Why Rome is Unlike Any Other City | Local Food, History & Views

We're now in the Vatican. It's one of my favorite parts of Rome so far. I get why this is a famous spot. But it was very good, like I loved it. No, but it's very good. I think we're on to a very good start here in Rome. Good morning and welcome to Rome. This is our first full day here and we're planning on spending six days here and we're very very excited to come back to Rome. We are now on the side of the Pantheon and this is how we're kicking off day one. We have potentially a hack of how to get in by skipping the line and not waiting loads of time so let's go see if it works and if it does we'll let you know exactly how to do it yourselves. So we managed to get into the Pantheon quite quickly and easily. There's a specific line on the side for people who want to come in and pay with a credit card which is exactly what we did. The price is super low, it's only five euro per person and it is, I have to say, one of the most impressive interiors I've ever seen in any building ever. I feel like we'll say that about a lot of things in this trip. Just imagine that everything that we've seen so far has been built in the last 800 years or something in every other city whereas this is, I feel like it's much better condition and it was built more than 2,000 years ago. The interesting fact is that the stone was built with an oculus so when it rains the water basically pours on the floors which are slanted so that the water can drain as well. Crazy how long the line is if you have your ticket bought before arriving here, it's like if you buy a package for more attractions than just this one, there is a huge line, a hundred people at least, whereas if you just want to pay with a card. Without pre-booking anything, so I'll pay by card and go in. Do you offer a coffee? Always. Okay, there's a really cool coffee shop next door. Super affordable and high quality. Coffee is great, Laura says that the cornetto is amazing and the two coffees and one cornetto, three euro sixty. Super, super affordable. Decent? Life is good. Walking through Rome is not easy. In a way, good thing that we're used to the craziness of London and the overpopulation of central London. I can only assume if you're not used to a huge city, Rome can be overwhelming. It's really hard to walk on these streets, there's so many cars and Vespas everywhere and everyone's going really fast. It feels like some of these streets could benefit from being pedestrian. Yeah, exactly, yeah. We were walking towards Campo dei Fiori, which we'll get to in just a little bit, and we ended up in Piazza Navona, on purpose or not. Piazza Navona only became a public square in the 15th century, but before that it used to be a stadium, which was built in the first century, and they used to have competitions here. It's got a really interesting, very long oval shape, so I think they used to do kart races and other stuff like that. Right now it's a bit of a shame, because a lot of it is covered up. They're probably doing maintenance work, but it's still beautiful. It's got three main fountains, and sadly they're all boarded up. It's really hot today, it's supposed to be 39 degrees, but fortunately it's cloudy, so you can't really feel the heat, otherwise we would have... Otherwise we would have potentially died here in Piazza Navona today. So right here in the middle of the square you've got the Fountain of the Four Rivers, which looks really impressive. Sadly I would have liked to see it with, you know, with all the running water and everything. This fountain was done in honor of the four rivers that were known at the time, which is the Danube, the Nile, the Ganges, and the Rio de la Plata. And it looks absolutely beautiful, super super intricate and detailed. Sadly we can't get too close today, but maybe next time we come to Rome. We're just going to have to come back now. On the side of the square you've got probably one of the most imposing churches that we've ever seen. It is absolutely huge. I'm very excited about what's next. We're going to this place that is famous for its tiramisu, and as far as I know that's all that they make, tiramisu. So this is supposedly the best tiramisu in town. We got the classic one. They have loads of flavors. Dive in. It's really good. The cream is very rich. You would love it. Very very good. So that is a small one and it costs 2 euro 50. They have a large one that's 3 euro 50 for the original. So they do have different flavors. You've got pistachio, raspberry, caramel, peanut butter, all kinds of different ones. It's very important. It's uh yeah it's right up there. Very good, very good. It is very rich. Definitely come two sizes right next to Piazza Navona. Delizioso. Very good cornetto, very good coffee, very good tiramisu, and some beautiful sights. I think we're on to a very good start here in Rome. And on to our next adventure. Right now we're off to Campo dei Fiori where they normally sell produce like vegetables, fruit, flowers, spices, all kinds of stuff like that. So Campo dei Fiori is a nice straw but I would say it's not very authentic. And it's smaller than I imagined. Yeah it is much smaller and uh is it an authentic Roman experience? I would say. Probably not. No. But it's you know equally it's it's pretty to go to and they've got loads of souvenirs. That's that's super useful as well. And the buildings around it are beautiful. It's