Ugh, late start to the morning due to early morning shenanigans! :) Nikki and I barely made it to breakfast before they shut it down, but Brenda decided to pass. It's kinda funny how each day we made it later and later to breakfast. The first day we were there practically when it opened and today we barely made it before they closed!
The weather was downright craptacular outside. Cold, rainy, windy, miserable. Probably fitting for a trio of hangovers. It's a good thing we saw as much as we could in the previous 3 days. We did have one indoor activity left, along with some final shopping, and this worked out to the perfect day for it.
Being our last full day in Rome, I decided to tackle the bidet. Yep, the crazy European phenomenon would now be checked off my bucket list. Not that it's really on there, but hey, when in Rome. ;-) So, I decided to try before my shower, because I felt like this needed to be a de-clothed experience. So, I sat down and turned on the water and ice cold water shot down my butt crack. WHAT THE HELL????!!! How is this soothing? I turned off the water, shuddered for a bit and hit the shower. Why do people use these things? While I was in the shower, it occurred to me that the bidet had a normal faucet just like the sink and that it had probably been turned towards cold when I turned it on. Hmmm. I'm an idiot. So, after the shower, I sat down again, but not before I readjusted the water temperature.
Hmmm...now there's warm water cascading down my rear. I don't know how I feel about this. I quickly turned the water off feeling incredibly weird. I don't get the point of a bidet. You have a toilet and a shower. How can you not get yourself clean with these two? After drying off, I noticed the bidet also had a stopper in the bottom. I didn't want to think about why you would need a stopper in the bottom of the bidet. Weird.
We headed out in the nasty weather to go to Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini, which housed the Capuchin Crypts. This is by far the weirdest thing we've seen yet. The Crypt is several tiny chapels beneath the church that houses over 4000 bones from deceased friars. But this isn't just a graveyard or anything. No, monks from the 17th century took bones of deceased friars, and nailed them to the walls in intricate geometric patterns, hung them from the ceilings as light fixtures, and just straight up went crazy with the bones. There are a total of 6 little rooms, 5 of which have these bones nearly from floor to ceiling. It's crazy, weird and somewhat beautiful at the same time. Unfortunately, I couldn't take photos inside this place, so you'll just have to check out the online photos. It's a fairly small crypt, so we didn't spend a lot of time down there, but we definitely won't ever forget it. I did get a postcard to remember the scene though, just in case.
We were pretty hungry at this point, but most places were closed due to it being Sunday. We eventually found a little bistro that was open so we could sit down. We never really embraced the whole Italian method of eating lunch standing up at a counter. It was cheaper that way, but we usually wanted to sit down for our lunches. I was finally able to get some risotto and this was risotto ai funghi porcini, or rice with cream mushroom sauce. Or maybe "whith" as they spelled it on the menu. It was very rich, but also very tasty.
Are all these photos of food making you hungry yet?!
Another trip to the bathroom...we tended to use the restaurant's bathrooms before we left to ensure we had a free bathroom break. This time, we learned why some of the toilets that had seats were spring loaded. You had to put the seat down when you came in and after you got up, the seat would spring back up. I believed this was a male invention, but apparently the lid was sprayed with a sanitizing vapor upon its return to the upright and locked position. Oh these crazy Italians!!
We walked around some more and attemted to shop, but we were feeling pretty beat down by the weather. We decided to spend the rest of the afternoon in our room resting and packing up for the trip to Florence tomorrow. I'm kinda bummed we spent most of the day in our hotel room, but given the circumstances, it was the right decision. I know the weather was making me uber-cranky!! At least we got to see everything we wanted to see.
For dinner, we tried to find Target Ristorante that had eluded us the night before. We asked another person at our hotel and got a better direction to head. Yeah, it's right down the street from our hotel on a tiny side street that we had passed last night. It seemed a little schmancy when we walked in, and of course, we were pretty much the only people there. So much for trying not to stick out like tourists.
Another bottle of the house white, along with a selection of cheeses to start. We really need to stop ordering the cheese platters, since some of the cheeses kinda taste like crap. This time we did get some dipping sauces for them, including some sweet options. This helped some of the drier/grittier cheeses go down a bit easier. We did eat most of it, just because we didn't want it to go to waste. I think we've learned our lesson though. No more random cheeses!
Some iffy cheeses.
For dinner, I wanted to try something different, so I got a calzone. It was a folded pizza with cooked ham, mozzarella and mushrooms inside. (If you haven't noticed, ham & mushrooms are my favorite pizza toppings!) I figured this would be a no fail option, right?
This looks damn tasty, right? You can't go wrong with stuffed dough!
Wrong. It looks enormous and filled with gooooooey deliciousness. Unfortunately, that was just an illusion of hot air trapped inside. Once I cut it open, it deflated and all I was left with was some dry toppings. That's right. NO sauce whatsoever. Um, really? The flavors of what was inside were good, but it was just so dry and meh.
Sorry for the horrible photo. My flash got out of control.
So, yeah, I was kind of disappointed by it, but I still ate the whole thing. Like I said, we weren't about to waste any food!!
We still had to get our daily gelato ration in before we hit the hay. There had a been a huge gelateria close to the restaurant that looked fabulous. Unfortunately, it was closed by the time we finished with dinner. What is with all the shops and gelaterias closing so bloody early? Grrrrrr
We knew there was that one shop on the way back to our hotel, so we decided to hit that instead of wandering around in the cold. We stepped in and some ladies on the street starting warning us about their overpriced drinks and telling us not to go in there. Uh, we just want some gelato, crazy lady. I went with the strawberry/lemon combination again. I think both Nikki and I were completely finished before we even reached the end of the block and our hotel. I don't mess around when it comes to ice cream!
Back to the hotel to watch Little Big League in Italian. Good times. There wasn't a lot to watch and we wanted a break from the same 10 videos they played every morning. We sadly packed up all of our stuff since our train would be leaving early the next morning.
Rome has been so amazing. Lots of history, culture, food and memories all jam packed into a few days. I'm sad to be leaving so soon, since there is still sooo much to see, but I'm ready to move on to Florence and see all it has to offer.
A few of my favorites:
Best historical site: Colosseum
Best pizza: Recafe
Best pasta: Penne alla Vodka
Best gelato: Raspberry & White Chocolate
Best dessert: Chocolate Souffle
Off to Firenze in the morning!!!
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