BonAppetour – Dining with Locals

Some of the best meals I’ve ever had in Italy came from home chefs, and not in restaurants.  Italian cuisine is the result of poverty + resourcefulness over lots and lots of time to prefect the dishes that remain unique to each area of Italy, and change from town to town, and region to region.   So it makes sense that if you want to eat something really authentic, you need to get something homemade.

I was lucky to recently meet two young entrepreneurs out of Singapore, who started BonAppetour, hoping to capture, and make available to tourists, something that restaurants cannot.  Below is Rinita, one of the founders, on the right, and Alexandra, their local community manager/organizer.

On their site, you can select filters that show you what dinners (and often, classes) are available, and you can read other diner’s comments.  You reserve and pay online and are then basically invited to someone’s home for a kind of dinner party – with the host present.  This makes it not just an experience of the food, but also a way to connect tourists to locals.  It’s not often easy, or possible, to score an invite into someone’s home!  This way, you get a great meal, and the kind of insight that comes with meeting people of different cultures, who are happy to share their knowledge and open up their homes to you.

Our host, Francesca, made us a Milanese-themed dinner of liver paté, ossobuco (veal shanks) and risotto alla Milanese (flavoured with saffron), finished with a kind of tiramisù cream and pavese biscuits.

They seem to have a strong presence in Asia, their stomping ground, but also have many hosts/chefs in France, Spain in Italy – probably the three places most people want to have a home dining experience in.

Just a note though – authenticity is not synonymous with the postcard perfect/stereotypical vision that many people have of their destination.  So be prepared to get out to areas that real locals live in and to perhaps engage in conversations that reflect surprising opinions!

Bonappetour can be found on Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram.

 

 

Last minute June discounts on select apartments in Rome’s historic center

Appartamento Cestari – 2 bed / 2 bath apartment, available June 13, 14, 15 and 16 for 114 euro a night. Click here for more info or to reserve.

Navona al Tevere Apartment – 2 bed / 2 bath with terrace near Piazza Navona.  Can sleep up to 6 guests.  Available June 5, 6, 7, 8 for 125-135 euro, depending on number of guests.  Click here for more information or to reserve.

 

Capo le Case Apartment – 1 bed / 1 bathroom, sleeps 4, near The Spanish Steps.  Available June 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 for 102 euro a night for 2 guests, +5 euro per night for each additional guest.  Click here for more info or the reserve.

 

Appartamento Sardegna, 2 bed / 2 bath, sleeps 6 guests, just off Via Veneto.  Available from June 5th to 17th for 136 euro a night up to 4 guests and +10 euro a night for each additional.  For more info or to reserve, click here.

Touring the Vatican Museums and St. Peter’s with Through Eternity

I’m just going to jump in and say it – if you go to the Vatican museums on your own, unguided, you’re wasting your time.

I’ve lived in Rome, on and off at first, for the last 20 years and had been to the Vatican only once.  I suppose part of that is because it’s what happens to people when they live near a tourist site – you assume you can go anytime because it’s right there, and prefer to wait for a time when it’s less crowded, which never happens.   That’s a good explanation for why I didn’t go for the first 5 years of living here.  The reason why I’d never gone back in the following 15 years is because the experience, frankly, wasn’t enjoyable.  I’ve had visits to the dentist’s office that were better.

Does anyone really enjoy the Vatican museums?  I’ve wondered this often as I hear our guests recount the days they dutifully spend there, first in line outside, then being herded through the labyrinthian hallways to catch a glimpse of the Sistine Chapel.  Despite it being on everyone’s must see list, I’d never heard anyone go on about how amazing it was and how they wish they could have more of it.  For the art historian, I can see how it would be like a kid in a candy store.  But for the average Joe, I always wondered what they actually got out of it.

When my wife said she’d booked us on a 5 hour tour of the museums and St. Peter’s with Through Eternity, I first felt that this would be a great opportunity to see if I could finally, with authority, substantiate my negative opinions of the museum.  Then reality hit and I wondered how on Earth I was going to make it through 5 hours of anything.  Then I just gave up worrying about it and went with it, as zen and open as possible.

