Vero Italiano!!

An amazing introduction to Roman cuisine. Loved the entire experience. True Italian at it's best.
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Just arrived in Italy yesterday and we are all loving it.  After the longest flght in my living memory (I did not sleep, but Kathy and Shannon did), we arrived in Rome and it has been excellent. Enjoyed the drive in from the airport with a guy that I tried out my Italian on.  He kept replying in English dang it!!  Don't you hate that..  Checked in, went straight out for a stroll in Rome.  We went up to a church that we visited last time (can't remember the name just now), but it was as awe inspiring as it was last time. Just like I had never seen it before.  It was great to take in the total experience of it all.

Random piece of wonderful sculpture we discovered as we wondered through central Rome...
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The highlight of the day was dinner for me.  After having a lie down for 1 hour that lasted 4 (slept right through alarm), we strolled out to find a true Italian resturant.  We walked for about 10 minutes and looked down a back street to investigate one.  Just as we did, about 8 Italian men decided to eat there and we thought "that's it" and sat down.  Wow, what an experience.  Red wine in a jug, big plate of olives and another plate of Italian breads appeared instantly.  We ordered our meals, which arrived forthwith and thoroughly enjoyed a non touristy dinner.  At the end of the dinner, 3 liqueur bottles are put on the table, with liqueur glasses.  No charge for this...  I savoured my Limoncello and enjoyed the Rome night, as we dined al fresco.  Back to the hotel at about 11pm feeling very happy!!  Awoke at 0120 by Jordan texting me.  Forgotten to turn my phone off.  Dang...

The view from Piazza Venezia towards the Victor Emanuel monument. An amazing breath taking view. The photo does not do it justice.
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Day 2 has been awesome as well.  We did the tour of Ancient Rome.  Good value to get an overview of the major sites.  It was stinking hot and the double decker bus airconditioning was not working very well, but overall an excellent experience.  It just took our breath away coming into the Piazza Venezia and seeing the monument to Victor Emmanuel.  Amazing.  Photo attached does not do it justice. Also the visit to the Cathedral of St Paul was a bonus. So many things in Rome this time that we did not know existed.  The overview of the Forum was excellent as well, but just made me want to visit in more detail. The commentary on the tour gave an excellent overview of the historical significance of it all and the amazing time of the roman empire.  Incredible to think that at its peak there were 2M people there.

Overview of the Forum. In it's day it must have been an amazing place.
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Day 3 we visited the National Museum.  Amazing collection of artefacts from ancient Roman times.  Also visited the Diocletion Baths, where you don't actually see the Baths. There are lots of other things there, but no baths..  Anyway, stinking hot and time for a rest before the evening's entertainment...  We completed the day with a great meal at a resturant not far from Sophia Lauren's apartment. Could imagine her dining there. It was a really nice, but a bit more up market meal than previous. The waitress would not allow us to have anything but a wine of her recommendation.  We then went to a classical piano concert in the ruins of the look alike Coloseum (Marcello).  It was a lovely evening, sitting outside listening to this great music.

A church we did not know existed. Is meant to house the remains of St Paul.
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Day 4 - Shannon starting to flag with the pace we are setting so far.  I keep reminding her to think of Dean Karneze who ran continuously for 36 hours.  Didn't seem to motivate her...  Started the day with the breakfast in the hotel that we are increasingly getting so bored with...  Anyway, it is free, so we bulk up for the day, then set off for the Forum.  Self guided Tour Using Rick Steve's book.  Really impressive to see the evidence of life in ancient Rome.  Gave me a sense of the impernance of all things and some awe that we were able to be where aspects of our modern society were instituted.  Also, some of the barbarism is quite disturbing to us now.  By chance at the end of this, we came across the prison that St Peter and St Paul and numerous others are reputed to have been incarcerated. (Told this to one of our Italian friends later and he  told me vigorously that this was total heresy!!  Of course he was right.  Peter has never been recorded as going to Rome - only Paul...  But the Church needed Peter to have been matyred in Rome, as he was the first Pope....) It was also very sobering to see the size of the underground cell and imagine that human beings were kept there for months even years at a time.  We then walked on to the Pantheon, something that I have wanted to see for years.  It was fantastic.. We then returned to the hotel via the walking route (much to Shannon's chagrin) and stopped by the Trevi Fountain.

At the entrance to the Diocletian Baths, which at their peak could cater for 3,000 people!
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Our last experiences of Rome were less enjoyable.  We were ripped twice!!  Firstly, rather than the hotel breakfast, we went down the road to a local bar.  The breakfast was OK, but for 5 cafe latte's, 3 cakes, it came to 32 Euros!!  We could not believe it.  The free hotel breakfast did not seem so bad!!  The night before was our other bad experience.  We had dinner at a resturant we had been to before in 2001 and thought we would try it again.  Big mistake.  This time it was 90 Euro for a very average non Italian experience.  Coleslaw factor to the max.  Service was good, but food like you would get in a bad Italian resturant in Auckland.

A beautiful garden in the middle of the buildings in the Baths complex.
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After our breakfast we sorted out our train tickets, then back to the station with our bags, guarding them like hawks.  However, the Termini Statione has been cleaned up considerably since we were there.  Indeed the whole of Rome has far fewer gypsy (sp) and other vagrants than when we were there in 2001.  It felt much safer and we were never really troubled except....

As we were boarding the train, I was helping Kathy get her huge bag onto the train and using my leg to get it up on to the train.  As we were all jammed in the carriage along with others queuing for their seats, someone behind me was attracting my attention and proceeded to hand me my wallet!!!  Somehow they had it in their posession, but it appeared that nothing had been taken.  I was very grateful, but learnt a big lesson about tightening my own security.

Looks like it could be a very interesting place when fully opened for viewing
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We enjoyed the train ride down to Naples.  We shared our cabin with 3 Australians.  When we arrived at Naples station, we had to transfer to a different local train, the Circumvesuviana.  I was pretty uncomfortable on the station, surrounded by other tourists and the rather obvious scunizi.  We missed the first train, but got on the second and had an uneventful trip to Sorrento...