Past POIs - Pantheon [Rome, Italy]

The Pantheon, located in Rome Italy, is actually quite a stunning looking Roman temple in Rome. I know that I mentioned that it wasn't as impressive compared to some other things that I have seen in Rome prior to seeing it, but don't take that as 'you shouldn't see it'. Definitely do come and take a look if you have a chance.

It was built between A.D 118 and 125 making it one of the oldest and well preserved Roman buildings. And it's purpose was as a temple to the gods, but as time went on, it became a burial site and you will see a lot of prominent people buried here including Emanuele II and Umberto I.

Pay a visit if you can, it is free to visit, so it doesn't hurt. And if you are in the area and tired, there is a nice fountain just outside of it that you can rest at and take in the beauty of the exterior.

Come back next Friday for another Past Point of Interest!

2014 - July (food)

Pantheon (Greektown Toronto)
Went here for Allison's birthday since she wanted Greek food.  Randomly picked a restaurant that neither of us had been to before and one that had somewhat of a line.

The food was delicious.  We got the chicken and pork tenderloin souvlaki.  Both of which were surprisingly tender.  I don't think I've ever had souvlaki that wasn't very tough.  I feel like I have been missing out all this time!

Dinner comes with complimentary bread (which we got refills on) and it even came with a free slice of cake!  We got the small versions which I didn't feel was enough for me, but seemed fine for Allison.  I would return!

Greg's Ice Cream (Bloor / Spadina)
A small ice cream shop located on the southwest corner of Bloor and Spadina.  Best known for their roast marshmellow ice cream.  Yes, roasted marshmellow.  I have successfully converted 2 people to this flavor, but I still like to try some of their other flavours.  They also have a shop in the Distillery District.  I'd recommend stopping by to give this a try if you are in the area.

Jelly Modern Doughnuts (College / Spadina)
Located slight west of Spadina is Jelly Modern Doughnuts.  We stopped by as we were walking to Castle Board Game Cafe for a snack.  Very bright and open area.  Their doughnuts have won some awards although I can't really recall any major doughnuts shops here.  They come in two sizes, a small and a large.  I forget what they called them, but basically your typical doughnut (small) and a pretty large doughnut (large).

The small was $2.50 each and I don't recall the price of the large.  At this price, I think it is a bit much, although they were pretty tasty.

I'm not sure I would return due to the price.

Lee Garden (Spadina)
Staple Chinese restaurant in Chinatown.  Well known about the locals and winning a lot of awards (you can see the list on their wall) it is a good Chinese restaurant.

We had 6 dishes and they were all pretty good.  Portions were good, everything came out quick and hot as expected.  Food seems a bit expensive for what we got, but everything tasted good, so it isn't a big deal.  Came out to roughly $100 after tax/tip for everything.

I have been here a few times within the past year and I have never been disappointed and I would return.  Although do make sure they have what you want because I have come here a few times and had a few items sold out.

Italy 2013 - Day 3 (Rome)

Woke up to be at Vatican City at 10:00am.  I didn't expect it to be so big and crazy.  St Peter's Basilica was pretty overwhelming as well.  Both took us about 3 hours each.  Yes, 3 hours EACH.  We really liked Raphael's work the most (yes, more than Michelangelo).  I would also recommend pre-booking this item if you are going.  You skip the massive line up.  Be aware that there are a lot of tour groups here.

- Vatican Museums (includes Sistine Chapel), spent about 3 hours here.  Very big museum, crazy amount of old sculptures and paintings.  If you are a fan, this may take even longer.  Take a look at the mosaics.  Some are so small, you can't tell they were mosaics.  It is amazing how some of the paintings look like they are real.

- St Peter's Basilica, we spent about 3 hours here as well.  This includes the exterior and interior.  Once you go in, you are just overwhelmed by the amount of things that are inside.  But I kept wondering how much money was spent to make the place.  Lots of things were under restoration outside unfortunately, so a perfect picture was not possible.

- Piazza Navona we saw this time during the day, it looks nicer in the day in my opinion.  Same amount of street vendors though.  People selling you art, photos, caricatures, spray paint art (which is pretty cool).

- Pantheon, when we compared this to what we have seen already, I would suggest seeing this earlier.  The inside doesn't look very impressive.  The outside looks nice though.

- Trevi fountain we saw during the day this time and I think it looks nicer during the day as well.  Still as crazy busy though.  Plenty of Indians (from India) trying to sell you a polaroid of you there.

