Activity level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️
Modes of transportation: 🚗👟
Aunt Nancy “booked” us a tour of the US embassy at 11:30 (“booked” as in asked her friend who worked there) so we woke up and got ready. We had a little time, so we got cappuccinos and croissants at the same place as yesterday with Sean.
We had trouble getting a cab (apparently a big problem in Rome) and there was a big public transit protest happening, so we ended up walking over from Sean’s place. Luckily, we left ourselves just enough time to make it the 45 minute walk away.
We went to the wrong entrance at first, but ended up making it on time, where we were greeted by Loretta, Aunt Nancy’s friend, and her assistant Giulia.
The US embassy in Rome is probably one of the most historic embassies the US has. The main building is the old palace of Princess Margherita of Savoy (the same princess the pizza is named after). It’s a beautiful old building with 1st and 2nd century statues in the courtyard and all the halls. Truly a museum in itself! They even had an original statue of “Venus” in the entryway.
We went on a tour of the main building, the ambassador’s floor, and around the grounds. There even happened to be a Christmas market inside, so we bought a nice watercolor of the Spanish Steps.
While walking through the market, everyone was buzzing because the ambassador was there. Loretta was extremely gracious and even introduced us to him, and we talked for a few minutes (he was extremely personable). We told him we lived in Washington DC, and he joked that we had to keep it a secret how nice Italy was (and that he was trying to get it labeled a “hardship post”).
Unfortunately, we couldn’t take our phones inside, so we don’t have any pictures—but we swear, it happened!
We had a ticket to enter the Colosseum at 2:00, so we started walking there.
On the way, we grabbed a simple lunch (well, sort of) of mozzarella, wine, prosciutto, and pasta.
We got to our appointment relatively on time and made it into the Coliseum. We downloaded an audio tour, so we popped in our AirPods and listened to that. It was so interesting learning about the productions they put on there and imagining how it might have looked 2000 years before.
<Warning: Many photos of the colosseum ahead>
The outer structure is iconic, but it’s also amazing how intricate the tunnels under the stage are. They definitely understood the logistics of putting on a show, with dozens of trap doors, elevators for animals, and dressing rooms.
We finished our tour and rushed to the Roman Forum, which we knew closed at 3:30. We got there at 3:25, but the gate was closed; so we headed up the hill to another gate (where a lot of people were going).
Turns out, it was a long walk to a dead end, and we had to walk back down the hill. No idea why they closed early, but we never did get to go in (it’s pretty from the outside though).
We went for a walk to do some window shopping and ran into a beautiful tunnel with a street musician singing in Italian and playing the accordion.
We got a taxi back to Sean’s where we took a big nap. We still weren’t entirely caught up on sleep unfortunately.
Sean made late (for Americans) reservations at one of his favorite restaurants with his friends, so we headed over to the restaurant in Sean’s smart car.
The food turned out to be incredible. We ordered a bunch of appetizers which were fantastic, but the real star of the show was the carbonara. All of Sean’s friends agree that it’s the best in the city. It came covered in shaved black truffles, which were amazing (and maybe the first time Eric had had real truffles).
After that, we had to find some gelato, so we went to Sean’s best friend Felipo’s favorite spot, which was also very good. The night was just beginning by Italian standards (mostly a joke), so we went out for a few drinks. By this time, it was far after midnight so we headed back and called it a night.
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