Our day start off with a delicious breakfast in this beautiful, relaxing garden piazza…omelet, porridge, pastry basket, toasted bread and jam, expresso, English breakfast tea.

Met our tour guide for the day Gennaro at bottom of the Spanish Steps. We had the best time with him, such a knowledgeable gentleman willing to please every step of the day.

Our Tour started at the original Piazza Del Pololo and the old main gate to the city, built before Christ.

Next we hopped in his car for ride closer to the area we would see during the first part of the day. Here is a list of some of the places we visited.

Colosseum
Circus Maxis (Site of the mighty chariot races. Having listened to the book Ben Hur, this was fascinating)
Palatino Hill ( A hilltop building site in old Rome where the empires and politicians would have lived in their Palaces. The book called “Emporer: The Gates of Rome” by Conn Ingulden , will bring this area to life)
Roman Forum ( the heart of the main Roman city, political buildings, temples, etc)
Piazza Navona including Fontana Dei Quattro Fiumi (site for games…Track and Field etc back in the day…)
Piazza Campo de'Fiori (market place till 4:00 pm )
Pantheon ( impressive built in sun clock with the hole in the middle of the dome)

Trevi Fountain (Beautiful)

*Circus Maxis…the site of the mighty chariot races*

Meanwhile the touring was taking time. It was getting mid afternoon. Gennaro, Jeff, and I were getting a bit hungry and a bit heated from the sun. Food sounded great! Gennaro mixed in a bit of a food tour as we finished the historic tour. Here is a list of the foods we tried…

Trapizzino (Roman Style Pizza Pocket) I had Eggplant Parmigana for a filling and Jeff had the Pollo alla cacciatora Bianco. (From “Trapizzino"
Suppli' (seasoned rice balls with different add-ins dipped in egg and breadcrumbs then deapfried)(From “Trapizzonio" as well)
Focaccia (Roman style Pizza) Flat bread with toppings. We had olive oil and tomato sauce for a topping also tried the margarita. Which is only cheese and sauce. Napoli is the only place to get Authentic Pizza! (From bakery “Roscioli")
Gelato (Italiano, It can not be called Icecream. My favorite is lemone. Tangy and refreshing. No milk or eggs in the ingredient list. (More about Gelato coming in the Florence blog!) (From “Venchi")
Tarimisu Classico- Jeff’s favorite nothing beats eating the real deal in Italy!
Espresso! Umm… I Think there will be a few shot pulled once we get home to try to get it corecto! ;) Stood at the bar and downed our expresso and had a nice chat. A typical Italian standard to stand and down a expresso. You pay more if you were to take a seat at a table. Now we can compare Rome expresso with Napoli expresso!

Book a tour with Gennaro! https://www.withlocals.com/it/host/gerrib57d4e6718/

In the evening after the tour we visited a beautiful park and gardens Villa Borghese. (Which should be named the Parco di Amore, lol.) We enjoyed sitting on a park bench near one of the main paths and watching the locals for a time.( Street Gym, little kids having roller blade lessons, boys doing stunts on thier bikes ect.) It was entertaining! Basically no one in the park was wearing there masks. At least not over their nose and mouth. Nice to see Freedom!

Roamin Roma

Napoli

Roma