Today we went to the Pantheon, one of the places I was most looking forward to seeing in Rome! It was built by the emperor Hadrian to be a temple to all the gods of the Roman people, except Christians. Kind of ironic since it later became a Christian church, which is how it got preserved. I was very excited to see the dome over the Pantheon because it is such an amazing feat of architecture.
We then headed to Piazza Navona, a famous piazza, for lunch. There were a bunch of local artists selling art and a fountain sculpted by Bernini in the center of the piazza. We went to this piazza because we had read that the oldest gelateria in Rome was located there. We couldn’t figure out where it was though so we decided to have lunch at one of the restaurants with outdoor seating overlooking the piazza. Our food was pretty good. A bit over priced, but good. When we were finished we decided to try and ask our waiter if he knew where it was. After a little struggle to understand each other he was finally able to point us in the right direction. It was actually back towards the Pantheon. We pulled out our map and had him tell us what street he thought it was on. We set out to find it. It was further past the Pantheon than we expected and we thought we weren’t going to find it when we turned a corner and there it was! It is called Giolitti. They had a bunch of flavors and we knew they would be good because there banana flavor was a weird color (an indicator that they use real bananas and a way to tell if a gelato place is good). Claire ordered tiramisu and biscotti, but got caramel and biscotti and I ordered chocolate and creama di whisky al Bailey’s. Mine was really good. The creama di whisky tasted like Bailey’s Irish cream ice cream. Claire wasn’t very impressed by hers and was also disappointed not to get her tiramisu.
Italian Gelato Stats:
Brittany
1. Grom- Florence, Dark Chocolate (amazing) and cream de Grom
2. Vivoli- Florence, Chocolate and mousse café (it actually had the texture of mousse!)
Giolitti- Rome, Chocolate and Creama di Whisky
Tie- The chocolate was better at Vivoli and the mousse café was really interesting, but the creama di
whisky was a cool flavor and they had a lot of other flavor choices.
3. Milan Place that Nino took us to, Dark Chocolate and Coffee
4. Fata Morgana- Rome, Cream and Caramel, Basil with honey and nuts, and Claire’s Chocolate Espresso
5. Cecre- Rome, Coffee and Chocolate
Brittany
1. Grom- Florence, Dark Chocolate (amazing) and cream de Grom
2. Vivoli- Florence, Chocolate and mousse café (it actually had the texture of mousse!)
Giolitti- Rome, Chocolate and Creama di Whisky
Tie- The chocolate was better at Vivoli and the mousse café was really interesting, but the creama di
whisky was a cool flavor and they had a lot of other flavor choices.
3. Milan Place that Nino took us to, Dark Chocolate and Coffee
4. Fata Morgana- Rome, Cream and Caramel, Basil with honey and nuts, and Claire’s Chocolate Espresso
5. Cecre- Rome, Coffee and Chocolate
Claire
1. Vivoli- Florence, Tiramisu and some other flavor she can’t remember and doesn’t matter because she went back for seconds of Tiramisu
2. Fata Morgana- Rome, Tiramisu, Chocolate Espresso, and my Basil with honey and nuts (the reason it places second for her even though I didn’t like it)
3. Milan Place that Nino took us to- Tiramisu and Chocolate
Grom- Florence, Espresso and Cream de Grom (they didn’t offer Tiramisu)
Tie- She liked that Grom’s tasted like real espresso but liked the Milan place because it was the first time
she had Tiramisu gelato and that started the trend, plus it was really good Tiramisu gelato.
4. Giolitti- Rome, Biscotti and Caramel
5. Cecre- Rome, Tiramisu and Caramel
1. Vivoli- Florence, Tiramisu and some other flavor she can’t remember and doesn’t matter because she went back for seconds of Tiramisu
2. Fata Morgana- Rome, Tiramisu, Chocolate Espresso, and my Basil with honey and nuts (the reason it places second for her even though I didn’t like it)
3. Milan Place that Nino took us to- Tiramisu and Chocolate
Grom- Florence, Espresso and Cream de Grom (they didn’t offer Tiramisu)
Tie- She liked that Grom’s tasted like real espresso but liked the Milan place because it was the first time
she had Tiramisu gelato and that started the trend, plus it was really good Tiramisu gelato.
4. Giolitti- Rome, Biscotti and Caramel
5. Cecre- Rome, Tiramisu and Caramel
We went back to our hotel and rested for a tiny bit and then headed out to the Catacombs. We had to take a metro and then a bus and then walk forever (in the heat), but we finally found it. We went to the San Callisto Catacombs. This cemetery was started at the end of 100 AD. It was really cool. Literally. The temperature dropped drastically down there and it felt amazing. The catacombs were also really neat. We took a tour of them with one of the priests who look after the cemetery. We climbed down to the second of four levels and walked through the passage ways lined with graves cut into the walls. It was a maze down there. There are twelve miles of galleries total! The guide took us into a couple rooms as well. One was where the body of Saint Cecile had laid until the 9th century. A marble copy of the statue that used to be over the grave was there. It shows the slit marks on her neck from her martyrdom and is interesting because it depicts her lying, bound and dead. Not your typical Roman statue.
We had originally planned to visit Trastevere, a part of the city that retains its medieval character. But my feet were killing me and I wanted to rest them before doing tons of walking in Athens. So we went back to our hotel for an early night. We went to a pizzeria next door where a really nice Italian guy helped us order by the point method. Claire got margherita and I got french fries and hot dog pizza. It was really funny, but good. We took it back to our room and watched Italian MTV.
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