Flights to Portugal are Locked In!

Since the deposit for the tour of Portugal was made several weeks ago I have been "trolling" the Delta website checking out airfare prices.

For me, there is a fine line between getting a ticket for the price I want with the flight times I want and if I can get Premier Voyager seats on AirFrance (a Delta partner) that's an even bigger bonus.  Of course I also have to consider my Sky Miles annual accural too!

I was finding Savannah to Lisbon round trip regular economy seats on AirFrance flights around $1200 but when I searched for Premier Voyager seats I was looking at about $2000 per ticket.  Which is "do-able" but slightly less would be even better.  Now, you may be saying why would I even consider Premier Voyager over regular economy?  Well, let me say although it is not business class, Air France Premier Voyager class is far above the Delta Economy Comfort product and I'm willing to pay a few hundred dollars more for a wider seat with more leg room and the opportunity to not be in a middle seat.

On a Wednesday afternoon I took a few minutes to check availability and I was rewarded with Air France flight times I could "live with" on days I could "deal with" for less than $1700 in Premier Voyager class.  I knonw $1700 is nothing to sneeze at, but this itinerary includes 6 flights in total (3 there and 3 back) and if I was simply looking at the base price of just over $1000 (just over $600 for taxes and fees), I don't think I'd be able to find another airfare that would be considerably less.  Well, at least that is what I like to think, and I WILL NOT, look at the prices on this route again (I promise!), in case I'm proven wrong.  :-)

So now, flights are booked for our May 2013 trip to Portugal.  Now I need to peruse bookstore shelves to find the perfect guides for pre-trip planning and you know, by bookstore I don't just mean a "bricks & mortar" store...there is a wealth of information right at my fingertips through my computer keyboard!

I love planning for a new trip!

A Return to Portugal in 2013!

How could I possibly get more than half way through a year and not have a trip planned for the next year?  Well, that had to be rectified...STAT!

A visit to Portugal 24 years ago, when I was a fresh-faced college student, on spring break left me with wonderful memories of a beautiful and friendly country.  When mom suggested a visit to this often overlooked European country I did not hesitate to say "Hell Yes"!  How could I say no to a country that produces vino verde and port wine!

This trip will be a journey back to my wanderlust beginnings and what better way to see Portugal than on a Rick Steves 2 week tour ( http://tours.ricksteves.com/tours/spain-portugal/portugal ).  Afterall, it was an entry in the 1989 Rick Steve's Europe Through the Back Door guidebook that opened my eyes to Portugal.

As a study abroad college junior in Montreaux, Switzerland I got it into my head that I really wanted to spend spring break in Spain and Portugal.   My research began with the Rick Steves guidebook (I wish I still had that copy, heck, it might have been worth something now!) and when I got to the section on Portugal, Lisbon, Sintra and Evora really jumped out at me.  Who knows why, maybe I thought it was exotic.  After reading the book I could not get the town of Evora out of my mind and my quest to visit there began. 

I remember my college days adventure to Portugal fondly, from the train ride through Spain to the arrival at one of the Lisbon train stations (at the time I had no idea the city had 3 stations!  I guess my research back then wasn't as detailed as now!) to the pensione I stayed at and the wonderfully delicious and inexpensive food...ahhhhh the memories!

So, as I booked the mid-May 2013 tour dates with Rick Steves, I smiled happily and felt fortunate to be able to plan another travel adventure!

Jet Lag? Pish-Posh to Jet Lag.... Let's go to NYC!

Two weeks after returning from our trip to Russia and barely over jet lag, mom and I were off again to New York City for the Labor Day weekend.
A few months before going to Russia, mom suggested going to NYC for Labor Day weekend, I wasn’t going to turn down a visit to the city that never sleeps, until I actually looked at the calendar and said that’s only 2 weeks after returning from Russia. Mom said she was “up for it” so I jumped on board too.

We got a reasonable airfare for that weekend, with one catch. Instead of being the direct flight on Delta from Savannah to LaGuardia, the outbound flight had a connection in Atlanta. Typically we like the direct flight, it’s barely 2 hours and with only a few direct flight options out of Savannah it’s always a nice alternative. But, if we connected in Atlanta, then we would also get a few more miles to add to our Sky Miles account, so we took the plunge and booked the outbound trip with the connection in Atlanta and for the return trip we did manage to get the Delta LaGuardia – Savannah direct flight.

Once the airfare was purchased I searched my “go-to” websites for hotel discounts. I came up with a good deal on TravelZoo for the Millennium Broadway hotel, a hotel we had stayed at before, in a good location and for $189 a night in the heart of the Theater District, it was a no-brainer for us to book it. The hotel does seem to need a little love, but it was clean and comfortable and perfect for 2 nights.

With only two nights in the city I didn’t want to cram every second with a Broadway show, and honestly, there wasn’t much that was playing that we had a big interest in, but when I got a discount offer for tickets to see The Best Man, with a note-worthy cast, we bought the tickets.

Now we were set, except for restaurants. Here is where I turned to past research and experience. I had been hearing a lot of good things about Trestle on Tenth, so we booked a table there for Saturday night and followed that with a booking at Toloache (mid-town location) for Sunday night after the show. I knew we’d want a pre-dinner drink before dinner at Trestle on Tenth and I did a little Google research. This research brought me to a wine bar called the Drunken Horse in the Chelsea neighborhood on 10th Avenue between 23rd & 24th Streets, which was just a half block from Trestle. We planned to go there before dinner on Saturday.

We arrived at LaGuardia on Saturday afternoon at about 1pm. I had booked a Carmel Car pickup and after I called them to say we had landed the car arrived in about 10 minutes and whisked us into the city. I’ve got to say, we have used Carmel on all of our visits in the last 5 years and this particular driver had the cleanest car we ever had.

We entered the Millennium Broadway Hotel at about 1:30, which was earlier than the 4pm check-in time. This wasn’t a problem; we left our luggage with the bellman and headed out in search of a Starbucks, which aren’t hard to find in this city!

We enjoyed a refreshingly cool coffee beverage in Bryant Park and then planned to go to the New York Public Library to check out an exhibit I had heard of. The exhibit is the History of Lunch in New York and I was excited to see this, but mom was ecstatic because there was reportedly a replica of an automat in the exhibit. As we approached the side door of the library, where the sign for the exhibit was located, I had an uneasy feeling; the big doors were closed tight. I walked up and tried to open the door, no luck. Were we in the wrong place? So, we walked all the way around the building, with no luck, no open doors. Then it started to dawn on me, I had checked the hours of the exhibit online, but I never checked to see what the hours of the library where for the weekend. Yes, I miscalculated, because of the holiday weekend, the library was closed, which meant no exhibit. Oh, well, go to Plan B…a little retail therapy at Sephora.

It was close to 4pm so we now were able to check into the hotel and freshen up a little. After about an hour, we made our way to the nearest subway station, bought a Metro Card and made our way down to Chelsea and walked to the Drunken Horse Wine Bar ( www.drunkenhorse.net ) at 225 Tenth Avenue.

We LOVED the Drunken Horse; the proprietor was really nice. He greeted us as soon as we walked in. There were several others at the bar and scattered at tables throughout the place. It’s not a big, but it has a very welcoming vibe. Mom and I decided to sit at the bar.

When it came to ordering wine the owner asked what we liked and then said he had just the wine for us. It was a white wine from Spain and boy was he spot-on, it was perfect. We then asked what the specialty of the house was on the tapas menu and he happily recommended the hummus and zucchini pancake, we ordered one of each.

I am not a huge hummus fan, but this hummus was unbelievably delicious. I’ve never had hummus so creamy, and the pita bread that came with it was warm and soft and perfect. The zucchini pancake was good too, mom really enjoyed it, but I pronounced the hummus a winner for me.

Just before 8pm we left The Drunken Horse and walked the 3 minutes to Trestle on Tenth. Being a holiday weekend Saturday it was clear by the number of empty tables that I probably didn’t really need a reservation, but what really raised my radar was the hostess. For an establishment that was not full, we had to wait a good 5 minutes to even be greeted at the entryway. This did not sit well with us and the meal didn’t get much better from there.

The service was mediocre, and the food was not much better. The pasta and pancetta starter we shared was extremely salty, my scallop main dish was ok, but mom’s fish main dish was really lackluster and had no flavor at all. The wine, a French Sancerre was very good. In an effort to try and salvage the meal I did opt for dessert and all I can remember about it was that it was a cakey item which came with a lemon ice cream that was ok.

Lesson learned, sometimes all that you hear about a place isn’t always the most accurate, and it was a holiday weekend, so maybe the “second string” was in the kitchen cooking. At least our time pre-dinner at The Drunken Horse was great!

On Sunday morning we made our way to the Starbucks next to the hotel for a jolt of caffeine and then walked to The Morgan Library at 225 Madison Avenue (at 36th Street). Mom and I had never heard of The Morgan Library until we read a Fodors trip report a few years ago about someone who had gone there. At that time we put this library on our radar for a future visit and this trip seemed like the perfect time. Plus there was a temporary exhibit at The Morgan Library of Winston Churchill’s correspondence.

We arrived at The Morgan Library just before the 11am opening time. Prior to this trip I found out the actual dining room, which was part of the Morgan family home, was now open as a restaurant and served lunch during the week and brunch on weekends. Being a Sunday we opted to have an 11am brunch reservation. The omelets we had were delicious and the dining room is just lovely.

After we had brunch we meandered through the library. All I can say is WOW! What an incredible collection of drawings, printed books and bindings, medieval and renaissance manuscripts, literary and historical manuscripts, music manuscripts and ancient seals and tablets. Pierpont Morgan was quite the collector. As incredible as the collection itself is, the library is also a work of art, it is truly an exquisite building. When we picked up the audio guide that is included in the admission price we hit the jackpot with the docent handing out the devices. This woman was a wealth of information about the history of Mr. Morgan and the library. I’m glad she asked us if we knew anything about the library and I’m glad we said, “No”, because after just 10 minutes standing with her at her desk we knew a whole lot more!

The library is not very large, but we spent close to 2 hours there. We probably could have spent more time, but by 2pm we had to leave because we had a 3pm matinee of The Best Man we had to get to.

It took us about 30 minutes to walk from The Morgan Library to the Theater District and find the theater. The line in front to get in was longer than I thought it would be. The doors were opened about 20 minutes before the performance and we found our seats without a problem.

The Best Man did have a great cast, James Earl Jones, John Larroquette, John Stamos, Kristen Davis to name a few, but for us it started out slow. It did pick up in the second and third acts, but we would say it was average. It wasn’t the worst show we had ever seen, but it wasn’t the best either. This was the last week of performances of this show and I was a little surprised to see a completely full house. Maybe it was because of the discounted tickets they were offering, or maybe it was because it was a Sunday matinee, or maybe it was just that full because of all the big names in the cast.

The show ran just shy of 3 hours and at about 6pm we were streaming out of the theater and heading to the Renaissance Hotel in Times Square. We found the lounge in this hotel has a spectacular view of Times Square and it’s a nice place to get a glass of wine, for a reasonable price and the location was perfect because we had a 7:30pm dinner reservation at Toloache on 50th Street.

Just before 7:30pm we settled our bar tab at the Renaissance Hotel and walked over to Toloache. I found this Mexican Bistro on one of our NYC trips last year and have to say, the food is delicious. It was packed to the gills on this Sunday night and I was happy I had made a reservation. We were seated as soon as we walked in and this time we had a table on the upper balcony level.

The service here was great, attentive, but not hovering. The big draw here is the number of tequilas this restaurant has on offer. So going out of our “wine box” mom and I ordered margaritas to start. Mom had a cucumber and lime version, I had the blueberry and lime version. We were both very happy with our selections.

Another claim to fame of this place is the guacamole. I am not a big guacamole fan, but I really wanted to give it a try here and to strike a balance between my milder palate and mom’s fiery palate we ordered the mild version. Another WOW! dish. This guacamole was like no other I have ever had, it was creamy and chunky at the same time, how is that even possible? I don’t know, but it was delicious.

We took the advice of our server and we got the 2 menu items he recommended. Mine was a shrimp dish, and mom’s was a pork dish. Talk about flavor exploding in our mouths, but not in a hot spicy way, just in a bold full of flavor way. Since by the time our main dishes arrived we had finished our margaritas, we ordered 2 glasses of a Spanish albarino wine that went perfectly with both dishes. We were two happy girls.

But, there was really a specific reason we wanted to come back to this restaurant and it was the orange coffee. Oh My God! This is the best coffee either of us has ever had and it did not disappoint. It was the perfect end to our time in NYC.

The next day we had plenty of time to get ready before the car was to pick us up at 10:30am to take us back to LaGuardia. As great as the driver was who picked us up on Saturday, this driver on Monday was the “Mario Andretti” of the Carmel Car fleet. Seriously, we were not sure if we would get out of the car in one piece. He sure did like to drive fast, cut off other cars and take surface roads instead of the highway. Thankfully we arrived at the airport without getting into an accident.

As luck would have it, our flight was delayed for a couple hours, but this gave us time to have a late breakfast/early lunch. As we waited to board the plane for the flight home I was happy to see both our names clear the flight upgrade list, so mom and I got to fly home in business class, it was like the proverbial cherry on the sundae of a great weekend!

