Last year, I visited Lisbon with my team for the week-long meetup. In 2018, our meeting was in Rome, the capital of Italy. This was my first time in Italy, and I was thrilled to get to know a bit more about authentic Italian food and taste the authentic Italian flavours.
We did not stay in the touristy neighbourhoods of Rome but rather in the district where there were more locals. In some restaurants, the waiters barely spoke any English so this gave me hope that we might be trying the foods that Italians themselves eat rather than the versions of meals adapted for tourists. It is hard to say though if we were eating authentic Italian meals or not since there was not an Italian with us who would be the best judge for this.
Of course, the first thing that we tried was gelato. Gelato is everywhere in Rome – I have barely seen a street where there was not a gelato stand and a small store. This was great for summer heat as I was in Rome in June and my favourite combination of flavours was stracciatella and coconut.
Our common food choice was pizza (well, duh, of course). But not only we ate lots of pizza, but we also managed to cook one ourselves when taking the In Rome cooking class. During the class, we cooked both pizza and gelato following the recipe from old times before gelato machines were widely used. After the class, we also got the recipes emailed to us but to be honest, I have not tried them yet at home.
Except for pizza, I have also tried common appetizers and meals such as mozzarella with sun-dried tomato and anchovies, break with ham and cheese, carbonara with pecorino cheese and chicken with porcini mushrooms (and many many more dishes that I can not remember anymore!).
Not only did we eat a lot, we also got to visit Rome landmarks such as Coliseum and Vatican City and museums. Coliseum was impressive as it is hard to image that something similar to this was built by humans thousands of years ago.
Vatican museums had immense collection of art and I found that you would need several weeks to spend in these museums to fully appreciate the all its aesthetic value. I took a lot of picture but I will limit myself to a few most impressive 🙂
Vatical and Coliseum were extremely mesmerizing to see but I have to admit that my favourite moments of Rome are connected to finding unique and authentic spots where you can feel that you have escaped the flow of June tourists such as these peaceful orange gardens and they view of the city that they gave.
Or finding narrow green streets, buying fruits from local vendors in the city food market, drinking aperol in the rooftop pub and peeking through the famous whole in the Roman door and looking at the roads that after all lead to Rome.
Kat's Thoughts 
2 Comments