Roaming Hearts Podcast
Justice & Hannah Lynn Arceri
✈️ Bucket List Travel Couple on a Budget📍 NOLA
🌎 National Parks | International
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Roaming Hearts Podcast
Italy Travel - Episode 1: When in Rome
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00:00:00 Justice
Hey, fellow Wanderers, thanks for tuning in to the Roaming Hearts podcast.
00:00:04 Hannah Lynn
Practical tips to fun stories we are your travel buddies, so if you're dreaming of far off places or just looking for your next travel hack, you're in the right spot.
00:00:13 Justice
Check out our website, roamingheartspodcast.com for episode transcripts and travel recommendations.
00:00:19 Hannah Lynn
And don't forget to join the conversation on Instagram for Q&A's tips and tricks and to share your travel tales.
00:00:25 Justice
So pack your bags and join us on this journey Roaming Hearts podcast. Because every adventure begins with a story.
00:00:34 Justice
Hello everybody. Thank you for joining us here on the Roaming Hearts podcast. My name is justice.
00:00:39 Hannah Lynn
And I'm Hannah Lynn.
00:00:40 Justice
And we are here to talk about Italy and Rome today, very exciting stuff. This comes from the trip we recently took here in 2023. In April, we took a trip out to Italy for 12 days. We went through.
00:00:55 Justice
Home.
00:00:56 Justice
The Tuscan countryside up into Florence with day trips to Pisa and Venice. And then we finished off in Milan. But here we're talking about Rome. Honey, why don't you give us 3 words to describe Rome?
00:01:08 Hannah Lynn
3 words to describe Rome. I think I would say fascinating, historical and romantic. I thought that those 3 words really encapsulated.
00:01:15 Justice
Hmm.
00:01:18 Hannah Lynn
Our time in Rome.
00:01:19 Justice
Why don't you expound on one?
00:01:20 Hannah Lynn
Of those, I said. Fascinating because there was so much in Rome that was just amazing. I mean, it was totally interconnected. Even things as small as the running water as the cleanest in the entire.
00:01:32 Hannah Lynn
World and just looking at different spots and knowing this has been here for thousands of years was just truly fascinating to.
00:01:41 Hannah Lynn
Me.
00:01:41 Justice
Yeah, that's good. That's good. So today's agenda is, like I said, gonna be on Rome. And So what we're gonna do is we're gonna go through kind of every day of our three days there that we had in Rome. We're gonna just talk about just in the experiences we had, the restaurants we ate at. And hopefully you can gather just some tips. Some.
00:02:02 Justice
Some ideas and hopefully some inspiration. So if you are going to Italy in Rome one day, you know exactly what.
00:02:07 Justice
To do because you're here.
00:02:09 Hannah Lynn
So exciting. So why don't you go ahead and get us started with how?
00:02:12 Justice
We got to Rome. Yes. So how we got to Rome was by aircraft. No, I'm joking. So.
00:02:19 Justice
No. When it comes to traveling in terms of the international flights, we always recommend that you have sort of that overnight flight, right? So we're talking about we went through Delta Airlines, we're from New Orleans. So our little airport in New Orleans took us to Atlanta, where we then crossed the pond over into Rome, so.
00:02:39 Justice
We always try to aim for having some of those flights that you know, we left Atlanta at like 8-9 PM you fall asleep as best as you can, and then you wake up and it's morning in Rome. So that's always sort of the goal.
00:02:52 Hannah Lynn
We aim for yes and I think that's so helpful when talking about jet lag because that's a big thing and you can't avoid it totally. But I think that we have found.
00:03:00 Hannah Lynn
That's really helped cut down on that kind of you get there and you're just exhausted. At least you get there. It's morning time. OK, you try to make it until 4:00 or 5:00 and then just kind of crash. So that's a really good tip that we've figured out.
00:03:15 Justice
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
00:03:18 Justice
Once you're in Rome, once you lay in at the airport, there's a few different methods of transportation to actually get to Rome. You can, of course, just like, rent a car at the airport if you're going to go that route, there's plenty of companies there. You can hire a ride if you wanted, like a just a personal ride to the airport or to the.
00:03:38 Justice
To the.
00:03:38 Justice
City and then the third option is there's the Leonardo Express, which is a train that runs just about every 30 minutes from the airport to the Rome Termini train station, is what it's called, which is also where a metro stop is. So it's like a really handy way of just getting you into the city. Then you get off the train, go into the metro, get to where you're going, if that's your hotel, or if you're going straight to lunch or whatever it is you're doing.
00:03:52
Yeah, sounds nice.
00:04:00 Justice
UM.
00:04:02 Justice
Which I thought that was a great method like I thought we did the train route, it was affordable.
00:04:07 Hannah Lynn
Yeah, very seamless. It was right there in the right there in the airport, shot us out right near our our hotel, which was wonderful, by the way. But why don't you tell us about that little thing we figured out at the metro station, which I feel like could really save.
00:04:22 Hannah Lynn
Some people, some time.
00:04:23 Justice
Yes. So that was quite the experience. So like normally when you're you got a bunch of people I will just call them tourists because we were one of them all experiencing something for the first time, which in this case was the metro station in Rome. You know normally we.
00:04:40 Justice
Pretty, pretty good about getting away around on foot once we're in some place, but.
00:04:45 Justice
Pretty much we, you know, when you're there, you don't quite understand. Do I get tickets? Do I just like, where do I go? And so like most metro stations are turnstiles. And so we were trying to acquire tickets to get through the turnstile, and it was just kind of chaos. There was all these kiosks everywhere that.
00:05:02 Justice
Large numbers of people were trying to figure out how.
00:05:04 Hannah Lynn
It felt like thousands of people.
00:05:06 Justice
It did. I think it was because it was like a bunch of families all shoulder to shoulder that didn't want to separate while one person went to go get the tickets. But what was like a disappointing moment was like, we waited probably a good 45 minutes to get our tickets and then we turned the corner and see that all the turnstiles have tapped to pay. And it was like, oh gosh, we could have just, like, taken our Apple Pay out and just gone right through, which would totally recommend that.
00:05:08 Hannah Lynn
Yes. Yeah.
00:05:17
Absolute.
00:05:23 Hannah Lynn
It's serious, yeah.
00:05:28 Justice
Right.
00:05:29 Hannah Lynn
Yes, I that was definitely the way to go. Like we we stopped and there were other.
00:05:34 Hannah Lynn
I guess ticketing booths that we could have used, I think everybody congregated in this first one because everyone was a little bit nervous. Oh my gosh, I have to get my tickets. Once you get up there, it's a very confusing kind of situation. But once you get to those turnstiles, which is where you enter into the subway or the metro, all you have to do is tap to pay. And so we obviously have Apple Pay.
00:05:54 Hannah Lynn
On our phones. But even if you had a credit card, you just tap it. It very inexpensive. I don't even think he wasn't up charge to do that. And so for the rest of the trip, every metro that we were on.
00:06:05 Hannah Lynn
That's what we use.
00:06:06 Hannah Lynn
And it was so much quicker, very painless and.
00:06:10 Justice
Yeah. And if you are going to try to go the route of getting like the reusable Metro Card ticket from the kiosk, just do the ones that are in the actual train station. If that's something looking back right at the escalator, I'll try to find a picture of it and put it on our website. But there was no line because I don't.
00:06:19
Yes.
00:06:24 Hannah Lynn
Yeah.
00:06:26 Justice
Think anybody understood?
00:06:27 Justice
That that was for the metro station.
00:06:29 Hannah Lynn
Yeah.
00:06:30 Justice
So.
00:06:30 Justice
That was fun. Good look, experience there. Save you some time. But yeah, the public transportation in general, which you know, we mentioned you could potentially rent a car. We would not suggest renting a car and roll it. It just there's so much public transportation between the metro and buses and that like it's it's not really necessary.
00:06:47 Hannah Lynn
At all. Absolutely. And I think the thing with the public transit.
