Rome (Day 2) - Vatican City, Pizza, Pasta, Piazza Navona, and Trevi Fountain

For breakfast, Italians will stop by bars on their way to work (which is not the same as a bar in America). Here, you go up to the counter, order a cappuccino and a cornetto (a croissant), socialize standing up at the counter, and then you're on your way. I'm not a big coffee drinker, but the cornetto is awesome. They often have plain, cream, jam, and chocolate. Chocolate is the best, because it's often more like a whole lot of nutella inside. 

Cornetto and Cappuccino breakfast

It was a 20 minute walk to the Vatican, but there's plenty to see along the way.

Below is Castel Sant'Angelo which was built between 123 and 129 AD.

Rome's tap water is apparently very clean, and all throughout the City they have these public drinking fountains. They flow continuously, and you just step up, and fill up your water bottle. The water tastes fine, it's cold, and convenient. On top of that, it's free.

We arrived in the Vatican City to see Piazza S. Pietro. It's cool seeing this early in the morning because you get the vast square with very few people.

From here, we began walking around the walls of the Vatican City to get to the Vatican museum entrance.

Around the corner is a loooooong line of people. Bypassing it is easy, just book a tour online which you should do when they become available two months in advance. I highly recommend a guided tour anyway since navigating the Vatican museum seemed like a daunting task.

The Vatican Museum is quite a collection of work. Some of it very interesting, some of it you can sort of pass by, or maybe it was just overwhelming at some point. Nonetheless, walking room by room, this is probably the museum I enjoyed most. I did especially enjoy the Raphael rooms, or maybe it was because they were toward the end, and by then, I had kind of settled in and began understanding more of the work.

The one below is kind of neat as it features many ancient philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, and for you math lovers, Pythagoras.

Shortly after the Raphael rooms, you can finally make your way to the Sistine Chapel. No pictures allowed in there. I've heard different reactions after seeing the Sistine Chapel, but personally, I found it to be an amazing piece of work. A must see.

From there, we took a short break, by yet another fountain, as we prepared for our climb to the cupola, or the dome of St. Peter's Basilica. You can pay 5 euros to climb it, or 7 euros for the elevator option. The elevator option means you take the elevator to skip the first 231 steps, then you climb the remaining 323 steps to the top of the dome. Elevator please.

As you get closer to the top, the more the walls around you start curving in above you.

Once you make it to the top, great views all around.

Various parts of the Vatican behind the Basilica.

A look back at the Vatican museum.

The City...If you look in the distance, you see a large white monument which is the Victor Emmanuel Monument. From here you can also see the famous Pantheon. And finally, if you follow the river on the right, I believe that first bridge you see is the Ponte Sisto, where we were staying.

Once we made it down from the dome of St. Peter's Basilica, we made it inside the Basilica itself. Note, although there's a line to climb the dome, if you do this first, once you come down, you go straight into the Basilica without having to wait in line.  

Walking into St. Peter's Basilica immediately puts you in awe of the size of the church. Can't really put into words how impressive the place looks, pictures probably can't do it either.

Michelangelo's Pieta

After St. Peter's Basilica, we had a quick meal at one of the many yellow food trucks that you often find at tourist attractions. Our first experience here was decent, but our next one on another day was not very good. After this, we went for our first slices of pizza at Alice pizza a block away from the Vatican wall. 

The pizza was nice and crunchy and tasted great. So yes, pizza in Italy is awesome, and we had plenty more of it. 

Pizza by the slice works a little different in Italy. They have big slabs of pizza, and they position their knife to show you how much they think you want. Then you tell them smaller, or bigger. They cut your piece and put it on the scale. What we had above was about 7 euros and enough for both of us. 

Below is an obviously popular gelateria called Frigidarium, not far from Piazza Navona. (Yes, they serve real gelato, more on that tomorrow.) This was Sophy's favorite gelateria.

Rome was probably my favorite place in Italy. I think a lot that contributes to that is the feel of these small back streets, while just a street over may be a more lively street with restaurants lining the way.

After less than an hour of rest for our feet, we took a short walk to Piazza Navona. We visited these fountains in the day, but they're much more beautiful at night.

Not far from there is the Pantheon. We'll visit the inside of this tomorrow.