- Castel St. Angelo, we saw the exterior and it looks pretty nice at night, not sure about the day, nor did we go inside.  Right outside to the east there is a little market we saw at night with shops and live music.  It was a nice change of scenery.

- only 1 gelato today.

Italy 2013 - Day 1 (Toronto/Rome)

Normally you are asked to arrive for international flights at least 3 hours before the flight.  Today I found out that American Express has a priority customs line.  While others who did not have this had to queue into one line, AmEx cardholders get to bypass the line completely.  They still go through the same customs checks, but they don't have to wait.  So I ended up on the other side of customs with 2 hours to spare.

Air Transat's plane looks nice, but it certainly did not feel comfortable to me.  The food wasn't very good (both the dinner and the breakfast were so-so, I wasn't able to finish the dinner).  The movies on the flight were surprisingly recent though.  I saw Oblivion, Monster's University, Star Trek 2 among others.

Upon arrival, there is a mess of a line for going through customs.  Instead of a line with rope to help create a line, there are simply two areas, one for European passport holders, one for non-European passport holders.  The line for the non-European passport holders was enormous.  It took about 30 minutes to go through customs.  The agents didn't even seem to care about us.  When he was given our passports, he just looked at them and handed them back.  There wasn't even a stamp.

The express train from FCO to Roma Termini (Rome's main train terminal) was 14 euro and they did have conductors checking everyone on board.  There wasn't much to see for the trip.  It takes about 30 minutes.  There is an option to take a bus, but we were not sure how long it would take compared to the train so we opted for the train.

We booked Arches Inn B&B which is located just off of Cipro Metro station.  Very convenient and nice location.  The host was nice, he stayed almost 1 hour longer than expected (I said we would be there for 3:30, arrived at 4:30) since we ran into some difficulties with getting a metro ticket.  The metro system works similar to ones I have seen in Boston.  There is a slot to enter your card, it is validated and at the top your card gets returned to you.  1.50 euro for 1 way, 6 euro for 24 unlimited usage and I think there was a 3 day unlimited usage option for 16 euro.  The host provided us with all the details that we needed.  The location actually has 3 rooms, but noone else is expected to join us for a few more days so we have the entire place to ourselves for now.  Kitchen is fully stored, breakfast is included as items in a cupboard, one per room, including danishes, bread, coffee, cookies, milk, juice and yogurt (the last 3 being kept in the fridge in separate levels).

After we settled down and changed (it feels like 35 right now), we were off.  We walked along Vatican City and saw a whole bunch of people selling souvenirs along the way and fake purses and bags.  Overall, I don't feel unsafe in the area like I was told, but we shall see later.  This may be due to the fact that school has just started so there are less people around.  From there we went to the following:

- Piazza Navona (nice little square, lots of small shops trying to sell type souvenirs like keychains, spray paint art, drawings, etc).  The fountain here was beautiful as well as what looks like a church (you run into a lot of things that look like churches)

- Pantheon (it was closed, but the place is huge from the outside)

- Trevi Fountain (WOW, this place is really big, huge tourist attraction, lots of people trying to find a good place to take photos, there are actually people there with polariods offering to take pictures, but everyone there already has a camera or two or three... we paid for one since the fellow did take quite a few pictures for us while we were there and we talked for a bit)

- Spanish Steps (lots of people here, actually saw at least two groups taking wedding photos here, it looks nice, but I liked the other locations better)

- We ate at La Montecresto for dinner, ordered ravoli and a prosciutto pizza, both were good, service needs work though.  Big tourist place, one person brought a big group with him, at least 40 people, price did not seem unfair (pizza was 8 euro, ravoli was 9)

- We ate at a random pizza shop, they have a big pizza and they slice it for you based on how much you want, price by weight (interesting idea).  Pizza was okay.

- Gelato #1 was at a random place we stopped by at.  2 euro for one flavour one a cone, didn't seem unreasonable.  This was very good, mixed berry.

- Gelato #2 was at another random place.  We saw a sign saying 150 flavours so we went in.  I don't know if they had that many, but they did have a lot.  At least 6 sections worth.  All different.  This place was not as good.  May have to do with our choices.  Champagne and Strawberry something.  Champagne is weird, does taste like it though.  Strawberry was interesting, the strawberry pieces are actually chocolate!

Tomorrow's agenda is Colosseum, Roman Forums, Palantine Hill and random walking!  This place is very nice so far I must say.  Looking forward to the rest of the trip!