00:06:50 Hannah Lynn
Is that it kind of puts you everywhere that you need to be. It has all these stops that are really, really helpful. It's very easy to use if that's something that you've never done before. I think it's an easy way to kind of ease into that because it felt like.
00:07:04 Hannah Lynn
Very, you know, beginner friendly metro system. And the other thing that we discovered was the Uber lime scooters, which I think was just one of our favorite experiences. There are these scooters that just are sitting on the sidewalk or in different places. You scan the QR code, you have the Uber LINE app.
00:07:08 Justice
Yeah.
00:07:12 Justice
MHM.
00:07:24 Hannah Lynn
And it's like a $0.50 charge to start the ride, and I want to say $0.25 per mile.
00:07:29 Hannah Lynn
So very affordable and it was a blast. I mean, we were just like riding around the sidewalks, and it was just a very quick way to get everywhere. And if your, if your destination is, like just past walking distance or it would just take a little bit too long, those kind of gave you that extra just a little bit more time efficient while still being super affordable. So.
00:07:32
It was.
00:07:50 Justice
Yeah. And I mean in terms of what you're looking at when you get on a metro station, nothing appealing there to the eyes. But when you're on a scooter and you're rolling around the city like, yeah, tons of see, like, you know, it's just a, it's a fun.
00:07:51 Hannah Lynn
Love that.
00:07:59 Hannah Lynn
Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Great way to see it as well.
00:08:02 Justice
And we have so many videos of us just scooting around on those things. And a funny thing actually too. We noticed. I don't know if anybody has seen, like, the new Mission Impossible movie that came out this past year. But one of the moments in, like, the car chase scene where they're in Rome, they go down this ramp. And I remember you and I in the theater, I looked. And I was like, we went.
00:08:20 Justice
Down that ramp and a scooter just like Tom Cruise.
00:08:21 Hannah Lynn
Yeah, you were skittering there.
00:08:23 Justice
So that was.
00:08:24 Justice
Kind of cool. Yeah, but yes, definitely. The Uber line. I would recommend downloading the app before you get there. Set up your account payment method that way once you get there you just scan the.
00:08:33 Hannah Lynn
QR code on a scooter and go. Yeah. And honestly, I think it even cut down on travel time because there was a lot of traffic.
00:08:40 Hannah Lynn
And we went so a little bit of background. We went during Easter break to Italy and that's something that we didn't really realize when planning that wow, this would be such a big deal since Rome, especially in Italy, is a Catholic nation. So that was definitely it was a cool experience though. I think seeing so many people there being at the Vatican.
00:09:00 Hannah Lynn
The weekend before the weekend of Easter, it was cool. It was a very everyone was really excited. It was kind of buzzing, but with the traffic there and.
00:09:08 Hannah Lynn
Rome it was pretty packed, so I think even if you had rented a car, it was like that would have been.
00:09:14 Hannah Lynn
A little bit crazy.
00:09:15 Justice
Yeah. Yeah. We even tried to rent a Vespa. Yeah, I don't. If you remember that we had it on our plan to rent a Vespa and kind of drive around during that first day just cause, like, you know, you just want to fill some time before, like you said, you just kind of conk out and fall asleep. But it was so much traffic and it was such a hectic time and we had never driven Vespas before. So the person who was going to rent it to us.
00:09:18 Hannah Lynn
Yeah.
00:09:22 Hannah Lynn
Yeah.
00:09:35 Justice
When he asked us that and I said no, I've never really driven one about it, you know, driven on some motorized scooters. And he was like, no, I can't let you out there like you're gonna. You're gonna.
00:09:42
Yeah.
00:09:43 Justice
You're gonna die. This is not not, not today kind of thing. So it was fine. That's when we stumbled upon the Uber line. So it worked.
00:09:47 Hannah Lynn
Yeah.
00:09:51 Justice
Out in the end, dude probably saved our.
00:09:52 Justice
Probably yes. Yes, indeed. And so with that, let's roll into day one. Let's get back to that. So talking about our first day in Rome, we've arrived. We've talked about how we got there. We've talked about just some of those transportation type things. So once we got there, we stayed at the hotel that we booked, which was called the Hotel Centro.
00:10:12 Justice
Before.
00:10:13 Justice
Well, excellent location. Yeah. Like it was, you know, I was hopeful that it would be good. Like you said, we usually verbo and Airbnb. So hotels is not always our thing. But in a city sometimes it is and you have no choice. But this one was fantastic. The staff was really friendly. We, like I said, we got there early. And so, you know, it really wasn't at our check in time yet.
00:10:21
Yes.
00:10:24 Hannah Lynn
Yeah.
00:10:35 Justice
And so you don't want to lug your bags around, but they were so nice they let us Stow the bags away right there in their lobby and a little locked secret area, so kept their bags so we could go sit down, enjoy lunch, walk.
00:10:45 Justice
Around and just a really, really cool atmosphere.
00:10:49 Hannah Lynn
Yeah, they were very accommodating. Everyone was so kind and it was just a really nice environment. It wasn't anything that was, you know, super luxury, but it was just what you needed. Very clean, very, you know, just a nice environment, excellent location. I mean, it was right behind the Roman forum about.
00:11:06 Hannah Lynn
A block from the Coliseum and we could see the Colosseum from our window.
00:11:09 Hannah Lynn
So so I really was very happy with that. And so after we checked in or after they allowed us to, they held our bags for us, which was so nice, kind of a tip there. If you are traveling and you're arriving in the morning, just be aware kind of have an idea of what are you going to do with your luggage, especially with the cobblestone streets and a lot of European cities.
00:11:29 Hannah Lynn
They that's definitely would be an issue, would not have liked to lug that around, just something that we didn't think about beforehand, so.
00:11:35 Hannah Lynn
Just a note on that, but after that we started walking around, we got lunch, just an open air cafe. We kind of said anywhere that has table and chairs in Rome is probably going to have great food. So we kind of just picked a spot, had some pizza, just enjoyed the atmosphere, beautiful weather. It was really, really nice.
00:11:56 Hannah Lynn
So that day we kind of took slow.
00:11:57 Justice
One thing on that I want to mention, if you are anytime.
00:12:01 Justice
You're in a city or just you want to experience some of the culture or just the the atmosphere a little bit, something we always try to do is like have a moment or two where you just kind of stop and you're like people watching. There were a couple instances in Rome not to say that we don't conversate well with each other, but we we had sat down at a restaurant where, like, just kind of like people watched.
00:12:12 Hannah Lynn
Yes.
00:12:21 Hannah Lynn
Yes.
00:12:21 Justice
Got all involved in other people's business for a while and it was really fun actually to just experience the culture around you. Yes. So if you're not?
00:12:25 Hannah Lynn
So fun, yeah.
00:12:29 Justice
Yet you're missing out because it really is a lot.
00:12:32 Justice
Of fun. What?
00:12:33 Hannah Lynn
It almost gives you a peek into people's day-to-day lives, even if it's a tourist or if it's locals. It's just a cool way to see how these people connect in this new environment that you're in. I don't know. It feels like it's giving you this, that little personal peek into their lives. I really liked that.
00:12:50 Justice
Yeah. And so now with with people, of course, there's, like we said, we're there at a very busy time. So there are you gotta understand when you're talking about Rome that there are a lot of things that you want to see. And so there's sort of a a split between.
00:12:56 Hannah Lynn
Yeah.
00:13:07 Justice
What's something that you need to book a tour for? Yeah. In order to see. And then what's something that is just kind of open out in the area and just walk and go see it. And there's a very important thing to decipher there is that if it's not something that you're booking a tour for like Trevi Fountain, Spanish steps, it's just out in the open.
00:13:25 Justice
Even the Coliseum, the outside, you really need to plan for that to like, be the beginning of your day. Yeah. Like if you really want to see those things, get some cool photos of just you there. You have to do that cause after after like 9:00 AM in the morning has been.
00:13:31 Hannah Lynn
Yes.
00:13:33 Hannah Lynn
Great.
