Just spent 3 full days in Rome and it has been a delicious and eye-opening adventure! So much happened the past few days, I’ll try to break everything down day by day. Today, we start off with Day ½ since it was mainly a transit day. First took a red-eye from New York to London, had lunch at Dinner by Heston Blumenthal and jetted another 2.5 hours on a flight to Rome. We arrived at 9:30PM and took a €4 bus out to Termini, the main train station in Rome.
Originally we were going to take a taxi straight to our apartment, but I’ve heard that Roman taxi drivers are likely to harass you for €60+ upwards, even if the set price by the city is only around €35. Didn’t want to haggle so we opted for the 30 minute bus ride. Once we got off the bus, there were a few taxis waiting around to take us to where we needed to go. We managed pre-arrange a price with the driver to get a ride to Campo di Fiori for €25 which I now realize is way too much.
Italy Travel Tip #1: Taxis have meters in them, if possible, just make sure your driver puts the meter on. It was a late night for us, so we just wanted to get where we needed to go and settled.
Arrived in what turned out to be the best Airbnb apartment we could have asked for. Clean, relatively cheap and an amazing location. We were within a 5 minute walking distance of Campo di Fiori which is a cute little plaza area filled with a market by day, and slightly touristy restaurants with decent nightlife after hours.
Once we checked in to our apartment, J and I settled to eat at a slightly touristy restaurant down the street from us, but we were too tired to care. Since it was our first meal in Italy, we weren’t expecting much but Obika had a wonderful smokey mozzarella unlike anything I’ve tried before.
Paired with a side of salami and I was a happy camper. It also came with the freshest cherry tomatos which in my mind set the tone of the fresh ingredients that’s featured here. We also had an anchovy pizza which I thought was just alright – I love a crispy crust but this one was soggy in the middle. J thought the crust dusted with cornmeal gave it a unique texture which he enjoyed.
One of the bonuses of eating at a restaurant situated in a public square is all the fun people watching. Campo di Fiori is lively at night with tourists and Italians alike enjoying the beautiful evening. With a full and happy belly, we took the 3 minute walk back home to rest up for a full day of Rome ahead!
