THERE ARE NO SIDEWALKS IN ROME
Dear Caroline
Mamie finally getting her picture with the Trevi Fountain
For Mamie’s first day in Rome we took it “easy”. No day trips just city walking, but it was a full day. Last time Mamie was in Rome it was with the Disney cruise and after that she vowed to never return to Rome again. I had a lot of work to do if I was going to change her mind about Rome, I’ve only been here a few weeks but I haven’t seen any of the “horrible” things Mamie was describing.
Before arriving, I asked her to make a list of her must sees, and at the top of that list was the Trevi Fountain. When she was here last, the Trevi was under restoration, so that was our first stop today. On the subway we went, through the crowds of locals and tourists to get to the famous fountain.
Little story here:
Mamie’s hotel is close to where I live but in a complicated location in relation to public transit. And on weekends we have day trips to other cities planned so my plan was to meet Mamie at the subway station closest to her, but it was a 16 minute walk away and Rome isn’t the flattest of cities. The thoughtful granddaughter that I am had the brilliant idea of doing the walk with her today so we can see if it was feasible. Well it wasn’t. Not only was it 90% uphill but also the walk WAS ON A HIGHWAY! Google maps did not tell me this. It was all good till we got to this massive staircase and Mamie said “no way” but I assured her that we would not be doing stairs. As we kept walking I noticed less and less pedestrian demarcations and I asked a passerby. They confirmed we were walking the right way and in fact was to walk on the highway. Thankfully we made it to the station unscathed but it was clear that Mamie, not anyone should be doing that walk to the station and we agreed she’d take a cab to my place so we could head out together to the train station.
Ok back to the fountain… with our highway hike out of the way we made it to Barberini Station, and walked the rest of the way to the Trevi. I warned Mamie of the crowds and as we got closer to the fountain she realized what I meant. Rome is super safe, but if you’re going to get pickpocketed, this is the place. A sea of people, you’re should to shoulder with all of humanity, everyone clamouring to get that Instagram perfect photo and to throw a coin in the fountain. I turn away for one second and Mamie is off fighting the crowd to get a good vantage point for her photo. For someone who wasn’t doing stairs 45 minutes ago, she was now climbing over people and barrier benches just to get a photo. And we got it!
All that worked up an appetite, we decided to have lunch at Antico Forno & Caffè Trevi. We started with a morning pastry, Italy has their version of the croissant called the cornetto. It’s sweeter and less flaky. I got one too but mine was filled with pistachio cream. After we enjoyed are pastries we got a Tagliere per due, which is a cutting board filled with meats and cheeses. It was so good! After we were full from lunch we started walking towards my school.
Rome is know for many things and like I said before it is known for having over 900 churches. I needed something to do with Mamie that would slow down the walk to my school area, so why not churches. The super cool thing about these churches is that they are filled with art, and I mean FILLED. I think we did five or six churches today.
After a bunch of churches and a bit of gelato we were ready for dinner. We went to Osteria da Fortunata and got some pasta. I loved my Amatriciana and Mamie was lest than pleased with her Carbonara. She said, and I quote “they look like worms, I don’t like worm pasta”. So now I have to find a place that has carbonara without “worm pasta”.
