Last November my sister announced that she’d bought us plane tickets to spend Valentine’s Day together in Rome. In the weeks following her announcement, she beefed up the itinerary to include a tour the original Jameson distillery in Dublin and two 4-day rail passes for the UK. Months whizzed past like minutes, and before we knew it the time had arrived to embark on this sisterly conquest. Beginning with Italy, followed by a feverish cruise around Her Majesty’s United Kingdom (plus Ireland) we jazzed around Europe, arm in arm, for nine days. For this post, I’ll just touch [please read in a boozy Dean Martin voice] on an evening in Roma.
Our journey began before dusk in Normandy on the 13th morning of February. We caught the first train in to Paris proper, followed by an hour busride to Charles de Gaulle Airport to catch an 11:00am direct flight to Roma. Now, for reasons unknown, all walking directions Kira and I mapped out together got us straight from A to B, while all directions I mapped out on my own yielded more of a scenic route*. When we arrived to Rome Kira was very thirsty, so we headed straight to the Airbnb to unload luggage** and guzzle water, or so we thought! A tram from Stazione Trastevere scooted us across town to Piazza Venezia, reportedly just one block from our lodging. However, with the aforementioned avant-garde sense of direction, I led us right past our Airbnb (about two kilometres past) and landed us at the Trevi Fountain. Anyway Kira did say she was thirsty…
Legend*** has it that “in 19 BC thirsty Roman soldiers were guided by a young girl to this source of pure water” (1). You might say I led us through a historical reenactment, where Kira was a thirsty Roman soldier and I, the legendary young virgin (lol).
As we emerged from a narrow cobblestone strada, the fountain same into focus with three nuns waving from an open window. The area was swarmed with locals peddling little plastic Italian-via-China keepsakes, and tourists wishing their coins in to the water. Kira and I agreed our euros would be best spent on a wish in to the gelato shop next to the fountain.
Speaking of what was next to the fountain, there is a bizarre juxtaposition of architecture in Rome. The dueling aesthetic has blossomed as a result of ancient cities coping with population increases. I’ve noticed this in various cities around Europe. With more people comes the demand for expansion, and as engraved marble apartments may be out of the question… The solution is sort of like this:
After the Trevi, we walked around for a bit and eventually found our Airbnb.
Our apartment was perched over a little restaurant, where we lingered over a scrumptious feast of homemade pasta, wine and tiramisu.
After a delicious slumber and an ice water shower, we meandered back downstairs to the restaurant for our complimentary breakfast. It was perhaps just the restaurant’s surplus food from the previous evening, but it was positively the greatest breakfast of my life.
A cornucopia of cheeses and meats, chocolate torte and orange fudge layer cake, flaky butter pastries, toast with butter, marmalade and Nutella AND toast with a phantasmagoria of poached eggs on a silver platter. They were immaculately poached atop a pool of spicy tomato sauce, chickpeas, green peas, carrots, onions, cilantro and feta.
After the courtliest of continental breakfasts, we had a few hours before our flight back to Paris, so we waddled over to the Vatican with bodies full of eggs and cold meats (hope you’re bathing in my comma usage by now).
Unfortunately we were faced with the decision to wait in a longass queue to enter the Vatican or see/eat more of Rome. We decided to save Vat City for another time when we weren’t so pressed for time. Post Vat, we popped into a hairy little man’s leather shop and then into a pasticcerie for cannolis.
Our nonna advised us to hit up a cannoli joint during our time in Italy, and what splendid advic it was!!Oddly enough, the first place we found was called Nonna Vincenza. Twas meant to be. The flavors were pistacchio, cioccolato and originale. All were divine, but pistacch’ really took the cake. Also, the cappuccino here was by far best. What does Italy do differently to their cuppa cappu?
There were many temptations but we stayed allegiant to the cannoli assignment! Also, mini cannolis were the cheapest thing in the case…
Around 1:00pm we headed back to Stazione Trastevere, where a tall slinky Italian man with a silver hoop earring hovered over us at the ticket machine. He seemed a bit off, giving unsolicited step-by-step advice through the process of purchasing our train tickets to the airport. After we the machine spit out our tickets, Slinky McSlinkers gave us a theatrical little courtsy and moved on to “aid” the woman in line behind us.
Our evening in Roma was short but sweet. The air was refreshingly warm here compared to that of northern France, like kiss of summertime for just one février weekend. Every single person we interacted with in Rome was kind and friendly. Some streets smelled like baby poop, which transported me back home to my beloved Paris. Twas indeed a happy Valentine’s day. Next post, we’ll cover toffee gallows, Tejano music in an Irish pub and ye auld whiskey distilling in Dublin.
*Our collective luggage was one backpack.
**I inherited the leisurely scenic tour gene (some might also call it a prone-to-getting-briefly-lost gene) from my fellow traveler and kiwi grandmother, Gillian. And I cherish it!
***Legend has it… But also Wikipedia has it.
****The phrase “mi fa cagare” is supposedly the English equivalent in meaning to saying “it’s awful”. In Italian it translates to something like “it makes me poop”. I love it. Here’s more indispensable Italian slang.
Double Agent Archives 
So beautiful, chloe…..what an incredible adventure. Each post leaves me hungry for the next. And hungry from all the food posted…omg! Love you two and am so happy you have each other to go on adventures with….
Thank you for reading ❤ more to come soon!!
Hmmmmm, what happened to my original comment? This is twice my comments have disappeared! So happy you e had this adventure together….lifelong memories….xoxoxo love you both.