Day 1 - Trastevere

Our trip was bifurcated, with five days in an apartment Trastevere and five in an apartment in Campo de Fiore.  

We arrived in Trastevere in the early afternoon after having been up all night on the flight.  Even the drive from the airport was exciting as we shot through Ostia, past the Pyramids of Cestius, and into the winding streets of Trastevere.

Trastevere is a romantic neighborhood tucked “beyond the Tiber” (the literal meaning of Trastevere) to the city-center’s southwest.  Trastevere maintains its quiet charm with tight winding cobblestone streets, keeping the city’s modern day hustle and bustle at bay.   Rome’s street vendors, fast flitting scooters and buses, street choking tour groups, and impatient Romans are largely absent from the quit streets of Trastevere.

We picked the apartment in Trastevere for its large flowered fourth floor terrace, looking over romantic old rooftops, churches, bakeries (oh my god- the smells coming out of that bakery) and piazzas.  We would spend hours on the terrace chatting, taking in the sights, sounds and smells, and just enjoying each other in Rome.

 

On Wednesday afternoon, we went out for their first Roman meal:  to Roma Sparita, a little restaurant around the corner from our apartment in a small, peaceful piazza.  Still shaky with using the little Italian we knew, and disappointed that the old world brick pizza oven was still heating up for dinner, we ordered whatever pastas the waiter thought were the best.  We wound up with a tagliatelle cacio e pepe and an amatriaciano con lardo (which is what it sounds like, but really good).  Happy and stuffed, we retreated for a nap.

After resting and gussying up for a fancy dinner, we hiked up the Gianicolo, walking up winding, sidewalk-less roads in the dark, stopping every few hundred yards to take in a monument, ruin or the view, including San Pietro in Montorio.  Chris looked fetching in the light of speeding headlamps as we ascended the hill on the side of the road.

We finally arrived at Arco Antico, an upscale restaurant at the hill’s summit, featuring haute modern cuisine.  We had amazing asparagus soup, nut-encrusted lamb and the best carbonara we would have the whole trip (the key seems to be using guanciale—pork cheek—instead of pancetta, and in this case, a whole metric ton of white truffles).