00:13:33 Hannah Lynn
Of dawn.
00:13:41 Justice
And it's just shoulder to shoulder with people. Yeah, it's.
00:13:44 Hannah Lynn
It's packed.
00:13:45 Hannah Lynn
Especially those big kind of monuments that, you know, maybe Rome is known for it was, I mean, Chevy Fountain. It was shoulder to shoulder. And you might think that's an exaggeration, but it was somebody here, somebody there, you know? And so like, I would, I would advise if you're at the top and it is shoulder to shoulder and it's very busy.
00:14:04 Hannah Lynn
Take a second, take it in from a distance and just kind of look at it. Think about it. Take that moment and then when you get closer in, you're kind of just trying to weave through traffic at that point. But on that first day we decided to do some non booking tour things cuz like I said, we wanted to take it slow.
00:14:20 Hannah Lynn
Just kind of relax. Mosey around the city, which was really fun. We found the scooters, so we were kind of scooting around. We we walked up to alter of the fatherhood, which was really, really cool to see. We didn't go in, but just kind of took it in as well as the Roman forum kind of walked down, walked through it at our own pace, which was really, really cool.
00:14:41 Hannah Lynn
Something else that we saw was the Jewish ghetto, which was a very interesting experience. I'd had not known about it until we started planning the trip.
00:14:44
Hmm.
00:14:49 Hannah Lynn
And that was a really, really cool experience for us and I really appreciated the history and the honor that it brought. Why don't you tell us?
00:14:58 Justice
A little bit about that. Yeah. So the Jewish ghetto was established in 1555 by Pope Paul the 4th, and it was essentially at that time it was the only place in Rome.
00:15:10 Justice
Where local Jewish people were just permitted to live so very like you said, very honoring to go around and kind of see that area. It's.
00:15:18 Justice
Still, you know all the shops there and everything. There is very, you know, culturally the same in terms of it's it's a lot of, yeah, just Jewish Hebrew things. Yeah.
00:15:25 Hannah Lynn
Yes, there's a lot of kosher restaurants and it was just a really, you know, somber S here, you know, they had a lot of monuments for the Holocaust or things like that. So it was a very special peek into the Jewish people that lived there, especially during that time, and still do I think there's a big population there now.
00:15:46 Hannah Lynn
Window so that was a cool little gem that I wouldn't have.
00:15:47 Justice
Yeah.
00:15:50 Hannah Lynn
Known about so share that.
00:15:51 Justice
Yeah, definitely. And it's right there. It's like right behind the Roman forum. You just walk through one little alleyway and all of a sudden you're in it.
00:15:54 Hannah Lynn
Yes. Yeah.
00:15:57 Justice
You know, really, really accessible if you're staying in the middle of the city for sure. And then we finished off the day after sort of going on this little exploration adventure we did. We finished off with dinner at this restaurant called Labas. And so Labas was another one of those kind of open air. It had the inside, but we sat on the outside because the weather was just lovely at this.
00:16:15 Hannah Lynn
Yes. Yeah.
00:16:17 Justice
I'm I think you had a form of pasta which was not the first pasta that we had in Italy, yeah.
00:16:22 Hannah Lynn
Of course, wouldn't get a laugh.
00:16:26 Justice
And then I had a like a seafood shrimp. Yeah. Dinner that was very good. And like, normally we're from New Orleans, right. So like anything seafood, it's a high standard where it's like, you know, it's risky getting us, but.
00:16:38 Justice
They turn out not up to my standard.
00:16:39 Hannah Lynn
No, that was.
00:16:40 Hannah Lynn
I would I.
00:16:41 Hannah Lynn
Would say that that was probably the best seafood that we had. Yeah, I don't know if it's because it's a little bit closer to the coast, but I was more impressed with that than any other seafood that we had tried.
00:16:52 Justice
Yeah, I believe we attempted again in Venice. But you're right, it was the first day there in Rome where we had the best seafood. Yes, indeed.
00:16:57 Hannah Lynn
Very, very good.
00:17:00 Justice
Well, with that, let's move on over into day 2. Day two was Good Friday and so very, very busy time. This is now if anybody else hasn't arrived for the holiday, they were then there at that day. And so we the.
00:17:12 Hannah Lynn
They are here.
00:17:16 Justice
But.
00:17:16 Justice
Let's go to the Vatican City on Good Friday. What's the worst that could happen? Right? And so, day two was primarily Vatican City. This was something that we definitely had to get a tour booked. We didn't, you know, we knew through a research we should probably get a tour so we could just make the experience better. But we did not know until we got there how vital that was. Do you want to?
00:17:18 Hannah Lynn
Why not?
00:17:38 Justice
Kind of explain what the atmosphere was like when we were there.
00:17:40 Hannah Lynn
Yes, I mean, hustle, bustle. It was buzzing with you know, energy, but something that our tour guide pointed out while we were walking through, he said, you know, take a look at the line and the line was wrapped around the.
00:17:52 Justice
Building by the buildings, you mean the Vatican? It was wrapped around the city.
00:17:56 Hannah Lynn
Basically, uh. And so our tour guide kind of pointed out he's like the people in this line are not going to even make it in. And I thought, Oh my gosh, they have been waiting for six hours and they're not even making it in today. And from a previous experience, it was it was similar. And we had gone in early.
00:18:16 Hannah Lynn
February at that time.
00:18:17 Hannah Lynn
So I think that that's just a pretty normal thing. So if you are wanting to see the Vatican because I know we had kind of talked about like hey, we kind of want to do a self-paced thing and kind of spend our time and enjoy it and not get a tour be rushed through. But it was vital. I would say if you want to see and you want to have that experience, do it and we loved it.
00:18:38 Hannah Lynn
I mean, we learned so many cool things. Just our tour guide was incredible. The Tour Company we went through was really, really awesome. We went through, get your guide and we did the.
00:18:48 Hannah Lynn
Royal.
00:18:49 Hannah Lynn
Tour group. Yeah, and highly recommend that'll be. We'll link that on the exact tour that we have. It might be a different guide, but they were all phenomenal. I mean, I really just appreciated their personality and you know just how personal they were as well as just sharing so much knowledge.
00:18:49 Justice
Royal tours. Yes. What's the name of them?
00:19:05 Justice
Yeah, yeah. And then in terms of just like getting started, it was, you know, very, very easy to locate like they give specific instructions of, like, you're gonna come to this coordinate, you're gonna look for a purple flag. That's us. Come check in very quick very.
00:19:14
Yes.
00:19:21 Justice
Easy. They give us a quick sort of, hey, we're going into a large crowd. Just look for my flag. If you get lost. My name is Alejandro or something like that. Like we're gonna just go in. So very easy to get started. And so definitely recommend that specific.
00:19:27
Yeah.
00:19:29
Yeah, yeah.
00:19:35 Hannah Lynn
Tour and of course, with the Vatican City, I mean it is just an artist paradise.
00:19:42 Hannah Lynn
It was so incredible. Just seeing all of this art and getting that little tidbit ahead of time like Alessandro had.
00:19:51 Hannah Lynn
Had these printouts, these laminated pictures and he kind of walked us through this Sistine Chapel and it was so cool seeing, like broken down the the Genesis story creation of man all the way through all the stories of Genesis, as well as that last judgement that's on the wall in the Sistine Chapel. It was really cool. And one of my favorite things.
00:20:11 Hannah Lynn
As he said that Michelangelo, you know, he was a little spicy. He had a chip on his shoulder. He's like, don't mess with me, especially by the time he did the Sistine Chapel. He's like, I'm the best of the best. And so one of the grounds keeper.
00:20:15 Justice
Yes, yes, that's the right word.
00:20:20
Yes.
00:20:24 Hannah Lynn
One of the groundskeepers, he I think, started complaining to maybe one of the Cardinals or even to Michelangelo. And he's like there's so much nudity here, we can't have this in a Chapel. Like, what are we doing? And Michelangelo did not want to hear it. And so he had actually added him in, gave him a little cameo. And he was like, being tortured by a serpent.