Rubles & A River...Yup, It's Russia

An 11 day cruise along the Volga River from Moscow to St. Petersburg sounded like a great way to see Russia a year ago when mom and I booked the trip. The reality was we learned a valuable lesson...cruising is not our preferred method of travel. However, we did have several memorable moments and saw some beautiful sites & sights.

Background:

My friend RM coordinates several group trips for women every year. Last year a friend and I went on RM’s Vietnam, Cambodia & Thailand trip and had a good time with a small group of 9 travelers. When RM announced she was putting together a river cruise in Russia, my (and my mom’s) curiosity was piqued. Russia wasn’t at the top of our “travel wish list” but when this opportunity presented itself we thought it might be a good way to see Russia without having to handle all the detailed travel planning ourselves. Mom and I had been on Caribbean cruises before, me on 2, mom on 1. We weren’t thrilled with those cruise experiences, but we were willing to give a river cruise a try, thinking maybe it would be different. Some parts were different and some were the same as we’d experienced on the large ocean ships.

My initial thoughts were it might be nice to be on a boat and not have to live out of a suitcase, packing up every couple days to move to another city or town as we would have done on a land trip. I was also a bit (OK, a lot) intimidated to try and plan a trip to Russia, where I had no inkling of the language. I presented this scenario to my mom and she agreed. In hind-sight I think I pressed a little hard for this journey. I won’t go as far to say I twisted mom’s arm to come along with me, but I do think she agreed in part because she knew I was really interested in seeing Russia, perhaps more so than she did. However, she assured me that if she really didn’t want to go she could have/would have said no.

A sign that things may not be so enjoyable was the arduous Russian visa process, which after hearing from other ladies in the group about their experiences, ours was a cake-walk, but it was slightly frustrating and at that point we seriously considered backing out of the trip and loosing our deposit, but we soldiered on.

Once we paid our deposits, about a year before the trip, I got busy searching for airfare. I quickly realized tickets to Russia from Savannah, Georgia do not come cheap. So I offered mom the option of using our Delta sky miles. I didn’t have quite enough in my account so we moved some of her miles into my account and off I went in search of award tickets.

The night owl internet browsing tendencies of mine paid off this time. One night, it must have been close to 1am, I found 2 round trip business class tickets into Moscow and return from St. Petersburg for 150,000 miles each. Out bound was on Delta via Atlanta and JFK and return was on Air France via Paris and Atlanta. I snapped them up quickly and I’m glad I did, because after that the only redemption levels I saw were 300,000 or more each for economy class! I gave myself a pat on the back for this find; at least I thought it was a good deal.

Of course, when booking almost a year in advance I expect airline schedules to change and this itinerary was no exception. Initially when I booked the tickets the outbound to Moscow had only one connection in Atlanta, but about 6 months after booking Delta discontinued the Atlanta – Moscow route. This meant we were rebooked and our itinerary went from Savannah to Atlanta to JFK to Moscow on the outbound ticket. Well, this wouldn’t have been so bad; except we now had to leave Savannah at 5:30am instead of 11:30am…UGH…here I go again with the wake in the middle of the night to get to the airport on time scenario. However, I’ve got to say in the end the early morning departures (we had an early one out of St. Petersburg too) were somewhat acceptable since we did have business class seats!

The cruise company was AMAWaterways and the boat was the AMAKatarina. The boat was perfectly fine, it was clean, comfortable and the staff and crew were professional and friendly. Being the “foodies” mom and I are, we knew going in the food would not be stellar and we were spot on with that. The dining room servers and bartenders were all very nice, their levels of English comprehension varied with some understanding more than others, which was not an issue for us, however it was for some of the other travelers (you can’t please everyone all the time!). The food was fine, we did not starve, however I had a terrible bout of gastro-intestinal discomfort for the first 5 days which made eating very unappealing…who do you know who comes back from a cruise 5 pounds lighter? That would be me!

And now for the trip…

Journey to Moscow

The “trek” to Moscow started when we arose at 1:30am for a 5:30am flight out of Savannah, in my usual early bird fashion we arrived at the airport early, so early the TSA security lines weren’t even open yet…note to self, security at the Savannah airport doesn’t open until 4:30am. At which time there is a massive line because not only Delta, but US Air also has a 5:30am flight.

The flight to Atlanta was smooth and the connection was a breeze for our flight to JFK. I was happily surprised the JFK flight was departing from the new international terminal (Terminal F) at Atlanta, it is lovely, and everything is new and shiny. The terminal had only been open for a few months. The flight to JFK was smooth and on time, which meant we now had a 6 hour layover. Fortunately we had access to the sky lounge, which was barely a step above the regular terminal waiting areas, but at least the bathroom was super clean!

We caught up with 3 of the other ladies who were on the cruise with us and chatted before boarding the plane. The flight from JFK to Moscow boarded on time and with air traffic what it is at JFK we took off about an hour late, which was ok with us, that gave us an extra hour in business class!

We have flown business class before but never in a cabin with the lay-flat beds, so this was great for getting comfortable. We still didn’t sleep much, but at least we got to actually lie horizontally! The service was great, the food was good, and it was a pleasant flight.

We arrived in Moscow pretty much on time and it was nice to be in the first wave of passengers to deplane. We got to passport control quickly and there was barely a line. The agent scrutinized our passports and visas for a couple minutes then stamped our passports and we were done. We did carry-on only so it was an easy walk through customs with nothing to declare and we found our driver without any trouble on the other side of the sliding glass door.

We waited with our driver until our 3 travel companions made their way to the meeting point, about 20 minutes. This gave me enough time to stop at an ATM to get some Rubles. This was easy enough; I had my pick of about 8 different machines.

Being a Sunday the drive from Sheremetyevo airport to the Hotel Baltschug Kempinski was only about 30 minutes. This easy drive to the hotel lulled us into a false sense of what the traffic situation can be like in Moscow. Let’s just suffice to say the remaining time in Moscow included several days of sitting on a bus for hours in stand still traffic trying to get to or from the center of the city to where the boat was docked. Yes drawback number 1 of being on a cruise, the boat does not dock in the center of the city.

The hotel was lovely, the staff was nice. We were thrilled with the fact that when we arrived at 11am we were able to check into our room. And speaking of room, it was massive. This had to be the largest hotel room I have ever stayed in while in Europe. The room was comfortable and clean and the bathroom was spotless.

Even with the comfy business class seats, we were pretty “zonked” so we decided to take a nap for a few hours. Bless my mom’s heart, the woman can and does fall asleep in any bed she crawls into and she was fast asleep within minutes of putting her head on the pillow. Me on the other hand, did not get that “sleep gene” and for the next 4 hours I rolled around trying to get a little rest. I will say the beds were very comfortable; however the pillow left a lot to be desired.

By late afternoon we were ready to freshen up and have a glass of wine. After we each showered we meandered to the lobby bar for some wine and to wait for the rest of our group to meet for dinner. There were already 2 ladies from our group enjoying refreshments and we joined them. This was my mistake number 1, when we sat down I noticed one gal had a glass of white wine in front of her, and I asked her what she was drinking. She told me a sauvignon blanc from New Zealand. Mom and I happen to enjoy sauvignon blanc wines from New Zealand so we each ordered a glass.

After making our way through about half the glass I asked the gal if she knew how much the wine was and she said she didn’t know. I had an idea that a hotel lobby bar was going to have pretty high priced wine; there have been times in my travels when I’ve paid $20-$25 for a glass in a hotel. But the wine level in our glasses was decreasing and the rest of our group was delayed at the airport and was running late, so mom and I ordered a second glass of wine while we waited to go to dinner.

Finally the rest of our group arrived and we were ready to go to dinner. I asked the server for our check and nearly had a heart attack when I opened the check holder. Yes, we had just paid $36 per glass. $144 for four glasses of wine, do you realize how many bottles of wine I could buy at Trader Joe’s for that amount…A LOT! I have learned my lesson; always ask to see the wine list before ordering. I signed the check and we were off to a Ukrainian restaurant down the street from the hotel.

By the time we arrived at the restaurant it was close to 10pm and honestly I was not terribly hungry. The poor young man serving us had to handle a party of 16 American women. I’m sure his frustration level was stratospheric, especially given the fact he didn’t speak any English. However, he was a very good sport about the situation, or at least it appeared to me that he was. The dish I had was an eggplant and tomato salad, but mom was the real winner of the night with a delicious warm lentil salad served in a hollowed out loaf of dark bread.

When we finished dinner mom and I walked back to the hotel and made a stop at an ATM so mom could take out some money, but we hit a road block, for whatever reason mom could not access any money. This became an issue and we had to call her bank at home, even though she called to put a travel notification on the card prior to leaving. Her bank rep was very nice, but couldn’t determine why her card was refused and it was refused at more than one ATM, we tried several. The bank rep put another notice on mom’s card and we could try again to get cash in 24 hours. And that is how our fist day in Moscow ended.

All Aboard!

But first breakfast and a morning walking tour! The buffet breakfast at the Hotel Baltschug Kempinski was enormous. There was not anything anyone could have thought was a breakfast item that was not available and this included caviar and champagne, boy the Russians know how to live it up at breakfast!

Mom and I enjoyed a few things from the buffet but the pineapple juice was the best I have ever had (mind you I haven’t been to Hawaii yet, so this could change). Honest to God it tasted just like someone had squeezed a pineapple in our glasses, it was fresh and delicious and not overly sweet as I sometimes find it to be.

RM had arranged for our group of 16 to do a walking tour of the Zamoskvoreche area around the hotel. This area has lots of twisting streets and was at one time the area where many artists lived. RM hired 2 guides for our group of 16 and we split into two more manageable groups. Our guide Olga was terrific, her English was excellent and she was very informative. It was a pleasant two hour tour.

RM arranged with the hotel for all of us to have a late (1:30pm) check out. After the walking tour, mom and I meandered back towards the hotel and stopped in the Starbucks across the street to cool off for a few minutes with an icy coffee beverage. Once properly caffeinated we went back to our room, did a final pack and met the rest of our group in the hotel lobby at 1:30pm for the transfer to the boat.

The shuttle vans RM booked for the transfer were clean and comfortable and this was our first peak at what Moscow traffic can truly be like and it wasn’t pretty. We slowly wound our way from the hotel to the old ferry terminal where the river boat was docked.

As we boarded the boat we were serenaded by what I would call an “Um-pah” band, my first thought was, “Hmmmm…maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all”. Our cabin was not ready and we waited in the lounge for about 30 minutes before we could get our keys (not such a bad wait time). Once we got to our cabin it was maybe another 15 minutes before our suitcases arrived.

Our first impression of the boat and cabin was “not so bad”, it was clean, small but not too small and we were thankful we opted for a cabin with an individual balcony. It was nice to be able have a little outdoor space.

The rest of the afternoon was spent getting to know the other ladies in our group at a cocktail party RM put together for us and then it was time for our first dinner.

The next two days…

Were spent touring Moscow. One of the nice things about this particular cruise was the majority of the daily excursions were included in the price of the tour, so we did not have to pay extra for these. There were several special excursions you could opt for which were extra, but there were only 3 or 4 of those as I recall and mom and I chose not to do any of the extras.

Mom and I were put in a group of “slow walkers” for the first day. However, the Moscow guide for this group was truly atrocious. I have experienced my fair share of tour guides in the past but this woman was the worst. She was leading the “SLOW” walkers and had this group crossing streets with 4 lanes of fast moving traffic and one man in a wheelchair was left at the intersection with himself and his wife to deal with crossing the street. This guide also really, really, really, liked to talk. By the end of the day I was ready to pay her more to stop talking.

Mom and I are not ones to complain, but when RM asked us how our tour experience was with this guide, we told her the truth and the next day we were able to join the daily tour group where the other women we were traveling with had been and we were much happier and mom had no trouble keeping up the pace.

These two days in Moscow were HOT, I’m talking Africa HOT, Tarzan couldn’t even take that type of heat, which I’m sure is part of the reason I feel the way I do about Moscow. I was hot, and tired, and feeling crummy and my opinion of Moscow was that it is a gray, grimy, congested city. And the lunch boat tour we were on during one day did not help with my impression. I understand why we were provided lunch on this day boat that traveled up and down the Moscow River. It was easier for the cruise company to keep us in the center of the city for lunch instead of fighting traffic to get back to the cruise boat for lunch and then shuttle us back into the city for the afternoon, but the day boat was not very comfortable and the food served was barely edible.

However, there were some highlights during these two days. We visited Red Square and the sight of the domes of St. Basil’s Cathedral was a treat to see. They really do look like swirly dollops of colorful ice cream to me. We toured the Armory Museum and I loved seeing the royal clothing and carriages and the Faberge Eggs! GUM Department Store and the Kremlin grounds were interesting. One afternoon when we had several free hours mom and I high-tailed it to Red Square found a seat under an awning at Café Bosco and had lunch as we watched the throngs walk by. Now that’s our type of vacation activity!

The next stop on the cruise itinerary…

…was the town of Uglich. This town was founded in 1148 by merchants and is home to some of Russia’s most beautiful churches and cathedrals. We were scheduled to arrive at 6:30pm, so we had the whole day to do whatever we wanted. There were several scheduled activities but mom and I chose to sleep in and then spend time on the front deck checking out the scenery. There wasn’t much to see, but at least the weather was fantastic, beautiful blue sky, nice breeze, it was great to sit outside. The Uglich lock we passed through was the prettiest lock we went through on the cruise.