Spoiler alert – the Vatican is pretty incredible.  However, it’s not an easy museum, and it’s not optimized for its visitors in any way.  And I’m 100% convinced that it wouldn’t have been worthwhile had I wandered through it by myself without a guide.  In the end, we were there 6 hours, and all of it, except the overpriced food, was great.

A visit to the Vatican Museums is a big commitment and as is true with all big commitments, you should be well informed.  For example – know that if you go on your own without booking ahead, you’re looking at a really long wait to get in:

Perhaps an hour?  Maybe more?  As the picture shows, these folks look like they’ve been there a while already, and this line stretches all the way down the street and around the corner.  This is, of course, the line for those who decided to show up without tickets. If you buy your ticket online and print it before arrival, you can jump this queue and go right to the entrance.  From there, visitors are divided into two categories: individuals and group tours.  If you’ve booked a tour with a guide, then you get even further preferential treatment.  We walked straight past the line for individuals and went right in.  I don’t even think we came to a full standstill.  For a museum that gets about 25,000 visitors A DAY, that’s pretty incredible.

Once inside, you’re part of a crush of humanity, all wandering slowly, trying to determine where to put your attention – because there’s so many options.  Our guide, Mario, told us that if you were to spend a few seconds in front of each painting in the entire complex, it would add up to about 25 years.

Here’s the thing – there are some wonderful,  beautiful paintings in the Vatican Museums and if you want to visit unguided, you can stroll around and look at lots of pretty paintings and sculpture on a variety of themes, like Jesus, Jesus and Mary, Mary by herself, the Apostles, Jesus being crucified, Jesus being resurrected…  I think you get my point – Catholicism is the main attraction.  For someone who’s not religious, and doesn’t recognize the characters in the paintings or the stories being depicted, there’s only so much you can take of this.  Maybe I’m just shallow and uncultured, but in the 1500′s it would have been amazing to see a painting that was realistically portrayed of a biblical scene.  It would have been amazing to see a painting of anything that you had never before seen in real life – like a certain city or an animal or maybe the seaside.  Throughout history, paintings were the only way to really see into someone else’s imagination, or a depiction of something outside your reality.

In 2016…  less so.

My point is that I think realistically and honestly, it’s hard for many people to get out of paintings what people got out of them centuries ago.  We’re jaded.  We’ve seen it all – and in full motion, in 3D, and Photoshopped to perfection.  Seeing pretty pictures just isn’t that amazing anymore.  What makes them amazing, and interesting, is to understand them and the time in which they were made and the history behind them.  It’s the technique and how it evolved.  It’s the politics and motivations that surround them.  It’s the life of the artists themselves.  It’s all about the context, and to get that, you either need to study art seriously, or you need a guide.

Mario, our guide, was not only well informed and passionate, but also theatrical and compelling.  Our visit combined the history of art, and how artists cultivated different techniques in different periods, to the history of religion itself and how religion and politics were (and in many cases still are) inseparable.

The visit to the museum, at that point, became a lot more than about just art.  I think to fully understand Western history, you need to understand Rome, and to fully understand Rome, you need to understand its relation to the church.  To understand that, and even more, to see it, you need to visit the Vatican Museums.

Some other tips about visiting the Museum & Saint Peter’s Basilica:

* The food is terrible and overpriced, so bring a pack lunch.  If you leave after the museum to go eat, and then want to visit St. Peter’s, you’ll have to queue again, whereas if you go from the museum to St. Peter’s, you don’t have to.

* Bring little kids – if you’re crazy, a masochist, and/or a glutton for punishment.  It’s just too crowded, too slow going, and too complex for them to enjoy it (in my opinion as the father of 3 daughters).

* Get there by metro or bus.  You could walk, but it’s exhausting to stand for hours in a museum.  Get there on a full tank, because you’ll be leaving on an empty one.

