest of the world and soon (hopefully) nobody will want to visit your sorry-ass country anymore. I miss Spain and France so much! They care about their historical monuments, and not only have employees constantly cleaning and restoring everything, but citizens also respect and are proud of these monuments and like to show them off to tourists (aka are therefore friendly!). I have yet to see a single Italian employee clean up any historical monuments in all the time I’ve been here. I see a lot of Italian police standing around chatting to each other and smoking…. while on duty! The admission prices for French and Spanish museums are also affordable… the Louvre is 8 euros and Versailles is 18 euros, but it is an immense structure with a whole lot of acreage to maintain. Just about every Italian museum charge on average 15 euros admission, which is ridiculous! The Louvre is one of the most famous museums in the world, for 8 euros, while your average Joe museum in Italy is 15 euros!
We waited in line for ½ hour to get into Baffetto, a famous pizzeria in Rome. It is billed as one of the top ten pizzerias in all of Rome, plus numerous travel guides specifically list it out, plus my friend went and said it was so good that she had to go back the second day to eat it again!
When we were finally seated and ordered everything, it took another ½ hour for them to bake the pizza (baked to order). We all agreed that the pizza from Da Francesca was a lot better! The crust at Baffetto is too thin, the sauce was just “eh.” Can’t believe I waited that long for this pizza! Angel and I almost got mad when Dad decided to order COKE for 2.5 euros! In fact, here’s a list of some of the beverages Dad has ordered since we got to Italy (he needs a beverage in order to eat his meal):
Grand Cappuccino 8 EUROS!!!!!
Regular size (which is small in US) 3 euros
Cola-Cola 2.5 euros NOT refillable, unlike in the States
Sprite 2 euros
Espresso 1 euro
We were lucky that we got the only booth directly across from the pizza makers:
It is against Angel’s and my preference to buy any beverage at cafes or pay for the use of toilets, so we ended up at COIN to use their bathroom.
While we’re glad that Dad gets to enjoy the atmosphere and comfort of having drinks with his meal, we all agree that Italians overcharge (waaaaay too much!) for drinks that don’t even contain alcohol.
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