Rome – Day 4

Our last day in Rome! We had basically seen all the main things in Rome on the previous days (all thanks to my amazingly efficient map reading skills of course 😉 all that practice doing Duke of Edinburgh and navigating around unrecognisable paths and jumping into bogs must really have helped!) so we had a few hours after breakfast before we needed to head to the airport. It was a glorious day so I took us around the Villa Borghese park again as it was just so pretty! We tried to find the Villa Medici and due to the lack of road names and paths, ended up walking alongside some random path next to the road filled with litter. My parents say that I took them through a rubbish tip, but I like to say that it was all planned and I was letting them experience all aspects of Rome, just like any good tour guide would do 😉 We passed some old looking buildings which we assumed would be the villa but I was expecting something a bit more grand!

We carried on for a bit longer and reached the Pincio which overlooked the Piazza del Popolo. There were really nice views across Rome and we could see the Vatican and Monumento a Vitto Emanuel.

It was about midday, so we slowly headed back to our hotel to collect our luggage. On our way back, we saw a baby bus! It was so small compared to the normal sized bus that was next to it. We were all rather amused and fascinated by it for some reason haha 😛 The people on the buses probably thought I was some weirdo taking a photo of them on the bus…

Baby bus!

Baby bus and mummy bus!

I’d planned our time perfectly so that there was plenty of time for a final gelato!

We had planned to catch a bus back to the airport at 14:50, but when we got to the train station (where the buses run from) and tried to buy our tickets, they told us that the bus was full 😦 The next bus wasn’t until 15:30 which would be a bit tight in terms of timings for our flight. We were in a bit of a tizz and then remembered that we could just get the train. It did cost €8 more per person, but at least it was a bit quicker and we got to experience Rome’s trains! We finally managed to find a ticket machine to buy our tickets and didn’t lose each other either, which is an achievement in itself as the station was hectic! It made Clapham Junction at rush hour look like a relaxing walk in the park! We got to our platform with about 10 minutes to spare, phew!

Exhausted after all that running around!

Looking rather flustered and sweaty, but finally on the way to the airport!

Once we were at the airport, getting to our gate was another challenge! At first there seemed to only be gates A-G, but once we’d gone past security, there was a screen with information about flights and gates and there were many numbers after the letters which indicated many more gates instead of the initial seven. However, there was no information on our flight! We panicked a little and wondered whether we had gone to the right airport!! After a while of frantic running around, we found out that we were in the right place (phew!) and that our plane was in area G. We walked for what felt like miles! Each gate seemed to be a whole new airport in itself as there were so many shops around them! We finally got to our gate and lined up, and guess what?! We were delayed again yay! Thankfully it wasn’t too long and we were on our way back home! Goodbye Rome, I had a lovely time!

Finally at our gate!

Goodbye Rome!

Rome – Day 3

The weather forecast for our third day in Rome was the worst yet 😦 The whole day was meant to be filled with thunderstorms yay! After exceeding my lifetime recommended sugar intake at breakfast, we ventured out on to the streets of Rome in the direction of the Vatican. As soon as we stepped out, we felt drops of water 😦 As soon as we reached the river, it started to pour down and my poor, battered, $10 umbrella from Hong Kong was not faring well. I’d forgotten that it was half broken so it was a bit of a struggle keeping myself dry! We got to the Saint Angelo bridge and decided to shelter under a tree for a while (in hindsight, probably not the best of ideas in a thunderstorm!). The rain didn’t seem to be letting up, so we decided to cross the bridge otherwise our trip to the Vatican would be replaced by a day long view of cars parked along the road. It was a bit of a shame as this pedestrianised bridge was meant to be one of the nicest in Rome 😦 Never mind!

A little bit of rain won’t stop us!

Once we had crossed over, the rain changed from being many drops falling from the sky to a continuous waterfall. My umbrella was suffering and I was taking a very premature shower, so we decided to take shelter under an arch for the entrance to the Saint Angelo Castle. As the rain continued, many others joined us under the small arch and we all huddled together trying to keep dry.

Love the rain!

All huddled together sheltering from the rain

Many brave people decided to give up waiting and just went for it. After around 30 minutes of waiting, we decided to just go otherwise we’d be there all day. As we turned the corner, the Vatican was in sight! The rain started getting heavier again, so we took cover in a nearby cafe who were very kind in letting so many people take shelter…more trade for them I guess! It then seemed to lighten up and we decided to go on. Suddenly we saw a bit of blue sky yay 😀

A bit of blue sky!