When we arrived in Uglich we gathered on the on dock and met our local guide, Vladmir. We spent about 2 hours on a walking tour of the town and saw the Church of Dmitry on the Blood and the Chambers of Princes of Uglich. Vladmir was a good guide, his English was excellent and he was a wealth of information. During this visit we were entertained by a local municipal men’s choir. The singers were excellent. During the rest of the trip we encountered similar performances in other venues, but this group was by far the best we had seen. In fact, they were so good; mom purchased their CD of Russian folk songs.

On the way back to the boat we passed through the “tourist tat gauntlet”. I was hell-bent on not buying anything, but a stall with reasonably priced nesting dolls called to us and we stopped. Fortunately for me there was a doll that was different from all the others lined up on the table and it just happened to go with the décor in my home. So, for $15 I succumbed and bought the doll…it looks great in my living room now!

The next day…

…brought us to Yaroslavl, which was established by Yaroslavl the Wise in 1010. This city is one of Russia’s oldest cities and can trace its roots back to the Vikings. We arrived at the dock at about 10am, met our local guide and boarded buses for a tour of the city.

We visited the Governor’s House which had a nice art gallery and were treated to a music and dance presentation performed by local residents in period costumes. We did a brief walking tour of the downtown area and then spent time touring the Transfiguration Monastery.  We also so what had to have been a minimum of 5 wedding parties at one of the cathedrals we visited.  We were told since the months of June, July & August had the best weather most couples choose to marry in those months.  Literally there were 5 wedding parties lined up on the cathedral grounds waiting to go into the church to be married. 

We were back on the boat just before 2pm. This afternoon mom and I decided it might be fun to participate in the nesting doll painting lesson. Was it fun? Yes, but only because I am such an awful artist, we couldn’t help laughing at the doll I had painted, I need to stick with my day job and thankfully I never had any aspiration of becoming an artist!

Delayed by fog…


Because we were delayed by four hours due to fog during the night the 1pm arrival in Goritsy was moved back to 3:30pm. This meant more time in the lounge for mom and me.

The stop in Goritsy was really to experience a home visit. Mom and I decided we did not want to do this. Honestly, to us, it just felt way too staged. Instead we got off the boat and walked around the dock area which had about 20 market stalls selling alls kinds of souvenirs.

It took us all of about 15 minutes to check things out. When we first started walking through the stalls I spied a vendor displaying really lovely nesting dolls, I’m talking intricately painted and sets of 10 dolls, not the 5 or 7 in a set we had been seeing. These dolls were done by a real artist. I didn’t want to “pounce” right away though and took another 10 minutes perusing the other merchandise at the remainder of the stalls.

When I realized the first stall was the only one with these nesting dolls we went back. There were 2 that were just outstanding quality. Mom fell for one of them and decided to buy it. I’m so glad she did, it really is lovely and goes very well in her home.

On our way back to the boat I stopped in a little convenience store because I was on the prowl for a specific type of bottled water we had in Moscow. It was lemon basil flavor and it was refreshing and delicious. I was happy to see this convenience store had one bottle left and I quickly snatched it, paid for it and we were then heading back to the boat.

I guess we could call this a relaxed day, because other than getting off the boat for about 30 minutes, all we really did was sit and read. I’m certainly not used to vacations like that!

It only took until cruise day #7 for us to hit a memorable moment…

Kizhi Island was a highpoint of this trip for mom and me. This island is situated in the northern end of Lake Onega and home to some of the most incredible wooden architecture in Russia, and in my opinion, the most striking I have ever seen. This island is linked to Novgorod the Great. In 1764 the locals built the Church of the Intercession with its towering walls and 22 onion domes without using a single nail.

We met our tour guide just after disembarking the boat and this guide was wonderful. We could tell she was passionate about sharing the history of this island with us and she was very proud of this beautiful spot. Not only is there a cathedral on the island but there is also replicas of the homes the peasants would have lived in during the time the island was permanently inhabited. Today, the guides who work here live on the island from May until October when the island, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site is open.

I’m sure it helped that the weather on this day was sparkling, but both mom and I enjoyed this day the most out of the previous 7 on the cruise.

Another home visit and more souvenirs…

The last stop before St. Petersburg was Svirstroy. This small town is only about 100 miles from St. Petersburg and the big “draw” here is…yup, souvenirs. As soon as we got off the book there were several dirt streets of vendor stalls selling all kinds of souvenir paraphernalia. We had the option to do another home visit with a tea party, but we took a pass on that.

Mom and I meandered through the vendor stalls and I did stumble upon an artist who had a drawing of the cathedral on Kizhi Island I was very taken with, so I purchased it. At 2pm we were back on the boat, having lunch and heading toward St. Petersburg.

The much awaited and much anticipated St. Petersburg…

Our 3 days in St. Petersburg were jam-packed. The first day we disembarked the boat at about 9am and took a hydrofoil (docked next to the river boat) to the Hermitage. Fortunately by hydrofoil the trip to the museum was only about 20 minutes, had we gone by bus, it would have been close to one hour.

The Hermitage was all we had hoped it would be. The wealth of art in this museum is staggering. The three hours we spent in the museum was only a little peek into what this museum has to offer. Our guide, Veronica was excellent and she really knew how to steer us around the worst of the crowds, because, believe me, there were hoards of people!

After a group lunch at a rather non-descript banquet hall (where else could they feed 160 cruise passengers!) we had a bus tour of the city. This was a typical group tour “event”. By that I mean, we only went into one of the places to see the interior and that was the Peter and Paul Fortress. The other “stops” on this tour included St. Isaac’s Square, and Church of Our Savior on the Spilled Blood. At each of these spots we got off the bus, and were given about 20 minutes to take pictures. Not my most favorite way to see the sights.

Our second day in St. Petersburg we spent the morning in Pushkin exploring Catherine’s Palace and the evening at a ballet performance. Other than our time on Kizhi Island, this was my favorite day of the trip.

We arrived at Catherine’s Palace at about 8:30am which was a God-send. In one stellar move, AMAWaterways coordinates with Catherine’s Palace to have our group from the boat arrive about one hour prior to the palace opening to the general public. So, even though there were 5 tour buses of cruise passengers, it was no where near the number of people going through the palace when we were leaving.

Catherine’s Palace was astounding, and the most stunning, draw-dropping part of touring this palace was the amber room. I had no idea amber could not only be a lovely honey color, but it can also be red, or orange. After a guided tour we were able to spend time exploring the grounds and it was a terrific morning.

In the evening we went to a ballet performance of Giselle in the Little Hermitage Theater. I have to be honest and say I was not expecting much of this ballet. I truly thought it was going to be a “second-rate tourist show”. Boy was I ever wrong. First the theater was lovely and much smaller than I was expecting, but now knowing it was built just for Catherine the Great, it makes sense that it was not a huge venue, since it was for her private entertainment. And secondly, the ballet company was first-rate. The performers are considered celebrities in Russia, of course I don’t remember any of their names, but the two principle dancers were extraordinary.

A morning at Peterhof gardens was how we spent our last day in St. Petersburg. The morning had beautiful clear blue skies and we took a hydrofoil from the river boat dock to Peterhof. What a great way to enter Peterhof gardens via the hydrofoil dock, talk about impressive.

The gardens at Peterhof are lovely, but the real reason to visit here, in my opinion, is the fountains. I can see why this is called the “Russian Versailles” and we didn’t even go into the palace, we only toured the gardens. When the fountains were turned on, at about 11am, it was even more magical.

At about 2pm we were back on the hydrofoil for the one hour trip back to the river boat. We had the rest of the afternoon at our leisure and we could have gone into the center of the city, but mom and I were both tired, and we needed to gather our belongings and pack up for the early departure the next day.

The long trek home…

Our Air France flight was scheduled to leave St. Petersburg at about 7:30am. The cruise price included a transfer from the boat to the airport. There were about 20 other passenger scheduled to be at the airport at about the same time and the cruise company scheduled our departure for, get this, 4am! Now, I know I am always erring on the side of arriving at the airport early but this was ridiculous for a number of reasons. Reason #1 – for once, there was no city traffic (what did you expect at 4am!) and we got to the airport in less than 20 minutes. Reason #2 – the Air France ticket counter did not even open until 5:30am. Reason #3 – the waiting area by the 4 boarding gates was security controlled (I get that, but…) and so small we could not get to the gate area until about 40 minutes before boarding. So, yes, I was up at 2am for a 7:30am flight. You can probably guess that even though I was in bed by 9pm, sleep did not come easy this night, all I can say is thank goodness for business class seats in this instance!

I’ve got to admit I was never so happy to be greeted with a “Bon Jour Madame” when boarding the flight, I could finally understand what people were saying to me! Well, not much, but my French comprehension is a heck of a lot better than my Russian! Fortunately, the flight from St. Petersburg departed on time, but not before the flight attendant fumigated the cabin once the plane door was shut. I had not experienced that before. We were told it was an EU code to spray.

The flight was about 3 hours long and mom and I dozed off and on for a couple hours. We arrived in Paris on time and did not “park” out on the back forty, the plane pulled right up to the terminal and a jet way was hooked up in minutes. Being at the front of the plane paid off again because we had just about 1 hour and 30 minutes to connect to our flight to Atlanta.

As we emerged from the gate area, breezed through security (there were no lines to speak of) we made our way into the large, well lighted, terminal area where every type of upscale name brand had a shop and like a phoenix rising from the ashes we both spotted that lovely shade of light green we tend to dream about on occasion. Yes, I am talking about a Lauduree macaron shop. I looked at my watch, mom looked at me, we both looked at the line at the take away counter and smiled and mom said, “I feel like we are back in civilization”. Why yes, yes we did have time to make a little sweet treat purchase of 6 macarons. Let me say the lemon basil variety is simply delicious!

After our little purchase we found our gate, had a seat and in less than 30 minutes we were boarding the flight to Atlanta. Have I mentioned how nice it is to be in Business Class? Let me say it again, because this time it was Air France. Delta (on the way over) was nice, but maybe because we were already exhausted (and it was only 10:30am), but sinking down into that Air France seat, getting comfortable and having the marvelous Valerie as our flight attendant felt like heaven.

Because I’d been up since 2am Russian time, I wasn’t going to refuse the glass of champagne that was offered, however the peach and cherry juice also on offered looked darn good too. The meal on the flight was delicious; from the foie gras starter to the guinea hen to the dessert trio to the calvados (I just had to try it!) we were two happy ladies. After the meal we reclined our seats and I don’t think my head had even hit the little pillow before I was sound asleep. I probably slept for close to 4 hours, that’s a record for me!

When we were a couple hours from landing a light meal was served. At first mom and I were not going to get the meal and instead have something at One Flew South in Terminal E in Atlanta since we would have a few hours to kill there. But, then the duck, mashed potatoes and grated Parmesan cheese started to be served. I swear I have never had a more scrumptious airline dish, this was French comfort food on a plate and everyone around us was lapping it up too! There would be no need for a visit to One Flew South now!

As we began our decent Valerie, our flight attendant, asked if we had a good rest and wished us a good flight to Savannah. Afterwards, I turned to mom and asked if we had ever mentioned to Valerie where our final destination was. Mom said, “We didn’t”, wow, however Valerie did it, she knew exactly where we were heading!

Our last leg of the journey on a Delta flight to Savannah was the only flight on the entire itinerary where we couldn’t get business class seats, but we were ok with that since it was only a 30 minute flight. Well, the travel Gods were shining down on us and thanks to Gold Sky Miles status we were upgraded just before boarding, so in the end we did fly all the legs in Business Class and it was a welcome end to a long and tiring journey.

A Cruiser I Am Not

I've been back from a cruise of the Volga River in Russia for just over a week and I'm very conflicted about this trip.  On one hand I found parts of this trip interesting and on the other hand I was less than thrilled with parts of the trip.

The most glaring negative aspect of the trip for me was the whole cruise concept.  I grappled with this even before committing to this adventure.  I had been on a couple Caribbean cruises and knew that wasn't my favorite type of travel.  In the back of my mind I was hoping a river cruise in Russia might be different, and in some ways it was, but in many ways it was the same.  So part of me is kicking myself in the butt for doing this trip. But I'm justifying the trip in my mind by saying I probably would not have attempted to plan a trip to Russia on my own and a cruise did make the coordination part easy, but by doing that I had to give up much of my "do what I want" attitude.

As I now sit in the comfort of my home I'm contemplating whether or not to write a trip report.  If my heart wasn't in this trip, how would I craft an interesting and informative report?

I will just have to think about it a little more...maybe while I'm spending Labor Day weekend in New York City! ;-)

It's a Woman's Prerogative to Change Her Mind!

...and that's just what I did today.

When I opened my email inbox this morning there was a "fare alert" email from Kayak.com.  Many times I just scan and delete these emails, especially if I'm not particularly looking to plan a trip.  So, why did this email command attention?  Well, it had the city of Rome in the subject line.

I'll admit, I cannot pass any mention of Rome without looking into it, and I'm glad I didn't pass this up because it lead me to find the 72 hour fare sale Delta Airlines was having.

When I saw a round trip fare from Savannah to Rome for the end of November and it was under $800 I had to explore this option a little more.

