Day 4~Restaurant Crispi 19

On our fourth day we sought out a truly great culinary experience. We had spent the previous night looking for places to eat online, and we settled on a seafood restaurant called Crispi 19. We marked it's general location (near the top of the Spanish Steps) on our map (which wasn't very good), and decided we'd wander around and find it the next day.

When we began our trek to find Crispi 19 we immediately realized our mistake. Our map had a big icon of the Spanish Steps that covered a lot of small streets in the area. This made finding the restaurant really difficult. We wandered for a while, and since we were already really hungry, we almost gave up. Just when we were discussing where else we'd like to eat we happened to see a street sign for Crispi street. It was then that Lauren had an epiphany that saved our day. Guess what? The restaurant name was also its address. Problem solved.......we went in an got ourselves a table.
Unbeknownst to us, Crispi 19 was acctually a fine dining establishment. We looked totally out of place in our jeans and t-shirts. The saving grace was that being a fine dining restaurant, Crispi 19 didn't really serve much lunch.....sure they were open, but we were the only ones there. Plus we were tourists, so no one really cared.
We shared a bunch of food, and passed the plates back and forth.....probably a no-no, but being tourists eating when no one else was there, we didn't have to be embarrased. I got a prix fixe meal (tuna tartare, crab and shrimp ravioli, and a dessert), and Lauren got a pasta with fried squid. The tuna tartare was interesting. I'd never had something like this before. It felt overly fancy for my tastes at first, but when I mixed the tuna, the onion, the salt, the egg, and the pesto sauce together (and made everything look really messy) and ate it with the orange, it was really good. It was rich and salty, and the citrus cut it perfectly. Lauren thought it was okay, which is saying a lot because she doesn't really like raw fish.
Lauren's pasta was also very good. I think the sauce was some kind of seafood stock with olive oil, tomatoes and basil. It was a bit salty, but it as also thin, so it fit nicely at first. When you got towards the bottom of the bowl you got more and more sauce, and it got too salty for Lauren. I hapily finished her bowl.
The shrimp and crab ravioli was excellent. It was rich, but the portion was small so it wasn't overpowering. It came in a creamy seafood tomato sauce.
I don't remember much about the fish, other than that it was fish, that it was cooked perfectly. I think it was halibut, but I'm not sure. Lauren really liked it!
I don't remember what the dessert was called, but it was also good. There was a chocolate cake that was moist and had lots of fresh whipped cream on top. There was also a soooth and creamy panna cotta. Its kind of like creme brulee, except without the brulee. The texture is a little different though since panna cotta is thickened with gelatin instead of just eggs. We both enjoied it....especially Lauren.
We spent the rest of the day......you guessed it......eating. We went to a sicilian pastry shop. There were a bunch of awards displayed on their door. Lauren was so impressed that she took a picture.
The pastries looked beautiful. We had an exremely difficutl time picking out what to eat. We finally setteled on an asortment of goodies, and ate them outside. We both decided that italian pastries are a little too sweet for us.

I don't remember exactly where we went, or what we ate there, but we also made it to a gelateria before the end of the afternoon. When something's good, you just have to stick with it. We had a lot of gelato throughout the rest of the trip.

Day 3~Italy Food!

Our third day in Italy was spent hunting for food. We went to the Jewish Ghetto and grazed. Lauren loved all of the bakeries and I had my fair share of pizza. We sampled so many things that by the time lunch came we weren't even hungry.
Lauren went crazy in this bakery and ordered a bunch of things. As a note to all you foodie travelers, bakers don't like it when you order just one of something when it's sold by weight, especially when they're super light things like pretzels. I think the tiny cookies (~3 pieces) and pretzels (~5 pieces) Lauren got were like 20 cents or something like that. We got a bunch of stuff, so it was okay, but one of the workers got scolded by the manager when she tried to ring us up for a .1 euro bill.
We ate our purchases right outside of the bakery. I got two kinds of arancini, fried rice balls. Between the baked good and the fried goodies, it was a fun experience.
We saw a bakery/pizzeria that a lot of locals were coming out of, and we knew we had to try it too. In our experience, this is one of the best ways to find good food. We also went to Campo di Fiori, an open market. There was a ton of fresh produce, and lot of other things. We bought a fruit cup to share, and looked around.
We bought some dried spices to take home but we keep forgetting to use them.


In case you didn't notice from the last post, Lauren and I aren't always the best with maps. We wandered our way toward the subway station, and ended up back near our hotel. Instead of going out to eat dinner, we decided to engage in one of Lauren's favorite activities.....we went to the grocery store. Don't think this was the first time we went during our trip....no, no, no we went way back on day one. This was just the first time we decided to go and buy a meal there. We got breadsticks, cheese, wine, bread and ate it in our room. It was nice to relax in the room for a night. I think this helped prevent us from getting travel fatigue.

