Our Grand European Adventure Part 2 – aka, Am-er-i-can?

When we left off, I believe the hubby, our friend and I were headed to Rome from London. We did hit a little snag on the way there, as there was a mix-up with our train tickets to the airport (yes, we took the Tube to a train to an airport… lots of carrying around our luggage!). Thankfully, the flight wasn’t bad and we had someone waiting to pick us up from the airport to take us to our next apartment (I’m telling you, if you haven’t used AirBnB, go ahead and try it!)

Our apartment was located right outside the Piazza Campo Dè Fiori, which had tons of little restaurants and an open market during the day. The only issue we had with the apartment was that the upstairs portion seemed to be made for tiny people. I mean, I’m only 5 ft, and I even bumped my head a few times.

I guess the hubby doesn’t need his head?

We were famished by the time we got settled in, so first thing was off to lunch (plus the hubby and I are oinkers when it comes to Italian food, so we were SO EXCITED ABOUT EATING!). We stopped at one the restaurants in the piazza, Virgilio. If you’re ever in that area of Rome, go there. Just go.

Fooooood!!

Food makes us happy!

After our meal, we were served limoncello. Yum. We are seriously addicted to that stuff now. We bought a bottle at the duty-free shop on our way home and have introduced it to family members and friends. Yum.

Liquid happiness…

With our tummy’s full, we decided it might be a good idea to walk some of it off. Since the weather was crappy, we stayed in the area, seeing the Pantheon and the Piazza Navona. I was starting to get sick and we were tired from traveling all day, so we turned in a little earlier than expected.

I love that everyone in Rome orders a glass of wine with (almost) every meal. I admit, I was only up early enough for breakfast one day (I was sick, don’t judge!) and we didn’t have wine with our pastries, but I did have wine everywhere else. We found a little wine bar a block away from our place, and went there multiple times. The waitress started rambling off about the wine in Italian, until I informed her we were not from Italy, but, in fact, Americans. It was done very awkwardly, and I was not allowed to live it down the rest of the trip.  One night when I took some nyquil and turned in early, the boys went back to the wine bar for the second time in only a few hours. It was this time that they were introduced to… Grappa!

To show that we did learn some thing educational on this trip: In Italy, the entire grape must be used when making wine. No wasting. So, after the grapes are pressed for wine, the pomace is turned into grappa. There are two kinds, a clear grappa which is a bit stronger, and a darker one, which is a little less intense.The darker grappa is just aged more.  To “taste” the grappa, one option is to put a little on the back of the hand and sniff it. Yep. We thought the bartender was messing with us. The darker one we had tasted like cognac to me. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to find the darker one in the New Orleans area, so David got a bottle of the clear from my mom & sis for his birthday. He likes it but to me…. no.

We spent the next few days eating, drinking and sightseeing. We didn’t get to do everything we wanted to in Rome, so we decided for our next European trip, we just want to travel around Italy. We’re already looking forward to it!

The Pope!