The Last (Italian) Supper

Hello from beautiful Roma! I am posting my final blog from Italy for our 2014 vacation. Today was our final day and night- we leave early tomorrow morning. Here's the scoop:

We started out by taking a bus to Campo de Fiori. We got some pastries at a cute little bakery nearby before hitting the market to do some shopping. While I don't have any pictures of what we got, I do have pictures of the cute pastries they had in the window:

We then went to the market to get some spices and fruits. The purchases included cherries, nectarines, strawberries, and garlic chunks. We also really enjoyed looking at the flowers and pepperoncini, though they were not purchased by the Alonzi family today. On the way to our next destination, we picked up some sandwiches to have a picnic.

We then went to Piazza Navona, where we started to have a picnic. Out of nowhere, it started raining though. So, we took a bus back to the hotel and ate on the terrace. Within minutes, the rain was gone but not for the whole day. The sandwiches were delicious and the fruit was fresh. It was a good picnic.

After a little while, mom had a couple more attractions she wanted to do before we left. But Nick wasn't feeling it, so he stayed back in the hotel. It was all good when we came back. Mom, Dad, and I hit the Capuchin Crypt, enjoyed a drink (almost at the St. Regis hotel, but instead at a small café nearby), and saw Santa Maria Della Vittoria. For any Angels and Demons fans, this church represented fire. We couldn't take pictures in the Capuchin Crypt, but seeing 3,700 remains of friars was pretty cool. Here is a screenshot of the google screen.

I really enjoyed seeing Santa Maria Della Vittoria because of the Bernini sculpture and the ornateness of the church. It was small, but breathtaking. Here are some pictures of that:

We then headed home and took a siesta. We headed out for dinner a little later, near Piazza Navona and Campo de Fiori. However, there was an adventure that took place on the way there. Rome seems to get frequent but fast rainstorms. So, when we got off the bus it was pouring like no tomorrow. We thought it would be smart to go into a book store due to the proximity of the lightning, but the shop owner locks people out when it rains. There we stood, trying to figure out where to go and how long the rain was going to last. Eventually it stopped, allowing us to enjoy a great dinner at La Ciambella.

Our waiter was named Ilaria and she was really nice. We enjoyed a meatball dish with focaccia bread (the corresponding picture contains no meatballs and only half the focaccia - a true sign of deliciousness), carbonara, pesto, and a lasagna pizza. Everything was delicious and I would totally reccomend this place to anyone looking to be close to Navona. Another highlight was winning four out of four arm wrestles against my brother. (Crossfit pays off!) Here are the pictures:

We then got our final gelato of the trip from a place called Blue Ice. My final gelato was Nutella and Frutti di Bosco... But the Nutella was straight up Nutella, not even cold! I guess that might explain the upset stomach... Anyway. Nick enjoyed snickers and stracciatella, mom had Bacio and pistachio, and dad had pistachio and nociola. Today marks the one day this entire trip that we all got gelato. It was all good, but I still can't believe I got a scoop of Nutella for gelato...

And we finished by seeing Navona at night. Beautiful, breathtaking, and full of Bernini. Certainly one of my new happy places!

Sadly, this marks the last night of our Italian adventure. A favorites post comes tomorrow, or Wednesday- depending on how I'm feeling when we get in.

QOTD: "I came, I saw, I conquered." -Julius Caesar

QOTD 2: "Experience is the teacher of all things." -Julius Caesar

Alpresto, Roma! (Or Arrivederci Roma!)

Amy