Day 2 Part 2~ Italy

We did so much on our second day that Lauren broke it up into two separate posts. After eating all the gelato, we decided it was time to go and see the sights. Our first goal was to go and see the Trevi fountain. We took the subway to the nearest stop. When we got out there was a fountain right outside, and we assumed it was probably Trevi fountain. There were a bunch of tourists taking pictures next to it, so it seemed right. But after thinking about it for a few minutes it just didn't seem right......it wasn't impressive enough. A quick consultation with our map told us that we still had a 5-10 minute walk to get to Trevi fountain. When we finally got there it was far better.
Instead of the dozen or so tourists that were at the other fountain, there were easily over 100 tourists at the real Trevi fountain. We looked around, sat down and had a rest, and then proceeded on to the Pantheon, or so we thought.
We followed a sign pointing toward the Pantheon....unfortunately it was pointing in the wrong direction.....we confirmed this when we passed it for the second (and then the third) time. So we marched on, and on, and on, and after 30 minutes of so we took a break and sat down on some steps where a lot of people were hanging out. And that was how we saw the Spanish steps. I think we took pictures, but none of them came out good. We proceeded on and on, ignored the sign, asked for directions, and finally got to the Pantheon just before it closed. We ended our day at Piazza Navona. It's the place there Tom Hanks pulls the priest out of the fountain in Angels and Demons. It's really beautiful at sunset, and there are lots of restaurants that line the square. There are lots of waiters there trying to usher you into their establishments......this really turned us off because if the food was good why would they need to be so pushy. But because it was so nice there, despite our better culinary judgement we picked a restaurant that seemed good and sat down for a meal. We got free glasses of champaign, which was good, but the pasta we got was just average. It was nothing you couldn't make yourself, and definitely not worth the $50 we paid. Still the wine was good, and we had a great time enjoying the scenery. It was a Jekyl/Hyde experience. Ambiance - 10, Food - 3.
What did we do after diner? You guessed it...Gelato! Here are more pics. THey're acctually from the gelateria we went to earlier in the day, but they fit here too.

Day 2~Italy

Day 2 of our Italy Adventure began at Vatican City. While we didn't do the Angels and Demons tour as recommended by a good friend, we did sign up for a tour. As a side note, if you ever go to Vatican City, take a tour.........there is so much art and history to see that unless you are an art history major, you will be totally lost. As another side note, remember to sign up for your tour on the proper day! If you don't then you'll have to panic and call the tour company at the last minute and hope that they can help you out. I'm not saying that happened to us........it's just a friendly tip....
Being an Engineer, I don't really have much interest in art. Suffice it to say that despite this, I was still amazed at the art and history in Vatican City. I won't try to comment on anything, but here are a few pictures of things we saw. A gift to one of the popes, something by Raphael, and something by Michelangelo....that's what the pictures are of....I think. We looked for some of Splinter's work, but couldn't find anything.....the guide got really mad at me when I asked about it. The one above is St. Peter's Basilica....I think....... We were respectful in the Sistine Chapel, and did not take pictures like the hundreds of other people there. Some Japanese company bought the rights to the ceiling, so you're not supposed to take any pictures. I pointed out to the guide that Lauren and I were Japanese so it'd probably be alright for us to take photos, but she just got really mad again.


We ended our day by mailing postcards to our parents from the Vatican City post office. It's supposed to be a cool thing to do since Vatican City is separate country.
After the tour, we went out in search of food. First stop was a pizzeria which Lauren's mom recommended from a magazine article she had read. It was packed full of locals, and looked great. We ended up getting a two slices with lots of fresh cherry tomatoes and some crushed red pepper, one with cheese, the other without. They were great! Unfortunately we didn't know how to ask them to heat them up in Italian.....that would have made them a lot better.
Next stop was a delicatessen that w saw while wandering around. There were lots of school kids outside eating sandwiches, so we thought it had to be a good place.
We went inside, and with limited italian we asked then to make me a sandwich. I got one with some kind of ham and marinated artichokes. It was rather fatty, but very good.
Lastly, having eaten a clearly "Michael" dish (the fatty pork sandwich) we sought out a purely "Lauren" culinary experience. We embarked on our first (first of many) gelato trek.
We made our way to a gelateria again recommended by Lauren's mom from the same magazine. Even though we only went to one gelateria on this day, it still counts as a trek because we ate at it twice. I don't mean that we ordered two cones each. We literally had some gelato, then walked out and Lauren was talking about how good it was, that we turned around and walked 5 minutes back to get more. I don't remember exactly what we had there, but I'm pretty sure they had a pear that lauren really liked. I really liked the chocolate. I think we also had pistacio, coconut, and hazelnut.
Below are some other pictures we took along the way.