But I had a dilemma, I had already booked flights to San Francisco in early November.  But Rome is ALWAYS calling my name, so I put my dialing finger to good use and called Delta reservations to see what the cost would be to change the San Francisco ticket to a Rome ticket and change the dates.

Not having done this before I prepared myself for sticker shock for the cost of the change, but I was pleasantly surprised and bit the bullet and made the change.  So now instead of Sonoma County, California in November, mom and I are heading back to Rome!

Once I had the flights changed it was time to cancel the California hotels I had already booked, and fortunately I had reservations that could be cancelled without penalty.  When those cancellations were complete it was time to turn to my discount code for the Albergo del Senato which the hotel sent me after my March stay with them.  A 10% discount in this extremely well-located Roman hotel was a good deal and now, a week at Thanksgiving in Rome is set...that is unless I change my mind again!

Hallelujah it's here!

It's Here! It's Here! It's HERE!!!!

My Russia visa arrived today!

I know, I know, I'm being a wee bit melodramatic, but I was the happiest girl on Hilton Head Island today when the package with my passport and Russia visa was delivered to me this morning.

It's not that I doubted the visa would be issued (ok, maybe there was just an ounce of doubt).  But I have to admit I did breathe a sigh of relief when it arrived.  Now that there is a Russian visa beautifully stuck on one of the pages in my passport it all seems much more real...I'm really going.

And now it's time to bust out my Google Translate App and learn a few basic words in Russian...hello, thank you and please are probably three good ones to start with...Wish me luck!

What's A Gal To Do When Looking For a Hotel Deal?

Although I am taking off for Russia next month, I've also now booked two trips to NYC, one in September and one in December, and a one week trip to Sonoma County California in November.

With my Russia trip plans in order (well, there is the Visa issue to contend with), I have turned my sights to booking accommodations for the rest of my trips this year.  Some may think it's a bit too early to book for the fall, but for the travel planner I am, it's not.  Well, at least in my mind it's not too early!

For the December NYC trip I turned to my Intercontinental connection and got a Friends & Family rate at the new-ish Intercontinental near Times Square in NYC, for a not too bad price of $220 per night. 

For the Sonoma County trip in November I turned to a California friend for a hotel recommendation.  She whole-heartedly advised Healdsburg is a terrific town to use as a base location in the area and gave me a great lead on the Healdsburg Inn. When I contacted the inn directly, they couldn't have been nicer and since I'm traveling with my mom, I was able to secure the senior citizen discount for our 6 night stay.  So for about $275 per night we will be staying right in the heart of Healdsburg where we can walk to wine tasting rooms and a variety of restaurants without having to deal with who drives after enjoying wine with dinner!

My last hurdle was finding a NYC hotel for the September trip.  It's a quick weekend trip and I was looking for 2 nights accommodation.  I'm pretty sure at this point at least one Broadway show will be on the agenda that weekend and I wanted to stay somewhere with easy access to mid-town Manhattan and specifically close to Times Square, but not necessarily in Times Square.

I went back to my trusty Friends & Family option with Intercontinental and either the rates for the locations I wanted were no bargain, or the rate was good but the location was farther than where I wanted to be.  So, I started trolling the websites Hotwire, Room Key and TravelZoo for any great deals that might pop up.

For about a week I was not having much luck, rates were not super astronomical by NYC standards, but in the back of my mind I knew something better would pop-up.  Then it did, a TravelZoo deal for the Paramount Hotel on West 46th street.  I could book the first night for $220 and the second night for $189 and free wi-fi was thrown into the deal.  So I booked it, knowing if I found something even better that the cancellation policy allowed me to cancel without a penalty.

The Paramount deal was good, but after reading some of the comments on Trip Advisor I started having misgivings.  It's an older property which can mean "wonky" issues with rooms (size, lighting, bathroom issues). 

Zoom forward one week from when I booked the Paramount deal and I receive a new TravelZoo email deal for the Millennium Broadway Hotel, a hotel I've stayed at before, which is significantly more modern than The Paramount, and I liked (alot!).  And the Millennium Hotel deal was even better!  I quickly booked the two nights I needed for $189 per night.  A slight savings over The Paramount Hotel deal.  With the new hotel booked I cancelled The Paramount reservation and now I am set for an autumn full of fun and travel adventures!

Now I can start looking for restaurants, sites and activities to occupy my time in these terrific destinations!

Russia Visa Application Saga...Part III

I'm happy to report the visa processing company's office in Washington, DC received my visa application package at 10:28am on Friday.  YIPPEE!

I'm even happier to report I had an email from the company Friday afternoon.  The email stated my application package was received.  Of course I knew that because being the "anal retentive" travel planner I am, I checked the UPS tracking website to find out if the package was delivered.  And now the company has started the visa application process for me.  Double YAY! 

And the BEST news of all, the anticipated completion date of my visa application is July 9th.  Fingers are still crossed that I will have my passport with Russia visa in my hot little hands by mid-July!

Russia Visa Application Saga...Part II

After settling into my morning routine I clicked on the UPS tracking website to check the status of my returning visa application package.  At 9am I was thrilled to see the notation, "out for delivery", so I thought I'd have the package before the end of the day today.  My passport is flying more than me, think I could convince Delta airlines to give me the miles my passport has flown in the last 48 hours?  :-)

I was doubly thrilled when the UPS envelop with my application appeared on my desk just after 10am.  When I opened it I wasn't as thrilled.  The San Francisco office of the visa processing company returned the original application but not the copy they required me to send, which meant I had to make another copy to send to the Washington, DC office.  Not the end of the world, but an inconvenience.

In less than an hour I had the revised application and a full copy ready to go and the shipping label the San Francisco office provided me for the Washington, DC office in my hand ready to be applied to the shipping envelop.  Are you following all this?  I barely can!

Fortunately there is a UPS store close to my office and I popped over there at lunch and handed the kind gentleman behind the counter the envelop with the application package lovingly secured inside.  Now it's in the hands of UPS...let's hope the second time is a charm and I don't get any calls tomorrow from the Washington, DC visa processing office telling me there is another hiccup in my application!

Keeping fingers crossed, but not holding my breath!  :-)

And The Saga Begins...the Russia Visa Story

I counted back 45 days on the calendar from my scheduled arrival day on Russian soil.  I meticulously indicated on the visa application form my application would be submitted to the consulate on June 21st, exactly 45 days before arriving in Russia.

I painstakingly checked and double and triple checked all the materials to be submitted with the visa application....

Invitation Letter.....................................Check

2 Passport Sized Photos........................Check

Original Passport...................................Check

Signed Visa Application.........................Check

Visa Processing Company Order Form...Check

Duplicate copy of above mentioned items.Check

I called the visa processing company in San Francisco to confirm that yes, in fact I did need to send my application "package" to San Francisco instead of Washington, DC because the San Francisco office issued my invitation letter and their representative happily confirmed, YES, my application should be mailed to the San Francisco office.

I took an early lunch from work at 9am when the local FedEx office opened for business.  I walked through the office door, filled out the shipping form, forked over $37.10 to ensure delivery by the afternoon of June 20th and left with a tracking receipt and a smile on my face.  The arduous visa application process was behind me.  I followed the instructions from the visa processing company to a tee, now all I had to do was wait for my passport with the Russia visa to be returned to me before my early August departure...or so I thought.

The day after shipping the application to San Francisco I consulted the FedEx website to pleasantly find my "package" arrived at it's destination by 9am.  I continued with my morning routine with a bounce in my step knowing the application was received, that is, until 1pm rolled around and the phone on my desk rang.

I wasn't even going to pick up the receiver because I was about to go to lunch, but my responsible self said to pick up the phone.  On the other end was a representative from the visa processing company calling to tell me my visa application package had been received...great I thought...then he said,  "but there was a mistake".

DUM-DUM-DUM...I could hear that foreboding music playing in my ear...

He told me I had sent the application to the wrong office, it should have been sent to their Washington, DC office.  I was flabbergasted, because I had called the San Francisco office, in May when I began to fill out the application, to ask the question...which office to send the application to.  I was not a happy camper.

Then he broke the news that I had 2 items on the application which were incorrect.  The first was the entry and exit dates..silly me, I thought my actual entry and exit dates would be required, but no, apparently on the invitation letter it allows for the entire month of August, not just my specific dates, and the visa application has to match the invitation letter.  It would have been nice if, in the 15 page "application guidance document" the visa processing company issues it said that somewhere!  The second incorrect item was where I had misguidedly entered San Francisco Consulate as the place the application would be submitted and not the Washington, DC office, well, come on here...if I was sending it to San Francisco, why would I put Washington, DC?

So now, the application package is being shipped back to me via overnight mail and I have to go online to my application, correct the 2 items that are wrong, reprint the revised online application, sign it and ship it to the Washington, DC office.  Of course when I contested having to pay more shipping charges the representative said he would include a shipping label I could use to send the application to the Washington, DC office, let's see if I'm not charged for that! 

I could probably buy a plane ticket to DC, and sit on the steps of the Russian consulate waiting for the visa to be processed and it would be less aggravating.

I will admit, this whole incident had me riled up, had I not called before sending the application package I'd be more forgiving of this SNAFU, but really?  I called to confirm the process and followed the directions the visa processing company gave me.

Let's hope I actually do make it to Russia in August, because from where I'm sitting today, it doesn't seem very promising!

June...A Travel Planning Month

Aside from coping with the whole Russia visa process, June is shaping up to become a travel planning month for me...   (NYC in September and December, Atlanta in September and California in November)

I'm gonna be a busy girl!

It all started a few weeks ago with a discussion about when mom and I should go to NYC this year and we decided since we have Christmas Eve and Christmas days off from work, that's when it would be, and plane tickets were purchased.  Then I found out about the  Il Volo concert in Atlanta at the Fox Theater and how could we pass up seeing these young gifted singers from Italy?  And it helps that they are incredibly handsome in that youthful sort of way.

But, then a week later there was a 24 hour fare sale on Delta airlines and how could we let that opportunity pass us by? So after consulting calendars and calculating how much vacation time we'd have available tickets to NYC in September (Labor Day weekend) and California in November (the week of Veteran's Day) were purchased.

Now, NYC is  a no-brainer for us, we just love it so much and planning a visit (or two) there is a snap for mom and I.  But when I saw the deal on a flight from Savannah to San Francisco I just had to say something to mom.  The issue was that we've been to San Francisco twice in the last 3 years and although we enjoy spending time there, it really wasn't calling our names. 

Then I got to thinking...we frequently said we wanted to see the Sonoma & Napa wine country.  Doing it as day trips from San Francisco always seemed to leave us unsatisfied.  What if we go to California for more than a long weekend?  What if we stretch it out to a week?  What if we rent a car and drive to Sonoma and Napa Valleys and actually spend a whole week there?  Mom was really diggin' that idea...soooo...tickets to San Francisco for a week in November were purchased!

Now with airfares for three trips purchased the hotel hunting can begin and then of course there is the digging through the list of Broadway shows we want to see and the wineries we want to visit.

Ah yes, June is going to be a heavy trip research month!

Russia Visa...It's an Adventure

Who ever said travel is an adventure must have been speaking about the process to obtain a visa to visit Russia.

To be fair, when you break down all the steps in the process it really isn't too difficult, it's making sure all the steps in the process are followed correctly that is the challenge.

First an invitation letter must be obtained and the cruise company I am booked with for this upcoming trip does not issue those letters.  So another company, whose specialty is obtaining these letters, must be employed to do the "leg-work" to get this invitation letter on my behalf.

Once the invitation letter is issued there is an online application form that must be completed.  Be prepared to delve back into your personal and business records to dig up addresses and phone numbers of past employers and educational institutions attended.

When the online application form is completed then it must be printed.  Not always easy.  I had to convert the application to a .PDF format before it would print, good thing I know a little about computers.

Don't forget to have 2 passport sized photos taken because they are needed for processing with the application.

As of a couple months ago, individuals can no longer submit the visa application directly to the consulate for processing.  Now, as with the invitation letter, the application must be submitted to a company specializing in securing a visa to visit Russia and they then need to submit the application to a company authorized by the consulate to submit the application.  Can you follow this so far?  It took me a little while to process the whole application "trail".

And, when using the San Francisco consulate, the application cannot be submit more than 45 days prior to the date of arrival in Russia. 

So what it all comes down to is I'll be paying a company that specializes in the visa acquisition process to handle my application and pray I receive the visa before my August departure date!

Pizza, Porchetta & Prosecco….......8 Food Focused Days in Rome, Italy

In March mom and I made visit number 6 in as many years to Rome and it never gets old for us. Exploring this city is a joy for both mom and me and with each visit we get to know Rome better and better.

Since we are not strangers to Rome I was uncharacteristically laid back about planning for this trip (since I’m generally the one doing the research) and hadn’t done much in the way of research until about a month before our departure. Flights and accommodations were booked and we had an idea of some of the places we wanted to see that we never had time to on previous trips, but there wasn’t any “absolute must go to” places in our minds.

For this trip we originally planned to rent an apartment near Campo dei Fiori and we paid a deposit in late autumn only to be notified a few weeks later the rental company made an error accepting our booking and the apartment was not available. After careful consideration of alternative apartments with the company we quickly realized their small inventory had nothing else available that would meet our needs. Our deposit was completely refunded and we were left looking for accommodations for 8 nights.