* Don’t forget to wear something that covers or can cover your knees and shoulders.  It’s a sacred place, and God is weird about knees and shoulders.

* You don’t need a passport.  Yes, the Vatican  is technically a separate country, but there’s no border patrol.

* Plan to go up the dome of St. Peter’s.  You can pay to take an elevator from the bottom to halfway, inside of the dome, looking down into St. Peter’s, and then you climb up through the dome itself to the very top.  If you’re into taking photos, this is a must.

* If you want to hear the Pope’s audience on Wednesday or Sunday, get tickets in advance online, come pick them up before, and them come super early to get a good seat (like 5:30 / 6 am).  Francesco is a popular Pope.  He fills the house.

* Most importantly, go by yourself, and you’ll just be spending hours looking at old, pretty pictures.  Book a tour with a well informed guide.

Thank you to Through Eternity who hosted me on this tour.  Through Eternity is one of only a handful of tour companies we have recommended over the years and if you are staying at our hostel, The Beehive, guests there get an additional discount using a promo code.

La Taqueria – Mexican street food in Rome

For expats in Rome, and some visitors as well, the lack of good Mexican food is a hardship.  After living here over 16 years, we’ve given up on certain foods we used to love – such as Mexican and Chinese, either not finding any of it edible, or not being able to justify the high price tag for something “exotic”.  All that changed today when I popped in to La Taqueria for lunch.

Located right around the corner from the Piazza Bologna metro station, it’s impossible to miss – the three large, bright, colorful windows that face the street are in bright contrast to the monochromatic neighborhood.  Once inside, I was struck by the creative design.  Plastic crates, tires, and old gasoline cans have all be repurposed to become suspension lamps, and plant holders.

The menu has all the basics – tacos made with homemade, corn, soft-shell tacos, stuffed with either meat or a vegetarian bean and soy version.  Nachos, made with their own fried corn chips, and burritos, either with meat or vegan option, wrapped up in homemade tortillas.  They make fresh guacamole, pico de gallo, and a variety of other salsas.

All in all, I was seriously impressed with how good it was, and found it affordable as well (from 6-8 euro for tacos or a huge burrito).  The owner, a young guy from Honduras who speaks perfect English, was super nice and helpful and added the perfect vibe to his lively and delicious little place.

La Taqueria
Via Giacomo Boni, 26
Metro:  Bologna (blue line)

Open from 12-3pm for lunch and 7-11pm all week (except Sunday at lunchtime)

Scooterino – Scooter Ride Sharing in Rome

I get excited about things that make life easier – even if they’re very simple and don’t really make life that much easier.  From low-tech office supply stuff, to great high-tech smartphone apps, I’m just attracted to the idea of things being efficient and functional.

So imagine my excitement when I discovered the Scooterino App for Rome.  It’s basically a ride sharing service for scooters.  When you need to get somewhere, you open the app, which knows where you are, and you put in your destination.  It gives you an estimate of cost, and shows you where nearby drivers are and how long it ought to take for them to reach you.

I’ve basically been dying to try it out and the other day I finally got my chance.  It was 4:00pm and I had to get from The Beehive Hotel near Termini to a lawyer’s office in the neighborhood of Parioli.  By bus it would have taken me 1,50 euro and approximately forever.  By taxi, it would have probably been 10-15 euro and slightly less than forever.

On the scooter, it was 3 euro, and took about 15 minutes, and was a fun ride.

 As far as essentials, the driver provides you with a helmet and a little skull cap to wear over your hair under the helmet.

Getting around Rome can be tough.  Public transportation is unreliable and crowded.  Taxis can be expensive and time consuming, especially if you’re alone.  Scooterino is the way to go.

As a tourist, if you’re feeling a bit adventurous and want the quintessential Roman experience – this is a great option to get from Point A to Point B at the lowest cost!  For a more comprehensive and guided scooter experience check out the folks at Scooteroma tours.

Download Scooterino here in the app store.