Five days in Rome, off season

I considered putting a question mark after ‘off season’ because, unlike 2021 (see  Firenze off season, parte uno and Firenze off season, parte due ) both Rome and Firenze were crazy crowded.  It’s difficult to know if the crowds were due to pent up travel demand or simply more people wanting to see the holiday lights.

After a week at language school in Firenze, I met my daughter in Rome on December 2, 2023, then my sister, niece and my niece’s friend, Callie, arrived on Monday, December 4.  My daughter and I, as well as the rest of our group,  had 5 great days in Rome and this post is organized by our daily walkabouts.

Walkabouts in Rome

Day 1:  After my daughter and I checked into our apartment (see Where to stay below) we immediately went to a little cafe, Sant’Eustachio, which her ‘Welcome’ driver recommended to her.  As promised by my daughter, we had the most amazing cappuccini and chocolate brioche ever. We returned the next 4 mornings, even joking with some of the staff, then I returned our last morning before heading to the airport. I’m not sure what makes their coffee so good but it may have ruined me forever on other cafes (or bars as they’re more commonly called in Italy).

Sant’Eustachio is only a couple of ‘blocks’ from Piazza della Rotonda, so we walked through the piazza, admiring the Pantheon and agreeing that we’d go on the first rainy day.  From there we followed the signs to Fontana Trevi which was absolutely packed.  We fought our way through the crowds and after a couple of wrong turns I found via del Corso which we followed towards the river, stopping at a couple of shops.  As we walked, I finally spotted the street to the right leading to Piazza di Spagna.

We walked through the piazza and up the steps, deciding to take a street to the right at the top of the steps.  Not a good move.  We ended up near the Quirinale, I think, and were completely turned around.  My daughter suggested we work our way back to the Trevi and thankfully her sense of direction was better than mine.  Once we found the Trevi, it was easy to get back to the Pantheon and our  apartment which was on the edge of Campo de’ Fiori.

That evening we had dinner at Mimi and Coco’s which proved disappointing compared to 2021 (see Six Days in Rome post and Where to eat, Roma e Firenze, 2023). I think we did a short walk through Piazza Navona after dinner.  It’s one of my favorite piazzas in Rome and I expected the Christmas decorations to be outstanding but there was just a merry go round and some booths (bancarelle) selling odd goods.

You can see the merry go round in the background of the picture to the left.  Behind it are the stalls selling food and kitschy looking goods.  (Post trip comment:  I’ve seen some hilarious Instagram posts showing a crane lifting a person playing Befana from one of the buildings behind the merry go round, holding her over the crowds while dropping candy to the children; apparently an Italian tradition at Epiphany.)

We returned to the apartment, then decided to go back out for a spritz, choosing a restaurant in Campo de’ Fiori at random. Campo de’ Fiori was as beautiful as Piazza Navona was plain and we had a fun time enjoying the lights and people watching.  We returned to  the campo several times over the next few days.

Day two

We started our day with the usual cappuccini at Sant’Eustachio and then, since it was a stunningly beautiful day, we decided to walk to the Colosseum.

The city was even more crowded than Saturday but we took a somewhat circuitous route stopping first at the Vittorio Emanuele II monument which my daughter loved.

Then we walked towards the Colosseum following a walk way looking out over the forum. When the walkway ended we were able to walk in the street for a while, via dei Fori Imperiali,  since it was closed to traffic.  When we saw the line for tickets, we gave up, which I now regret, but we did get some beautiful pictures of the exterior along with views of the Forum.

We walked back towards the Vittorio Emanuele monument, stopping at La Colonna di Traino for a photo opportunity.  And that’s where I made one of my biggest mistakes of the trip.  Before we had headed out that morning I put my tablet in my backpack thinking I could take better pictures with it.  But the glare made it impossible to use, so I returned it to my backpack and forgot about it.

When we stopped at La Colonna, I opened my backpack to get my map so we could continue to the Spanish Steps.  Not only did I get us wildly off course, taking a long circuitous route to via del Corso and then the Spanish Steps, I forgot to close my backpack.

Via del Corso was wall to wall people and it took forever to get to Piazza di Spagna where we decided to walk up the steps and go through i Giardini Pincio.  When we reached the top, I stopped to take some pictures with my tablet but it was gone, lost or stolen.

We seriously considered backtracking to try to find it but decided that was pointless and continued along viale Trinita dei Monti to the gardens. We didn’t linger as long in the gardens as I did in 2021 and I was too bummed to take as many pictures.  But we did stop at the look out, Piazzale del Flaminio, I think, and enjoyed the vistas while listening to a young guy do an amazing rendition of New York, New York sounding exactly liked Frank Sinatra.