There are several hotels we like in Rome and we started looking at hotel options. We considered staying at hotels we had been to on previous trips but there was one hotel we had not stayed at, but had always coveted. That hotel is the Albergo del Senato ( http://www.albergodelsenato.it/ ). We reviewed their website, checked availability and rates for the dates we needed and took the plunge and booked 8 nights at this absolutely lovely hotel. We could not have asked for a more central Rome location in Piazza della Rotonda, just 10 steps from the Pantheon.

As you can probably gather from the title of this trip report, we had a food filled week +1 day in Rome. Our other visits to the Eternal City have always included some good meals, but this time I tossed away my 25 page personally researched restaurant list (yes, it was liberating) in favor of 2 “foodie” apps for my phone from 2 ex-pat bloggers living in Rome who I have come to have a great affinity for. These apps were (1) Rome for Foodies by Katie Parla ( http://www.katieparla.com/ ) and (2) EatRome by Elizabeth Minchilli ( http://www.elizabethminchilliinrome.com/ ). Let me say the cost of these apps were the best money I spent and the total for both was less than $6. I began to affectionately call them my “Rome food bibles”. Each evening meal topped the one from the night before using the restaurants recommended in these apps. And the apps have not only restaurant recommendations, but wine bars, specialty shops, bakeries, and food/wine tours to name just a few. And with the map function on the EatRome app, even when I thought I had taken a wrong turn I was quickly righted by looking at the map on the app.

I’m always a little surprised when I’m speaking with people about spending time in Rome and they tell me they had the worst food in all of Italy in Rome. I’ve had some great food experiences in a variety of Italian cities, but this trip we had some of the best meals I have ever had anywhere, and that includes Italy, France, or here at home in the United States.

So, if you like reading about food and wine experiences with a museum and a church or two tossed into the mix this will be the trip report for you!

Saturday & Sunday, March 24 & 25 – Arrival in Roma!

Our flights on Delta were uneventful. Since we got a reasonable airfare, we “splurged” and paid for the economy “comfort” seats on the transatlantic flights. For us that meant $80 tacked onto the final price of the tickets, worth it for that price, we thought yes. However, I will say this, the Air France version, called Premier Voyager, which we flew in December is head & shoulders above the Delta version. Did we have more room on the Delta aircraft than we would have in regular economy? Yes, but after a 9 hour flight it certainly didn’t feel like an extra few inches.

Since we had only one connection, in Atlanta, and it was a couple hours we decided to check our suitcases, usually we do carry-on only, but hey, we’re all getting a little older and the less I have to heft bags over my head into a cabin bin, the happier I am! Prior to this trip I put the Delta app on my phone and one of the features is a bag tracker, well, let me say this, don’t rely on that to be accurate. Before boarding the flight to Rome the bag tracker was telling me only one of our two bags made it to Atlanta. I figured if I was left bag-less in Rome I would happily spend time clothes shopping.

We landed at Fuimicino and from touchdown to going through passport control and collecting our bags (both were on the luggage carousel waiting for us!) it was just under one hour. We were meeting our Rome Cabs ( http://www.romecabs.com/) driver 55 minutes after de-planing.

Now for a slight digression here to illustrate the power of the social network. About a week before our trip the owner of Rome Cabs began following me on Twitter. I had been following him for a while, but he wasn’t very active on Twitter. In a tweet I thanked him for the follow and said I have used his car service several times on my visits to Rome and liked his and his drivers’ professionalism. Now, cut to the drive from FCO to the Albergo del Senato, we arrived at the hotel and began gathering our belongings to get out of the car. We walked to the rear of the car to help with maneuvering our bags out of the trunk. As we got the last bag out I turned to walk into the hotel, but the driver gestured to wait and out of the depths of the car trunk she pulls a silvery shining wine bag with the owner’s business card and she says in hesitant English, “from our company”. I was blown away; mom said she wished she had a camera to take a picture of the look of surprise on my face. What a way to begin the trip! The only way this day could be any better was if, at 9am, the Albergo del Senato staff could give us a room straight away.

30 seconds later as we stepped up to the hotel front desk and were greeted warmly by Alessandra, our dream did come true. I was in no way expecting a room to be ready for us at 9am; I figured we’d be lucky to get in a room by 1pm. My game-plan was to ask to store our luggage, and head out to find our first cup of cappuccino, an ATM and to purchase our 7 day transportation pass. You can imagine my utter shock when Alessandra said the words, “Let me see what I have available” and a broad smile came across her face, yes, there was in fact a room available for us. This trip was getting better by the minute!

We were shown to a room on the third floor at the rear of the building. Some may think this was a bummer, since the front rooms look out onto the Pantheon and Piazza della Rotonda, but for us, this was perfect. It was quiet and when the curtains were pulled on the 2 windows in the room it was ideal for sleeping. The room was a fairly good size, when we walked in we were in a very small hallway that linked the sleeping area on the right (with 2 twin beds, a desk and small sofa bed/love seat), and the bathroom room on the left which had a giant tub/shower and a sink area long enough to have space for all the toiletries 2 women would bring with them.

Once we were settled in we decided a cappuccino was in ordered, so we sauntered over to Café St. Eustachio for a couple cappuccini and flaky, cream filled cornetti. Our idea of a perfect start to our Roman adventure.

When we were sufficiently “fueled-up” on caffeine and sugar we popped over to an ATM in Largo Argentina (one affiliated with Bank of America, which meant no transaction fees!) and since we were in a public transit hub, made our way to one of the ticket machines (and it never fails, I always pick the out of order machine, so have to traipse across the street to the other!) and purchased our 7 day transit passes for € 16 each.

We happen to really get our monies worth out of these 7 day passes and it worked out perfectly because we would need public transportation for the whole 7 days. For us, this was the best option because we used buses, metro and trams. If nothing, I am learning the Roman transit system!

By 11am we were really “sucking wind” as my dad used to say and we were ready for a nap, so we walked back to the hotel and crawled into bed. I know what you’re thinking, “how could they drink cappuccino and eat pastry and in 90 minutes be ready for bed?” Well, having spent close to the previous 24 hours awake, we were running on empty and no amount of coffee would stimulate us!

We slept until about 4 or 5 in the afternoon, which was perfect timing because by then it was almost aperitivo time! Ahhhh yes, we are HUGE aperitivo fans!



Just after 6pm we decided to go to the hotel lounge just off the lobby for drinks. The rooftop lounge/bar was not open yet, but the lobby lounge was perfectly fine. Tiny, but fine, with a couple tables and sofas and the all important bar stocked with my favorite aperitivo item, prosecco. Could we have ventured to an outdoor café? Sure, but while we were napping earlier it had rained and outdoor seats were a little soggy, fortunately this was the only time during our entire 8 days in Rome when it rained.



Rooftop View at Albergo del Senato



Since our arrival day was a Sunday and I knew many restaurants are not open for dinner I consulted my Rome food apps prior to arriving and found a trattoria open on Sundays that looked very promising, so I emailed the hotel concierge and asked them to make a reservation for us prior to our arrival, which they did with speed.

After enjoying a few glasses of prosecco we were off to our first meal of the trip. At the time we thought this meal was wonderful (and it was), but as I mentioned earlier each meal kept getting better and better and this meal paled in comparison to others, but we had a terrific experience, thanks to not only the EatRome app, but a comment made by another user of the EatRome app. So, if you intend to only read the author’s information on these apps, think again, if there is a comment, read it! Because I did, and thankfully had a great experience because of it.

Dinner was set for 8:30pm at Settimio al Pellegrino, located at Via Pellegrino, 117. From the EatRome app I knew that even with a reservation, the front door may very well be locked, so be patient and wait for someone to come and unlock the door. It was humorous because as mom and I approached the trattoria there was a couple in the doorway trying to pull the door open, when they saw it was locked they started to walk away. I stepped up gave a little knock on the glass and a very nice gentleman came to the door. I explained in my extremely fractured Italian that I had a reservation and he let us in. The couple that had been in front of us were still standing in the street and when they saw we got in, they hustled in right after us.

Now, here is where reading the app comment really helped us. The commenter said, don’t even bother looking at the paper menu, just tell the proprietor (Mario, I believe is his name) you would like for him to bring you whatever is the special of the day and that is exactly what we did and boy were we happy with that decision because the other tables around us (all non-Italian speaking) were giving our plates longingly glances. In fact, there was an American family of 5 seated near us and the (what appeared to be father) turned to us, pointed to our plates and asked us, “What are you having?” I love when that happens…food envy!

We had a nice bottle of house white wine (€ 8!!), along with hand made tagliatelle with tomato sauce. For our main dishes, mom and I split everything and Mario had each item plated together on plates for each of us. We had veal involtini and veal meatballs and the contorni (vegetable side dishes) were out of this world delicious, in fact, we think the vegetables here won the show over the main dishes. Since it was artichoke season we had the most luscious artichoke I have ever eaten, seriously it was braised in olive oil and was perfectly cooked. The cauliflower was also delicious and I am not a big cauliflower lover! The woman helping serve was quick to tell us they only cook the vegetables with olive oil, no butter here! With a bottle of water and 2 espresso to end the meal we were 2 happy ladies, and even happier when the cost of the meal was a whopping total of € 65.50!

With full bellies we weren’t quite ready to call it a night, so we meandered over towards Piazza Farnese to our favorite outdoor café, Café Farnese, which is nothing spectacular, just a place we frequent when in Rome and have grown to really enjoy. By this time, the outdoor chairs were dry and we settled in to have some limoncello to cap off our arrival in Roma….ahhhh….perfetto!

Monday, March 26 – On a hand-bag mission, Hello Borromini & Parlez Vous Francais? And the Freshest Seafood in Town


I have a confession to make…I have a hand-bag fixation. I have been known to hunt down hand-bags in far away locals, such as Hanoi, Vietnam and Bangkok, Thailand. So why would Italy be any different, right? About 2 weeks prior to this trip I was perusing one of the Rome ex-pat blogger sites I frequent (and for the life of me right now, I can’t think of which one it is!) and saw a little blurb about a line of bags this particular blogger happened to like, so I clicked on the link and was taken to hand-bag nirvana at the Gabs Bags website (http://www.gabs.it/?lang=en )

These bags are made in Florence, Italy and are the most ingenious bags I think I’ve ever seen, not only are they stylish, but they are convertible. And, not just converting into 2 bags, but some models convert into 5 or 6 different bags. I was completely hooked and decided before I left home I was going to hunt down a shop selling these bags.

So as we roused ourselves on Monday morning and toddled down to the hotel breakfast room. I casually glanced to my right to see a small display case in the hotel lobby with a few strategically placed hand-bags, as I moved closer my heart started racing, Oh My God…these were Gabs Bags, right in our hotel. As I practically pressed my nose up against the glass case I spied a small business card of a shop just up the street which sold these bags. You can guess where our first stop was after breakfast!

After fortification of cappuccino and the usual hotel breakfast set up of yogurt, fruit, pastry and there were also a few hot items (eggs & sausage), we meandered a few doors up the street to check out the shop window with the desired bags. There was a nice selection to chose from and THE one I had my eye on from the website, BUT since it was our first full day in Rome I didn’t want to jump the gun and buy the bag right away, oh no, I waited until the afternoon to buy it!

Once we knew the shop had the bags, we were off on our merry way towards Via Frattina, because I had another hand-bag mission to accomplish. Our last time in Rome was November 2010 and I purchased an Alviero Marini hand-bag (http://www.alvieromartini.it/AlvieroMartini/page38.do ) I wasn’t home 2 weeks from that trip when the strap broke on that bag…grrrr! For some extraordinary reason, which I can’t explain, I saved the receipt. After much consideration I brought this broken bag with me and went back to the boutique to see if they could either fix the bag or replace it. I was willing to pay any shipping charges they might have charged in the event they couldn’t fix it during the week I was there.

After much explaining and consultation with the boutique manager, they agreed to contact the main office in Milan to see what could be done and would call me the next day to tell me the outcome. I’m happy to say the next day came and I got a call telling me to come by the boutique and they would replace my bag with a new one! This trip was really getting better!



Dome of San Carlino



Altar of San Carlino

 So, with the hand-bag hi-jinx out of the way we hopped on a bus heading up hill on Via Tritone towards Largo Santa Suzanna where we would get off the bus and walk down Via XX Septtembre towards the Church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, also known as San Carlino. This church had been on our “radar” for a while, having passed it numerous times in our wanderings around Rome. It became of greater interest to mom and I after we both read the book, “The Genius in the Design” about the rivalry between Bernini and Boromini. San Carlino, both the church and cloister were designed by Boromini and it is lovely. It’s fairly small, in size, but the dome is beautiful. I’d recommend a visit, if you are interested in churches and have seen the “blockbuster” ones in Rome already.

We had planned to also visit the Church of Sant’ Andrea al Quirinale, just down the street from San Carlino, but it was getting close to the noon hour and by the time we made it there, it was closed until about 4pm. No worries, it gives us a reason to come back another time.

Since we were in the Quirinale area, we decided to check out the Tintoretto exhibit at the Scuderie del Quirinale (http://www.scuderiequirinale.it/Home.aspx ). This museum space was at one time royal stables and I was surprised at how modern the interior of this museum felt to me. The exhibit was not large, just enough for us to take 40 minutes to walk through. We aren’t big on spending hours in museums, but this exhibit held our interest.

