Rugby in Rome

Ah November, the middle of the All Blacks end of year tour to the northern hemisphere.  We figured an AB’s test was as good an excuse as any to pop back to Rome for the weekend.  This time though, we had the company of Dean and Lou and their friends, now also our friends, Zac and Chloe.

Rest stop with a view

We skived off work a bit early on the Friday and so were all checked in to our hotel by about 8pm.  What to do?  Eat pizza!  Lou was recommended a place just down the road from where we were staying, so we grabbed a table on the street and settled in to wash traditional Italian pizzas down with carafes of house wine…  It was all in the interests of scientific research, really.  What does a four seasons’ pizza taste like?  Rather good, as it turns out!  Is there ever a good time to allow anchovies on your pizza?  Yes, surprisingly!  Does five cheese pizza give you crazy dreams?  Most definitely...  These are all questions we have sacrificed ourselves to provide answers to.  You’re welcome.  Or as all good things have now come to be known – Pizza BOOM!

Anyway, I digress.  It was nice to return to Rome when it wasn’t scorching hot…  After the 44 degree heat we experienced at the end of July, the 15-20 we had that weekend was lovely.  We traipsed past several main Roman sights the next day.  We ticked off the Parthenon and Piazza del Popolo, which we missed the first time around, and revisited the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain as we made our way to Stadio Olympico for the game. 

 

They never stood a chance...

The atmosphere at the game was brilliant.  We were a little concerned about how the local fans might treat us after hearing reports of some less than welcome behaviour being experienced by friends at games in other cities (not looking at anyone in particular, Edinburgh and Cardiff…), but it was amazing.  The locals were very friendly and quite complimentary about our boys in black, even when they were playing as though the ball were a large cake of wet soap.  It was as though the arena was a big happy cauldron prone to bouts of spontaneous singing, chanting and endless Mexican waves.  We were lucky though, apparently football fans aren’t so pleasant.  The very next weekend a couple of Tottenham fans were stabbed in a bar nearby the stadium following a game…  Eeek!

Celebrating a good win

On our way back from the game, after stopping off somewhere for a quick cocktail and a night time visit to St Peter’s Square, we thought it would be good to take everyone to our favourite restaurant from our first trip, Su & Giu Cucina Romana.  Kyle remembered how to get us 90% of the way there and we had to guess the rest…  in the rain…  Luckily, we found it just as we were about to pull the pin.  We had another fantastic meal – Dean was super brave and had tripe (!!!).  He even let us try a bit…  It wasn’t… gross… but…  Anyway, he really liked it.

Team photo

Ancient cake tin...

We all went our separate ways the next day.  Kyle and I found this crazy little restaurant that did amazing pasta (bacon and artichoke spaghetti rocked my little world) and three kinds of bruschetta.  Good thing we had a solid lunch too, because we then went to the Santa Maria della Concezione dei Cappuccini – the Monastery where there’s sculptures made out of the bones of dead monks reminding us all that life is temporary…  Cheery.  It was fascinating, but also pretty creepy.  We took our time over the first couple of alcoves, but pretty much blitzed past the last few and got out of there.  To cheer up again we got our fix of gelato from our favourite gelato bar from last time before taking a long walk past Il Coloseo on our way back to the hotel.  That only left enough time for a quick trip to Pizza BOOM (it was actually a takeout place) before skipping back to the airport.  

Next stop, Christmas markets in Vienna.  OMG, nearly there!