We took a steep street down from the gardens coming out a couple of blocks from Piazza di Spagna, then headed more or less west on one of the streets leading out of the piazza looking for a lunch spot.  We settled on Ginger since it seemed to have a good selection of sandwiches.  While our panini were good, the restaurant was packed and service was slow.  One morning we also tried their sister cafe located in the same piazza as Sant’Eustachio since it offers ‘breakfast.’  We both agreed that Italians do not do eggs well. 

After returning to our apartment, we booked tickets to the Colosseum for late Monday morning, using coopculture.it  (https://www.coopculture.it/en/products/ticket-colosseum-roman-forum-palatine_24h/ ) which my sister and I had used in 2016.  We had a terrible time getting the QR codes to show up on our phones but my daughter put her IT skills to work and finally was able to download the tickets so that the codes would work.

After cleaning up and pouring a glass of wine, we did some restaurant research and decided to try Terra di Siena, which is on via del Governo Vecchio, near Piazza Navona.  (http://www.ristoranteterradisiena.com)  My daughter doesn’t like late dining so we were the first people there around 7:30 pm. She continued her quest to find a ‘not too dry’ red wine and then we ordered an aperitivo of buratta and sun dried tomatoes.  Yum  One of my new favorites.  My daughter had been insisting that she needed protein so she ordered a pasta con salsa Bolognese and I ordered tortellini with what turned out to be one of the most amazing tomato sauces ever, partly sweet, partly spicy, which my daughter commandeered for her pasta.  She may have had a tiramisu also.  All in all a perfect ending to the day. 

Day 3

After our morning cappuccino, we headed to the Colosseum around 10:45 am.  We were glad we’d figured out the QR code issue because we had to show our codes at least 3 times.  Il Colosseo was somewhat underwhelming compared to my visit in 2016 due in part to the cloudy day.  It makes a huge difference when you can see the Colosseum against a bright blue sky.  Plus it was way more crowded and the powers that be have changed the ticketing so that you have to buy a more expensive ticket to have complete access to the Colosseum, an option that was not available on Coopculture.  So we were packed in with hundreds of other people and it took a long time to figure out where we were allowed to go.  Still my daughter was in awe standing in a site more than 2000 years old. 

The forum was as lovely as I remembered, despite the cloudy skies.  My daughter suggested we walk up a steep path to the upper area, where there are lovely gardens with roses still blooming in December plus beautiful views over the ruins.  After taking photos, we walked back to our starting point then followed the via Sacra towards the opposite end of the Forum, thinking we could exit near the Campidoglio which my sister and I did in 2016.  Either my memory is faulty or the exits have changed and we had to backtrack to an exit that led out to via dei Fori Imperiali.

 From there we walked back towards our apartment using a quiet side street that goes past Largo di Argentina.  We crossed the street into the area near Campo dei Fiori, stopping for take out food at a cafe that is part of the La Salumeria Roscioli family.  When we returned to our apartment, we found that my sister, niece and her friend, Callie, had arrived but then had immediately left to walk to the Spanish Steps. After some back and fort on Whatsapp, we agreed to meet at the Trevi around 4:15 pm.

My sister met us just in front of the fountain and took us to a cafe, Il Chianti, about a block away.  We laughed and talked and drank 2 bottles of prosecco plus ate some snacks while people watching and enjoying the Christmas lights 

in the neighborhood.  We were constantly wowed by the store decorations such as those seen in the picture to the left.

After enjoying our aperitivi, we walked back to la Fontana Trevi where I gave everyone small coins which we proceeded to throw in the fountain, making our wishes.  LOL

 

We returned to the apartment where everyone cleaned up and discussed dinner.  My daughter and I suggested Terra di Siena but to my disappointment and a bit of embarrassment, the rest of the group didn’t seem to like their meals although they definitely enjoyed the buratta.  

Day 4

We woke to heavy rain Tuesday morning so we trooped to Sant’Eustachio for coffees.  From there we splashed the few yards to the Pantheon where we found that the once free Pantheon is now 5 euros, credit cards to the right, cash to the left. (I’m not sure how many other sites in Rome are now charging more but I was beginning to feel gouged.)

Still it was totally worth it.  Despite having seen it just two years previously, I was still amazed at its beauty, as were my daughter and the rest of the group.

It had pretty much stopped raining when we came out of the Pantheon so we took some photos in the ever lovely Piazza della Rotonda.

We didn’t have any real plans at that point so I convinced everyone to do a short walk over to Piazza Minerva to see the darling Minerveo Obelisk rising out of the Bernini elephant.  We also walked through Santa Maria Sopra Minerva whose ceilings bring back memories of the Siena Duomo.

