Travel Blog – 31st May, 2023

We left Marsala in Sicily and drove to the mountain-top village of Erice. The views from this place were absolutely spectacular. There was a walking track around the entire village, and walking around it you could see many towns laid out across the valley and along the western coast of Sicily, the Egadi Islands visible offshore. It was almost as if you could see forever.

Business idea: Invent a cake, say that a nun invented it 400 years ago, and the world will beat a path to your door. This is the third place in Sicily that we tried a cake supposedly invented by a nun, in this case Sister Maria Grammatico, who invented a warm, custard filled shortcrust cake, which I must say we ate one of every day while we were here. There is always a long line of people waiting to buy these cakes.

After Erice, we drove to Monreale for a night, which is another mountain-top town overlooking Palermo. The cathedral here bears mentioning, since it contains byzantine mosaics on every wall and all over the ceilings. They are stunning and made up of 2,200kg of gold, which at today’s prices amounts to $231,056,457. ie: $231 million of gold. I think the catholic church is doing OK.

The next morning, we hopped into Alfonso for the last time for the short, 50 minute drive to the airport. All the Luigi’s on the road threw everything they had at me to try to trip me up on the final leg. We had bikes and cars pulling out of nowhere, a bus overtaking on double lines, not one other driver driving within the lanes and in fact no lines on a multiple lane highway at one stage, so it was basically a free-for-all, drive wherever the hell you want as long as you don’t use indicators kind of thing. Despite their best efforts, however, we made it through the gauntlet to the airport without sustaining any damage to the car. So, after completely circumnavigating Sicily for three weeks, we gladly surrendered Alfonso and hopped our flight to Rome!

As soon as we landed, we went to the apartment we had organised through AirBNB, which was located in our favourite Roman suburb, Testaccio. We were a little disappointed in the apartment, since one of the bedrooms had two single beds in it and we couldn’t find a kettle for a cup of tea. Nevertheless, we wasted no time in heading to the local open-air market to buy some of the best pizza in Rome from our favourite pizza place, Casa Manco. Things have changed a bit thanks to trip adviser. Last time we went there, four years ago, we walked straight up and ordered our pizza. This time, we had to take a number and wait 20 minutes to be served. It was totally worth it, though, and Ian and Carmel agreed. After our pizza, I introduced Carmel to the market bar stall where we enjoyed a prosecco on tap.

That night we went to our favourite delicatessen for dinner. Volpetti has added a bistro and we had delicious meals there. I opted for the gnocchi and Lidia had truffle pasta. They were totally amazing. We then headed to Marco’s gelateria to get the obligatory Italian ice cream. Marco remembered us and was super glad to see us. He even said “Your friend was Linda!” so he remembered the Tomasovics as well.

That night, we decided to wander into the ancient centre of Rome and we walked past the Mouth of Truth, various Bernini fountains and ancient Roman temples to Piazza Venezia. We then wandered up to the Trevi Fountain. By then we were exhausted, so we walked the 30 minutes back to our apartment in Testaccio. Unfortunately, we chose our apartment badly. Despite fantastic reviews, the apartment wasn’t good. There was a busy restaurant right under our windows and the crowd was so loud it was like they were sitting in the room with us. The noise continued until 2:00am. To top it off, the shutters didn’t shut out the light and it was like daylight in our rooms. Then there were the beds. I think if they had poured concrete over a pile of rocks it would have been more comfortable. All four of us woke up in the morning with barely any sleep and broken backs. I felt like I had been run over with a spikey steam roller.

Carmel and Ian took off early to enjoy a tour of the colosseum and the forum, while Lidia and I sought out alternative accommodation. Luckily, we were able to secure two rooms in the NH Collection, right next to the Termini train station. We moved there later that day.

