Father's Day (and Night) in Rome

Piazza Navona

NINA  After giving Doug his first Giants outfit (a Grateful Dead - Giants beanie), we decided to wander around the streets of Rome on our last full day, semi-aimlessly, and on a slow Sunday pace. As we were walking from Piazza Navona toward Campo de Fiori, I was reminded of my dad a couple of times...

 

My first quest was to find my porchetta but when we got to the place near Campo de Fiori that is popular for it (Roscioli), it was closed! Ack! So we decided to go to our friend Gary's favorite restaurant in Rome, Ristorante Vecchia. It did not disappoint and it was a pasta feast for all! Their carbonara is to die for!

 

We strolled through the Jewish Ghetto, the Synagogue, the Portico of Octavia, and the Theater of Marcellus, built by Emperor Augustus in AD 14 for his nephew, and then in the 16th century, a palace was built on top of it for a rich family. This area has so much history, dating back from the Roman Empire all the way to the German occupation in WWII.

Pillars from the Temple of Apollo that the
Romans stole from Greece in  the 2nd century BC.

Theater of Marcellus

 Portico of Octavia

We then went over the Ponte Fabricio, Tiber Island, and Ponte Cesito into the Trastevere, an area Cy described as "the Brooklyn of Manhattan." :-) We walked the main street, Via della Lungaretta, filled with casual restaurants and shops, and then ended our stroll at the church of Santa Maria (see Doug's post).

 It was out last night in Rome so Noel arranged a special "adults only" dinner for the four of us. Little did we know that the restaurant was going to be only a few feet away from the Pantheon. We had walked through the Pantheon the day before, but only stayed for a little while because it was filled with thousands of tourists. It was a much better visit at night, when there were less than a thousand people there, and it was lit up so beautifully. 

Plus twenty pounds later.....

Artwork on the menu

 I wasn't going to do any restaurant postings on this trip, but our meal at La Rosetta was pretty incredible. Everything on the menu had seafood in it, so while I highly recommend this restaurant to anyone visiting Rome, if you do not like seafood, you are out of luck.

Amuse bouche

Chitarra with clams and bottarga for me

Dark spaghetti with red prawns

Tuna variations

Our wine called Wet(?) Dream - teehee

Catalana-style lobster salad

 The Pièce de résistance was a big 'ol fish that we decided to share amongst the four of us. It was wrapped in salt, baked in the oven, then served simply with steamed vegetables and a high quality extra virgin olive oil.

Could we stuff ourselves any more? To each his own on the digestivos. I don't usually have one but the limoncello was hard to resist.

Pantheon at night

After dinner we decided to have another drink at one of Filippo's favorite bars in Rome, which surprisingly was only around the corner from the Pantheon. If you are facing the Pantheon and walk on the street to the left, you will find a surviving side of the Temple of Hadrian, which was a tribute to the emperor who worked hard to keep the Pantheon intact while the rest of the Roman structures were pillaged. This was our view from the bar!

Temple of Hadrian

Pretty decent for our final day in Rome!