My sister, niece and Callie decided to walk to the Colosseum so my daughter and I walked back towards Piazza Navona where she had found a leather shop, La Sella, ( https://lasellaroma.it/) before I arrived in Rome.  She wanted to know if I thought the quality was as good as the Leather School in Florence (la Scuola di Cuoio a Firenze) which I had been touting as the best place to buy quality leather.  She was particularly interested in buying belts for her sons and boy friend.  La Sella is a tiny shop between Piazza Navona and Corso Vittorio Emanuele with all types of leather goods including purses, wallets and belts.  I thought the quality was very good and the owner was very helpful, making sure the belts were correctly sized.

When we first walked in, I shivered and said ‘molto freddo’ and the owner asked if I spoke Italian.  ‘Un po,’ going on to describe the classes I’d taken, ending with, ‘non parlo bene.’  She told me I spoke better than most expats who’d been there 10 years, making me a big fan.  

After La Sella we walked through Piazza Navona, laughing at the ‘come ons’ from the restaurants lining the piazza, ‘Great pizza, guys from Napoli.’  Lol  If only….

We walked along via Coronari, looking for a leather shop carrying the brand, Gianni Conti, hoping to buy a wallet for a friend.  Nope.  We wandered in and out of some interesting shops, then walked south along the west edge of Piazza Navona to via del Governo Vecchio.  

I had told my daughter we should have capricciosa pizza and fried zucchini flowers at Bistrot Q where I’d eaten several times in 2021 (see  Six Days in Rome post).  I didn’t see Bistrot Q at first and my daughter saw another restaurant with our desired food.  We almost went in but then I saw Bistrot Q and insisted we go there.  If only….  What a mistake!!  It was awful!!  We ate a couple of bites, then paid and left, heading back to the apartment.  Don’t understand how things could have changed so dramatically.

Tuesday night was our ‘big’ night for  dinner so my daughter and I got ready while waiting for the others to return.  The ‘big’ dinner was  at Roscioli Salumeria  e Cantina (https://www.salumeriaroscioli.com/en/home-english/) which Callie said was not to be missed. 

It’s a relatively small restaurant on via dei Giubbonari  just southeast of Campo dei Fiori.  The restaurant has two seatings and we had the early one at 7:30 pm, I think.  They make it very clear that you must be finished before the second seating which put a bit of pressure on getting through our meal. 

The aperitivi were excellent, mortadella and buratta with the restaurant’s amazing focaccia, the best I’ve ever had.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          My main course, some type of pasta, wasn’t memorable and my daughter said her roast pork was dry.  But three bottles of 50 euro vino made it very fun.  It didn’t seem like quite so much fun when I found out later that the meal cost more than 300 euros.  Yikes. 

Day 5, last day in Rome

My sister, niece  and Callie had an early tour of the Vatican and were long gone by the time my daughter and I got up.  We had our usual cappuccini and brioche at Sant’Eustachio plus bought some coffee and treats for friends.  Then I think we went back to the apartment and started packing for our departure to Firenze the next day.  

After the rest of our group returned and did their packing (and mama mia Callie had an extra suitcase for all her purchases which she left at a  luggage depot in Rome while we were in Firenze), we headed out for a last afternoon of shopping and enjoying the sites.  We first went back to La Sella where my niece purchased some belts for herself then we went to a very expensive jewelry store, Co.Ro, (https://www.corojewels.com/it) where my daughter bought some earrings and a ring and my niece bought matching earrings.  

As we walked out of Co.Ro, Callie pointed out a sign for another Sant’Eustachio, a  sister cafe to our coffee spot.  So we stopped there and had spritz’s and snacks.  It was getting to be late afternoon by then, so we decided we’d best walk towards Piazza di Spagna if we were going to have time to take pictures of the lights before our dinner reservation.  We took a roundabout way there and stopped in several small piazzas where there were lovely trees and lights.

The closer we got to the Steps, the more crowded it became and just as we reached the Colonna dell’Immacolata, we realized there was a large police presence.  It finally dawned on us that they were lighting the Christmas tree in Piazza di Spagna.  It was not well organized; the mayor and other officials seemed to be wandering around the steps unsure what to do.  Then when they started speaking, it went on forever.

But when they finally got to it, Mama mia!  It was spectacular!!  The gallery below below barely does it justice.  

But then we had a long, chilly, circuitous walk to our restaurant,  Pesci Fritti,  (https://pescifritti.business.site/), a tiny osteria on Via di Grotta Pinta, 8, east of Campo de’ Fiori.

I’ve bored everyone I know with stories about the fabulous food my sister and I had here in 2021; pasta con vongole, sea bass stuffed with shrimp and pistachios and wonderful service by the charming Nikko, and convinced our whole 2023 group to come here for dinner our last night in Rome.  We were somewhat tired and chilly after viewing the lighting of the Christmas tree in Piazza di Spagna and ready to eat.