At Campo De Fiori, Piazza Navona, and here at the Pantheon, there's plenty of tourist trap restaurants. Many of them will have someone standing in front trying to get you to come in and try their restaurant. The food is much more expensive, sometimes frozen, and just not your traditional good tasting food. 

I did my best to find those restaurants that locals believe to serve good authentic Italian food. In the historical center, Armando Al Pantheon is one of those.

The three most traditional Roman pastas are Amatriciana, Carbonara, and Cacio e pepe. This restaurant did all three very well, but the Amatriciana here was probably my favorite. Definitely recommend this restaurant. Good, authentic food, and the price tag is moderate. 

Some things to note about eating out in Italy.

Ordering: It's customary to order multiple dishes at Italian restaurants. A good rule of thumb is 2 dishes per person, whether it's an antipasti, a primi, a secondi, etc.

Water: Water's not free. You'll have a choice of either bottled still or sparkling water, and it will be about 2 to 3 euros.

Coperto: Many restaurants have a cover charge which covers the restaurant's overhead, bread, etc.

Servicio: Some restaurants will add tip, usually about 10%. If they do, it's up to you if you want to tip on top of that. If they don't, it's up to you how much to tip.

We made it to the Trevi Fountain after dinner. This is supposed to be an amazing looking fountain, but unfortunately it was under renovation during our visit to Rome. I think it's the one in front of Caesar's Palace in Vegas haha.

Rome (Day 1) - Arrival in the Eternal City

After a 40 minute ride from the airport, we arrived in the Centro Storico where we were staying, the historical center of Rome. We booked an AirBnB room with a host who was very helpful. The apartment was located on a small street near the "Ponte Sisto," a pedestrian bridge over the Tiber River which connects the historical center with Trastevere (more on Trastevere later). The apartment was clean and conveniently located within walking distance of all the major sights. Happy to recommend it if you're traveling to Rome.



Below is the Ponte Sisto at night.

Above is the street where our apartment is located. In the distance, the Ponte Sisto.

It was late evening by the time we arrived, so we decided to just walk the area a little bit, which is not far from Campo De Fiori ("campo" means "square" in Italian). At night time, it's a busy square with plenty of restaurants surrounding it. 

(In the day time, it marks the location of the last remaining open air market in the center of Rome.)

We decided to stop by Forno Roscioli (According to google, "Forno" means "oven" when translated literally, but I believe it also refers to bakeries, so if you see a "Forno" it probably means a place that's gonna have some pizza, some breads, etc.). All located within a 30 second walk of each other, Roscioli also has a restaurant which is supposed to be really good but expensive. At Forno Roscioli, their pizza gets rave reviews. We opted for some very good Caprese bread, which began our love for tomatoes in Italy.

We continued on to our street Via De Pettinari, where there was a bakery called I Dolci Di Nonna Vincenza. Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the dessert we got which was a Cassata Siciliana. I think it's a marzipan coating with some ricotta filling, quite good, but very sweet. At any rate, definitely recommend Nonna.

On top of that, we also tried a gelato place near our apartment. It was okay, but more on gelato tomorrow.

Day 4 in Kauai - Kayaking the Wailua River

Today we went kayaking down the Wailua River. I don't have much detail to give on it but to say that kayaking gets a bit tiring (physically), but I do always enjoy it, and this was definitely a nice river to kayak down (or up I suppose). Not a whole lot of specifics, just a lot of green. 

The funniest part of the trip was this asian couple who was kayaking in our group. All the kayaks in our group left at once, and then we were to meet up again at some point up the river. As we're waiting for the rest of the group, here comes the asian couple being towed by our tour guide's kayak, while they continue paddling in the air. Okay, maybe you had to be there, but I thought it was hilarious. 

After docking our kayaks, we crossed the river and hiked about a mile in to a waterfall and a pool. The waterfall was more like a trickle, but the pool was definitely swimmable. On the way back, the rain started coming down a bit, and by the time we got back, it was coming down pretty hard. Overall, we kayaked and hiked about 6 miles apparently. Not an overly impressive number, but it was pretty tiring nonetheless.

Also went to check out the Wailua Falls. Pretty treacherous hike down since it was raining, so we skipped it but did get to take in the massive waterfall.

