Rome chronicles 🍝 | eating good, vintage shopping & beautiful sights

Welcome back to another episode of my Euro Chronicles. This one is brought to you by the wonderful city of Rome. We arrived in Rome at 8 30, still drunk from the night before. It was a brutal train ride from Florence. After getting off the train, we trekked to our hostel, the Rome Hello, which was such a great hostel and manageably close to everything. We passed out on the hostel couches, waiting for our room to be ready before heading to Trastevere, passing by the Trevi Fountain on the way. Oh my goodness. Trastevere is where my family stayed in Rome the summer prior and is my favorite neighborhood. It's so quaint, gorgeous, and alive. Flower canopies and vines growing on buildings can be sighted everywhere and the slow pace of life in this area is intoxicating. I just love it. We ate dinner at Tonarello, which is super touristy but so good nonetheless. I got cacio e pepe, which quickly became my favorite pasta during this trip. Brie is obsessed with carbonara, so that continued to be the only thing she would order. I'm so happy right now. That was the best. Ew, why did you do that? Wait, it's horrible. Wait, this is the one you said. Brie, stop eating her. Here we go. Eat the whole thing. Put it in your mouth, please. I'm gonna cry. Ew, ew, ew. Looks like a spoon and fork. On our way home, Bella bought a ring from a street vendor, adding to her many mementos of this trip. So pretty. Oh, Jesus, Pippa. Looking at each other. I can't look at you, Brie. I can't look at you. I'm so sweaty. How was your dinner? It was really good. I got spaghetti and meatballs, and the meatball hit because I've been having like... Mediocre pasta. Random sauces, so it was good, familiar. And your tiramisu looked so good. I had the worst tiramisu in Florence. I was choking on the cocoa powder because I was... And you rated it a 10 out of 10 in the vlog. Oh, did I? Yeah. It was premature. It was wet, watery. But this time, it jiggled. Light, fluffy, creamy, perfect. Today has been the most brutal day. We all went to bed at like 3 and got up at 6 to catch the 7 a.m. train. And I was like nauseous all morning on the train. Oh yeah, I thought I was gonna throw up. And I got off on the stop before the stop we were supposed to get off. And then Brie texted me, being like, get back on. We got to our hostel. Our hostel was so nice. And passed the **** out. We pulled Pippa booked the wrong train, first of all. I had to book it with her and go later. So we get off the train. Pippa was like, oh my god, I really want McDonald's. I'm like, let's just do it. So we walk in at like 10.20 in the morning and get ourselves a burger and fries. See you tomorrow, probably. Because I don't think we're going to be doing anything else tonight. The next day, we spent time near and around the Spanish Square, home to the Spanish Steps, and to most luxury and high-end storefronts. We all got lunch at different spots, with the girls grabbing paninis at Posteria del Mercato. I picked up a variety of Roman pizza squares, coated in burrata, tomatoes, and portabella for Brie. A delectable brunch, if I do say so myself. Brie has the biggest sweet tooth. And mine has developed so much over the summer, too. So we got tiramisu from Pompi for dessert. They are famous for their tiramisu, which comes in a generous box. It's super creamy and is guaranteed to leave you feeling ill if you eat the whole thing. Something I found out the hard way. Afterwards, we walked through Piazza Navona until we reached San Luigi di Franceschi Church. We inadvertently happened upon this church and decided to peek inside, where we witnessed a school choir reciting a most beautiful sight. And honestly, just such a cathartic experience. We scootered to a new area for dinner. Scootering on narrow, pebbled streets is not something I recommend trying out. We almost went down more than once, but it was super fun. Being the adventurous person that I am, I got cacio e pepe once again. I was and still am obsessed with this pasta. This server just came and put this on pippa. We had a lucky streak going on because the waiter gave us limoncello nightcaps on the house, completing our hat trick of complimentary drinks. Let's get the bill, perv. I really like it. Me too. Barbara has so much personality. She's busy right now. I'm obsessed with this dog and I need to adopt it. It's the owner of this gelato place's dog. The owner's name is Barbara. The dog's name is Barbara. Named after her. I can't, I can't do it. That's Barbara. Barbara! A minute, I think. Oh my god. I love it. No! On this sunny morning, we went back to the Spanish Square for breakfast and had the misfortune of being lured in by the pretty outside seating area of Ginger. By far the worst restaurant we visited all trip. The food and the service were not it. I just tasted a muffin. Honestly, pretty bad. I got a caprese forno sandwich around the block because I don't really do breakfast food, which turned out to be a blessing in this case. Afterwards, we walked through Monte to do some vintage shopping on our way to see the Coliseum. This area was also so beautiful and quaint. I was surprised at how calm and quiet it was. We barely saw any tourists, which was lovely. We did a little bit of damage before happening upon this super cool snack spot where we picked up arancini balls and fried pizza. I don't know if it's famous. Yeah, arancini. It's Italian. And it's a ball with rice and cheese. Oh, and tomato. Tastes like pasta. Really yummy. We did some shopping, but everything here is really bougie or I'm too lazy to look. So it hasn't been successful. It's too hot for me to shop right now. We're in this area that's really pretty. Bella got a dress. Oh jeez, I look so grumpy. Oh, nope, there's cheese. There she is. Oh my god, I know I'm gonna love it. After walking around the Coliseum for a bit, we hopped back onto our scooters and did an improvised tour of a bunch of monuments. We transformed the scooter into a DIY tour bus. 10 out of 10 would recommend doing this. It was so much fun. We're gonna die. Jesus. Pretty. For our final supper, we headed to the spot near our hostel. It was super random, but even spots that are unassuming from the outside deliver excellent food. We enjoyed our meal on their patio and shared a toast to the wonderful week we spent together in Italy. As dusk creeped up on us, we got gelato for dessert at the Gelatist and wandered the streets one last time. Walking home from dinner. I got cacio e pepe, then we got gelato. Yeah, now we're heading home. On our last day together, we grabbed breakfast at this cafe around the block from our hostel. I then stopped by this vegan bakery to grab carrot cake for the road. Satiated, we walked to Borghese Park, where we wandered around for a while. I had such a fond memory of this park from visiting it the year before. It's so big and a quiet getaway from the busy city. It truly embodies the charm of the park. An escape into nature in the center of the action. Hi puppy. In pairs. Oh. Does that feel good? I literally wish I was here. We later stopped by Il Gelato di San Crispino near the Trevi Fountain. Proclaimed the best gelato in Rome by a New York Times article from decades ago. Their reputation still holds, however. They have various innovative flavors, including a ginger honey one that was phenomenal. Then we headed to the airport and I stayed at an airport hotel, awaiting my flight to Nice the next morning. Next up is my solo getaway in Nice, so stay tuned.