Italy~ Day 1 Mike's Version

When we first arrived in Italy both Lauren and I were tired and hungry. Being "economical" we decided that we would catch the train into Rome and walk to our hotel. We could have caught a taxi, but that would have cost an extra $50 or so. We also could have transferred from the train to the subway to get closer to the hotel, but it was only an extra quarter mile....and so we walked.

To back this story up a little bit, Lauren had read that it would be really cold in Italy. We packed sweaters, jackets, and even hand warmers. Most importantly....we dressed really warm on the flight so we wouldn't be cold when we got off. Funny how mother nature can be so fickle......so there we were, walking in jeans and thick long-sleeve t-shirts in high 80 degree weather. It wasn't long before we decided to stop for a break.
Our first food in Italy came from a bar on the side of the road as we walked to Hotel Domus Aventina. We were both hot and tired and hungry, and we decided to share a mozzarella and tomato sandwich. It was simple, fresh and good. Just look at how red the tomatoes are.
After we arrived at the hotel (and showered to cool off) we decided to go and see some of the sights. Since our hotel was right next to the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and Palatine Hill we began our explorations there. We started at the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill since we read that the Colosseum ticket line is always crazy long, and admission at one place pays for admission at both. The Roman Forum was basically where the Roman city square and government were located. Palatine Hill was where the emperors lived. We didn't want to wait around for a guided tour, so we decided to purchase an electronic audio guide to help us understand what we were looking at. A bit of advice, don't ever do this (unless you think Ben Stein reading you an art history book would be riveting). Basically you get a device that plays recordings explaining the sights when you punch in certain codes. You have a map to tell you when to punch in the right codes. We were so confused because the map codes didn't accurately match up with the proper areas. And to make things worse, Lauren's audio guide ran out of batteries! Anyway, it was surreal to be standing in the midst of things you learn about in school, but also a bit confusing.
After the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill we went to the Colosseum. Lauren already put up a picture of this in the previous post. This was much more interesting, fun and understandable. Plus we had already seen Gladiator. :)
After our long day, we went back to the hotel and fell asleep.....yes, before dinner! But after a 2 hour nap we woke up and went looking for food. We ate dinner at a restaurant called Insalata Ricca which was recommended by the receptionist at our hotel. Lauren had an anchovy pizza, I had a creamy artichoke pasta, and we shared a half liter of the house red wine. I'd say that our first meal was average. The pizza was okay. The pasta was rich and creamy, and I really liked it, but by the time I was half way through, it was a bit heavy. All in all, nothing special, but not bad. The wine was smooth, and along with jet lag, it hit us hard. Comparatively speaking, it was a pretty cheap meal. Italy can get really expensive really fast. There are no pictures here because we were both too tired to remember to bring the camera.

Italy~Day 1, Rome

I finally had a chance to sit down and review all the pictures I took in Italy, Hawaii, and Las Vegas and I cannot wait to share all the pictures with all of you. I've just completed my fourth week of work (did I mention that I love my job?) and am only now sitting down to blog about our trip to Italy. I have to learn how to manage my time so that I can squeeze in time to blog at least once a week.

Here's a picture of the Colosseum in Rome. Isn't it magnificent? You read about it in history classes (or see it in "The Gladiator"), but when you see it with your own eyes, you cannot help but wonder how the ancient Romans built these amazing structures.
Here's a picture of Mike and me so you have proof that we were actually in the Colosseum. We did not wear matching clothes during our whole trip. We just randomly packed the same shirt and decided to wear the same shirt on our first day in Rome.
Mike's Italy Tip #1, if you want to check out the Colosseum, buy your tickets at the Roman Forum, and you will save at least 30 minutes wait time.

Lauren's Italy Tip #1, pack snacks so that you do not have to buy food at the snack kiosks near tourist areas.
We bought a salami sandwich and pistachio gelato from a kiosk near the Colosseum. Big mistake. We were hungry, so we stopped for a snack, but it just was not as tasty as other foods we ate during the rest of our trip.
Mike will be taking the lead in blogging about our trip to Italy, so stay tuned for his commentary. In the next couple of weeks I'll be focusing on our game plan for "Black Friday" shopping and be traveling for work.

We're Back!

We're back from Italy! Actually we've been back for almost two weeks already, but with the move to a new state, the furnishing of a new apartment, and the start of a new job, blogging has been on the bottom of our priority list.
The good news is that bathrooms are free in the good old USA. As you can see in the picture, we ended up paying 1.50 euros to use the restroom in Venice. That's almost $2.50! Crazy huh? A good travel hint for anyone heading off to Venice is to go buy something from the 1 euro menu at Mcdonalds. Anyway, we'll post more later!