For the past week and a half we have been enjoying spending time with our families – bookending our time in the Italian countryside at Todi with two separate stays in Rome.

Rome: Part I

We flew from Trieste to Rome last Friday and spent the morning walking around and exploring the city – seeing some of the big sights, like the Colosseum and Forum, from the outside. Of course, we couldn’t pass up gelato, and had some at a cool place near our Airbnb that the host had recommended.

We waited for Ryan’s brother Alex and his girlfriend Tiffany to arrive, as their flight in had been delayed. When they arrived a little after 9, we set out to find dinner. We got to the restaurant and found that 10 pm is a very popular time to have dinner in Rome, and the place was full. We waited 15 mins for a table due to a combination of tables turning over and the staff being extremely inefficient in seating people. We were asked how many people were in our party by 5 different wait staff, each of whom did not seat us even though a table was being cleared.

When we were finally seated it was past 10, and the restaurant closed at 11, so we were worried that we would not be able to get and eat our food in time. This didn’t turn out to be a problem, as when we left at midnight most of the tables were still full, and they had just started turning new people away from sitting.

We enjoyed a great dinner of pizza and pasta and Alex ended up ordering a 4 course meal which was much larger than we all expected, and kept him eating long after we’d all finished. We had a lot of fun laughing over the lack of service at the restaurant and the amount of food Alex had ordered. We also enjoyed catching up and hearing about their journey over.

When we finally wrapped up after midnight we headed back to the airbnb to rest before a travel day.

Todi

The next day we set out into the city again – trying to see a few things before we headed to the airport to meet up with our parents. We stopped for breakfast at a hole in the wall place Tiffany knew about, which specialized in charcuterie plates. We ordered a large one for the four of us and were blown away when it arrived covered in amazing food!

After devouring our breakfast, we headed out to see Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps before catching a cab out to the airport. After several minutes of confusion we finally navigated the airport to find our meetup point – the car rental desks.

We quickly found Ryan’s parents, Liz and Kevin, and spent the time waiting for Becca’s parents Greg and Laurie by catching up with them and hearing about their adventures in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany prior to their arrival in Italy. We all finally met up, got our 9 seater Mercedes van, and started the 2 hour drive to our villa near Todi.

When we arrived we were all blown away that the place was as nice as the pictures made it seem (probably nicer)! We had a little villa to ourselves as well as a pool to relax in during the heat of the day and a game room with ping pong and foosball. The villa sat on a working olive oil farm and they had their own wines as well! We were feeling seriously spoiled after our weeks of budget travel.

Waking up the next morning it was a special day! Becca’s 23rd birthday! Becca made Ryan wake up early with her as a birthday gift and we enjoyed watching dozens of hot air balloons race across the pink skies. What a way to wake up! We had a lovely breakfast and enjoyed the company of family on such a fun day!

We decided to explore the nearest town, Todi, so we piled in the van a little before lunch time and Greg wound around the tiny streets and managed to park our huge van in a tiny spot on a steep incline – nice work Greg!! We explored the main square and popped into a church that was holding Sunday mass before heading to lunch.

We found a really excellent place with views out over the countryside that could accommodate all 8 of us. It was a great birthday lunch filled with yummy food and wine! After lunch we explored the cisterns under the main square, learning lots about how they functioned throughout history. Unfortunately, we learned very quickly that everything closes from 1-3 pm in just about every town we visited, so we weren’t able to see much else before heading back to the villa for some much needed relaxing time.

We spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool and in the shade, reading and relaxing until dinner. Kevin made us all a birthday feast on the grill followed by an amazing birthday cake and cards and presents. It was a perfect day for Becca’s 23rd!

The next day we spent the morning and early afternoon relaxing before heading to a wine tasting at a nearby vinyard. We were joined on the tasting with two others – a father and daughter from the Netherlands, as well as the owner.

Before the tasting even began, we were treated to fresh focaccia bread, cheese and salami to accompany our wine. In all we tasted four different wines, one white, two reds and a sweet wine which the host adamently opposed to us calling a dessert wine (despite that probably being the most accurate description). The wines were great and it was a fun tasting as our host talked to us about the history of the vinyard and surrounding area.

After the tasting was over, we headed back to the villa and enjoyed another lovely dinner before spending the evening playing games before heading to bed.

The next morning we set off for another hill town called Orvieto. Rather than struggling to squeeze into a small parking spot again – we opted to park below the city center and take the funicular into the city. Once inside the city we headed towards the Duomo of Orvieto.

The building was incredible, with intricate carvings on the outside depicting biblical stories, and amazing frescoes on the inside. We spent a while taking in everything before leaving to find some lunch.

Our first stop was unsuccessful – as it was extremely hot and unbearable inside the restaurant, but on our second attempt we found another nice restaurant with AC!
After lunch we wanted to check out the systems of undergound tunnels while we were in Orvieto, but they required buying a tour in order to access them. However, the tour office was closed for a few hours so we killed time by walking around the city. We had meant to take the scenic path around the city, but the sun was bearing down on us in full force, making it so we had to take refuge inside a gelato shop instead.