lunchtime. It's getting really hot. I say let's go home. Let's uh chill for a moment and then we'll go for a walk in our beautiful beautiful local neighborhood. Have some lunch. Our way home takes us over Ponte Sisto which is one of the few pedestrian bridges in Rome. And yeah Laura just noticed we can see the dome of the San Pietro in Vatican in the distance. So for the first few days of our stay here in Rome we're staying in the neighborhood called Trastevere which is known as being one of the cooler. It caters more to younger people I guess. Saying that we haven't really had much food today so our first goal now is to go grab some food. And we're gonna go grab two of the most famous Roman street foods available which is the supli and the trapezino for me. And then I'll have a slice of pizza. Slice of pizza. Let's go. Tomato sauce amazing. The huge meatball very good. It was just you know the way street food should be a bit. Delicious, small and quite messy actually. But uh the flavor is all there. I get why this is a famous spot. So inside what we should find is rice with arrabiata sauce and some mozzarella. I mean the flavor is all there 100%. It's just it's really hot and it's much bigger than I thought it'd be. This is two euro which I don't think it's too much given how big it is. And the previous one was five euros. So for seven euro it's almost like an actual meal. So count me happy and go get your pizza now. I'm gonna drink beer from Puglia. So I had my supli. I had my trapezino. And I had I had the best pizza crust. I mean it was the actual pizza but the crust was amazing. The best one I've had so far. We tried only two different kinds and they were both delicious. I still think Laura's was a little bit better. I had gorgonzola. That's always a secret weapon. He got two beers and all that pizza and that the whole thing was 10 euros. I actually do prefer Trastevere than central Rome. It's far more walkable. It's far more walkable. It's more local and I even like the architecture. Yeah the only thing you don't have here is the actual main. Yeah yeah. But that's it. The buildings are beautiful and so many options. Like so many restaurant options and bar options. Super lively. What happens in Italy at 5 p.m by law. Like there's no way around this. We'll get arrested if we don't partake. Yeah yes we will. Yes as it happens I do know. Which is? You told me you have to have ice cream or gelato. Yes. I'm gonna take this one for the team. You can uh you can have some obviously. I shall sample as well. The guy who makes the gelato here has won an award for world's best gelato two years ago. We are in front of Fior di Luna. We got two flavors which are meant to be some of their best. The canolo siciliano and obviously the classic pistachio. So the canolo first and 8.5 out of 10. So not the best actually. No. Flavor-wise very good. The texture is a bit not as creamy as sometimes you know. Really good ones are. Now the pistachio on the other hand. Best one ever or no? You know sometimes it's a bit too sweet or too fat or something. I think this is in the exact right spot. Like the exact sweet spot. It's different from any other pistachio before. Somehow I love it. Have a taste. It's not like pistachio cream you know that you get from the jars. It's less fatty I would say. It's more light. And not as sweet. Yeah. Is it the best? No but it's very good. I love it but I think there's a couple more places I want to try. So even though Trastevere is known for its restaurants and bars and just the general nightlife and vibe and so on, it does have some cultural landmarks as well. So right now behind us we have the Santa Maria in Trastevere church which is one of the oldest in Rome that is dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The cool thing about this area Trastevere is that it's very close to central Rome. So the journey we had this morning to visit the Pantheon was only 20 minute walking distance. Listen again I have to say it by law it's almost 6 p.m. You know what happens at 6 p.m. Means aperitivo time. Again I really don't feel like it but if we have to. Let's see if we can find a spot at Bar San Callisto which is meant to be one of the best in the area. Let's go have a look. Okay just had our aperitivo at Bar San Callisto and we're walking back home to chill for just a bit before we go up the hill for sunset. Anyway Bar San Callisto. Really cool vibe. Very Roman. Very local. Really neighborhood type of place. Super affordable. The vibe inside was very old school. It is an old bar. It was opened in 1969 I think. For a small cup of white wine it was like 2 euro 50. 2 euro 50. Yeah an Aperol spritz 3 euro 50. Super affordable. This one's adorable but could definitely do with a wash. This is one of my favorite sounds. Hey I said that. This is one of my favorite sounds. What a view. Can you believe that 2,000 years ago people would come here and look at some of the same buildings. Leaving aside the view the vibe is great. They set up a bar here. We can watch the football game. There is someone singing. So many young people. Judges drinking and like watching the view and enjoying everything. It's very warm but it's very pleasantly warm. It's yeah it's great. I honestly recommend coming here for sunset or like yeah for sunset. Saying that we didn't say where we are. Yes. So we we walked uphill from where we're staying in Trastevere. It's 12 minutes on the map. So we're up at Gianiculum