Return to Roma - La Dolce Vita

For our final day in Rome, we woke up late and had a leisurely morning. It was a stunningly beautiful and warm day, and we had brunch by the hotel pool.





I ordered pasta with an Amatraciana style sauce. Basically, it is a tomato and bacon sauce. Absolutely delicious.





The hotel brought us this beautiful little tray of desserts to eat. It was so nice to be able to sit outside in the sun with a clear blue sky and enjoy a relaxing brunch. I could get used to this. . .





We headed downtown to do some wandering and shopping. Rome is a fun city to just simply take in "La Dolce Vita".





We stopped in at a leather store for Mark to look at a Deer Skin Coat for his birthday present to himself. It was beautiful and he bought it.






We went to a recommended Gelato shop called, San Crispino, as part of our great gelato taste test. Tony tried the Fig gelato, while Mark had a gelato with crumbled crispy meringue in it. Both were very good.





We then wandered over to the famous Trevi Fountain, which was built in the 1700's to celebrate the reopening of one of the aqueducts feeding water to the city.






We each did the famous coin toss photo op.

Mark.











Kevin.







and Tony.

The story goes that if you toss a coin in the fountain, you will someday return to Rome. It obviously works, as here I am, back after 15 years.






We paused at the Spanish steps to take a break and enjoy the sun and scene. The fashion sense in this town is very good, and the fashion coat trend seemed to be the down puffer jacket. I'll have to pick one up when we get back to London.







Rome is definitely a fun place to go shopping for clothing. If we had a bunch more money, it would be fun to buy some new suits. Not that we have that many occasions to wear them.

Before long, it was time for gelato again, and we had to visit one of the more famous gelato stores, Giolitti's. It was completely rammed, but we got in line.





We each got a gelato, that I can only call MASSIVE. And it was delicious. I had my favorites, chocolate and pistachio with fresh whipped cream on top.





From there we wandered around the block to a coffee store, La Casa del Caffe, which is also one of the more famous coffee houses in Rome. They roast all of their own coffee here too.






I got a wonderful cup of espresso there.

Tony got a cup of Cioccolato Caldo, which is a sumptuously thick Hot Chocolate only served around this time of year. I didn't realize that you need to pay extra for a dollop of whipped cream on top, and you need to pay for that in advance at the till, so we didn't get it with whipped cream. Next time. .

Everywhere we looked, there were piles of Panettone breads all looking so pretty in their boxes. We already have one back at the apartment in London, otherwise, I think I would have had to find a way to bring one back with us.



Before we knew it, it was getting dark and we were back at the Pantheon, and we had to look inside again. Just an amazing building.




We decided to eat dinner on this square, and we found a small little pizzeria. We each ordered a pizza, though we might have gotten away with ordering less.







We did manage to eat it all, as there was no way we were going to be able to take it home with us. And it was terrific.



We waddled back to the hotel, where the bar manager greeted us on our last night in Rome with a new grappa for us to try.

By now, we had learned to appreciate it, so he was showing off the good stuff. And it was quite tasty. . . for grappa.



If you are thinking that we spent the entire day strolling, eating, and drinking, well, you are correct. In Italy, that's called "La Dolce Vita". . .