What Have The Romans Ever Done For Us?

February 2020 (throwback!)

Can you explore a completely new country during an 11 hour layover while traveling from Asia to Europe? The answer is… yes! At least you can try! While on a long layover, we stored our luggage at the airport, jumped onto the subway, and set out to spend an evening in Singapore. We started by walking around the marina, a portion of the city where the waterfront meets sleek skyscrapers, and then made our way to “Gardens by the Bay”. This urban park features gigantic modern tree structures which light up every night and flash along to the beat of music… we laid in the grass and enjoyed the show. After a quick beer and bite to eat… our time was up and we headed back to the impressive Singapore airport and were bound for Rome!

Neither of us had ever been to Europe, and we couldn’t think of a better way to kick off the new continent than visiting Italy. We touched down and couldn’t wait to spend the next 4 days exploring Rome. Only one obstacle stood in our way… navigating to our hotel. This task proved harder than expected and we somehow found ourselves riding a bus illegally. We prayed we would make it to our stop before the bus staff asked for tickets and breathed a sigh of relief when we jumped off at our hotel.

Our first day we simply strolled the cobblestone streets while taking in the sites and feel of the city. We visited the Pantheon and the Spanish Steps, sampled gelato, and drank from public aqueduct fountains (cue Monty Python joke). But… the highlight of our day was our picnic style lunch… we stopped in a small butcher shop where we grabbed a few items and headed to a nearby courtyard. We sat on stone steps, enjoyed the sunshine, sipped champagne straight from the bottle and ate one of the best sandwiches we’ve ever had… fresh bread with prosciutto, eggplant, olive oil and herbs. Simple but so delicious.

The next several days we continued site-seeing and eating our way through Rome. In the mornings we visited The Vatican, St. Peter’s Basilica, the Trevi Fountain, and The Colosseum. Learning about the city's history blew our minds and Tatum decided that everything in Rome must be haunted because of how old all the buildings are. In the afternoons we played cribbage on our hotel rooftop and sipped wine in small cafe’s.

One evening we splurged and signed up for a food tour; we made our way across the Tiber River and entered Trastevere, a neighborhood with a rich history that’s famous for its traditional Italian cuisine. Of the seven stops on the tour, the second stood out above the rest. We descended a flight of stairs into a damp wine cellar where we learned that the building was 2,000 years old (not a typo!) and used to be a jewish synagogue. We sipped wine and ate stewed pork shoulder that was covered in an anchovy sauce (apparently one of Julius Caesar's favorite recipes). Another interesting stop was a family owned and operated biscotti bakery who has been using the same massive yellow oven since 1950. Throughout the night we also sampled amatriciana pasta, suppli (a fried rice ball), porchetta, and gelato. Our taste buds were in heaven!

Sadly, our food tour came to an end… but our night didn’t stop there. We joined another couple for drinks at a bustling bar. Add in multiple carafes of wine and three Scottish couples in their 60’s who were in town for a rugby match… skip forward a few hours… and you’d find us singing Scottish pub songs at the top of our lungs while standing on bar stools. That night out confirmed two things for us… 1) red wine hangovers suck no matter what county you are in and 2) Scotts are a hell of a good time.

Suffice it to say we can’t wait to get back and explore more of Italy in the future!

With Love,

Boots Abroad

Corbin’s

Highs: Food tour, Colosseum, sandwich (it haunts my dreams), Clorinda, Night with the Scotts

Lows: Getting robbed, flight to Rome

Tatum’s

Highs: Completing my ‘30 before 30’ goal of eating pizza in Italy, rooftop views of dome topped buildings, food tour, clam linguine date night, Colosseum

Lows: Getting robbed outside of the Vatican (it’s a long story), cheap and uncomfortable flight, hangover

Bloopers…

Throughout our lives we’ve seen images of people gracefully throwing coins into the beautiful Trevi Fountain. We got up early to beat the crowds and walked to the fountain. After snapping some photos we decided it was time to ‘make a wish’ and toss in our coins. Tatum’s up first… no problem. Corbin’s turn… much less graceful! The coin ricocheted off the stone walkway (nowhere close to the water) and was never seen again. Good thing he was a soccer player.