Hill. I think the Italian word for it is Gianiculum. This is one of my favorite parts of Rome so far. The best part is it's 15 minutes until the game starts. Just watch this. Italy is playing Spain and in about 10 minutes they'll be playing the national anthem of Italy on the speakers like with the players and everything. That's gonna be so super impressive. I can't wait to see that. Sadly sunset was not very impressive here tonight. It was a bit too cloudy for it but even so we had a really really great time and we definitely recommend everyone to come here. And it definitely gets beautiful after sunset when the city lights are on. Yeah you can see most of the historic center and it looks really beautiful late at night. So yeah this spot is super popular for tourists. It's super popular for locals as well. Yeah a lot of locals. And it's so cute they brought their own pizzas and tupperware and bottles of wine from the supermarket and it was really like super chill and enjoyable. It's the next day. We took a bit of time off this morning because we had to move places. We are now closer to the Vatican. We just went to eat a bit of lunch. We had some pizza which was really good and now we're going to explore a bit more. So after getting our pizza we are now on our way to a legendary espresso bar here in Rome. It's called Bar Farnese and we're going there to have a maritozzo which is essentially kind of like a sweetish brioche bun filled with some type of whipped cream. It's a typical roman snack that they usually have with coffee. Okay so Bar Farnese is super cool. What a great vintage type roman place. However sadly they had no more maritozzo because it was a bit late in the day and we need to come back tomorrow the day after around 10 in the morning to grab it which we will. I love it how anywhere you walk you stumble upon a church that's either 600 years old or maybe upon a castle that's 1800 years old. And this is just us leaving our area to go to the Vatican which is genuinely 15 minutes away and we've been wandering for more than an hour now just like finding random beautiful spots. We're now in front of the Castello Sant'Angelo which is an absolutely impressive building. This was initially commissioned by emperor Adrian in the second century to be built as a mausoleum for him and his family. The bridge that leads there is super impressive. There's I think 10 different statues all of them of different angels and at the top of the castle there's a huge statue of Archangel Michael. The main significance of it was to signal the end of the plague of the 6th century. This is incredible. Yeah and it's very impressive seeing it from further away as well when you get to see the whole statues and the whole castle. It's a combination between a castle and a coliseum and a huge church. Anyway speaking of huge churches you want to go to the Vatican? All right we're 10 minutes away. Andiamo! Here six years ago in February there was literally no one here. Oh my god it was just the two of us in the whole square. I think this is one of the most impressive squares ever. So this is designed to hold a few hundred thousand people. San Pietro this church here is one of the largest churches in the world which I mean I'm not surprised because it looks so freaking impressive. If this isn't one of the biggest in the world which one then? So the basilica is called San Pietro because it was named after Saint Peter and was built over his tomb. He was one of the 12 apostles and Saint Peter was also the first pope. For me personally the most impressive thing about all of this like leaving aside the size of the church and everything is the sheer number and just like what they look like how impressive it looks like all the smaller statues around the sides of the square there must be what like 60 or 100 of them. We are now in the Vatican which is the smallest country in the world with a population of only 800 people. The architecture in this place is absolutely freaking insane. It's very uh grand and imposing. So aside of the huge church here where you can actually find one of Michelangelo's most important works ever Dieta some of the world's largest museums are here and that's where you can find the Sistine Chapel as well. So if you are to come here to do the whole Vatican tour with the museums and everything that would probably take at least three to four hours if you're willing to do it properly. If you don't want to come here to do any of the museums feel free to come just for a walk and admire the architecture and just like the square and how beautiful it is because it's 100% worth it and it's super relaxing even on a really hot day it's nice and shady and cool. Shall we venture in the sun? Well is there any other route? That is the only way you can get to Hungry? Yes. Okay let's go get dinner. This place is supposedly very nice. Okay dinner is done. We had something lighter this time because we had pasta and pizza every day and we had pizza this afternoon but it was very good like I loved it very good super good service very intimate. So we went to Rione 14 close to the Vatican very small restaurants like 15-20 people maximum can fit inside. Very good prices no? Very good value for money once again. Large portions yeah I would totally go back. 100% happy. I think it was my favorite restaurant. Also on a very cool street with loads of nice places definitely recommend this place we're on our way home now.