Not long later, the clouds lifted!! I’d stopped to take photos of St Peter’s Square and then a bird kindly released its bladder on me! I guess it was good luck though since the day then got very sunny!!

After taking hundreds of photos (literally!) we joined the queue to enter the Basilica. It was very long and snaked all the way along one side of the square. Thankfully, it took hardly any time at all, and after going through a metal detector and bag xray, we were through!

Long queue!

We sort of followed the crowd and ended up in another queue. We had no idea what we were queuing for but decided to just go along with it! We soon found out that it was a queue to go up to the top of Basilica which was pretty cool! There was a sign warning us that after the lifts there would be 320 steps, but what they didn’t warn us was how narrow it would become near the end! We decided to opt for a €5 walking ticket (instead of one for €7 which would allow you to get the lift halfway) as we thought we could handle all the steps (although I was a bit worried for my mum coz she is a retired old lady now 😉 just kidding mum, you’re totally still 30 and as sprightly as ever!!).

At the beginning of the million steps!

I just had to put up this photo of my mum halfway the steps 😛 (sorry mum!).

Halfway there!

When we got halfway, we got to a viewing area which overlooked the Basilica. It looked so detailed and pretty! There were amazing mosaics too – I do love colourful ones! I’m rubbish at describing things, so I’ll let the photos do the talking and I won’t bore you with details, just Google it if you want more info!

We then ascended more steps and here it got a bit crowded. There was a bit of a traffic jam as so many people were going up at the same time. Our path then suddenly got very narrow and in some parts, I could literally just about squeeze through. They should definitely have a warning at the beginning for claustrophobics! They even had emergency lever things! In fact, one family had to turn back and go back down as the mother was in hysterics! We did end up stopping at some parts with windows so we could admire the view whilst waiting to go up. We then reached a ridiculously narrow spiral staircase with steps barely 10cm wide. There was a rope going up it to help you climb up which was definitely handy!

So narrow!!

After the claustrophobic climb, we finally reached the top!! It was rather a small space at the top of the Basilica but we spent quite a while up there taking millions of photos to make the climb worth it! The views across Rome were wonderful and you could see for miles!

After capturing every inch of Rome with my camera, we decided to head back down.

We then entered the main part of the Basilica. It is the world’s largest church and was very impressive inside! There were stunning paintings, statues, and designs everywhere. Even the floor looked beautiful!

After staring in awe of the whole place for a long time, we decided to go. It had turned into a beautiful day outside! Unfortunately we didn’t catch a glimpse of the Pope 😦 I remember reading something online that joked about the only way to stay in the Vatican is to be close acquaintances with the Pope – me and him are best mates don’t you know so where was my invite to stay?! We also caught a glimpse of the Swiss guards in their famous colourful uniforms!

Swiss guards

Hey Mr Pope, you in there?

We then decided to head back towards the hotel as we were all rather knackered! We passed over the Saint Angelo bridge again, this time in sunshine! What a difference a few hours can do to the weather!

Oh hey there!

It was then time for another gelato! This time both my parents had one too, so I didn’t feel like such a fatty nomming on my three scoops and cream!

Family of fatties!

Yum!

We had a bit of a rest at the hotel before going out to dinner at Ristorante Gusto Pinto again since they had a much wider range of dishes compared to other local restaurants!

Rome – Day 2

The weather for our second day in Rome looked a bit ominous. The skies were grey and it had clearly been raining overnight 😦 Nevertheless, we headed down to breakfast in good spirits and I was cheered up even more when I saw that there was a plethora of sweet pastries for me to choose from. I love hotel breakfasts as there is always so much to choose from and the sugar explosion on my plate was definitely enough to satisfy me (I may have gone back for seconds…and thirds… 😉 my eyes are definitely bigger than my stomach!)

After overloading on sugar, I decided that we would walk in the direction of the famous Colosseum whilst passing many other impressive sights. We also passed a shop selling the most amazing looking pasta ever! It was so colourful and vibrant that I could never bear to eat it if I had it in my cupboard!

