Roma

So we have found both the best Gelateria (according to the new york times, and us), and the best restaurant (just according to us but we are right) in Rome. I have had no peace about this restaurant. Its all I hear about. Thats because it was fantastic, we decided to wander round looking for an authentic Italian Restaurant, and we found it (after leaving the first place that after we sat down gave us English Menu's with no vegetarian options). This second place had no vegetarian options for main, but for prima piatti, you chose from half a dozen options, or could simply choose from a list of different pasta's, and a list of sauces. Some of the sauces had a note next to them saying there where seasonal, and the first one I wanted to have I was out of season because it had Porcini Mushrooms (that impressed me). Then I chose a different sauce, with Gnocci (which Dani wants to tell my Mum that the waiter corrected my pronounciation of and Dani was right!), which I was told was only wednesdays (disappointing), so I changed to Ravioli, to be told by the waiter, in no uncertain terms, that I couldn't have that because it wouldn't go with the sauce I'd chosen (this impressed me, and thinking about it, rather than rushing to change my choice from Gnocci, he was right). This so far had impressed, but nothing had prepared us for what came next - the food! The most fantastic, if small (it was only meant to be a Primi Piatti), plate of pasta I have ever had. And then the most fantastic 3 cakes I'd ever had (Dani had a half portion of two, I had a whole portion on one). In short, sheer brilliance, oh, and there was graffiti all over the walls, dating back to last century, that were testament to this fact. I had a ricotta cheese and chocolate chip cheesy cakey type thing, it was fantastic! And even Scott said the tiramisu was the best he'd ever had.
I think Scotts pretty much covered the La Carbona (the restaurant) aspect of things now, so I'll talk about the ice cream. We found this amazing place called San Crispino about 2 minutes walk from the trevi fountain. They do honey ice cream - HONEY!! Which im told now is their speciality. It was undoubtedly the best ice cream ever. Rome is fantastic. And we have both put on about 20 pounds, Scott cant blame it on the baby! :D
Dani's lying, we havn't put on weight, but we have eaten fantastically, and that is despite the fact that we are yet to revisit Da Michele's. But anyway, we have done some sight seeing other than just eating. We queued for an hour and a half to find out that the Vatican Museum is closed and the Pope enjoys wasting thousands of tourists time/couldn't organise a queue to save his life. Did i also mention that scott forgot his razor and was turning into a nicely hairy tramp, I made him buy a new one and shave which i am relieved to say he has now done. :)
We went wine tasting in perugia (I cant remember if we've talked about this) which was awesome, and then found some of the wines we tasted at the restaurant last night! This morning we got up at 5am and went to the trevi at for dawn, its just like at dusk, but minus all the tourists, and you see the lights switch off instead of on. We were the only ones there for the majority of the time and have videos to prove it!! I know you'll never believe we got up at 5!
Yesterday we went to the colosseum and the forum, because its romes birthday week its free entry to all the museums, so the guided tours are really cheap too. We had a really good one and Scott's decided he'd quite like to become a gladiator. We've had lovely weather, been to the borghese gardens and lay around a lot. Hired one of those cart things that you pedal with 4 wheels, Scott says its a rickshaw but someone pulls you on that so i dont think it is. Which i kept forgetting to pedal and scott took us round a roundabout (ON A ROAD WITH CARS AND BIG GINOURMOUS COACHES!!) I wanted to say another word here but scott wont let me. We need to get going now, off to catch a train to Naples.
Lots of love to you all, Scott, Dani and Bump.

Song of the Moment: Happy Birthday to You (for my Mum nothing to do with our travels!)

Wine tastes better when its free!

So being pregnant finally has some perks! Scott wants me to start from the begining, so this evening we decided we'd go for a nice meal. Scott fancied this place reccommended in our guide book, Ristorante Nanà. Its run by 47 members of the same family and its a 10 table restaurant. We walked about 20 minutes out of town to this place, which from the outside didn't look like much, then inside looked like one of the most upmarket places I've ever been! People say you can spot an authentic restaurant when the menu's are only in the local language, but its a step better when the waiter is aswell! The guy who served us was lovely, but spoke no english, and the menu was deciphered with a lot of guesswork on our part! As he led us to our seats he offered us drinks, then brought over a 2004 pinot grigio and poured us glasses. As he started to open the bottle he asked is this OK - I muttered yes, then looked to Dani (our linguistic master for the trip) and said to ask how much it was. To which he replied "no problem... its only 2000 euros a glass" laughed said no problem. He then asked about the baby and said congratulations or something along those lines. Bearing in mind this was in italian so im making an educated guess. We ordered our food and spent the rest of the meal joking about the cost of this wine, (and worrying about which one of us would go to prison if we didn't have enough money to pay) - unsure whether no problem meant it was on the house (which admittedly seemed unlikely) or was a way to avoid telling us the cost of two extortoinate glasses of wine. Given that this was in Dani's words - "the best wine I've ever tasted" im no wine connessiour mind you but it was better than anything ive ever had, and this comes after a particularly nice Pinot Grigio drank from a plastic bottle in a train station on our last trip - we feel these concerns were justified.