00:20:44 Hannah Lynn
He was like, Oh my God. And he.
00:20:45 Hannah Lynn
Had donkey ears.
00:20:46 Justice
Yes.
00:20:46 Hannah Lynn
Yeah. So it was just really cool seeing those little details. And then we got in there. I had my eyes out for that. You know, so.
00:20:53 Hannah Lynn
I really, I loved that part of it.
00:20:54 Justice
That was like the original Renaissance era.
00:20:57 Justice
Yeah. Yeah. And so he definitely had a bit of a chip on his shoulder, as they say. So that wasn't even the first one that he had even in the Vatican. There was another instance early in his career where in the Saint Peters Basilica where he did the Pieta, which is the.
00:21:09
Yeah.
00:21:11 Hannah Lynn
In the baseline.
00:21:17 Justice
Statue the beautiful statue of yeah. Of Jesus. And after he got carried off the cross and his mother was holding him. And so.
00:21:19 Hannah Lynn
Probably my favorite sculpture.
00:21:22 Hannah Lynn
His mother? Yeah.
00:21:26 Justice
Apparently there were some rumors back in the day that he didn't do that. That wasn't his, but even that was like his first big piece. So.
00:21:30 Hannah Lynn
Yeah.
00:21:34 Hannah Lynn
It was like the Lombardi visitors from Milan and he's like I hate no one more than these guys and they're saying if someone from Milan.
00:21:38
Yes, yes.
00:21:41 Justice
Yeah. Yeah. So he actually went in and chiseled his name into the statue and was like, no.
00:21:44 Hannah Lynn
Yeah.
00:21:46 Justice
It's going to forget now, but this is mine.
00:21:47 Hannah Lynn
Yes, right there on the sash. So if you look up closer, you see a close picture, you'll see that engraving. And that was actually after he finished that he had locked himself into the basilica one night after he heard that overheard that conversation. And he was like, absolutely not. We are not going to let this room work.
00:22:04 Justice
Oh my gosh, it's crazy. Ohh man. So yeah, so many lovely things in the Vatican. It's there's so many fun little facts you'll learn to on that tour. Just like here and stuff like that. It's the obviously, it's the smallest country in the world.
00:22:05 Hannah Lynn
Love it.
00:22:17 Justice
Yeah, but it's also got the highest crime rate per capita because they're so low of population. And I guess 10 bit pockets. And next thing you know, they're the highest. Yeah, thing that was, that was kind of fun. There was a lot of really interesting stuff outside of those big masterpieces, too, as we're going through, like, the maps room where you got to see all the really old maps that people had.
00:22:20
With that.
00:22:32 Hannah Lynn
Yes.
00:22:34
Nice.
00:22:36 Hannah Lynn
Some of the very first maps you average on.
00:22:36 Justice
Drawn up.
00:22:37 Justice
Very cool. They had these paintings on the ceiling.
00:22:41 Justice
Through one of the hallways, I forget which hallway it was, but there was these. You had asked the tour guide about it too, because it looked like it was 3 dimensional and so you had said like, is that like a like a glass and a 3D painting or something? And he was like, no, that's 2D. And it was like mind blowing that somebody could paint 2D and make it look 3D.
00:22:48 Hannah Lynn
Absolutely, yeah.
00:22:53 Hannah Lynn
Yeah, like what's going on?
00:22:59 Hannah Lynn
Yeah, I just, I just stood there and stared.
00:23:02 Hannah Lynn
Like there is 0% chance that that is painting. I mean, it's unbelievable. Yeah, that was really it. Had that kind of cameo effect and it was just really, really special. That was a highlight for me as well, like, wow.
00:23:16 Justice
Yeah. Yeah. And so we didn't get to go to the top of the basilicus Dome. I know you can go up there.
00:23:21 Hannah Lynn
Yes.
00:23:22 Justice
In this particular day, which is probably also why I was exceptionally crowded was the Pope was actually speaking there that day. So they shut the basilica down at like noon. So like you said, there's people lined up.
00:23:27
Yeah, that's right.
00:23:31 Justice
Don't know if they knew that, but they were definitely not going to get into the basilica for sure, so all the more importance to booking a tour, especially that tour. It took us through the the whole Vatican Museum.
00:23:32 Hannah Lynn
I know, I know.
00:23:42 Hannah Lynn
And you have a special.
00:23:42 Justice
Entrance. Yes, you have an entrance that cuts the whole basilica line as well, so they just, like, take a side exit right near the end of the museum and walk you right into the basilica. And if you wanted to go try to get a ticket to get up to the roof, you absolutely could. But just a phenomenal time in the Vatican City and these museums, seeing all the wonderful pieces of art and the masterpieces.
00:24:03 Justice
You mentioned that you know we wanted to potentially try to self pace, but it was another fun fact that he said it was that if you stopped for just one minute at each piece in the Vatican just one minute, that's like anything on the wall or anything. It's like a statue of painting, whatever it would take you at least like a decade to see everything you'd be in there for 10 years.
00:24:24
Yeah.
00:24:24 Justice
Trying to see everything and it's just like.
00:24:26 Justice
Wow, that's just insane. Yeah, so a lot of cool things to see. Definitely 10 out of 10.
00:24:28 Hannah Lynn
You know, it was wild. It's wild.
00:24:33 Justice
Commend you have to see it once in your life. You can't pass on that. I think you've seen.
00:24:36 Hannah Lynn
Absolutely, absolutely.
00:24:38 Justice
It twice now.
00:24:38 Hannah Lynn
Yeah, happy about it.
00:24:41 Justice
Too, yes. But yeah, so after we left the Vatican, we had another sort of impromptu fun moment.
00:24:47 Justice
Yes.
00:24:48 Justice
Is back to the Uber line thing, except this time we didn't get on scooters. We found there were some Uber line bikes sitting around.
00:24:50
Hmm.
00:24:54 Hannah Lynn
Yeah, they were like half electric too.
00:24:57 Justice
Yeah. So like he started to pedal and it kind of speeds up a little bit, but these were awesome. We were trying to figure out where we can ride them because there was a lot of foot traffic and you know, crossing all kinds.
00:25:06 Justice
Of streets was maybe kind of tricky, but yeah.
00:25:09 Justice
Don't know. We were supposed to or not. We carried him down a flight of stairs to the actual river Tiber, which is the river that runs through the city. And they had, like, a jogging path and a bike path down there. So, I mean, it was meant for biking, but I don't know about the Uber line bikes, but we did it, and I recommend you.
00:25:15
Yeah, yeah.
00:25:18 Hannah Lynn
Yeah, there were tons of.
00:25:19 Hannah Lynn
People coming here.
00:25:24 Justice
Do it too, because.
00:25:25 Justice
It was a lot of fun. It was so neat. Yeah.
00:25:27 Justice
Tell me about it.
00:25:28 Hannah Lynn
It was just such a cool experience. I mean, there are these large kind of sea wall.
00:25:34 Hannah Lynn
And so you're riding and people are jogging past you. Beautiful weather, seeing the Little River boats go by. And I just, I really enjoyed that time. That was like kind of a slow moment that we could kind of just take in what we had just seen. And so that was a really good time.
00:25:53 Justice
It was almost like nobody else.
00:25:54 Justice
Knew about it, either because there was like only people on there were people who live there, who were like, just exercising, like. Other than that, it was just us cruising around these bikes. And like you said, beautiful views. There was like this Ivy. I remember kind of growing up the sea walls, the riverboats going.
00:25:55 Hannah Lynn
Yes. Yeah.
00:25:58 Hannah Lynn
Yeah.
00:26:00
That's true.
00:26:07
Yes. Yeah.
00:26:10 Justice
Eye. It was just a great experience and beautiful weather to do so. We kind of finished at just if you're looking on a map or trying to figure out where we did this or how we got to this restaurant, we're about to mention we finished sort of at the Temple University Rome, which is right there by a bridge. And so we came up on the West side of the river.
