DAY 5

9/21/2018

SECOND FULL DAY IN ROME

We enjoyed dinner at a nearby restaurant last evening. It is called Osteria St. Ana. Keith had written to the hotel concierge a few weeks prior to our arrival to make a reservation for us. It is located just a short walk from the hotel.

The restaurant is housed in a historical building and this dining venue opened forty years ago. It serves traditional Roman cuisine.

We planned to take a third walk before dinner but that was not in the cards due to "mother nature". As luck had it, rain started about one hour before our reservation so we changed to more casual clothing. The luck continued though as the rain stopped minutes before our walk, throughout dinner and our walk back to the hotel.

We had a nice time. The waiter was helpful and we asked him for recommendations. He was very happy that we would look to him for his thoughts and all-in-all that worked out well. We went with his wine recommendation for a wine that Anne Marie prefers. +1 for the recommendation. For our first course we shared two different artichoke items; one was fried artichoke which was a first and the other one was also artichoke. +1. For our entree Anne Marie had Veal and Keith Spaghetti with Lobster. Let's give him a 3/4+. All in all we enjoyed a nice meal. We were not rushed. Very nice wait staff. A very welcoming atmosphere. We passed on the dessert. The waiter did bring out something complimentary from the restaurant.

Back to wine. We think the Italians and the French people have it right. You can get a very nice bottle of wine and not spent a fortune on it. The wine was terrific.

We relaxed back at the hotel as we organized for the next day. We both slept very well. The hotel is very quiet and we we each had some sleep to catch up on. Maybe the wine helped as well. LOL.

We enjoyed breakfast in our room. We thought of going to the restaurant but it is very comfortable to eat in the room. Cereal, Fruit and a recharge of the batteries with Coffee.

We took a private tour which Keith had booked several months ago. On previous visits we have taken tours of Rome which included one daytime and one nighttime tour of the Vatican Museum, along with several tours of the Ancient City and other major tourist areas of Rome which we have also done in the daytime and on our last visit in the evening.

The tour was called "Hidden Rome". We thoroughly enjoyed the tour. Our tour guide was Enrico. He was born in Pisa where his parent's still live. He speaks English fluently and Spanish in addition to Italian. He went to University and is a musician and has lived in Boston and Los Angeles before returning back to Italy where he lives in Rome. He started to give tours to supplement income when not writing or performing. With two children he devoted much more time to touring due to the better hours and far less travel.

Our tour began with a drive outside the city to visits some of the older areas and sites including Appian Way which was used as the express road back in the days of the Romans to get between Rome and Naples Enrico pointed out the original stones and explained the construction of the road.

Our next stop was the Catacombs which included a maze of underground Christian cemeteries dating back to the first century. Tours were given based on ones language and our tour was given to the two of us plus three other people. The person giving this tour was very knowledgeable.

We continued to the Park of the Aqueducts which was one of the aqueducts carrying large amounts of water into the city. We returned to the city and drove to the other side of the Tiber to visit the bohemian side of the city.

During the tour we revisited the key hole. If you look through the hole you can see the St Peter's Basilica. We visited the oldest Cathedral of Rome which is the oldest cathedral in all of Rome recognizing the Vatican is located in Vatican City. We visited a couple of other Cathedrals. We also went to the Piazza Del Campidoglio and took in stunning views of the Ancient City. We made other stops including one near the Pyramid.

We had lunch at a local restaurant called Il Corallo where we enjoyed Pizza, Salad and of course Italian Wine.

Enrico was a great conversationalist and tour guide. We covered an amazing amount of ground and that included current day Rome and other areas in Italy.

Upon our return to the Hotel we went on a long walk.

The weather was a delight and no rain.

We could not take photos in the Catacombs and the photos below are in the reverse order of the writeup.