After our main course it was well gone time to leave and catch the bus. So we asked for the bill and held our breath. It came, and not only had the wine been free, but the bill came to a total of only €50, not bad given that our two courses each came to €40 and we were expecting a service charge each. We paid with pleasure and happily ran off to our bus!

Other than this since our last blog we have been in and around perugia eating far too much ice cream, seen an old well, taken a half hour walk out to the old town wall to find the museum closed half an hour before our guide book said, went to a church with one room and one fresco - apparently by Raphael, and to the Cathedral, which had a few more Frescos but still only one room and generally lazed around the hostel a lot. A good start to the Holiday, me and Dani both agree.

So even though the weather sucks, we've still been having a great time!

Hope all is well back home, weather is better there than here according to the BBC!

Scott, Dani and Boom Boom

Song of the Moment: UB40 - [White White] Wine

Perugian's are just mean!

So we landed in Glorious sunshine, i'd just like to point out that it was not glorious sunshine, it was quite nice but scott just insisted it was "glorious", took of his jumper and put on his cowboy hat. So mine and Dani's accounts of the walk from the plane to the airport differ slightly (the airport was tiny though, like 3 times the size of Mfuee international for anyone that means anything too). But we do both agree that since leaving the airport its been pretty much cloudy and rainy. We got a bus into town, then another bus to the train station, then a third bus to our hostel, except that the bus driver wouldn't tell us where our stop was (ok, so i don't speak fluet Italian, but repeating the name of the stop he knows we want to go to in a questioning voice just after he's stopped  somewhere is pretty obviously meant to mean "is the Caso Neuvo"?). In the end we took a lucky guess and got off - we were wrong. After discovering this (and realising busses only run every hour) we decided to ask a few people for help. Dani had the first attempt, crossing the street to talk to an old Lady waiting for the bus on other side of the road, she came back to report that it didn't go well. I tried the same woman, and all she would say too me was something very fast in Italian that included the words "Italian" and "Tourist" - my only guess was that she meant "I'm Italian, your a tourist" as if it was the same as saying "I'm a Montegue, your a Capulet". I wondered down the road and found a similar old woman, who repeatedly said the word "Pergia" and pointed at the floor, then wagged her finger at me for a bit, then wondered off.

Eventually we called the Hostel, who very kindly came and found us, we'd got off the bus quite a bit to early, it was about a 10 or 15 minute drive to the bus stop we should have got off at.

We've spent the rest of the day in the hostel, wondered down to find a bar and get some food, who were very friendly, they even leant us an umbrella for the walk home in the rain.

For this evening we ordered Pizza, at about 7.30 we ordered it, were told it would not be here until 9.00, then it finally got here just a second ago at 9.30.

So far we're not too impressed by our first stop, and may leave a bit early, but we are trying not to judge it too much, tommorrow is a new day and we'll give it a chance then. There's a chocolate factory and wine tasty nearby aswell apparently! :)

Scott (Dani currently not here).

Song of the Moment: Oasis - Why Does It Always Rain On Me

Here We Go Again...

So, another tour, and of course another blog. This time a slightly shorter tour due to election campaigns and babies, but a tour none the less. We're in the "Stansted Skyline Hotel" with our free shuttle bus booked for tomorrow at 5.00am (i know ridiculous isn't it), after only a short argument over the word free - which disappointed me. I was all ready for a proper confrontation, would have provided the evenings entertainement at least, there's not much to do round here within walking distance and with almost all your money in Euro's. In the end we decided to venture from our hotel to find food and having walked through to the far side of the village and found nothing were told that there is a town in the opposite direction with plenty of places to eat. We found a few takeaways (useless given it was half an hour walk back to our hotel and cold takeaway in a hotel room sounds unappealing at best), an Italian (not happening, I love Italian food but not when we're about to spend two and a half weeks eating real Italian food I'm not settleing for some over priced imitation shit) and finally, after having to call Abbey to get my debit card fixed*, an Indian which was very nice, even if we we're a little strapped for cash!
*Abbey cancelled my card after the hotel tried to use it to pay (not that I'd asked them too), and it didn't have enough money in it, which I knew it didn't, thats why i didn't try to use it! This of course is in the same day that I withdrew £250 from that account, and money from both my other accounts, to buy Euro's, after years of withdrawing £20 or £30, at most £50, once every week or two. OK maybe I see why they cancelled it!
Scott rambles, i was going to say i would provide a more apt summary of our trip so far but then i realised he'd pretty much covered al the bases! Lol. Hotel is a bit of a rip off, i am still very fat but managed to walk about 100 miles to get dinner, i was ready to eat the waiters arm by the time it arrived!!
I told scott that after 2 and a bit weeks in italy he will have to roll me off the plane! I am going to try and put him to bed now coz we have to be up in about 5 hours. Lots of love to all of you,
Scott, Dani and Bump. xxxxx


Song of the Moment (its tradition now isn't it): White Snake - Here I (we) Go Again