00:26:30 Justice
Across from the Temple University, yes. And then we basically like the beauty of your lime. You just park it and the ride wherever doesn't really matter as long as it's not in a restricted zone. And we just waltzed into the little neighborhood.
00:26:43 Justice
We were looking for lunch at this time, and so we found this awesome place. Why don't you tell them about that?
00:26:48 Hannah Lynn
Yes. So that was really great. We started walking around Piazza Giuseppe Massini and that area was gorgeous. I could have spent all day there. We're from New Orleans area, so it really gave me that Uptown feel. Saint Charles Ave. you know, with the trees, I think there was even like, was there a street?
00:27:04 Justice
Yeah.
00:27:08 Justice
I think there was.
00:27:09 Hannah Lynn
Yeah. And so that was just a really special little area that I really, really fell in love with.
00:27:14 Hannah Lynn
We even rode the bikes. I think a little bit into that area and we got lunch there and another open air cafe and it was Cacho Pepe, which is Italian for cheese and pepper. So that's like a really cool simple pasta. I mean, it's literally cheese and pepper.
00:27:31 Justice
Simple ingredients, yes.
00:27:31
With pasta.
00:27:34 Hannah Lynn
Absolutely delicious. I I mean, I remember reading about it before we went and everyone was raving about it. I'm thinking that's really odd. You know, I wouldn't think of that. That. Ohh. My gosh it.
00:27:36 Justice
Yeah, yeah.
00:27:43 Hannah Lynn
Was just so good.
00:27:44 Justice
And while we're talking about food and lunch, why don't I go ahead and kind of clarify. There's three sort of main.
00:27:51 Justice
Restaurant types that you're gonna come across, not just in Rome, but really all across Italy. That it's important if you're kind of spontaneously looking for food like we were that you kind of know the difference is. Yeah. And so the first one is Osteria. Yeah. Which is sort of your kind of cheap, unassuming communal table, maybe situation where.
00:28:00 Hannah Lynn
Just another.
00:28:11 Justice
You know the food? Not that it's not good, but it's just it's very delicious. It's just like a very, very casual kind of dining there.
00:28:13
Oh.
00:28:15
Casual.
00:28:18 Justice
The second is Trattoria, which is more of your traditional. It's going to have a small menu. It's affordable in most cases. These are family run restaurants, so that's kind of like your middle tier. And then your your third tier there is the Ristorante. So if you see restaurants, it's more of your formal dinner, multiple courses available on certain like a tasting menu.
00:28:26 Hannah Lynn
Yes. Yeah, that's a big thing.
00:28:38 Justice
That thing. So if you're going for, yeah. If you're going for that sort of that white tablecloth look, Ristorante, which you're looking.
00:28:40 Hannah Lynn
Fine dining.
00:28:44
Yeah.
00:28:45 Justice
For.
00:28:46 Hannah Lynn
Well, and I've actually something about the food. I found it very affordable, even at the restaurant.
00:28:50 Justice
Yes.
00:28:52 Hannah Lynn
Days or anywhere we went, I was very surprised by the prices. It was really, really affordable.
00:28:58 Justice
Yeah.
00:28:58 Justice
Yeah, coming from. Yeah. Coming from America, where it was like you. You order an appetizer and a lunch. And it was so expensive you could hear. And it was like, oh, what do you mean? The entree is only 750.
00:29:10 Justice
Like, that's really weird. Wow, that's odd.
00:29:10 Hannah Lynn
Yeah.
00:29:12 Justice
So another great thing like your your budget for food can actually come down a little bit unless you're going all out, which we'll talk about in the third day, which we cannot wait to talk about. So.
00:29:13
Yeah, that was really cool.
00:29:16 Hannah Lynn
Yeah, which?
00:29:19
Yes.
00:29:22 Justice
After that lunch, we took a nice long walk. We went to the Villa Borghese Gardens, which was like a really large park. It's called gardens, but it's a massive park. All kinds of great gardens and all kinds of botanical gardens and like.
00:29:27
Yes.
00:29:31 Hannah Lynn
Yeah.
00:29:34 Hannah Lynn
Really neat. A little pond you could rent little boats in the pond. There were little I want to say rides, but kind of like a sweet swings and little things for kids to do as well. Really cute cafe. Of course. So that was a really cool gym that we had never heard of.
00:29:37 Justice
Yeah, yeah.
00:29:52 Hannah Lynn
Out, but would definitely recommend that was a really cool experience. Yes, yeah.
00:29:56 Justice
Yes. And if there's one thing that there's just never short of is the opportunity to get cappuccinos and lattes, you know, they're everywhere. Every. It's like the expected drink order. If it's daytime, when you're sitting down to eat is like a coffee a latte.
00:30:02 Hannah Lynn
Oh, absolutely.
00:30:10 Hannah Lynn
Cappuccino and a cool little experience there.
00:30:13 Hannah Lynn
I was, you know, trying to learn a little Italian before I went. I try to do that every trip we go on just to be able to communicate a little. I think it's important for that culture to show them that.
00:30:21 Hannah Lynn
Trying and so I actually when I just used Duolingo for 90 days, I mean I had a 90 day streak and I was like, all right, maybe and when I got there, I really could communicate fairly well, I say, but I was in line and I said something and the guy in front of me kind of turned around and he asked me if I was French.
00:30:42 Hannah Lynn
And I was like, what do you mean? And and I ended up saying something about New Orleans. And he's like, oh, yeah, so, you know. And so he's speaking to me in French.
00:30:48 Hannah Lynn
And I'm like, I know a little Italian. And so he starts speaking Italian. I'm like, no.
00:30:53 Hannah Lynn
I don't know.
00:30:55 Hannah Lynn
And so then he switches English. And I'm like this is so cool. You know, this trilingual guy. So that was just a cool experience that you'll see the Italian people are so loving, so friendly.
00:30:58 Justice
This is this is amazing.
00:31:08 Justice
Yeah. And I kind of took advantage of your Duolingo and I was supposed to, I think, keep up with you, but there was a couple of moments where we were calling to reserve certain things and I would.
00:31:16 Justice
Actually dial the number and have it start ringing and then hand you the phone.
00:31:19 Justice
You're like, you know how to.
00:31:20 Justice
Talk to them. You figure it.
00:31:21 Justice
Out 8:00.
00:31:22 Hannah Lynn
Punch our nose, yeah.
00:31:24 Hannah Lynn
Yeah. So that was, yeah, that was really fun. And then after that, we went to.
00:31:25 Justice
So that.
00:31:25 Justice
That.
00:31:26 Justice
Like.
00:31:28 Hannah Lynn
The.
00:31:28 Hannah Lynn
Spanish steps, which was a really cool experience. I think that was something that was a nice quick little thing to see. Like we said, those kind of you don't have to book anything for that. That was a cool experience. So we walked up, you kind of see the.
00:31:29
MHM.
00:31:40 Hannah Lynn
Taps you get to the top and just take it in. You know you're seeing Rome from almost like an aerial view, you know.
00:31:47 Hannah Lynn
And that was really cool. And then we walked down into this little square there. So that was cool. It didn't take as much time as we expected. I think we were planning for something a little bit longer, but once we got there, we kind of realized, oh, this is just a really cool stop in the day that again, if you want to kind of have it more to yourself, go in the morning.
00:32:07 Hannah Lynn
Before everything kind of gets started, when we were there, there was more of a crowd because we had done that in the afternoon. Yeah, but it wasn't crowd. I wouldn't say it was crowded or anything. There were just a lot of people around. But yeah, so that was.
00:32:19 Hannah Lynn
Just a cute little stop.
00:32:21 Justice
Yeah, definitely. And so after that, we progressed with just walking back to our.
00:32:26 Justice
We tell speaks to how great the hotel location was that we just decided to walk. It wasn't like, you know, we even had to Uber line or even had to take a take a metro from the Spanish steps. We walked. And so we got back. We did actually have sort of a dinner recommendation from my sister-in-law.