After seeing all the Tintoretto we wanted to, we walked down the hill and caught a bus which took us back to a stop just a few blocks from our hotel. The bus pass was already starting to pay off since we’d taken the bus 3 times already in one day.

We were not hungry for a big lunch, but a Rome sommelier friend (more about her later) tweeted to us we should have a granita di caffe con panna…now how did she know our love of all things coffee only paled in comparison to our love of all things wine related? We gladly took her advice and walked over to Tazza d’Oro for this cool, slightly sweet coffee treat. This was a first for us and we loved it! How could you really go wrong with cream and cool icy/slushy coffee. Boy did this treat put the overly sweet & gigantic Starbucks frappuccinos to shame!

At 5pm we had a reservation for a tour of the Palazzo Farnese. Mom and I have walked by this building for years; it is the French Embassy in Rome. On occasion while walking through the piazza and looking up in to the windows we could see the interesting ceiling. However, we always hesitated booking a tour because tours were only given in French.

About a month before we arrived in Rome mom found a New York Times article about the Palazzo Farnese now conducting tours once a week in English, twice a week in Italian and 5 or 6 tours a week in French. I scurried over to my computer and pulled up the booking website and my fingers flew across the keyboard in search of the tour dates for the week we would be there. As I viewed the one date the English tour was given I thought to myself, “we’re a month out of arriving, there should be spots available on the tour”. Boy was I ever wrong! No spots on the English tour were available. So my next thought, since both mom and I have been taking beginner Italian classes, was to see if there were places open on the Italian tours that week, I struck out there too. My only other option if we were going to see this building was to see what was available on the French tours…Bingo! There were 3, yes, only 3 spots on the French tour open the week we would be there. I booked it.

At the appointed time we queued in front of the building and the tour guide checked our passports, yes, we needed them with us, and consulted her list, we were then waved through the door and over to the x-ray machine for our bags. Once everyone was checked in the tour began. And I really, really, really, wished I comprehended French!

This had to the most animated tour guide I had ever experienced. I was desperately trying to pick out words here and there, but my “restaurant French” knowledge was not helping me. However, getting to see the interior of this building, even though I had no idea what the guide was saying was great. The final room we entered was absolutely stunning. The paintings on the wall appeared, at first glance to be sculptures, but on finer examination you realize, “no, wait, that’s painted on the wall”!

The tour lasted about an hour and since we were in Piazza Farnese, our favorite outdoor café (Café Farnese) was right across the piazza and it was aperitivo time! We sat down and I was pretty impressed with myself when I actually ordered our wine and 2 glasses of water all in Italian and the waiter understood me! He even said my accent was perfect, he was probably just being kind, but we did manage to joke about it (in Italian!) and it gave us a good laugh.

Our dinner reservation was for 8:30pm at Osteria La Gensola in Trastevere in Piazza della Gensola, 15 (www.osterialagensola.it ) However, on our way to dinner we walked through Campo dei Fiori and happened upon a small grocery store where mom was able to pick up white truffle paste, which she had been kicking herself for not buying the last time we were in Italy!

Once the truffle paste was purchased we hopped on a tram and went into Trastevere and found our way to the restaurant. This osteria is known for their seafood and not only was it on the EatRome app, but I had a personal recommendation from a friend at home.

We really enjoyed La Gensola, it felt comfortable the moment we walked in. The staff was terrific, very friendly and willing to help with selections. The menu is fairly extensive and there are typical Roman dishes, but the seafood is the real draw here.

As we leafed through the menu I turned to the last page and noticed a tasting menu priced at € 44 per person and it included a bottle of wine. After looking at what the tasting menu offered, we decided to go for it.

The starter was tuna balls in tomato sauce, it sounds odd to some, but it was absolutely delicious. The next course was sepia in a lemon sauce and it was delicate and perfectly crispy, not dripping with oil. The pasta course was served with guanciale in a cream sauce and it was outstanding. In fact, it was so good, we wished we could have had more! The grilled octopus with panzanella salad was incredibly delicious and full of flavor, but the texture was on the chewy side and our least favorite dish on the tasting menu. Dessert was a decadent chocolate cake (I had it, mom passed). The espresso was excellent, as always in Italy and we finished things off with glasses of limoncello which was very smooth and refreshing.

We enjoyed our meal here so much; we decided to dine here again later in the week and made a reservation before we left. The total cost of this terrific meal was € 94.

Tuesday, March 27 – Ancient Artifacts, Olive Oil and Flavor Explosions

Today we decided to go to the Capitolini Museum to seed the Lux in Arcana exhibit (http://www.luxinarcana.org/). We have been to the Capitolini before, but when we found out about this exhibit we both knew a return visit was in order.

The Lux in Arcana exhibit is running from February 29, 2012 until September 9, 2012. The sub-title to this exhibit is “The Vatican Secret Archives Reveals Itself”. In our humble opinion it was the most interesting museum exhibit we had seen in a long time and we spent more than 2 hours here, and frankly, we probably could have stayed another hour.

This exhibit consisted of 100 original documents from the Vatican archives and it was truly incredible. Not only the documents themselves, which were fascinating but the way the documents were displayed and the multi-media presentations were beyond top-notch. The documents included such things as letters to the Pope from Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, during the United States Civil War and interestingly the letter from Lincoln did not mention the war at all, whereas the letter form Davis did. Along with the plethora of letters from heads of state, including letters written on silk from China which were hundreds of years old, there were manuscripts and the scroll from the deposition of the Knights of Templar. I was enthralled by it all.

Even on a Tuesday, in the late morning the exhibit was crowded but we did get to move slowly and read the information provided at each document, truly a visual experience I will not quickly forget.

As interesting as the hundred year old documents were on the first floor of the exhibit, we decided to venture to the top level to see the second part of the exhibit. As we arrived at the top of the stairs to the exhibit, I was surprised to see very few people. Once we started looking at the displays I couldn’t understand why people wouldn’t come to this level, because these last 4 rooms held some of the most interesting displays. These rooms showed the document restoration process. There were examples of books and papers destroyed by fire, water, humidity, bugs and so on and then examples of how those documents looked after restoration, incredible, the dedication that goes into this process. Mom and I were truly impressed and glad we took the time to come and see this, we loved it.

Since we had been to this museum a few years ago once we were done with viewing the exhibit we decided we did not want to spend any more time here, so we walked back towards the hotel for a little coffee break at Tazza d’Oro. Yes, we had another cup of granita di caffe con panna. It was the perfect treat for a warm and sunny day.

After our coffee break, mom went back to the hotel and I walked over to the Alviero Martini boutique to pick up my replacement hand-bag. The shop had called in the morning to tell me they would replace the bag! No having to repair it or ship it home! I took my time walking there and did a little more window shopping, always a fun thing to do in Rome!



Photo Courtesy of Elizabeth Minchilli

 By 4pm we were ready for our afternoon “event”. About 2 weeks before leaving on this trip I read a blog post from Elizabeth Minchilli (http://www.elizabethminchilliinrome.com/p/food-workshops.html) about several workshops she developed. One happened to be about olives and olive oil, which captured our interest. I wasted no time contacting Elizabeth and setting up a time for mom and I do this workshop.



Photo Courtesy of Elizabeth Minchilli

 Mom and I took a bus to the neighborhood where Elizabeth has the workshops (the Monti neighborhood, which by the end of the week we had spent a good amount of time in and decided we really liked). As we approached Elizabeth’s studio we could see her in front of the door and once she saw us, a broad smile widened across her face and she greeted us like long lost friends. Prior to booking this workshop, I had been reading her blog regularly and posting a lot of her articles to my Facebook wall and over the course of the last several months I struck up a nice rapport with her. She was as terrific as we thought she would be.



Photo Courtesy of Elizabeth Minchilli

 Elizabeth ushered us into her studio and introduced us to the other participant in the workshop, Hope, who has a cooking show in the Philadelphia area. I knew from the start this was going to be a fun few hours! Elizabeth shared a lot of great information about not only olives and how they are grown but also the process of making olive oil. We tasted 6 different oils from different parts of Italy. It’s just like wine folks, the soil, and the environment all work in forming the taste of the olives, just like with grapes and wine. I guess I never really thought of olives that way before, but I am a more educated olive lover now!

Two hours went by incredibly quickly but Elizabeth gave us some great take-away information about buying olive oil in the States and the name of a shop in the Monti neighborhood where we could purchase some of the olive oil we tasted with her, and we did purchase it a couple days later (and the shop is just great!)

The olive oil tasting ended at about 7:30pm and since our dinner reservation was for 8:30pm at a place only a few blocks away we walked up the street to the wine bar Al Vino Al Vino on Via Serpenti (it’s on the EatRome & Rome for Foodies apps).


Photo Courtesy of Elizabeth Minchilli


Mom and I had been to Al Vino Al Vino once before on a previous trip, but back then we did not know much about it. After following the Rome bloggers I do, it turns out this place is highly regarded. There is an extensive wine by the glass list and the small plates are delicious. They are known for their caponata here, but sadly since we had been snacking during the olive oil tasting we did not partake of any food this time (but we do later in the week!). I did however just about swoon when I saw not 1 but 2 Franciacorte wines on the by the glass menu and one happened to be a rose. This was a no-brainer for me, I had to have a glass of this and if you aren’t familiar with Franciacorte, wait until I get to Saturday of the trip report…all you sparkling wine fans, take note. That’s all I’m going to say about that!

We enjoyed our wine and just before 8:30pm we paid and walked one block over to L’Asino d’Oro at Via del Boschetto, 73/75. The website is http://www.lasinodororoma.it/ , but it does not have a lot of information, they do have a Facebook page.

The chef, Lucio Sforza is from the Umbria region and can I tell you, his food sings, truly, mom and I loved the food here. We enjoyed it so much; at the end of this meal we made another reservation for later in the week.

The interior is very basic, modern; you won’t feel like you are walking into an age-old trattoria, but it is comfortable. The staff was very nice and as usual, was very forgiving of my attempts at speaking Italian. At 8:30pm the restaurant was full, there were only 2 tables open when we sat down, ours and the one next to us, which became occupied shortly after we were seated. When we sat down, there was only one other English speaking table, everyone else was speaking Italian. I highly recommend making a reservation for dinner. I have not had lunch here, but have heard rave reviews about it, and the very reasonable price at € 15.



Barley Flan with Lentils

 As I look back at my notes from this meal the first sentence says, “Dinner was stellar”. We each had a starter; mom had the barley flan with lentils on a bed of pureed cauliflower. I had the asparagus frittata, good, but mom definitely “won” in the starter category. The flan was creamy and full of flavor. Mom is a huge liver and onion fan and when she saw it on the menu; she just had to have it. It was good, but in hind-sight she probably should have asked if could be cooked medium rare but we didn’t think about that at the time. My main dish was the veal meatballs with artichokes and candied orange…ding-ding-ding! I won the main dish category! Talk about riding the bus through flavor town, the meatballs were fantastic.

Veal Meatballs w/artichokes

Because we like wine, but don’t know a lot about wine and we were handed a wine list that was more like a wine encyclopedia, we spied a table near us who had a bottle of red wine (a merlot) from the Lazio region, the region where Rome is located. We figured a local wine was a good choice and it was, we really liked it. Well, at least with dinner, the morning after, that’s another story.

As we were eating I could see the chef checking on things in the dining room. I happened to catch his eye, whereby I clasped my fingers together put them to my lips and tossed him a little kiss, meaning the food was superb, he “got it” bowed his head slightly and put his hands to his heart…that just made my night!

We ended the meal with 2 espresso and didn’t even look at the dessert menu because we were just too pleasantly satisfied with the dinner. When the check came both mom and I were in shock, we could barely believe the price we were looking at for this delicious meal. The total cost including wine, coffee and a bottle of water was € 69. Our chins had rug burn (as we say) our mouths popped open in surprise at this price. This meal was more than definitely worth every euro.

After dinner we walked up to Via Nazionale, hopped on a bus and were whisked back towards our hotel. The lobby lounge was still open, so we stopped in for a limoncello digestivo to put a finishing touch on a terrific day!

Wednesday, March 28 – Lunch At a Pizza Paradise and We See a Michelin Star

When I started putting together a loose itinerary for this trip the original game plan for the day was to go to Orvieto, but sometimes, we just need to roll with the punches.

I got up early, as in 6am early, to get ready to for our little excursion. When mom opened her eyes she was not feeling very well, maybe it was the red wine or the franciacorte from the night before, who knows? After checking the train schedule online and with the constraints of having to be back in Rome for an 8:30pm dinner reservation I suggested mom go back to sleep and we call off Orvieto. We’ve been to Orvieto before, so it wasn’t as if we were going to miss out on something we hadn’t seen before. This is one of the nice things about traveling to a repeat destination for me; I don’t feel compelled to cram in a schedule full of “must sees”.

So, as mom rolled over and went back to sleep, my stomach starts to growl and I head down to the breakfast room for something to eat and then set out on my own for a few hours.

My first destination was the Chiesa Nuovo church. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve passed this church on foot and by bus while traversing Corso Vittorio Emanuele II and it was nice to finally have an opportunity to go inside. There is some beautiful artwork in this church, well, heck; there is usually some beautiful artwork in every church in Rome!



Castel Sant' Angelo



Once I had my fill of the church I headed over to the Castel Sant’Angelo. I’ve been inside this castle before, but my real mission was to approach the building from the bridge leading to the front door and take photos of the statues which line the bridge. I’m glad I had the chance to do this on such a terrific weather day. The sky was the perfect color blue and cloudless. My pictures of it may not be the greatest, but the setting sure was stunning!