That night, we took the train back to Testaccio to meet our friend Carmen and her daughter, Monica, for dinner. The girls had been on a tour through Europe and just happened to be in Rome, so we organised to meet them at one of our favourite haunts, Flavio al Velavevodetto. Flavio’s is a restaurant located inside Mount Testaccio. Testaccio was the market place of Rome for centuries, and is well known for its mountain, made entirely from terracotta shards. You see, the terracotta jugs, or amphorae, that were used to store oil, spices, wine, etc. were not reusable and so the merchants would throw the discarded jugs onto a pile. Over centuries, a mountain of broken terracotta formed. These days, there are trees growing out of it and it just looks like a regular mountain from a distance. When you look up close, you can see the layers of broken terracotta. Flavio’s restaurant was built into the mountain and has interior windows which show the layers of terracotta and can be opened to let in the constant 14 degree cool air from inside the mountain.

The meal at Flavio’s was delicious and we were happy to head back to our comfortable hotel with the wonderful beds and quiet rooms for the night.

Side note: Those of you who have read my previous travel blogs will know that when the four of us went to Verona in 2019, Ian and I invented alter-egos based on the two Gentlemen of Verona. Our alter-egos were named Lord Spiffington (Ian) and Sir Boffington (Me). These personas have stuck with us and ever since we have referred to each other as Spiffo and Boffo. When we arrived in Italy, we had to come up with Italian versions of our names. Lidia suggested Spiffolino and Boffarello and so it was ordained.

We were excited about our next day in Rome, because Carmel and Ian had organised a surprise for us. We had no idea what they had planned. That morning, we met in our room for the big reveal. They had organised an Italian cooking class for us with a world-renowned chef and Carmel had even gone to the trouble of buying chef’s hats for Ian and I that were embroidered with our Italian names, Spiffolino and Boffarello!

We took the train back to Testaccio where our day was to begin. When we arrived at the train station, it was peak hour and the trains were overcrowded to the max. There were so many people that many of them were literally squashed up against the glass doors of the trains. You could not move an inch and every time we arrived at a station, a bunch of people had to pile out to release the disembarking passengers. At one station, the doors opened and the man behind me stepped back to let people out. Unfortunately, he stepped backwards directly into the gap between the train and the platform. His leg went straight down the gap and he fell onto his butt with a smack. I quickly grabbed his leg and reefed it out of the gap so that it wouldn’t get ripped off when the train took off again. I was sure it must have been broken, but he seemed to be OK, apart from being badly shaken.

We were to meet our “world-renowned chef”, Eugenio at the Testaccio market to begin our experience. The instructions were to meet him at the main entrance of the market. The market has no main entrance, so we wandered around the outside of the market until we found an old man chugging on a cigarette on his phone. He turned out to be Eugenio. He took us into the Testaccio market and asked us what we wanted for lunch. We had no idea, so he suggested a few things and then we lined up at various stalls to get our ingredients.

During the wait, Eugenio, a hump-backed old man with a tenuous grasp of the English language, explained that he was a horse racing steward for 42 years. We began to wonder how that qualified him to teach a cooking class, but gave him the benefit of the doubt. He was talking to Ian about jockeys and explained that jockeys used to be small and weak and now they eat too much and use cocaine. Ian heard the “small and weak” part, didn’t hear the “they use cocaine” part, patted his stomach and said “like me!”.

After we had gathered our supplies, Eugenio explained that we needed a cab to take us to his kitchen. He lit up again, took his phone out and rang a cab. After being on hold for a while, he finally ordered one and we waited 10 minutes for it to arrive. When it arrived, it was too small for the five of us, so he sent it on its way and rang the cab company again. After being on hold for another 10 minutes, I suggested that maybe I could order an Uber van. Eugenio agreed and within 5 minutes we were on our way. Eugenio sat in the front seat next to the driver, wouldn’t put his seat belt on and the van beeped for about 10 minutes with a high-pitched, incessant beeping sound until Eugenio won the battle and the van gave up.

By this stage, we were wondering where Eugene was taking us, expecting to be taken to a dodgy little apartment somewhere in Rome to cook a meal in his tiny little, smoke-filled kitchen. We were relieved when the Uber pulled up outside a restaurant. It turns out that Eugenio’s grandfather started the restaurant in 1928 and it has been in the family ever since. He ushered us in the front door into a dated, nautical wonderland. The entire restaurant was decorated like a grotto, with fake stalactites hanging from the ceilings, marine-themed old paintings framed with thick rope and various nautical contraptions and evil-looking dolphin statues adorning the walls.

