Last January I treated myself for my birthday - a trip to Rome. Just few weeks before I returned from a short vacation there, and I felt the need to go back again. 3 days just wasn't enough :)
Before hopping on the jet, I tried to figure where I should go. Not an extensive list, as I like to explore on a whim, but I felt I should ask some forum for advice. I was given the number of a man living in Rome, fluent in Italian as well as in Hebrew, who do Food oriented tours. I will call him Mr. Sweet, as his website name is Mar Matok which means Mr. Sweet.
Before meeting him I lit a fat dooby on the bank of the Tiber. I'm actually afraid of rivers and other large bodies of water, so I kept my distance from the river itself and just enjoyed a quiet moment in a very bust city, just me and my weed
I felt nice, but I remember how I had some nasty cough (that took like 2 months to heal) and I stopped and my way there to buy some halls mints to soothe the discomfort, to a mild success. I met Mr sweet on Via dei Chiavari, after shaking hands and explaining my thing - I like to smoke, drink and eat. ADD to the max, can't listen for long about dead people as my mind tend to wonder. He completely rolled with it, and kept the stories short, but he did told me many things.
First he told me about this place, Antico Forno which has been around for almost 200 years, and they make great pizzas in all hours of operations.
He explained about the different pizzas, the local varieties, and picked few good examples for me, first was the pizza with sour broccoli and sun dried tomatoes - which were re-hydrated, which is not a thing usually done where I come from, and apparently, it makes a huge damn difference. It was so god damn good.
Here is The Margarita.
While I was happily munching on the best Pizza I ever ate, Mr Sweet told me about the origins of the famous pizza, some story about queen, and the flag of unified Italy, and how there is a myth and what really happened... You can read about it in his website (use chrome translate :) )
Here is the Broccoli one
The Tomatoes one I devoured before I could take pics :( Here is picture of some of the other things you could buy there - which means a lot of thing. Cakes, cookies, 30 kinds of bread... This place got it all, and another section for salty things which had cheese and sausages.
Since the next food stop wasn't the next shop in the street, he took me on a sightseeing tour while the sun was going down, first, Campo de Fiori to look at the statue of this dead guy.
He defied the church. The church defied his life.
I walked into a cloud of Leptoconopinae when I tried taking his pic, so I took pics of them as well
Funny thing, I just noticed these flies look like tiny crosses :D take that heretic!
In this Piazza there is also a plaque for a book burning event "The Burning of the Talmud in Rome on Rosh Hashanah, 1553" that happened there quite some time ago
Next we walked to the Palazzo Farnese, which is palace from the Renaissance currently serving as embassy for France
Opposing this landmark is the embassy of Cyprus :)
Next through Piazza di S. Pantaleo where there is this statue of Marco Minghetti
Next to the Saint Pantaleo church
We got to our next destination - which wasn't food yet - The Talking Statue(s) of Rome
Finally we arrived to Piazza Navona, which I didn't see until that point in all my time in Rome, which is a shame. First I see Fontana Del Moro
Then the Sant'Agnese in Agone which is a church
Finally, Fontana dei Fiumi which is the center piece of the Piazza. It depicts rivers and god with beautiful statues with water coming out of them. Topped with an obelisk. Amazing stuff.
We finally were heading to the Pantheon area, as blue was spreading across the city
We made it
Inside view
I was impressed with the dome
I didn't carry tripod, and the signage told me not to use one. Though the above pic was steady, I wanted a steadier, longer exposure shot. I did the natural thing - found the center of the Rome, just under the center of the hole of the dome, and place my camera on the floor, with timer. I got few cool pictures, but the real cool thing was that after looking around and taking pics, when we left, where I took the following pictures, there was a long line of Asian people waiting to place their picture taking machine where I put it, and take the same picture :) Achiron - Trend Maker :D
All this pan-religious art made me thirsty for coffee, so our next stop was La Casa Del Caffè Tazza D'oro right across from the pantheon, a famous coffee shop, one of the few to roast and grind their coffee beans in the city.
Many types to choose from
Brassy Self Portrait on the back of the espresso machine
And for the coffee being made and served
We were served espresso in their styled cups, and Mr Sweet quickly noticed the logo wasn't facing us, giving the best display for picture, and he rotated the cups for me :)
Their famous logo in color
Next we went to another famous coffee shop, this time opposing a church dedicated to [Saint Eustace]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Eustace], and the coffee shop had cool mosaic with the stag on the entrance. The shop is aptly named Sant Eustacchio il Caffe
Mr Sweet explained to me that this coffee shop has special technique to produce thick foam on the espresso, and that their default is to give sweetened espresso, which was really good IMO.
Next we got to our main course for the evening - pasta dish in a local restaurant Il Portico
I had a pasta with cheese and pork jowl, I can't remember what Mr Sweet had :/ Both dishes were incredible
Mr Sweet took a picture of me per my request, using my camera
I was stuffed, but I saved room for Ice cream. Can't recall which shop we visited exactly, but it was very good. I had nuts and espresso. Here it is being served by a handsome man with gold rimmed glasses. He really pull those glasses amirite?
And with ice cream in our bellies, we marched to one of the many bridges the crosses the Tiber, he told me goodbye and what a pleasure it was, I told him the same, and before he walked away into the night he told me that the graffiti I see on the bank of the tiber is a power washing art, another cool thing to know :) hope you enjoyed this tour, hopefully you will go there and take the tour as well :) Mr Sweet website is https://www.marmatok.com/
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