Near 11:30am mom was vertical and moving about and since she had not eaten, and I had only had some cappuccino, we were ready for lunch and I knew just the place I wanted to go. I was dying to try the pizza at Pizzarium.
You can read about it here (http://anamericaninrome.com/wp/2011/03/pizzarium-the-best-pizza-in-rome/ ) and here from Katie Parla (http://www.parlafood.com/pizzarium-reopens-today-in-rome/ )

Gabrielle Bonci is the force behind Pizzarium located at Via della Meloria (near the corner of Via Cipro). And what a force he is! He has become known for revolutionizing pizza al taglio in Rome.

Mom and I set out to take bus 492 from Largo Argentina to the last stop on the line which is the Cipro metro stop. Of course, every other day we see the 492 whizzing by every other minute, ok, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but on this day, we waited more than 20 minutes for the bus. Fortunately when it did arrive, there were very few passengers, so we grabbed 2 seats and settled in for what would be about a 30 minute journey over to the Prati neighborhood, which is just in the shadows of the Vatican museum.

When we got off the bus at the Cipro metro stop, I know from consulting Google maps previously that Pizzarium was only just around the corner. I love when my anal-retentive travel planning skills come in handy because within 5 minutes we were walking in the door of Pizzarium.

Now, don’t expect a cavernous sit down restaurant, this is a small, take it & go joint, but they do have a very small counter area inside where you can stand and eat and a bench in front of the shop where you can sit down and woof-down, uhhh, I mean lovingly savor your pizza.

When we walked in, we were immediately paralyzed for choice, not because there were hundreds of pizzas to choose from, quite the opposite, there were maybe 10, but all looked absolutely delicious. If we really could eat with our eyes, we would have been bursting. The ingredients were very fresh, from the cheeses to the greens to the pancetta and prosciutto, we didn’t know which to pick. And of course, our eyes were bigger than our stomachs!

I tentatively stepped up to the counter and again, using my fractured Italian managed to order 3 types of pizza, because why order 1 or 2 when we could have 3. Clearly my pantomime skills in regards to pizza slice sizes needs improvement, because we received 3 whopping slabs of pizza each then cut into more manageable bite sized pieces. In the end we chose a pizza with prosciutto and potatoes on top, carmelized onions & liver pate (sounds really weird? It was our favorite!) and just for good measure we had a last minute addition of a potato only topped pizza.

We happily pulled the wooden tray topped with our pizza across the counter top, went to the cashier, paid our € 13.62 and snagged some space on the bench outside. We were even too preoccupied with the pizza to order drinks!

We were in pizza paradise! All three pizzas were terrific, and the crust, was perfection, not to doughy, not to crispy and talk about flavorful. I never knew dough could have such wonderful flavor. If you are a pizza lover and don’t mind getting off the tourist track, a trip to Pizzarium is well worth the effort (in my humble opinion!).

After getting our fill of pizza it was back on the bus and once we got near our hotel we hopped off and transferred to another bus that would take us to the Monti neighborhood. We wanted to go to the olive oil shop Elizabeth Minchilli recommended to buy some of the olive oil we had tasted with her.

The shop is Podere Vecciano on Via dei Serpenti, 33. This shop is fairly new in Rome, the olive oil producer that owns the shop is from Siena and the oil they produce is wonderful. The shop also sells olive wood cutting boards, and all kinds of olive oil products and some wines. It was well worth a visit and at € 8 a bottle for the olive oil we had to buy one bottle each.

Once we made our purchases, it was back on another bus so we could stop at our hotel to drop off our purchases. As we were making our way through Rome back towards the hotel, out of the bus window I spied another hand-bag shop with a greater selection of Gabs Bags. Of course, by the time I saw the shop, the bus started moving again and I was too slow to request a stop, and with our hands full of bags of olive oil, we decided to go back to the hotel and come back to this shop later.

It would seem this was the day for bus hopping, because once the olive oil was safely nestled in our hotel room, we went back out in search of a Gabs Bag for mom. We hopped on a bus and it wasn’t far, good thing I looked for landmarks when I spotted this shop earlier. Mom did indeed purchase a Gabs Bag, a different style than mine, and a wallet too! Once that transaction was complete, you guessed it; we were back on another bus going towards the hotel.

My gosh, all this olive oil and hand-bag shopping makes two ladies thirsty and by now it was apperitivo time! We walked over to Piazza Farnese to have a few glasses of prosecco (for me) and wine (for mom) before our 8:30pm dinner reservation.

Dinner was at Hosteria Glass (http://www.glass-restaurant.it/ ) in the Trastevere neighborhood located at Vicolo del Cinque, 58. This is in both the food/restaurant apps I used, but we also received a personal recommendation for this place from our sommelier friend prior to this trip. Once we checked the restaurant website we decided we would really like to have a meal here and asked our hotel to make a reservation for us.

This restaurant has a Michelin star and the chef, Cristina Bowerman, is excellent. From the moment we walked in, the greeting from the staff was incredibly warm and welcoming and frankly walking in felt like we were walking into a sleek New York City restaurant, but still a comfortable atmosphere. Before entering mom and I looked at the menu posted outside and thought we had decided on what we wanted, the prices are commensurate with a Michelin star and so we thought we’d try to have some restraint but still enjoy an excellent meal.

After we sat down and started to look at the menu more closely we realized the € 65 tasting menu had all the things we really wanted to try (there is also a €90 tasting menu). Since we had been doing extraordinarily well in the restaurant costs category so far, we looked at each other , shrugged and said, “hey, we’re on vacation, let’s go for it”. So, we had the € 65 tasting menu, and believe me when I say, we are very happy we did.

Once we made the tasting menu decision it was time for the wine “bible”, I’m still learning about Italian wines and how the wine lists are categorized by region, so I turned to the server for help. I said we wanted something similar to what as an American I would call a pinot noir and I didn’t want to spend more than €40. He came back with the perfect selection of a Franz Haas pinot noir for € 35.

And now for the meal:


Pumpkin Puree





The amuse bouch was a pureed pumpkin cream which was smooth, creamy and delicious. The first course was steak tartare with both a wasabi and an orange cream sauce. It may sound odd, but it was the best steak tartare we have ever had. We had an experience in Paris in December at L’Atelier Joel Robuchon with steak tartare there, and the version at Glass far surpassed Joel Robuchon. The meat was absolutely beautiful and it didn’t hurt that there was a small amount of caviar on top!



Steak Tartare

The next course was pork belly with apples, pomegranate and a blue cheese mouse, talk about flavor! Next came my favorite dish of the night, amatraciana stuffed pasta with crunchy guanciale…need I say more. The pasta was wonderful, thinking about it, it could possibly be the best pasta I’ve had. The lamb dish that followed the pasta was so tender we barely needed a knife to cut through it and served with tiny little blue potato crisps, it was delectable.

Pork Belly



Amatraciana Stuff Pasta



Lamb

For dessert we were able to choose any of the items on the dessert menu. Mom had a semi-freddo that was not sweet at all, it had a big herbaceous flavor and I being the tiramisu titan that I am, I had to have the version here and I was not disappointed at all. The presentation was like no other tiramisu I have ever had. It was shaped like a cube and covered in chocolate. To end things we had a tray of petit fours. Some we enjoyed more than others, there were 4 or 5 different kinds but all were delicious. No coffee is served here so we settled the bill, which was € 165.

The chef, Cristina Bowerman, was floating around the restaurant checking in with tables and I happened to catch her eye and she came over. She was very pleasant and kind in thanking us for dining at Glass. It was a terrific dining experience and one mom and I will not soon forget!

Thursday, March 29- The Porchetta Pilgrimage


Before setting out on this trip I had been in contact with my friend Vincenzo, who lives most of the time on the Amalfi Coast. When he heard mom and I would be in Rome, he said he would plan to be in the city while we were there and we could spend some time together.

Not only does Vincenzo have a beautiful rental villa (http://www.grottadeifichi.com/ )on the Amalfi Coast, where I stayed with friends several years ago, but he is also a kindred “foodie spirit” and he offered to arrange some type of gastronomic experience with us.

About a year and a half ago I came across a blog entry on the Travel Belles website (http://www.travelbelles.com/ ) about a day trip from Rome to the town of Ariccia.

Ariccia is one of the Castelli Romani towns and there are several big claims to fame there, the Palazzo Chigi designed by Bernini, white wine and porchetta.

So when I corresponded with Vincenzo, I suggested a day trip to Ariccia and we could do it via public transportation, or so, the Travel Belles blog said. He was very agreeable to going to Ariccia and we set a time to meet with him at the Anagnina metro stop, the last stop (or first depending on which way you are going!) on Metro Line A.

Having waited 20 minutes the day before for a bus, I thought we might want to get an early start, not knowing exactly how long it would take the bus from Largo Argentina to Termini, so mom and I left the hotel at about 9:30am. Of course, as we walked up to the bus stop, a bus was arriving and we got to Termini pretty quickly.

Once at Termini we navigated our way down to Metro Line A, the station was very crowded and there was construction, so the route to the metro stop seemed to be very twisty. We negotiated a lot of escalators and finally walked onto the train platform just as a train was pulling in, perfect timing.

There were 15 stops between Termini and Anagnina and it took us about 20 minutes, from hotel to the end of Metro Line A took us slightly less than one hour. We arrived at our meeting point with Vincenzo 30 minutes early, but there were plenty of benches where we could sit and wait.

Just before 11am Vincenzo emerged from the metro and greeted us warmly and baring gifts. Jars of marinated olives and eggplant from his grandmother! What a nice thing for him to do.

We made our way to the Cotral ticket window. Cotral operates buses that connect areas of the Lazio region with Rome. At the ticket window, Vincenzo asked about the bus to Ariccia because when he called Cotral the day before he received conflicting information. At one time there was a direct bus from Anagnina to Arricia, but that bus no longer runs. In the end we had to take the Cotral bus to Albani and transfer to a smaller shuttle bus to Ariccia.

Once we had our Cotral bus tickets (€ 1.20 each), we climbed the stairs to the area where the Albani bus was scheduled to depart from at 11am. Well, 11am came and went and no bus. Vincenzo goes sleuthing out the situation and finds out the 11am bus has been cancelled, but there will be an 11:30am bus, no problem, we pass the time catching up with what is new in Vincenzo’s life. Then, 11:30am comes and goes. Vincenzo does some more sleuthing, and finds out the 11:30am bus has been cancelled, meanwhile he is now calling the restaurant where we have a lunch reservation to push back our arrival time with them.

Finally at 11:50am, a bus pulled into the boarding area, and we all dash for the door and grab the first 3 seats we can because by now there are a lot of people waiting for the bus. The bus lumbers along making stops here and there and about 30 minutes later we arrive in Albani and get off the bus. We wait in the little town at a bus shelter for about 30 minutes, with Vincenzo checking with every little shuttle bus driver that pulls up to see if that bus goes to Ariccia. Finally, about 30 minutes later the right bus pulls up, we get on and off we go up, up, up into the Alban Hills to Ariccia. I was never more grateful for having an Italian speaking friend with us. Honestly, if it were just mom and I making this excursion, we would probably still be trying to get to Ariccia!

By the time we arrive in Ariccia it’s just past 1pm and we walk to the fraschetta (type of osteria in this region) where Vincenzo has made our lunch reservation. As we walk into L’Aricciarola (http://www.osterialaricciarola.it/ ) located at Via Borgo S. Rocco, 9 it’s like walking into a warm, casual restaurant. The sizable tables are set up for communal dining, the wooden beams in the ceiling create a rustic feel, and the warm welcome added to the atmosphere.

As we walked in, there was a very long display case to our left filled with lots of tasty treats, all kinds of marinated vegetables, cured meats and cheeses, but the star of the show was the porchetta, displayed in all its juicy glory. Again, I was thinking thank goodness we have Vincenzo with us, because we would not have gotten the ordering process right off the bat.

First you go up to the display case and pick out the items you want to eat, then the item is weighed and you discuss with the counterman if you want more. Vincenzo told us later the counterman kept asking him, if the amounts we were ordering were enough, clearly locals must really pile on the food! The final step in the process is when a server brings what you have ordered to the table.



Delicous Porchetta



Mountain Proscuitto

 Everything in the display case looked so good, but we really tried to keep our wits about us and not over order. Of course, we had to have the porchetta, which was wonderfully moist and tender; the juices just flowed out of the meat. We also had a big ball of buffalo mozzarella, two types of prosciutto, one being the mountain prosciutto variety and it tasted like no other prosciutto we’d ever had, it was silky smooth. Not to neglect our vegetables was also had a couple marinated artichokes, which were delicious. The last item we had, just because we wanted to try it was donkey jerky. Yes, we had Jack*ss Jerky. Vincenzo was so cute when I pointed to it in the display case and asked what it was, I could see his mind trying to pull the English world. Fortunately we had a long discussion about L’Asino d’Oro with him, and he finally pointed to the jerky and said “L’Asino”…I caught on right away!

We had a bottle of local red wine, which a little fizz to it and if all that food wasn’t enough, Vincenzo said we really had to try the papparadelle cinghale here, since that is a dish this particular fraschetta was know for. We order one plate and it was plenty to share among the 3 of us, especially since we had already had so much to eat.