00:32:29 Hannah Lynn
Yes, truly, yeah.
00:32:46 Justice
Shout out to her. Yeah, shout out to Julie. She had recommended this restaurant called V and Me. And so this was sort of at the southwest corner of Circo Massimo or Circus Maximus.
00:32:46 Hannah Lynn
Shout out Julia.
00:32:58 Justice
Which is just South of the Coliseum, just S like very close. Yeah. So before we mentioned that there was another, it's another scooter experience. But it was so funny because this is still Good Friday. And so we were heading out from our hotel. Our plan was to just literally walking distance.
00:33:01 Hannah Lynn
Just South and very.
00:33:18 Justice
Go straight across straight across the the Colosseum straight past.
00:33:22 Justice
Circus Maximus and just be at the restaurant. It was going to be a very short walk and then all of a sudden we got to a walk in and we saw that the Pope was actually going to be at the Colosseum, doing like this night lighting. Yeah. It was like this really cool experience they were doing. So they had the thing guarded off, obviously, where the Pope goes, it's very secure. So they.
00:33:32 Hannah Lynn
That night.
00:33:34 Hannah Lynn
Cross carrier or something?
00:33:40 Hannah Lynn
Yeah, they had. Like it was guarded and like the streets were closed. They were like, how do we?
00:33:46 Justice
Get through. Yeah, so old reliable Uber lime scooters we got on those took a.
00:33:46
Yes.
00:33:51 Justice
Tour probably ended up on a road. We were not. It was like a four lane traffic road and there was no real sidewalks.
00:33:51 Hannah Lynn
Yes.
00:33:57 Justice
So.
00:33:57 Justice
We were just like, kind of like right there, right there in the lane a little bit. There was enough red lights where we weren't like danger in any way. But it was a like a core memory. I feel like of our experiences, we took this long little Rd. around, but we got there.
00:33:59 Hannah Lynn
Come on, Gus.
00:34:09
1.
00:34:12 Justice
Really nice restaurant. Like for some reason I remember that night too being.
00:34:15 Justice
A little.
00:34:15 Justice
Chilly. Yeah, but we were able. They had outdoor seating and they had all the gas lanterns and stuff. Really cool atmosphere. Yeah, but we ended up sitting down inside, and that was.
00:34:22 Hannah Lynn
Yes.
00:34:28 Justice
In my opinion, like one of our first hey, we're going for like a sort of bigger meal than just like a. This was our first really, hey, we chose this restaurant ahead of time other than just, like walking around and finding one but delicious food.
00:34:34
Yes.
00:34:37 Hannah Lynn
Yeah.
00:34:42 Hannah Lynn
Yes, very gourmet it was, you know, a lot about experience in the presentation, but still like a small, small little feel for the restaurant. So that was that was a highlight that was really good.
00:34:53 Justice
Yeah, so moving into day three in Rome, this was our last day.
00:34:59 Justice
In Rome, before we took off for Tuscany the next day.
00:35:03 Justice
A little bit kind of a open-ended, didn't have much of A you know we just did the Vatican. We weren't particularly doing any kind of Colosseum tour. Yeah, I know there was something you had done before. I wasn't, like, super interested in going inside. Based off pictures I've seen. So we just kind of walked around the outside, which is really beautiful, just such a cool.
00:35:10
Mm-hmm.
00:35:15
Yes.
00:35:22
It was.
00:35:24 Justice
Piece of history and then we we actually went to the pantheon at this time. So after we got off the bus, the rain had kind of gone away at this point and we so we ended up at the Pantheon, which is very interesting because I thought that was one of those things we would just sort of look at the outside I.
00:35:27
Yes, that is right.
00:35:37 Justice
Don't know if we would be allowed in or not, but.
00:35:39 Justice
Mm-hmm.
00:35:40 Justice
It it was, it was. It was pretty crowded because this was not early in the morning kind of thing, but there was this tour that was getting ready to get started. So just so you know, the tour set up is it's free. I think as long as you book a time slot where you're allowed to go in by yourself, like there's no tour, you just kind of go in. But it's time slotted so.
00:35:45 Hannah Lynn
Yes.
00:35:54 Hannah Lynn
Yes.
00:35:57 Hannah Lynn
Yes.
00:35:59 Hannah Lynn
You would have to reserve that.
00:36:00 Justice
Yes, you'd have to reserve your time. So we showed up when there was, like the next time slots weren't available till night. But they had a tour going in an English tour and they all of a sudden they were just like we have three spots to fill. Like three people didn't show up and.
00:36:14 Justice
We were like sign.
00:36:15 Justice
Us up. We'll go. So. And it was a great tour. I didn't know anything about the pantheon.
00:36:15
OK, that's great.
00:36:18
Right.
00:36:20 Justice
Thing in and I feel like I learned all about it. The old probably see on our website there's a lot of pictures of the ceiling of that place was so awesome. Why don't you kind of describe?
00:36:20
Yeah.
00:36:26
Yes.
00:36:28 Hannah Lynn
Yeah, that was really cool. So it was like an architectural wonder, especially for the time that it was built. But it was a Dome and the center of the Dome at the top is open air. And they actually built this the ceiling of the Dome is a.
00:36:43 Hannah Lynn
Calendar and so they have these little almost like cut outs in the wall and each little square is for a week and then inside of that there's kind of inside in lane are like the days of the week. So based on the shadow of the sun, that's how they use their calendar and how they knew which even like it's a Thursday in this month and this day of the month.
00:37:04 Hannah Lynn
And so that I.
00:37:05 Hannah Lynn
Think blew our minds. We were just.
00:37:06 Justice
Yes.
00:37:07 Hannah Lynn
Like why that is so amazing.
00:37:09 Justice
For being so long ago, it was like a it was like a sundial on steroids. It was crazy. It was wild. So I enjoyed that tour. Our tour guide was pretty funny. I just had this little kind of dry British humor kind of thing, and he was pretty, pretty funny. So I enjoyed that. After that we walked through.
00:37:10
Yes.
00:37:13 Hannah Lynn
I know it was really, really cool.
00:37:16 Hannah Lynn
Yes.
00:37:18 Hannah Lynn
He was great. You.
00:37:26 Justice
Piazza Navona it picked up with rain again. At that point you haggled for a nice umbrella for one of the street vendors, which was kind of fun. And so we took some nice photos walking around Plaza Navona, and then we ended up at the.
00:37:27 Hannah Lynn
Yes.
00:37:29 Hannah Lynn
Yeah, I was coming down.
00:37:34 Justice
Yeah.
00:37:40 Justice
Trevi.
00:37:40 Justice
Fountain. So this was kind of like our open air go see sort of the open air.
00:37:41 Hannah Lynn
Yes.
00:37:45 Justice
Things that you don't have to have a tour for, but Trevi Fountain was nice. You mentioned earlier shoulder to shoulder, crowded.
00:37:49
That's cool.
00:37:51 Justice
But taking a moment to sort of like, look at it from a distance, experience it before you kind of wage your way through the crowd to try to get your photos, which, you know people are.
00:38:00 Justice
Happy.
00:38:00 Justice
To to take your photo for you.
00:38:01
Yes.
00:38:02 Hannah Lynn
I was very surprised by that. She kind of had to squeeze in and make your way down, but once you did, everyone was kind of like trading phone. Like when we get a picture of you and we threw her coin, made her wish. You know, that was really fun. And then we took our moment. We went to a cafe, we did some people watching there. We just enjoyed it again. It was raining. It was a little bit cold. So just kind of getting indoors. But.
00:38:21 Hannah Lynn
That was a that was.
00:38:22 Hannah Lynn
A early seat time, yeah, yeah.
00:38:24 Justice
Definitely. And then we we finished off this day with probably one of our if not the top experience of the entire trip. So and I know we're teasing it quite a bit, but we had planned before we went there we said you know.
00:38:35 Justice
Yeah.
