Rome and the Borghese Gallery

We travelled from Perugia to Rome via train as a one day stop before heading to Sicily, booking tickets ahead of time to the Borghese Gallery.  Wow, just wow.

We walked from Piazza Venezia, where the monument to the man who united Italy, Vittorio Emanuele II towers over the city, note the Colosseum appearing from down the street in the lower left.

We're flying out of Roma so we're going to explore the monument then, our focus for this day was two-fold, the Borghese and dinner at our favorite place.  So we headed up Via del Corso and ran into Venchi Cioccolato e Gelato, ummmm watch out for this place!  They will convince you, using a wall of pouring chocolate and what looks like normal sink faucets but are really a continuous stream of chocolate, that you are missing out, that you need a cone dipped in chocolate, filled inside with chocolate, and that you need it now.  They sold us suckers and in we went, lined up like cattle, with about 15 others, watching the cones of gelato being formed and melt gloriously onto people hands and more.  My lady, she fell into the trap, the delicious 2 scoop chocolate covered, chocolate filled, whipped cream topped beauty of a beast cone.  I went a different route, something I'd never tried, and in a cup....a gelato milkshake.  Both were delicious overloads of chocolate, however mine didn't drip on my shirt, or my purse, or my shoes 😆

So we walked in a chocolate coma too far and had to back track to get to the Borghese Gallery, arriving exactly at our admission time.  Here's the deal, right up front, if you go to Rome you must go to this museum.  It is absolutely fabulous, the art is tremendous, and what's really unprecedented is the ability to get up close to the works.  I mean I was afraid I would move the wrong way and bump into Bernini's Apollo and Daphne.  I'm telling you there is no limit, if you don't touch, for 90% of the items.  Some of the mosaics from the 3rd century BC were roped off, as they were on the floor, but the sculptures and paintings were as personal as possible.  And they were fantastic.  I'm certainly glad that Cardinal Borghese was such an asshole and art fanatic that he bullied using his power or his Uncle the Pope's, forcibly bought, or downright took so many incredible pieces.  Put this one on your list, just when you go do a better job cleaning your camera.....ugh.  You can check them out on The Google, their pics are better than mine would be anyway.

We departed the Borghese and grabbed a taxi back to Piazza Venezia, my dogs were tired, and honestly we thought the guy might die right there in the driver's seat.  Dude had a coughing fit, flying through traffic, I'm here to tell you I was gripping the oh-shit handle tight.  But we made it!!!  Took the tram back to our B&B in Trastevere, a really nice place called the Hanky Suite, it is located perfectly for evening strolls and transportation into the city.  Plus a comfy bed, nice shower, and cold AC.  

So our final stop of the evening was dinner at a great place in Rome, Osteria der Belli.  We visited a couple years ago with my brother, sister in law and their daughter, it was a night to remember.  We were basically told what to order and what we could not have even though it was on the menu, although we had a dish of calamari made special made for us which was the best calamari you could imagine.  The food was delicious, the impeccable service with a growl was hilarious, and at the end of the evening our group and Julio the waiter were all smiles.   So of course we returned and Julio was there, now sporting a beard, but running the show although taking many barbs from the rest of the staff.  We were seated away from him and as the multiple guys approached with pane, drink order, wine opening, I saw plates of vongole back and forth from the tables.  Our waiter, a younger guy, smiled and said "I see you like mussels" and Kathie thought he was complimenting my pythons, lol.  Anyway he was in charge of our table and asked us what we would like to order.  We told him last time we were there Julio basically told us what to eat and he laughed and offered us a mix of small seafood to try as an appetizer to get started.  We were in and he took it as a challenge to outdo Julio.  

Appetizers:  mussels and sautéed anchovies.......seafood risotto and fried anchovies

And the highlight, octopus.  This was so delicious, if you haven't tried octopus you are really missing out, especially when it is cooked to perfection as this small plate was done.

So the Julio challenge was on, and we were on the winning end as our friend suggested a nice seafood pasta to share for primi piatti, why in the world would we say no.

After a second bottle of wine we decided we should have the formaggio arosta con miele once again, and naturally it was tremendous.  Cheese in Italy is very regional and made from many different animals, this is pecorino from Sardinian sheep and it is delicious, just not a beauty of a picture.

We exchanged our farewells and headed back to the room, and here's where the story flips.....The next morning my wallet was missing.  Holy smokes, that isn't cool, Rome and big city Italy are unfortunately notorious for pickpockets, but we only had about a 5 minute walk back to our room, and I'm an experienced traveller, that couldn't happen to me!  However a crowded Friday night, a blissful 2 bottles of wine, and damn if I couldn't find my wallet. So I thought maybe I left it on the restaurant table, let me head back and as got ready to leave I checked my phone to look at our bank app and that's when I lost all cool.  The bank app was showing 0 balance in our accounts, somebody had emptied our bank accounts using my ATM card. Holy smokes, we had about 4 weeks left on our trip and some pickpocket had taken us for pretty much everything, how in the hell?  What are we going to do, OMG I was not in a good place.  And we had a plane to catch to Palermo, now what do we do?  So my lady calmed me down, her level headedness counters me so well, and we headed to the airport, logging into the bank through normal web browser en route and all seemed well with the accounts, even after an ATM withdrawal after reaching the airport.  So we figured that the wallet must be at the restaurant, not stolen, and all would be fine when we called them from Palermo.  She had succeeded in getting me to a manageable place, not sure how she does it but so thankful.

Reaching Palermo my stomach was still twisted, especially as we missed breakfast fussing over this thing, the lack of lunch, the flight, but our hotel was so kind and called the restaurant for us to check on the wallet.  A big fat zero, they didn't have it, and I believed them, they're really good folks, so now what to do?  Police report in Palermo for a Rome crime.....nah, nobody in Sicily cares.  Maybe just the cash was taken and the credit cards and IDs thrown away, so let's cancel them..........or maybe my goofy self should have checked my pants pocket from the pants I wore to dinner, instead of a different pair!!  When Kathie pulled the wallet out of my pants pocket she laughed so damn hard I don't know how to describe it.  You talk about pulling the biggest boneheaded move possible, this guy right here!  Yep, I fake lost my wallet.  Fake pickpocketed.  Knucklehead.  You have to just laugh at yourself sometimes, seems like I give myself plenty of those opportunities.  Honestly though it is a funny story for us and it couldn't have ended any better.  Now what to tell the guys as Osteria der Belli when we head back in a few weeks.........too funny.

Hope your day goes better than my morning from Rome to Palermo!!

Ciao a tutti.