48 hours in Rome

Walking the streets of Rome
with my "Barbie" suitcase!

A bunch of girls in my sorority are studying abroad, and a group of us planned to meet last weekend in Rome! Everyone had gotten in early Friday morning, but I flew in at night because I could not miss class.  I headed straight to dinner from the airport (luggage and all!) to meet up with the girls. After an hour of going in circles and dealing with a horrible driver, I made it to the restaurant and was able to finally relax. I had my first bowl of pasta for the weekend, some white wine, and was able to catch up with the girls about their abroad experiences. The restaurant was situated in what had previously been a synagogue (they said it was 150 years older than the Colosseum, but I am not sure if I believe that!) and the owner even brought us downstairs to see the wine cellar which is still the original brick.  After finishing up dinner we headed back to get a good nights sleep and prepare for the next day of full force touring.

Lady and the Tramp imitation!

Saturday morning we headed to the Colosseum/Forum.  Since I had already seen it, I chose not to go on the three hour tour, and save my 20 euro for something more important....which, in my world, is usually food!   I have found that the best way to get to know a city is to just wander around with a map, so instead of the tour I decided to take a walk and explore Rome.  By the time the girls were done with their tour of the Colosseum and Forum, I knew where everything was, and was able to direct the group to each of our destinations. We went to lunch at a place that was said to have the best pizza in Italy - and I have to say it didn't disappoint, and was much different from my horrible Italian pizza experience in 6th grade. The place was completely packed and we were definitely the only tourists in the there, which turned out to be kind of intimidating! After lunch we visited Piazza Navona, the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. We also went to a gelato place that had over 100 flavors and we were all in heaven - although I had a tough time deciding which flavors I wanted and was mad that I couldn't try them all!!! After some more walking, and finally hunting down a street vendor who allowed me to buy a single roasted chestnut (as opposed to buying 15 or 20 at a time), we went back to our rooms for an hour or two to relax after a full day of walking, and then headed out to dinner.  


Sunday morning some of the girls had early flights so after saying our goodbyes I headed to lunch with the two other girls, Lianna and Ally, who had later flights. Ally is allergic to gluten (which is especially unfortunate in a country like Italy) so we hunted down a pizza place that makes gluten free pizza, and then brought it to Colline Emiliane which is a restaurant I had been to the out first night in Rome when I was with my parents. I had the most unbelieveable spinach and ricotta ravioli there, and have been dreaming about it ever since...so I knew I couldn't leave Italy without having them again. Lianna and I decided to split the spinach ravioli and the tagliatelli with porcini mushrooms - and both dishes were amazing and just as good as I had remembered.  Hopefully I won't have to wait another 9 years to have them again! Afterwards we went back to the gelatto place with tons of flavors, and then walked around the Jewish ghetto and some other areas we hadn't explored the day before, before leaving to catch our flights home.  It was only 48 hours in Rome, but we covered alot and made the best of it!