Fall 2019 Day 26

Our last day in Rome today. It’s a tough place to leave!  We threw our coins in the Trevi Fountain so we know we will be back, but it’s still tough!  There’s an energy in big cities that is palpable, and Rome’s is especially intoxicating. Even for my small town wife Emily who hates big cities usually, she has fallen under the spell of Rome. We had a lovely last day, though. We walked to the Jewish Quarter and walked around there for a while, it’s a really cool area of Rome!  It was once a ghetto, all the way until 1870. That’s crazy!  The ghetto is on the banks of the Tiber river in the area most prone to flooding and just mashed the Jews in there as tightly as possible. In 1870 Italy united and Rome wasn’t under Papal control anymore so the Jews were finally given equal status as Romans. They finally built large embankments on the banks of the Tibur so the flooding stopped. That’s not very long ago!  Now it’s a trendy area that costs a lot of money to live there. Funny how times change.  We toured the Jewish Museum which was very interesting and gave us a guided tour of the Great Synagogue. That was a highlight!  After seeing and hearing all the terrible stories of what the Jews have gone through in Rome it’s amazing to see what they built after finally having the freedom to do it!  It’s very church-like but also different enough that you can tell it’s Jewish.  I left, as I do with most Jewish sights, with a little sadness, but a ton of pride!  My favorite picture is the one of a plaque on the wall of the synagogue where the first American opened the doors to the synagogue that had been sealed by the Nazis and prayed with the rabbi. It’s a beautiful thought of all the great things America has accomplished. There’s a lot of things to be proud of. We saved a continent and rebuilt it after that. Now it’s there for all of us to appreciate and enjoy. We left the synagogue and went out to eat what the Jewish Quarter is famous for!!  FRIED ARTICHOKES!  I’ve never been a huge fan of artichokes, but these are amazing!!!  It’s interesting because fried artichokes are one of the most famous dishes in Rome, but most people don’t realize that they are actually Jewish food. We left the restaurant and then the skies opened up and it POURED!  It was raining so hard with lightning and thunder and we had a 15 minute walk home. We got soaked!  It’s always an adventure. It wouldn’t be so bad, but we have to fly to Sicily tomorrow morning so the clothes and shoes won’t dry very much before we have to pack them all. We will survive though. We warmed up when we got home and tried to figure out what we were going to do for dinner. I was doing my usual research and found this amazing looking take out pasta shop not too far away. They make everything from scratch including the noodles. They make every dish to order and all 3 dishes we got were perfection!  As good as any we have had, except one!  We also on our way home stopped at the #1 dessert place in all of Rome according to TripAdvisor. It’s called two sizes. They actually have 3 sizes and all they serve is tiramisu!  They have like 6 different kinds of tiramisu. We got 3 small ones. One peanut butter, one caramel and one pistachio. They were all amazing!  What a cool concept!  We may start experimenting with tiramisu when we get home because we are really loving it and want to keep enjoying it when we get back. 😃. We got done with dinner and cleaned up. Now we have to pack and shower and be ready to get up nice and early tomorrow to go to the airport. Tomorrow, a new adventure, SICILY!  We can’t wait!  It should be really exotic and interesting. Thanks for still reading and traveling through us!  Remember, we are taking people to Italy in the springtime and have a few openings so contact is to reserve!  I have a feeling when we get home they’ll fill fast. We love you all!!