And on Day 12, my legs gave up on me! According to my fitness tracker on my iPhone, I've walked over 100 miles in the past 12 days. That's an average of 8-9 miles a day! This morning i walked about 5 miles around the city and by 2 pm I had to go back to my room to nap and rest.
Most of the day was spent wandering around different areas of Rome I don't think I've been before (like the Trastevere area which is away from tourists and has low key neighborhood shops and eats). I also went shopping (designer bags are so much cheaper in Europe than the US and you get a 12.5% tax refund up to a limit depending on how much you spend).
For food, I was thankful to have two great meals today. Whenever I'm trying to find a place to eat, I do utilize Trip Advisor and Yelp but you do have to take reviews (even mine!) with a grain of salt because businesses change, cooks can change, people have different taste buds or experience with dining out. I just try to find places with the least amount of negative reviews. If reviews are mostly consistency positive, I'll try it.
Where to Eat in Rome
Besides Ginger (that I mentioned in my previous post), I really enjoyed:
- Pane e Salame, a small casual place by Trevi Fountain. Fresh meats and cheeses are the thing to get here. You can do a cutting board tasting of ham or cheeses or sandwiches. I had the ham and brie sandwich and loved it. Everything about the bread and fillings were tasty and complementary in flavor. I also had a glass of nice red wine and water, all for 10.50 euros! On Sundays it opens at noon and I was the second person to be seated (got there at 11;55 am). By 12:15 pm, the tiny place was full! You can do take out too.
- Dilla, which is very close to the Spanish Steps. Reservations are recommended but I didn't have one and showed up around 7:15 pm and got seated right away. At this point I'm pretty tired of Italian food (besides tomatoes, I don't think I've had a proper vegetable in days!!) but I wanted to try classic Roman food. So I tried the eggplant parmigiana and the cacio e pepe from here and both were amazing dishes! Especially the parmigiana. The cheese was sooo fresh and perfect. Everything about the flavors and texture of this dish was great. I would totally have this dish again if I could. With wine and water and bread, my whole bill was 41 euros. Ambience of the restaurant was very nice too, very comfortable place.
Parmigiana! One of my fave dishes on this trip
Classic Roman Cacio e Pepe
After dinner I really needed to burn calories and found myself near Piazza del Popolo which is a beautiful square. Just next to it is the park and you can climb up the nearby stairs to get a pretty view of the piazza and city.
Piazza del Popolo
Scenic view near the edge of Villa Borghese
Tourists at Twilight