Unfortunately there was no sea bass on the menu and I didn’t see the pasta con vongole.  So we ordered scallops and mussels as appetizers, then three of us had the sea food risotto, my daughter had a pasta with sea bass ragu and my sister had pesci fritti.  While I didn’t think it was as good as our meal in 2021, my daughter thought it was the best meal during our stay in Rome.  No one took photos of the restaurant  that evening but below is a gallery from 2021.

Before I write about our apartment, I want to say that, despite the ups and downs, this was a great trip.  I loved showing some of my favorite places to my daughter and enjoyed the new experiences from restaurants to the lighting of the tree in Piazza di Spagna.

A last day in Rome

We returned to Rome late morning December 11th (after Cirque du Soleil trying to get a taxi near our apartment in Firenze).  Our Rome taxi driver wanted to drop us off behind our hotel due to construction (Hotel Navona, I think, see Where to Stay below) but we made him drive around the hotel to the front.

After settling into our rooms we all went different directions for last minute shopping, some t-shirts for me, cheese and purses for the others.  Go figure.

We agreed to meet in the hotel bar for a pre-dinner spritz around 4:45 pm.  But when they returned, they decided that the hotel bar was too expensive and after a lot of back and forth, we decided to just pick a bar in Piazza Navona since it was on the way to dinner at Saltimboca (See   post).  We got herded into a bar and I had wine while the others had spritz’s.  Unlike most bars we didn’t get any snacks and ended up spending over 100 euros, way more than we would have paid at the hotel. I didn’t take any pictures this year of the bars along the piazza but here’s one from 2021, in warmer times. 

We walked on to Saltimboca and as I said in my Where to eat post, no one remembers what we had to eat given our alcohol consumption and then they served us an after dinner drink which I dubbed ‘The mind eraser.’

Months later we’re still laughing about how drunk my sister was after dinner, to the point that we had to help her upstairs at the hotel and she essentially passed out on the bed.  Lol.

Our final morning I woke fairly early and took myself for one last  cappuccino at Sant’Eustachio, then did a short walk through Piazza della Rotonda and Piazza Navona, wishing I could stay.

 

Before I write about our apartment (and hotel), I want to say that, despite the ups and downs, this was a great trip.  I loved showing some of my favorite places to my daughter and enjoyed the new experiences from restaurants to the lighting of the tree in Piazza di Spagna.

Where to Stay (?)

Idyllia | Teatro Pompeo Apartment  (Air BnB)

My niece, her friend Callie and I spent hours going over possible apartments for Firenze where we were spending 4 nights but in late October I realized we hadn’t looked at places to stay in Rome, where, I thought, we were spending 5 nights.  I didn’t see anything on VRBO so started looking on Air BnB.  I sent my niece the link to Idyllia/Teatro Pompeo apartment and a couple of others and she loved Teatro Pompeo.  She told me to book it . But I got pretty much everything wrong in terms of when they were arriving and ended up booking for more nights than we needed.  

 On top of that the ‘manager’ who was supposed to be an Air BnB superhost, wouldn’t respond to my inquiries and I had to go through all kinds of hoops with Air BnB to get them to contact him.   The manager became much more helpful after I complained to Air BnB and let my daughter and me check in early, after I arrived from Firenze. 

My daughter was underwhelmed (and apparently so was the rest of the group) but for me the apartment was light years away from the dump in Firenze where I stayed for a miserable week.  It’s a two level apartment with a large open living/dining area that has lots of light.  The kitchen seemed well equipped, but unlike other trips we did no cooking, eating all our meals out.

There are three bedrooms, one on the first level which my daughter and I shared, and two on the upper level; one with a single bed where my sister stayed and one with two single beds which my niece and Callie shared.  There are two bathrooms, one off the downstairs bedroom and one off the bedroom with the single bed.  The latter setup created some issues if my sister was sleeping or otherwise using her bedroom.  And both bathrooms, especially the one downstairs, needed serious updating, especially with regard to storage space.  

The best aspect of the apartment was its location.  The description on Air BnB says it’s close to Piazza Navona and it is; but it’s far closer to Campo de’ Fiori, where we had several meals and did a lot of shopping.

Hotel Navona?

Another question mark because I’m not absolutely sure this was where we stayed, since my niece made the reservations.  But the location fits; about 2 blocks east of Piazza Navona and just around the corner from our little café, Sant’Eustachio.  The location was perfect for us and the rooms were pleasant, albeit a bit odd; e.g., shower on one side, toilette on the other.

 

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