Roma

The Rome leg of our trip starts at the Formia-Gaeta train station, where Sarah drops us off to take the 1.5 hour train up to Rome. It feels a little like we're country mice heading off for the big bad city, which is a den of thieves. In preparation for our trip, Kerry puts me on high alert by warning me that if anyone on the subway offers me his seat, then he is most definitely also robbing me at that moment because no right-minded Roman would genuinely offer me his seat. So we're off to a good start. 

We play Spot It and color small wooden hearts on the way North. We also appreciate lots of vineyards and olive groves along the way.

Immediately upon arriving in Rome, we make our way to Pizzarium for lunch of some potato pizza and squash blossom pizza. Kerry has raved about this place and it does not disappoint. It's casual and we eat out on a bench on the sidewalk. They sell the pizza based on weight, so you can get small pieces of several slices. 

Sylvie gets to test out a fizzy drink with her pizza. 

We then take the subway back into the heart of the historic center and find ourselves some gelato. I haven't documented it, but we've been having gelato on a daily basis in Italy. It's so accessible and so good. How could we not?

We visit the beautiful and gigantic Trevi Fountain. Selfie sticks and tourists are all around us.

After visiting the Spanish Steps, we make our way to the Garbatella to meet up with Kerry. The Garbatella is her neighborhood and she *loves* it. It's working-class, Roman, and really sweet. It's a combination of tiny homes and large Mussolini-commissioned apartment buildings. Kerry lives in the latter, in an apartment that she rents from a British woman. Kerry introduced us to the joy of the fontanella ("small fountain") which is also known as a "nazone" ("big nose"). These little fountains are all over Rome, and the water is clean, so you can always fill up your water bottle.


Kerry also introduces us to the joy of the apertivo. Sylvie introduces Kerry to the joy of finger knitting. 

The next day, Sylvie and I did a hop-on, hop-off bus tour of Rome, and we saw the Colosseum, the Circo Massimo, the Vatican, the old Jewish quarter, and lots more. I would have of course liked to have roamed around the city and explored further, but I was walking with little legs. Still, it was a great taste of Rome, which is a sprawling city. Sylvie was psyched that the bus was PINK!!

During our two nights in Rome, we had dinner at two places special to Kerry. The first night was the trattoria in her apartment building, which was down-home, low-key, and yummy. There was a cat in the restaurant, and it was full of families eating out together. The second night was Da Enzo, a hip and happening restaurant in the Trastavere neighborhood. Kerry is a regular there, and while it opens at 7:30pm, people gather at 7:15 to wait to be called to dine. The waiter saw Kerry in the crowd and greeted her and kissed her on both cheeks. I had my first carbonara of the trip, plus panzanella and *delicious* artichoke. The dinner was one of my favorite of the trip both because of the food and because of the relationship Kerry had with the staff and the place. As usual, we were out late (for us) and it felt like the Romans were just starting to hit the streets when we were heading home.

Kerry will be moving back the States later this year, so it felt really special to be able to see Rome through her eyes when she still lives there.