Day 1: Rome Before Tour
As a rule, we try not to schedule anything on the day we arrive. Thank goodness for that because we were both exhausted after the flight. However, by night, we were both ready and rested. After we cleaned up, we prepared for our first big adventure, an evening walking food tour through Rome’s Jewish Quarters (this is not part of the tour, but something we wanted to do). It gave us time to try out things like pizza, various cheeses, artichoke (which were in season), wine, and gelato. A great experience for us and it gave us a taste of what Rome would offer.
The Hotel & Some Rest
Our ride to the hotel was a bit long, but we managed to get there. Since we couldn't get a spot in Hotel Dharma early on, we ended up going to Hotel Navona. There, another Rick Steves tour group is staying, the ones who are traveling South Italy for 13 days. Now that we're settled and we figured out how to work the lights (we never knew we had to put the card into the slot), we relaxed until the evening when we had to go for our food tour.
Rome Food Tour
One big reason we wanted to go to Italy: FOOD! In the evening, we took a short food tour in Rome, completely separate from the main tour. We tried everything from the meats and cheeses (Cithara stuck with mostly the cheese), pizza, beer, wine, artichoke, and of course, gelato. Fun fact, the popular cheese over here is called Pecorino Romano (which is made out of sheep's milk instead of cow). Roman pizza is also very different from the pizza in Naples. The crust is thinner in comparison. They have all kinds of toppings as well and even pizza with just sauce and no cheese.