The Monumento a Vitto Emanuel came into view after a short while walking and it was very, very grand looking! It’s a controversial monument built in honour of the first king of a unified Italy (I bet you’re impressed with my Wikipedia skills 😉 )

Around Trajan’s Column, there were a load of ruins that were quite interesting to see.

We had a bit more of a wander around the surrounding area and unfortunately it started raining 😦 We sheltered under our umbrellas for a short while until it thankfully finished!

What never fails to impress me is the amount of detail that all the monuments/fountains/doorways/etc have! It’s mad to think about how people managed to create such elaborate and intricate designs back in the day!

The seagull just HAD to be part of our family photo 😉

We then somehow stumbled upon the place that holds David which is a Renaissance sculpture created by Michelangelo!

After a bit more wandering, we came across what we thought might be the Colosseum. However, we did have our doubts since it seemed very small, there was a serious lack of tourists, and there seemed to be office-style windows at the top!

I knew for definite that we had gone very wrong when we reached the river whereas the real Colosseum was nowhere near it! A nice policeman helpfully pointed out where we were and I found out that the fake Colosseum was in fact Teatro Marcello, which is an open air theatre…oops! After getting my bearings again, I navigated us to the real Colosseum which was a real sight to see!

Before going round it, we stopped off for lunch at Hostaria Gladiatore as we needed a bit of a rest! After a bit of refuelling, we were ready to conquer the Colosseum! We wandered around it several times and I took a ridiculous amount of photos! It was just so impressive!

We also passed the Arc of Constantine too which was pretty cool 🙂

It was still early, so I took us back in the direction of our hotel and satisfied my gelato craving!

We then had a walk around the Villa Borghese gardens which were stunning! We were tempted to hire one of the four seater bike things that my mum naively thought would only cost 2 Euros (we aren’t living in the 1900s any more mum, prices have gone up! 😉 ) but resisted as the hour hire duration wouldn’t leave me much time to stop and take hundreds of photos of the scenery! I loved the really tall and straight trees that were everywhere in the park! Oh the little things in life…

We then ended our night with a lovely dinner at Ristorante Gusto Pinto right around the corner from our hotel.

Ristorante Gusto Pinto – Rome (Review)

On our second night in Rome, we decided to head to the Ristorante Gusto Pinto for dinner. It was right around the corner from our hotel and when I was reading Trip Advisor reviews for our hotel, the restaurant seemed to be mentioned several times as a place to try out! The restaurant is owned by a local recording artist which may explain the gold record on the wall!

We were greeted by a very friendly and efficient waiter who showed us to a comfy table in the corner. It was fairly quiet but still had a good atmosphere inside. The menu was very extensive and there were so many different dishes to try! I was debating whether to go for the Parpardelle Fisherman Mix or the fried calamari and shrimp as I was having a real craving for it. My mum suggested ordering the fried calamari and shrimp to share and I was more than happy to agree!

I always forget that in other European countries, people like to take their time and eat dinner over many hours. After a bit of a wait, our food came 😀 As said previously, I opted for the Pappardelle Fisherman Mix for €12 and we shared the fried calamari and shrimp for €14. My dad went for the Risotto Fisherman Mix for €12 and my mum opted for Escalope in White Wine for €11. All the dishes came nicely presented and my dad and I were both really pleased with the amount of different seafood! A lot of the time when I order a seafood pasta, I only get a few bits of mussel and prawn and am quite disappointed, but not this time! My pasta was full of mussels, prawns, scampi, and clams! It is always a bit of a faff de-shelling all the bits and pieces, but it was worth it as it was really tasty! Although, the scampi basically had no meat and was a weird black/brown colour so I left most of it.

The fried calamari and shrimp was lovely! Normally in England, you’d get some sort of mayo to go with it, but this really didn’t need it as the flavours were really tasty on their own 🙂

Fried shrimp and calamari

As always, I tried I bit of my parents’ dishes too. My mum got three quite reasonably sized slices of pork escalope and it was decorated with bits of red cabbage and lettuce which made it look a lot prettier. My mum said that the wine tasted a bit weird though.

My dad basically got the risotto version of my dish minus the scampi for some reason, and it also tasted pretty decent!

Risotto Fisherman Mix

The service was lovely and friendly and the total came to €60 including some drinks and €6 bread charge.

Nom nom all gone!