Day 3 in Kauai - Winging It

Originally had a boat and snorkel tour on the Na Pali coast scheduled for today, but that was cancelled. The whole week its been pretty rainy, mostly on and off, but still a decent amount of rain. As a result, havent been able to do any snorkeling which is what we were hoping for, so we decided to explore the island some more.

Started off going north and saw "no snorkeling" signs on all the beaches known for good snorkeling. Waves in the ocean looked crazy. I've seeb quite a few taro fields, but this is the first one i saw up close. Saw some dry and wet caves which were pretty neat. The wet caves had a huge pool of water inside, but it also had signs that say "no swimming" due to health hazard, or leptospirosis bacteria? Gotta check spelling. Point is, probably didnt wanna go in there.

In terms of food, we tried two different places: Sweet chili chicken from Village Snack and Bakery Shop and Kalua Pork from Hanalei Taro and Lunch Wagon. The sweet chili chicken had this incredibly crispy skin and great flavor. Kalua Pork had great flavor as well, very tender. Now i dont like taro but i definitely like berry smoothies. Hanalei Taro used a taro base to make a berry smoothie, and that turned out to be quite good haha.

After that, we ventured over to the Kilauea Lighthouse. $5 a person to get in, dont know if id say it was worth it considering you can get a decent view from another area for free.

To end the afternoon we decided to make a quick (note quick) stop at Queen's Bath, a place right on the edge of the ocean where rocks form a pool that people can swim in. Found some parking in one of the Princeville neighborhoods and began walking down a path that we were thought might take us to Queen's Bath butbwe definitely werent sure. I would have taken pictures along the way to share, but i was so focused on surviving this muddy, slippery trail. Mud, rocks, everything was slippery and it was all downhill. There was one point where you almost had to brave a break in the ground to get across. It was nuts, but about 30 minutes later, we made it (it couldnt have been more than a mile), and the place was awesome. 

Day 2 in Kauai - Waimea Canyon and only 1 food place?

Began the day with the breakfast buffet at our hotel, Westin Princeville. Apparently if you forgo your first day of housekeeping, you get a free breakfast buffet for 1. Of course, buffet ended up being $20/ person. With the coupon though, essentially $10/person, this buffet was pretty damn good surprisingly.

Took a long drive almost all the way around the island to Waimea Canyon, often described as the Grand Canyon of the Pacific. Thats a tough name to lirve up to, but the views are still impressive nonetheless (see first two pictures).

The next two pictures were taken further into our drive, further up the mountain, and shows the Na Pali Coast. (We were actually supposed to take a boat and snorkeling tour of the Na Pali Coast tomorrow but trip was cancelled due to weather and water conditions).

Finally, we decided to embark on a seemingly simple 2 mile round trip hike. It took over an hour lol. The 5th,6th, 7th, and 8th pictures are from the hike. That bumpy looking dirt terrain, crazy inclines and declines with these rocks to deal with made it a very difficult hike haha. The views though were definitely worth it.

Finished the morning off with a stop in Waimea at Shrimp Station. Good shrimp, though i probably should have stuck with the regular Garlic shrimp instead of going with the Cajun. After that, we stopped in Hannapepe, not sure the spelling, but the point is they had Kauai Kookie company, with great shortbread cookies.

We also stopped by Poipu, the area on the South Coast and caught a glimpse of the Spouting Horn, which does exactly as it sounds, blows water through this little hole in the rock formation. Pretty cool if you ask me.

Day 1 in Kauai

Landed in Kauai around lunch time...Lihue airport looks smaller than Burbank haha.

Started off the trip with some lunch from Mark's Place (first two pictures) serving a variety of local food including Korean chicken, chicken catsu, teriyaki beef, etc.

Headed over to Costco, and of course different costcos have different things. Here, they had Kirkland water for 6.15 (3.85 at home?). They also had a whole roasting pig, definitely dont have that at costcos.

Found a place called Banana Joes which had awesome pineapple frosties.

Got to Westin Princeville which looks awesome. Check out view of our room witb a kitchen and some pictures near the pool.

Had dinner at The Tavern which is owned by Roy Yamaguchi, you know of Roy's.
Got the mahi mahi special.

Finally, got Lapperts ice cream which was incredible.