The food in Rome was AMAZING, but the best part, was the coffee!!! Now, these pictures are out of order, but you'll get the idea.
Even at the continental breakfast in our hotel, there was an espresso machine. The kind where you can make cappuccinos, macchiatos, and straight up espresso for breakfast.
This meal on the Italian airlines came with tiramisu for desert, and tasted as fresh as if it had just been made.
After walking for a few hours around Rome, exploring the Appian Way, and taking a ton of pictures, we stopped for some gelato. Essentially, it's basically just soft serve ice cream, but the notable difference in taste, is the natural flavors. I tried several kinds, and none of them had artificial flavoring. Even the pistachio, was flavored with fresh chopped nuts, and was amazing!
These were the biggest coffee cups I saw the entire time I was in Italy, and are the equivalent of a small in America. At first, it seemed odd how all their coffee drinks are so tiny, but when you're drinking pretty much straight espresso, you can't drink an American extra large. Another noticeable difference about the coffee menus there, apart from everything being small, is that none of the coffee drinks were sweet. You could add your own sugar, but the initial drinks weren't sweet. Unless you ordered hot chocolate. That was a different story.
There were fresh orange trees everywhere. We had fresh orange juice at breakfast, including trying the red orange juice.
Roman restraunts have different rules. These pizzas sit out at room temperature all day, and when you pick the one you want, they heat it for you. We didn't die, and the pizza really was amazing!
Then, we had our pasta cooking class, and tiramisu class. It was fun getting to know the different people in our group. We had a family from Amsterdam, two gals from Poland, and a family from L.A.
Even at McDonalds in Italy, they have tiny espresso, odd items on the menu, and marble pillars out front.
It seemed like every window you walked by had amazing food displays!
Cannoli!
Now, the hot cholate in Italy isn't like anything I've had in America. It's kind of a mix between a hot liquid chocolate pudding, and a melted candy bar. They don't come with marshmallows, but lots of whipped cream.
Fettucine was way simpler than I thought!
Our hotel breakfasts were always set with China dishes, and had a huge menu!
This nutella and blueberry crepe served in a cone to go may have been the best thing I ate the entire trip. It was actually in a little shop in the Roman airport, and was everything you expect in an Italian dessert. Nutella is a staple in Italian desserts, which makes sense, since Nutella was invented in Italy right after WW2, when making chocolate was so expensive.
If you want to act like a local, you sit at the bar counter and leisurely sip your caffe latte from China until you're done. Sitting at the basic tables costs, and sitting on the tables outside cost even more, because they wait on those tables.
We had lunch twice on the plane back to America, because of the time change. We left Amsterdam at 10 something in the morning, and arrived in Minneapolis a little after noon.
Our hotel room didn't have Styrofoam cups, just the China ones.
We enjoyed drinking tea on our hotel rooftop overlooking the streets.
This was a salmon croissant.
In America, we have soda pop machines. In Italy, they have espresso machines. You stick your euros in, and watch it work. I got a cappuccino just for the experience, and it turned out to be pretty great.
In Naples, we had an authentic Mediterranean pizza.
When you're eating Mediterranean, you have to get some falafel in there!
Fresh squeezed pomegranate juice at Pompeii.
Just your usual bakery display case in the Roman airport.
Our rooftop was next to a taller building and had shade part of the day and full sunshine the rest of the day. We even had lemon trees up there.
.jpg)
.jpg)