 

We normally like trying somewhere new for dinner each day, but after we’d looked round the nearby restaurants, we found that their menu was very limited and a lot more expensive too, so we decided to go back to Gusto Pinto as we’d all enjoyed it last night.

I was rather intrigued with what seabass sauce would be, but I ended up choosing Tonnarelli Scampi and Asparagus. It never ceases to amaze me the sheer amount of different types of pasta! On the menu alone there was stuff like Paccheri, Bavette, and Cavatelli pasta! Tonnarelli turned out to be like a thicker and denser version of spaghetti and was rather nice! When the waiter brought out my pasta, he said that it was very popular. However, I found that the scampi had hardly any meat and the asparagus was cooked a bit too long and was rather mushy 😦 I much rather preferred yesterday’s dish!

Tonnarelli Scampi and Asparagus

My mum chose the Risotto Fisherman Mix that my dad had yesterday and also got razor clams with it which my dad didn’t get yesterday!

My dad originally wanted salmon but they had run out so opted for the grilled seabass for €15. It looked quite small, but my dad seemed fairly happy with it.

Grilled seabass

I’d definitely recommend this restaurant as it is very reasonably priced and there is an extensive selection of food on offer compared to other nearby restaurants who only have a few pasta dishes! I was tempted by the desserts, but even I (who always has a separate stomach for sweet things) was too full! You can’t fault their decent portion size!

Rome – Day 1

I recently came back from Rome for a post-exam holiday with my parents and it was such a lovely trip! The city is so full of history and around every corner there is something so pretty that I just had to take a photo of (probably why I ended up taking over 1800 photos in the four days we were there!). I’m so glad for the invention of the digital camera otherwise I would definitely be broke due to film and developing costs! I’m no expert at history so can’t really tell you too much about the sights we saw, but I can definitely appreciate how magnificent they all looked and just wish that photos could show the true beauty of the things we saw!

Our flight out to Rome was at 9:05 but it was sadly delayed. We were told to go to gate 31 and once we had all lined up, were told that it was now gate 32, so we all trundled over to the other side. Once we had just about stood in a queue again, we were then told that we now had to go back to gate 31. It was all getting a bit confusing and I overheard that it was because that there were air traffic strikes in France and that our plane hadn’t arrived yet and they had no idea what was going on either! How very reassuring! It seemed like we weren’t going anywhere for a while so I found a nice comfy spot on the floor and sat down and chilled with my music for what seemed like an age. Eventually we were then told that our plane would be at gate 32 so we all rushed over there again. All this to-ing and fro-ing was like shuttle runs and could probably have done as my exercise for the week! Thankfully, our flight was only delayed by one hour, and we were on our way a short while after 10.

We arrived in Rome at around half one their time and it was lovely and sunny 😀

We caught the bus from the airport to the city centre and during the journey, we passed many amazing buildings and ruins; my camera was in overdrive! After a short walk to our hotel and settling in, I was eager to get out to explore as there was just so much I wanted to go and do and see and so little time!

I was designated the job of tour guide by my parents and we ventured out as I led the way with my trusty city map from the hotel. It was already quite late in the day and I wanted to fit in as much as I could today as it was a lovely day and was meant to rain for the rest of our stay! We passed loads of orange trees on the side of the road just outside our hotel and my mum got so excited! I never knew anyone could get so happy about orange trees! I know what your birthday present will be 😉

Our first stop was the Piazza della Repubblica before heading to the San Carlo Quattro Fontane. Unfortunately renovation works were being done to the fountains so we couldn’t see them 😦

We then passed Quirinale on our way to the famous Trevi fountain. Like the Quattro Fontane, renovations were being done to the fountain which was a massive shame as we weren’t able to see it in its full beauty. Nonetheless, I tossed a coin into the fountain which now means I will return to Rome one day so maybe I’ll see it in its glory another time!

We walked through Piazza Colonna before reaching the Pantheon which is the world’s largest unreinforced concrete dome and looks very impressive inside!

 

Piazza Navona was next on the agenda which is a large city square built on the site of the Stadium of Domitian. It was very busy even though it was rather late in the day! Since we’d arrived late afternoon, there weren’t any market stalls, but there were still many street artists.

We then headed over to the famous Spanish Steps which connects Piazza di Spagna with the upper piazza Trinita dei Monti.