Eugenio asked us if we wanted a coffee. We accepted and he directed us to a table in the restaurant. The cups had barely hit the table when he ushered us into the kitchen for our “cooking lesson”. Our cooking lesson consisted of us chopping a few vegetables and then the chef, Uri, doing almost all of the cooking. Eugenio tossed a couple of pans every now and then, in between going outside for a fag.

The saving grace was the meal. Battered artichokes and zucchini, followed by mushroom pasta and carbonara and then ossobuco and a delicious chicken pepper dish. We’d barely finished the mains when Eugenio approached us and asked if we enjoyed the ossobuco. We said yes and he explained that it was his favourite dish before whipping the leftovers away to eat them at a table with his family.

He then asked us if we wanted sorbet for dessert. We said that we would like to wait for a few minutes. Eugenio must have misunderstood us, because he proceeded to bring out chopped up strawberries and cherries and sat with his family to eat our sorbet!

After lunch, we got up to leave and Eugenio approached us asking us to pay the bill. Carmel and Ian had spent a lot of money on the entire experience, so we were surprised that there was more to pay. Turns out they charged us for the coffees, the bottle of wine we had with lunch and a cover charge!

After lunch, we swung past the Vatican to check out St Peter’s basilica and then walked to Castle St Angelo before heading back to the hotel. That night we went back into Rome central to see an opera experience. A tenor, a soprano and a pianist performed famous arias, interspersed with a smattering of Italian songs like “O sole mio” and “Funiculi, Funicular”. We had a lazy walk past the colosseum to the train station to go back to our hotel.

The next morning we went back to the train station to take the metro to Villa Borghese. When we arrived at the station, it was crazy. There were a sea of people and we literally had to cram onto the train. People kept getting on when it was obvious there was absolutely no room, but they just pushed and pushed until they made it onto the train. We were crushed up against each other. One guy tried to squeeze between Lidia and Carmel where there was clearly no room to do so, but managed to squash himself in. He got off at the next station. Thankfully, we only had three stops, but as soon as we got off the train, Carmel realised that someone had opened her bag and stolen her purse! Lidia and Carmel assumed it was the guy who squeezed between them. Fortunately, Carmel didn’t have a lot of cash in her purse, although she had to cancel all of her credit cards.

Villa Borghese is a mansion in the middle of an expansive park, which originally belonged to a cardinal. It is now a gallery and there were some stunning artworks in there, including many sculptures by the incredible Bernini, who was responsible for most of the fountains throughout Rome. His statue of the rape of Persephone was particularly moving, the musculature of Hades and Persephone was amazing. The way that Hades hand sinks into the flesh of Persephone made it look so real.

We spent the rest of the day wandering around the streets of Central Rome. Ian saw many churches, of which he is particularly fond, and we wandered into Campo di Fiori where we enjoyed some Roman pizza with Negronis and Prosecco. After this, we walked past the Pantheon and Carmel went to a Carabinieri station to file a report on her stolen purse. Only Carmel was allowed inside the station, so the rest of us took the opportunity to enjoy a gelati while we waited for her.

That evening, we met Carmen and Monica again for our final dinner in Rome! We met at a rooftop restaurant called La Fata Ignorante (The Ignorant Fairy), where we all enjoyed a delicious meal. After dinner we headed out to the outside bar area for a couple of drinks. Ian went to the toilet and didn’t know where the door to the outside area was. We sat outside watching him trying to exit the floor to ceiling windows. I was motioning to him to try harder to pry the glass apart, enjoying the show. In fact, everyone in the crowded restaurant where he was standing was enjoying the show. Taking my hand motions as encouragement to keep trying, he perservered for ages. Eventually, a waitress came over and explained to him that he was trying to exit a window and the door was behind him.

We are now sitting in the Rome airport waiting for our flight home. It’s been a fantastic six weeks, but we are all looking forward to seeing our families, friends (and pets).

Arrivederci Roma!