Vincenzo!

For all this food, the wine and a bottle of water the total cost for lunch was € 38. I think that’s a pretty good deal!

After lunch we took a little walk around town and went to the end of the main street which has a pretty terrace overlooking the hillside, a great way to end our time in Ariccia. We wandered back to the bus stop and as no surprise we had about an hour wait for the shuttle bus that would take us back to Albani where we would get the Cotral bus back to the Anagnina metro stop.

Once in Albani we waited about 20 minutes for the bus, of course, when the bus pulled up it was packed to the gills and we wiggled our way in and stood up for the 30 minute ride to Rome.

When we arrived at the Anagnina metro stop, luck was on our side because as we walked onto the platform a train pulled up and we hopped on going towards Termini. When we emerged at the front entrance of Termini we said our good-byes to Vincenzo and got a bus back to our hotel.

By the time we walked into the hotel it was close to 6pm and by our “inner clocks” it was apperitivo time! Instead of walking over towards Campo dei Fiori to our favorite spot, we decided to give the wine bar just next to the hotel a try. We’re glad we did. We snagged the last free table, had a couple glasses of wine and prosecco and sat and watched the activity in Piazza della Rotonda. The Pantheon is certainly a site to behold.

Our dinner reservation was for 9pm at Vino e Camino (http://www.vinoecamino.it/) located at Piazza dell’Oro, 6. This was another EatRome app discovery and we are certainly glad we dined here, we had another fantastic meal.

One word of warning if you dine here, the starters are huge! We didn’t realize this and we each ordered one, which could have easily been a meal in itself! Mom had the prosciutto wrapped smoked mozzarella on a bed of pesto, there were 4 substantially sized mozzarella balls. I had the Sardinian tomato bread and I still think about it. It was almost like layers of phyllo dough pizza with the freshest tomatoes, olives and cheese, and it was light and crispy. I won the starter category for this meal!

For main dishes, I had the grilled tuna steak with eggplant sauce, it had wonderful flavor, but it was slightly dry. Mom had the veal cheek and roasted potatoes, it blew the flavors of my tuna right out of the water. Mom even commented on how great the potatoes tasted and she is sometimes a “hard sell” when it comes to potatoes. We had a bottle of wine and another of water. Since we were so full from the whole day, we didn’t even look at the dessert menu, for fear of our eyes definitely being larger than our stomachs. The total cost of this meal was € 89.

We liked this meal so much, we made a reservation for Sunday lunch (the day before our departure) or so we thought…

Friday, March 30 – There’s a Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On

Today we had a very loose agenda, and so we took our time getting started in the morning. We skipped breakfast because we did want to see the basilica of St. John in Lateran. We hopped on the little #117 electric bus right near the hotel and took it all the way to the end of the route. The last stop on this line is right across from the church.

We entered through a side door into a lovely church interior bathed by sun light streaming through the windows. We made our way around the church in about 30 minutes before we realized we had actually come in a side door and not the front door, so we decided to exit through the front doors in order to see what the main entrance looks like.

Since the #117 bus stop was so close, we got back on and took the bus to the Monti neighborhood. Even though we had spent some time in this area already, we didn’t really have much time to poke around and check out some of the streets which have some really terrific little shops.

One of the shops, Aromaticus (http://www.aromaticus.it/aromaticus/Benvenuto.html ) is just too nice to pass by without stopping in. If you enjoy gardening, herbs and fresh food this place if for you. Mom bought some salts and they also do small plates for lunch and aperitivo. The salads looked incredibly fresh. And the owner was so nice, once he found out the item was a gift he wrapped it for us.

We thought about having lunch at TriColore, known for their delicious panini and another EatRome app recommendation, but when we walked by, they were not yet open for lunch and we kept walking. It will definitely be on my “go to” list for next time.

We hopped on another bus and went over to Piazza del Popolo to grab a seat at one of the outdoor cafes, because it was such a beautiful day out. When I opened the menu and saw they had caffe shakerato, I knew what I wanted and mom, being no coffee slouch, was up for the cool treat too. Since we hadn’t had anything to eat we also ordered a pretty average ham sandwich. I had to chuckle to myself when I placed the order with the server, because she asked, did we know it would be cold coffee? Oh yes…we have been well schooled in the thousands of ways one can order coffee in Italy!

If you don’t know what a caffe shakerato is, it is a cold espresso drink shaken with ice and then strained and served in a martini class. This particular one had a foamy sugary layer on the bottom and top, it was the picture perfect coffee drink and delicious!

In fact, mom and I enjoyed this coffee treat, so much and we were so comfortable sitting outside, enjoying the good weather and people watching, we each ordered a second one. Clearly our server thought she was doing us a big favor by bringing the second round in even larger martini glasses! But this time there was no foamy sugary layers and honestly, the second one just did not taste as good as the first. Of course, that did not stop us from drinking it all. By now half the tables around us were ordering the caffe shakeratos, we should have been given a discount for helping boost sales for the day!

Since that second glass was probably equal to 3 shots of espresso mom and I were seriously feeling the jitters. As we walked around the corner to the bus stop mom looked at me and asked if I felt ok, because she was feeling kind of jumpy. I had to admit, I was having the same feeling. Clearly there should be no coffee for us the rest of the day!

We took it easy for the afternoon until aperitivo time when we walked over to Bar Farnese for our usual wine and prosecco. It was another perfect evening to sit outside, and enjoy the scenes playing out in front of us in the piazza.

Our dinner was a repeat at La Gensola in Trastevere and this meal was just as delicious as the first one earlier in the week. Mom and I shared a starter of swordfish with eggplant caponata, it was very good, but then again, I never met an eggplant I didn’t like. For main dishes mom had the John Dorry fish with potatoes and it was excellent. I had the bacala with tomatoes and basil and it was full of flavor and perfectly cooked.

We asked the server for help selecting the wine and he chose a chardonnay from northern Italy and it was the perfect accompaniment with the fish. We skipped dessert and against our better judgment had, you guessed it, espresso. Yes, we are glutons for punishment! And to put the perfect finish on the meal we had glasses of very smooth limoncello. The total cost of this meal was € 98.

We were finished with dinner at about 11:30pm, and as we walked to the tram stop a tram pulled up and we were back at the hotel before mid-night.

Saturday, March 31– It’s a Sparkling Saturday!

Today was a fairly leisurely day; our trip was starting to wind down. Instead of breakfast at the hotel we went over to Café St. Eustachio for cappuccino and pastry. Mom then decided she wanted a Gabs Bag too and off we went to the shop not far from the Spanish Steps. We also made a stop at the Santa Maria Novella shop to stock up on mom’s favorite soap.

Because we were doing a wine tasting today I wanted to make sure we had lunch, so we walked around the street from the hotel to Osteria dell’ingegno at Piazza di Pietra, 45. It was about 2pm when we arrived and from the minute we walked in, I loved this place.

The interior was fairly modern, with walls painted pretty yellow and dark orange colors. It appeared the other few tables that were full had Italian speaking patrons. I had (again) found this restaurant using the EatRome app and one of the things in the write-up about this place I liked, was that it said, this osteria had really good big salads. I thought that would be a perfect light, but substantial enough lunch.

I had a delicious tuna with radicchio salad and mom had a grilled chicken salad. We enjoyed both very much. The service here was polite and friendly. With a bottle of water the total cost was € 34. The really nice thing about this place is it’s location, it is just a few blocks from the Pantheon, but tucked in a corner. I’m glad we found it.
Our wine tasting with VinoRoma (http://www.vinoroma.com/) was scheduled to begin at 5pm, so mom and I set out for Piazza Venezia at about 4pm to get a bus that would travel up Via Cavour and deposit us just a block or so from VinoRoma’s front door.

I have to mention, this was a repeat for us with VinoRoma. Back in 2010 I found her on Trip Advisor and booked the “My Italians” tasting, ,we had such a wonderful time at that tasting, and I began to follow her on Twitter, keeping abreast of things going on with VinoRoma and wine related. When I saw she added a “Sparkling Saturday” tasting, I just couldn’t resist because I adore sparkling wines.

Mom and I arrived for the tasting a few minutes before 5pm and we were greeted warmly by Hande (aka, VinoRoma) and ushered into her new tasting room in the Monti neighborhood. Before long, my friend Vincenzo arrived, I had asked him to join us, in appreciation for ferrying mom and me to Ariccia! And we were ready to taste some sparklers.

Now, if you think the only sparkling Italian wine is prosecco, think again, there is a variety of lovely sparkling wines in Italy. There is Asti, Lambrusco, of course Prosecco and then the much less know and, in my humble opinion, one of the best, Franciacorte. We don’t see Franciacorte much on wine menus here at home; I’ve seen it once on a menu in New York City (at a Mario Battali restaurant). And, as Hande said, it’s not that common in Italy to see it on wine menus either. If you have an opportunity to try a Franciacorte and you like sparkling wines I recommend you trying it, you may find something new you like!

At the Sparking Saturday tasting we had five wines to taste, 3 Prosecco and 2 Franciacorte. It was really interesting for us to learn about the wine making process, the regions where the wines are made and then of course, comparing the wines. Hande, really knows her stuff and the great thing about her, is that whether you know a lot or a little about wine, she always makes you feel like you are walking away having learned just a little bit more.

After the tasting we said our goodbyes to Hande and Vincenzo and since we were in the Monti neighborhood made our way to Via Serpenti and to Al Vino Al Vino for a little aperitivo before our dinner at L’Asino d’Oro, yes we did another dinner repeat, but since we were in that neighborhood for the wine tasting, it made sense to us to go back since we enjoyed it the first time we were there so much!

We had a 9pm reservation and as we walked in, we were greeted warmly and seated at the last available table. Thank goodness we had a reservation, because we saw 3 parties turned away who did not have reservations.



Pasta Fagioli

 The food was just as good as it was the first time. Mom started with the pasta fagioli which was full of flavor. I had the prosciutto cinghale with percorino sauce, it was terrific. For her main dish, mom had the pork with artichoke and licorice, sounds like an odd combination, but it was wonderful and fall off the bone tender. I had the braised pork shank with green sauce, all I can say is Wow! It was knock my socks off flavorful and the piece of meat was huge, think “Fred Flintstone” food!



Proscuitto Cinghale with Pecorino



Pork Shank with Green Sauce



Fennel with Blood Orange

 We had a bottle of Orvieto Classico, and to finish dinner off we each had a glass of Vin Santo and a plate of biscotti. Honestly, the Vin Santo was the lowest part of the meal, it was ok, just not the best we’ve ever had. The total cost of this meal was € 86.

From the restaurant we had a short walk to Via Nazionale and caught a bus back towards the hotel. For us, it was a fairly early night; we were back at the hotel just around 11pm.

Sunday, April 1- A Quiet Ending

Since this was our final day in Rome, I purposely did not plan anything. My thought was we could do any last minute shopping in case there was something we had seen earlier in the week that we didn’t get and also, just to relax, after all, it was a vacation.

We took our time getting started and walked over to Piazza Farnese to stop at our favorite outdoor café for cappuccino. We had been to this café a lot, but mostly in the evenings for wine. After our first sip of cappuccino, we were kicking ourselves for not coming here more for breakfast. I can hardly believe I’m going to say this, but I liked the cappuccino here much more then Café St. Eustachio!

After enjoying our cappuccino and getting a good laugh from one of the street performers dressed as a clown, he was really good and keep everyone at the café laughing, we decided to nose around the market at Campo dei Fiori, which we hadn’t done yet.

We made a visit to all the spice stands in the market and mom found a few things she had been looking for but hadn’t seen until now and we popped into a small shop on a side street that had some lovely and reasonably priced scarves.

When we were at Vino e Camino earlier in the week, we had made a reservation for lunch for today, or so we thought. So, we walked over to the restaurant for our 1:30 lunch reservation only to find the place locked up tighter than a drum. We waited around for about 15 minutes, thinking maybe they weren’t open yet, but no one ever unlocked the door, so we left. Big sigh, we’ll just have to go back another time.
By now we were getting pretty hungry since we were only running on cappuccino. Our first thought was to go to a pizzeria we were familiar with, but the crowd was so big, we just kept walking. Eventually we sat down at a vinoteca we had been to before, called Mimi e Coco on Via del Governo Vecchio. We each ordered a pizza and glass of wine. The food was fine, nothing stellar and the service was ok, and it was nice to sit outside. So, a fairly uneventful meal. We made our way back to the hotel by mid-afternoon and decided it was time to pack up.

Since our flight was at 9:30am and we had a car pick-up scheduled for 6:30am the next morning we decided to have a larger version of aperitivo close to the hotel. At about 6pm we went to the wine bar next to the hotel on Piazza della Rotonda and started with a couple glasses of wine. Earlier in the week while passing this wine bar I had seen great looking antipasti trays on tables. So, instead of moving to a restaurant for dinner, mom and I settled in, ordered a bottle of wine and the house meat and cheese antipasti plate. I have to say the wine was great and the meat and cheese plate was one of the best I’ve had anywhere. It was a nice, quite way to end our time in Rome.

Until, we realized we hadn’t tossed our coins in the Trevi Fountain. So, after our light dinner, we walked over to the Trevi Fountain and although crowded, not terribly so, and we found a spot to toss our coins. Now, we will for certain return to Rome!