00:38:44 Justice
We've never been to a Michelin star restaurant in our life. I hear all about it all the time. I think we saw rent a movie with Bradley Cooper. They was talking about Michelin stars. And we're like, what's up? You know, we gotta try one of those. And so we thought, what better place than Rome? Surely it's got to have a few of those things. Right. And so I did some pretty.
00:38:52 Hannah Lynn
Oh yeah.
00:38:58
Of course.
00:39:01 Justice
Research on that. There's one that's a three star that's really like, I'm sure the food is phenomenal stuff. It's really, really old. It's been there for a long time. We did not go with that one. We went with one that I think had two Michelin stars, but very modern, very new, fantastic experience. But we're going to dive into this experience because it was just so amazing.
00:39:07
Yes.
00:39:08 Hannah Lynn
Uh-huh.
00:39:16 Hannah Lynn
And.
00:39:21 Justice
So the the hotel where it's located is called the Hotel Eden. It's to the sort of southeast of the Spanish steps, not by much. You just get to Metro and you get dropped off pretty close. Maybe a 5 minute walk. The restaurant is called La Terraza.
00:39:22
Yes.
00:39:31
Yeah.
00:39:36 Justice
And.
00:39:37 Justice
It was. I'll just quote one of your quotes from the night you said it was a spiritual experience with food, which I had never heard. Something like that before. But please tell us what your spiritual experience.
00:39:46 Hannah Lynn
Felt.
00:39:51 Justice
With food was.
00:39:53 Hannah Lynn
I had never experienced anything like this. I honestly I left.
00:39:57 Hannah Lynn
Feeling like change?
00:39:58 Hannah Lynn
Person like this whole new world opened up before me and I was like, what just happened to me? Yeah, it was. It was incredible. Not only. And we'll start with location.
00:40:10
Mm-hmm.
00:40:10
It.
00:40:11 Hannah Lynn
Was amazing. Got this. I mean panoramic aerial view of Rome, which was gorgeous during sunset.
00:40:12 Justice
Beautiful.
00:40:17
Yeah.
00:40:19 Justice
Yes, the view the the panoramic view was phenomenal. So fun fact. The Saint Peters Basilica in the Vatican.
00:40:28 Justice
Nothing in Rome is allowed to be built taller than that. So when you start getting up to like the 5th and 6th floors of buildings like this restaurant was, you literally can oversee like most, if not all of Rome. And so you could see all the way to the Vatican. You could see the Dome. You could see all the way to the Coliseum. Like you could see all these amazing things just in this giant window. And like you said.
00:40:30 Hannah Lynn
Yes.
00:40:38 Hannah Lynn
Everything.
00:40:39 Hannah Lynn
Yes.
00:40:46
Yeah.
00:40:49 Justice
Sunset. It was. The atmosphere was amazing.
00:40:53 Hannah Lynn
So we got there. We're looking at this menu and there were some choices. I think we were kind of between two course or three core. So we both decided to go for the three course, go all out and.
00:41:03 Hannah Lynn
And.
00:41:04 Hannah Lynn
So all of a sudden you put your order in and they just brought us something. And I'm, like, looking at justice. Like, I don't think we.
00:41:08
Yeah.
00:41:11 Justice
Ordered this. Yeah, this is this. Seems like a little. It's like a tiny.
00:41:15 Hannah Lynn
Yeah. And I was like, so we actually ended up asking the guy which I'm looking. I'm like, looking back like, oh, my gosh, you should have played it. Cool. But we're like, what is this? So he's like, these are little kisses from the kitchen. They called them. So they just kept bringing.
00:41:28 Justice
Yeah, that's so cute.
00:41:30 Hannah Lynn
About these just really small one bite little treats. Some of them were like in test tubes like it was just. It was so cool. It was all about experience. The taste obviously just awakened every sense that you had. But even just the small portions and they were on these little stone dishes. Or I remember one looked like a big Lima bean.
00:41:40 Justice
Yes.
00:41:44 Justice
Hmm.
00:41:52 Hannah Lynn
I was just like, these are really cool on these little cushions.
00:41:55 Hannah Lynn
Things and but speaking about opening your senses, why don't you tell us about that experience?
00:41:58
Wow.
00:42:00 Justice
Yes. So there was an experience that I had like none other in a restaurant that is for sure. So one of my selections, I think it was sort of like the appetizer or the preemie as they call it, this was like pasta dish. I believe it was Cache de Pepe, which we had earlier.
00:42:10
Mm-hmm.
00:42:17 Justice
But what they did before I could eat said pasta. They came out with a sort of like this cauldron that was filled with boiling water and all the spices that apparently they were going to use in the pasta dish. And so the goal was I was going to awaken my senses to those seasonings.
00:42:27 Hannah Lynn
Yeah, some.
00:42:28 Hannah Lynn
Herbal tea, yeah.
00:42:37 Justice
And So what they did is they took the boiling cauldron of water and they poured liquid nitrogen into it to where it became this plume of of smells and seasonings. And it just.
00:42:47
Wow.
00:42:49 Justice
Literally shot up in the air, came flowing down the table and I was supposed to breathe it in and.
00:42:50 Hannah Lynn
Yes.
00:42:53 Justice
Like it was.
00:42:54 Hannah Lynn
Hang it up to your face, shut the screen back. Yeah.
00:42:55 Justice
It was crazy. It was like this is wild. This is.
00:42:58 Hannah Lynn
We're going to definitely add pictures because that was unbelievable.
00:42:59 Justice
Yes, pictures, videos. It was crazy. The person next to us got it as well. Like this, this sweet lady. And she was just.
00:43:05 Hannah Lynn
Yes.
00:43:07
Yeah.
00:43:08 Justice
Ohh my gosh she.
00:43:09 Hannah Lynn
Is having a.
00:43:09 Justice
You're in for it. Like that's gonna be great.
00:43:12 Justice
No. So that was really cool. The pasta was phenomenal. Everything we ate. Like when you when you think Ohh. This is like people said like oh, this is the best steak I've ever had or something like that. Everything we ate there was like not only is this the best I've ever had, but this is also stuff I've never even heard of before and stuff I've never even thought I would ever.
00:43:29 Hannah Lynn
Yeah, yeah.
00:43:32 Justice
Try, but it was delicious like you had.
00:43:33 Hannah Lynn
Yeah.
00:43:35 Justice
This we just called it the Italian gusher. Like, why don't you tell us about?
00:43:38 Justice
The Italian gusher.
00:43:40 Hannah Lynn
Ohh my gosh, so this was a little ravioli filled with broth. Didn't know was possible on these little rounds of beef tongue which was I was not a fan of. I was like oh man, I don't know what I'm going to do.
00:43:55 Hannah Lynn
I didn't realize that that's what it was.
00:43:56 Hannah Lynn
And so I got it and I don't want to be dramatic, but it it was the best thing that I've ever tasted in my.
00:44:04 Hannah Lynn
Entire life. Truly.
00:44:06 Hannah Lynn
And so it was on this little presentation on what the beef tongue was almost like a little cracker and excellent flavor, even the texture was really good, which I wasn't expecting anyway. So put it in your mouth and it's kind of like a.
00:44:11
Yeah.
00:44:19 Hannah Lynn
One bite thing because she bit into.
00:44:22 Hannah Lynn
That ravioli.
00:44:24 Hannah Lynn
The explosion of flavor.
00:44:29 Hannah Lynn
Unreal. Unreal. Yeah.
00:44:31 Justice
Truly, I wouldn't know what it tastes like though, because apparently it was so delicious that I could have none of them. You, you you would not share any.
00:44:38 Hannah Lynn
Absolutely not. I stand by my decision. He, like, looks at me and I'm like, literally my face just drops. I'm like.
00:44:47 Hannah Lynn
I feel like I was going through the wormhole of.
00:44:49 Hannah Lynn
Like and he's like, oh, can I taste that?
00:44:53 Hannah Lynn
I'm like, is that a joke?
00:44:56 Hannah Lynn
Absolutely not.