Refreshed from the gelato and getting closer to the time the ticket office opened, we made our way back to the main square. Unfortunately, seeing the underground tunnels was just not meant to be, as they had sold out the next tour by the time we arrived. Beat down from the heat and disappointment of missing the tour, we made our way back to the car and headed home, as the pool was calling our names!

The next day we decided to split up, a few people went to see a man-made waterfall while we both decided to stay at the villa and relax as the heat made it difficult to do anything. After they all returned we spent the evening with our host doing an olive oil tasting!

We learned the history and types of olive oil as well as what to look for to distinguish a bad bottle from a good one. Then we began the tasting. An olive oil tasting may sound strange (and maybe gross) and it was a bit weird to get started, but it was actually pretty fun!

We did a blind tasting of 4 different olive oils and discussed the tastes, looks, and smells of each. We also had to do a weird slurp sort of action when tasting the oil which was hilarious to watch as everyone attempted it. After tasting all four we got to choose our favorites to have on bruschetta and also tasted their version of nutella made with their olive oil – yum! One of the people in the group liked the fourth oil the best, which happened to be the dud – oops! Our host was disapointed in them.

After finishing the tasting portion we got to go to see the machines that they use to make the olive oil, which was really cool to see. We also got to see the products that they make with the olive oil and Becca picked up a face creme with olive oil and snail slime! We had another lovely dinner at the villa before heading to sleep.

The next morning Becca made Ryan wake up early so that we could walk around the grounds of the property and watch the sun rise (also before it got too hot). Even though Ryan was not excited about getting up so early, we had a really fun time and it was a really nice way to start the day. We were convinced that the trees all had snails climbing on them and were so amazed that we told everyone, but they turned out to be some sort of pinecone (we were made fun of for the rest of the trip).

We spent the afternoon in Assisi which was absolutely beautiful – a really picturesque hill town. We visited a few churches before splitting up to explore on our own. We ended up buying a small bowl with lemons on it as a souvenir of our trip. We met up and ate family style at a hostel restaurant before heading back to the villa for another relaxing afternoon reading by the pool (catch a theme here?).

Our final full day was Tiffany’s birthday, and we spent the beginning of it returning to Todi – checking out a church that had been closed on our first visit there and stopping to grab lunch before heading back home. We took advantage of our last opportunity to use the pool and relaxed for the afternoon as the weather cooled down significantly.
For dinner, we headed to a restaurant which was well known for their desserts – you have to order them when you order the rest of your food so they have enough time to make them! The food was great and the desserts were incredible, half art and half yummy treats! It was bittersweet as this was our last night in Todi but it was a night well spent.

Rome: Part II

We left Todi early in the morning to see Becca’s parents off at the Rome airport before heading to our new accomodations with Ryan’s parents.

Alex and Tiffany arrived just in time for a late lunch at a local spot recommended by our new host. After lunch we headed into the center of Rome to meet one of Ryan’s friends and his girlfriend for drinks. It was really fun to catch up with them and hear about their trip, which was really similar to ours in length and destinations! Before we knew it they had to run off to catch their flight to Greece, which is when we realized we’d ended up at a tourist trap and had to pay for $8 beers – ouch.

Despite the financial setback, we were in high spirits and began to walk back to the airbnb when it started to storm. Rain began to dump down on us and we, being proud Seattleites, decided to stick it out and walk home as-is. Within five minutes we were thoroughly soaked and the thunder and lightning was picking up in the distance.

We passed dozens of street vendors on our way home – all of them trying to sell us umbrellas – but we just laughed and pointed out that it was much too late for that! After over half an hour, we finally made it back into our airbnb – taking warm showers and trying to avoid getting chills.

After recovering and changing we left to meet up with everyone at a restaurant that Kevin had first been to 30+ years ago. We struggled with the bus system the whole time we were in Rome as our host told us we could buy tickets at a stand near the bus station, but every time we passed it it was closed. This was no exception and we decided to walk rather than risk a fine.

Realizing we’d be late for our reservation unless we ran, we decided to look for other places we’d be able to get tickets from. We reached the Colosseum which still had everything open and bought our tickets from a cafe inside the train station….obviously. We caught the next bus and made our way to the restaurant, arriving only 10 minutes – fashionably – late.

The restaurant was fun, located on Piazza Navona square in the middle of Rome with really tasty food. The reviews on Yelp had been pretty harsh – calling it a tourist trap, but our low expectations only made the dinner better! We didn’t come to the same conclusions as the reviewers.

The next day we got up early to say goodbye to Alex and Tiffany before setting out into Rome with Kevin and Liz. First stop was the Trevi Fountain followed by a cat sanctuary we had read about online located in some ruins. On the way to the ruins we walked by a really great street performer and stopped for a bit to take in his lovely music as well as purchasing a CD! We are really excited to hear more from the CD when we get home.

After the cat sanctuary we walked to the Borghese Museum in an attempt to get tickets two days in advance. Unfortunately they were already sold out till the day after we left Rome. After a long walk in the sun we hunted for a lunch place with AC before heading back to the airbnb to escape the afternoon heat.

We laid low for the rest of the afternoon and went to dinner at a great place around the corner before heading to bed. It was another early morning to say goodbye to Kevin and Liz as well! The numbers have dwindled over the past few days! We started the week with 8 – dropped to 6 on Saturday – to 4 on Sunday – and now its just us two again!