When In Rome

So I'm back, tired and jetlagged. It has been a whirlwind of a trip, two days here, two days there, and two days over there. It took us three airplanes to reach our first destination, then we hired Marco to drives us to the surrounding small towns for our meetings. As much as I've been to Italy, I've never been to Rome, except for the airport. We decided to stay there for the last day. We arrived in the wee hours of the morning, checked in and went for an early breakfast. Then back to the hotel we decided to make most of what's left of the day. Being history geeks, we did the whole tourist thing in five hours. By the time we were done, we were so exhausted and just passed out. The next morning we were on our way to the airport back home. Frankly, if you visited small towns around Italy, such as in Florence, Tuscany and Siena, Rome isn't that impressive. I didn't like it that much. It is crowded and dirty. I hated our hotel, after staying in small family owned and very clean hotels which were run by the mama and the papa and the children and grandchildren, our hotel in Rome although new and modern I didn't like it at all. The food isn't that good either, after what Papa Georgio fed us in Siena and rich authentic meals from other small towns we visite, the food in Rome compared to them was just awful. Well, to be fair, I enjoyed the Vatican most. Being a religious landmark, it had that air of serenity, and the staff was very helpful and nice. We stayed there the better part of our tour, by the end of it we sat at a café inside the Vatican's garden and warmed up with the most dark and intense hot chocolate. For lunch we wanted to go to a restaurant my sister recommended we should try, unfortunately it was closed by the time we reached there, so our driver Gabrielle suggested another place. The food wasn't that bad, but the service was awful. The waiter was very rude, we didn't leave him a tip and he was very offended and started grumbling! Fahad and I were so astonished, our reaction to the waiters attitude was, even though Fahad was very pissed, we started laughing! and still laughing just by remembering the way he threw the plates when he served us. Well. If I'm not making any sense, it's because I'm still exhausted. Enjoy the pics.

Best Canolli ever! At Piccarozzi Cafe.

I wanted to have lunch there and the food looked so

good, but Fahad wanted to try some other place.

Fahad's Chocolate Cake

Espresso anyone? The best!

Out tickets to the Musei Vaticani

Oh Yes! we have to go all the way up there.

Sphere within a sphere inside the musems garden

The Vatican's Library.

A Bible cover in silver and gold and encrusted with

jewels. Very impressive.

The fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chaple.

It is a bit fuzzy because I was snapping very quickly.

Inside the Sistine Chapel

I loved the hot chocolate served inside the Vatican's

garden cafe.

The exit of the Vatican Musem

Pantheon and the square in front of it

Fontana di Trevi

Colosseo and its surroundings

Barroco... the food was ok but the service

was terrible.

Risotto with porcini and beef

Penne with Susage (Gabrille's order)

Tartufo Fettuccini (My Order)

Bye Bye Rome...