Rome Day 3

Today we enjoyed breakfast at the hotel again. After breakfast we made our way to the Jewish Quarter for our tour. On the way, we stopped at Piazza Navona. It was breathtaking space and it didn’t hurt that it was the morning and no one was around. From there, we wandered to the Pantheon. It’s very Roman: ancient Roman outside- several hundred year old church interior. The building was so cool and the dome is so famous, it was great to see in person.

We met up with a bunch of other people in front of The Great Synogue for the Jewish Roma tour. This was a really cool tour and a great palate cleanser after the Vatican. We spent some time I thr Jewish museum which has a lot of Judaica. The Jews in Rome would make Torah covers from discarded dresses from rich ladies so they were very impressive. Historically, the Jews were not treated well by the Catholic Church in Rome. The Church went to great lengths to coerce conversions and put them in a ghetto from 1555 to 1870 when Italy was united into one country. The conditions in the ghetto were not great and their homes would flood often. We spent some time in the synagogue and discussed the history (including more recent history). Afterwards, we walked around the neighborhood, which looks very different now. We finished up around 1pm when the Jewish Day School was getting out so the piazza had kids running everywhere.  We stopped at a kosher restaurant for falafel & fish before heading out of the area.

After the Jewish quarter, we stopped at the Trevi fountain and threw in an obligatory coin. It was crowded but not as crowded as we worried it would be. The neighborhood around this area was crazy and packed with tourists. We made our way over to the Spanish Steps and then walked back to our hotel.

After a quick regroup we walked to the Trastevere neighborhood and then continued on to Testaccio for our food stroll. Testaccio is a really cool neighborhood that isn’t very touristy and has a lot of really great food. Our guide took us to 5 shops. We started with Aperol Spritzes (big fan), then went to another restaurant where we ate fried vegetables and had prosecco. After that, we had charcuterie and more wine. Then we had “dinner”which consisted of pasta, tripe and oxtail. Tripe had a calamari texture and it was pretty good. The oxtail was really good and was almost like a short rib. From there, we walked to Trappizzino which is a series of fast food restaurants that serve pizza pockets. Ours had chicken in it and it was delicious! We finished the stroll with gelato....obviously.

We walked 11.5 miles today so after the stroll, we taxied home and got ready for bed. What a great day!

Pantheon

Trevi Fountain