Rome-ing around
Written by chandlercartwright June 16, 2022
The second weekend here, my friends and I decided to travel down to Rome and little did I know it would quickly become one of my favorite memories. As soon as we landed in the Roma Termini train station, we hit the ground running. After a chaotic weekend in Lake Como the previous weekend, we had everything for Rome booked ahead of time.
We got back to our Airbnb around 8pm, and we quickly got ready and headed out the door for dinner. We ended up at a little place, called Nerone di de Santis Eugenio, tucked around the corner from the Colosseum. I got lasagna with bolognese (my favorite!). After dinner, we walked around and grabbed gelato, of course, before heading back to the Airbnb for the night. We knew we had a long day ahead of us on the next day, so we all decided to go to bed early.
The next day, 8:00am rolled around and we were out of bed and ready to go. Our first stop was breakfast. We sat down at a cafe and grabbed a cappuccino and a pastry. I also had a delicious green juice which was much needed. Our next stop was the Trevi Fountain and it was absolutely breathtaking. After shopping for a few hours, we ran back to our Airbnb to drop off our bags before heading to the Colosseum for our walking tour at 3:00pm. Did I mention, it was absolutely blazing hot? It got up to 97 degrees each day. After meeting our tour guide, Kylie, we were able to bypass all the lines and walk right in– a great perk! As we walked around, she gave us all the history and backstory of each place and how the Colosseum came to be. We then walked through the Pantheon and back around into the city. It was such a fun experience and we were exhausted by the end of our tour. However, there was no time to rest, because we had rooftop dinner reservations at 8:00pm at Flare Rooftop Restaurant.
The food, the view, everything at the restaurant was incredible. I went with the pesto pasta which was absolutely fabulous. After dinner, we stopped for gelato (never pass up a chance for gelato is our motto) and headed back to the Airbnb for a good night’s rest. Saturday morning, we woke up early and headed to the Vatican to explore. I highly recommend buying tickets ahead of time! We were able to bypass hours of waiting in line.
Later that day, we booked a sunset wine tour in Frascati, and it ended up being my favorite part of the weekend. We took a taxi out to Old Frascati (the vineyard we were touring). We were greeted by our sweet tour guide along with two couples, one from Virginia, and the other from Mississippi! We first toured the actual vineyard where the grapes were grown as she told us about how they were processed into wine. We then moved into the “wine cave” where the winemaking happens. We sampled one of their white wines they produce as we finished touring the rest of the cave. After that, we were given homemade focaccia bread as we sampled a red wine and a sweet wine that they make at Old Frascati. The sweet wine was amazing – like dessert! After the wine part of the tour was over, they taxied us to the town square in Frascati where we met up with our new tour guide. She showed us around the quaint little town as she told us the history. I felt so welcomed by everyone we encountered.
At the end of the tour, they had dinner ready for us which was bread, meat, and all kinds of cheeses. It may have been the best dinner I’ve had, and a nice break from all the delicious pastas! It was €75 and everything was included in that price! My favorite experience so far. I have to say, this may have been the best 3 days of my entire life and I don’t say that lightly.
Link to book wine tour: https://www.oldfrascati.com/
-
They also have pizza making and wine tasting, a sensual cooking class, a half-day wine tours, and even retreats
Blogger: , University of Arkansas