00:44:57 Justice
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But no, I mean, it looked amazing. And like you said, I've never heard of a broth being put in a being put in a ravioli.
00:45:01
So good.
00:45:03 Hannah Lynn
Yes, which is really, really it was just awesome. And then for my main course, I got the secret of Ibiza, which was underneath the pork under the arm. Yeah. And so was this little pocket of very tender.
00:45:15 Justice
Like armpit.
00:45:21 Hannah Lynn
Pork essentially, and it had this potato souffle or potato puree, which was really good. I mean, just the flake. Like, it sounds like a simple dish, but when you see the presentation and you just think about the flavors, it's like, wow, this is special. This was not just a meal at a cool restaurant.
00:45:41 Hannah Lynn
It really was almost like an art experience. You like experiencing art in a new way, living color, you know. Anyway, it was very, very cool. And you had some really cool chicken. Yeah, which was unusual.
00:45:46 Justice
Yeah.
00:45:51 Justice
I did. I did. Normally you think like chicken, that's kind of basic or something, but it was.
00:45:57 Justice
I mean, it was just delicious. It was like 3 different kind of slices of chicken with all these different sort of puree type sauces, type reduction, things on top of it. There was one that had some truffle I, you know, I did share mine, but it was it was also just delicious. Like it was the best chicken I ever had in my life.
00:46:08 Hannah Lynn
Yes.
00:46:17 Hannah Lynn
Yeah, it was so tempting.
00:46:17 Justice
And I have a lot of chicken in my life too. Like I had chickens growing up. So like we had some chicken, but no, this was it was, I think so. Yeah, I think so that that's low sealed bag cooking style. Yeah, it was. I mean, just the meal in general, just the entire thing was phenomenal.
00:46:24 Hannah Lynn
Too vague, wasn't it?
00:46:33 Justice
If you have it within you to to budget for like just an, a, a, a very luxurious expensive meal.
00:46:41 Hannah Lynn
Yeah, it was worth it.
00:46:42 Justice
Absolutely go for it. It was like you said, just totally worth it. Change your life, change your outlook on life.
00:46:47 Hannah Lynn
Yeah, yeah, honestly, my taste buds will never be the same. They will not settle anymore. But yeah, I think that was really cool. And I think overall we probably had about 7 courses. Like I said, they just kept bringing out these kisses from the kitchen. We had Easter bread since it was right around. Then they had some Easter bread, Colombo.
00:46:51
Yeah.
00:47:07 Hannah Lynn
Bread. And that was a it was just a very cool you could tell that everyone there or all of the servers or workers there really took pride in what they were doing. They they really wanted the best for you. They came and they would sweep off the table. And they they seemed excited that we were excited.
00:47:25 Justice
It's almost. It's almost like the feeling I get sometimes when we watch a movie that I've seen and I'm like, I want to see this person's reaction to this movie that I think is great. So they just, like you could tell they were excited. They came out and would explain every little detail. This is, you know, this and it's filled with like all the ingredients and.
00:47:25 Hannah Lynn
I don't know. It was cool.
00:47:31 Hannah Lynn
Ah yeah.
00:47:35 Hannah Lynn
Yes. Yeah.
00:47:40 Justice
So just a really awesome experience 10 out of 1011 out of 10 recommend.
00:47:41 Hannah Lynn
Yes, yes.
00:47:44 Hannah Lynn
Absolutely. Yeah. Like you said, like it's it would be a big part of a budget. It it, you know, was not a cheap experience, but it was a once in a lifetime type of opportunity. And so I look back and I'm like, I'm so glad that we budgeted for that because it was much more than we ever would have spent at a restaurant, right, but totally worth it because it was so much more than food.
00:47:59
Yes.
00:48:05 Justice
Yeah. Yeah. So that kind of brings us to the to the end here. We've covered all three days that.
00:48:11 Justice
We had.
00:48:12 Hannah Lynn
Yes.
00:48:12 Justice
Realm.
00:48:14 Justice
There's obviously more we can go into, which we'll probably have to get to in other episodes, getting a little bit more detailed than some of the the, the granular things. But this is kind of an overview you can catch on the the the recommendations we have are on our website that is going to be roaming heartspodcast.com feel free to peruse around there. We have all our recommendations for hotels.
00:48:15 Hannah Lynn
Yeah. Oh, of course.
00:48:28 Hannah Lynn
Yes.
00:48:34 Justice
Their experiences for food, definitely let's rise, will be on there.
00:48:37 Hannah Lynn
Absolutely.
00:48:39 Justice
And so as well as some of our recommendations, we also have travel consultation, which do you want to?
00:48:43
Yes.
00:48:45 Justice
Talk about that really quick.
00:48:46 Hannah Lynn
Yes, that is something that I'm very excited about. So our travel consultations kind of gives us the chance you to sit down and talk with us. We get a consultation in and we will actually plan your trip for you. That's something that we love. We're very passionate about. We enjoy that planning aspect because I think.
00:49:03 Hannah Lynn
A lot of times traveling can be overwhelming to people and they don't know where to start. What do I do? How did I get that question all the time? How do y'all find these places? How do you know what to do? And that's just some of our things that we love is to kind of dig into that and get in. So if you are feeling overwhelmed or you just want to have a great experience.
00:49:23 Hannah Lynn
We would love we sit down with you, consult, consult with you and kind of figure out kind of right off the bat what is your priority for the trip when you envision this trip, what kind of trip do you see? Is it all about family time for that trip, or are you looking forward to the food? Maybe you want to experience the cold?
00:49:39 Hannah Lynn
Sure, maybe you want to have these wild, cool experiences. And then from there we'll kind of build out your days and then we consult again, go over that, I guess itinerary you would call it with everything packaged and ready for you to book and get started on that trip. So that's something that we're really excited about. And I think it's a great option.
00:50:01 Hannah Lynn
Community to alleviate kind of that travel stress that you may have.
00:50:05 Justice
With that, yes, really excited about that. So like I said, it's on the website roamingheartspodcast.com the application is there as well as our recommendations. We're going to release episodes every two weeks. That's the goal. The full video podcasts are going to be on YouTube. You can also listen in if you're driving.
00:50:22 Justice
Perhaps on the audio platforms like Spotify and Apple Podcasts, yes. And most of these things are all going to be packaged on.
00:50:28 Justice
The website as well as well as transcripts.
00:50:29 Hannah Lynn
Yes. And we'll have a little transcript as there as well because I realized when we were kind of researching and we were, we would listen to pod.
00:50:36 Hannah Lynn
Some of these names are really hard and so I would be writing them down in my notes app for.
00:50:40 Hannah Lynn
Something and I'm.
00:50:41 Hannah Lynn
Like I don't know if I spelled this right, so I I think it would be really helpful just to have those recommendations to know that's what.
00:50:48 Justice
They said, yeah, like for example when we say cache de Pepe, like, who's typing that in Apple Maps and knowing how.
00:50:51 Hannah Lynn
Yeah.
00:50:53 Justice
To write up that spell catcha that so.
00:50:54 Hannah Lynn
Exactly where? Yeah, exactly. Yes. We'll also have a little bit of a few little tidbits, tips and tricks or little hacks for travel on our Instagram, which is Roaming Hearts podcast.
00:50:56 Justice
Definitely agree with the need for a transcript there.
00:51:05 Justice
Yeah.
00:51:07 Hannah Lynn
And so follow us on Instagram. We're going to be posting much more regularly there and just have some real easy tips to include with.
00:51:16 Justice
Yeah. Yeah. So if you want to connect with us, we're going to be definitely interactive on that platform. So by all means ask US questions, anything you need to know about traveling, we're here for it. So that wraps us up today.
00:51:23 Hannah Lynn
Yeah.
00:51:28 Justice
We're looking forward to having more of these come out and we're really excited. We're so thankful you tuned in and you listened and we.
00:51:31
Yeah.
00:51:34 Justice
Will see you at the next hour.
00:51:35 Hannah Lynn
Stop.