It was then getting rather late in the day and we were all rather hungry and tired, so we walked back to the area around our hotel for dinner. As Italy were playing in the World Cup, it was quite amusing passing so many restaurants and bars with people crowded around the TV. Unfortunately, they lost, which may have explained the slow service at dinner!

Cottage Cheese Vanilla Cheesecake

I had some cottage cheese that needed using up so decided to try a cheesecake. It came out perfectly, with no cracks at all 😀 It tasted rather nice and pretty similar to a cheesecake made with cream cheese.

Ingredients:

100g digestive biscuits
30g margarine
225g cream cheese
75ml milk
1 egg
20g cornflour
75g sugar
1tbsp vanilla

Method:

 1. Preheat the oven to 180c
 2. Whizz up the biscuits in a food processor
 3. Melt the margarine in a microwave and mix in with the biscuits
 4. Press into a silicon baking tin (I used a 8 inch square one)
 5. Thoroughly whisk the cottage cheese until smooth
 6. Add in the other ingredients and mix well
 7. Pour on top of the biscuit mix
 8. Put the tin in a water bath (I just put it in a dish large enough to fit 
    my tin and filled it up with water - this helps distribute the heat evenly
    and prevents cracks)
 9. Bake for around 30 minutes or until the cheesecake is set 
 10. To decorate I mixed 10g cocoa and 10g icing sugar and drizzled over the top

Apple Cinnamon Cake

It’s been a long time since I last posted on here and even longer since I baked anything, so I decided to have a break from revision to conjure up something tasty for a treat. I had many apples that needed using so had a ponder about what I could make with them. I really fancied an apple crumble, but had no ice cream or custard, so that idea went out the window. I also toyed with the idea of some apple turnovers or apple galettes, but the time needed to make puff pastry put me off the idea. In the end, I went back to a tried and tested cake that never fails to please 😀 This cake is very moist and freezes well, which is great otherwise I would definitely eat it all in one go!

Ingredients:

100g margarine
100g sugar
2 eggs
100g self raising flour
1 tsp vanilla
1-2 tbsp cinnamon 
3 apples peeled and diced/sliced

Method:

 1. Preheat the oven to 180c
 2. Cream together the margarine and sugar
 3. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla
 4. Sift in the flour and gently fold in
 5. Mix in the apples, reserving some slices for the top if you want
 6. Pour into a silicon baking tin
 7. Arrange remaining apple slices on the top in a decorative manner 
 8. Bake at 180c for 35-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean

Strawberry and Cream Cheese Cake

I’ve been making a lot of smoothies since buying my 3-in-1 blender (might as well make use of it!) and due to this I’ve been buying a lot of strawberries and frozen fruit. I ended up buying about 1.8kg of fresh strawberries the other day as they were pretty cheap. I wanted to do something else other than smoothies so decided to make a strawberry and cream cheese cake 😀 The alternate layers of cake, cream cheese, and strawberry make the cake really moist and tasty!

Ingredients:

For the cake:
120g margarine
120g sugar
2 eggs
250g chopped fresh strawberries
135g self raising flour
1 tsp vanilla

For the cream cheese mix:
125g cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla
25g sugar

Method:

 1. Preheat the oven to 180c
 2. Mix together the ingredients for the cream cheese mix
 3. In a separate bowl, cream together the margarine and sugar
 4. Mix in the egg and vanilla with the margarine and sugar until smooth
 5. Fold in the flour 
 6. Alternate the batter, cream cheese, and strawberries in a silicon baking tin
 7. Bake for at least 40 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean

100 Happy Days – Day 92

After receiving some great news yesterday afternoon my mum and I headed out for lunch at the Woodman today. I had three courses and not gonna lie, I was seriously stuffed by the end of it! But boy, that brownie was good! 😛 Just look at that oozy chocolate sauce and ice cream topped brownie just screaming to be eaten! My mum said it was too sweet and rather sickening, but all the more for me 😀

100 Happy Days – Day 88

It still feels weird that my mum is retired as it doesn’t seem like she’s old enough to be at all! I always envisaged retired people to be those spending all day knitting and using their bus passes to get around – I guess only a few more years now until you get yours mum! Just kidding, you’re very much still 30 😀 On the plus side, it means we can now go out for lunch whenever we want to, so this afternoon we went out to the Monkey Puzzle where I treated my mum to a late Mother’s Day lunch 😀