Planning our trip from tlv to nyc for pesach.
After searching around a little i found a deal that will take us from tel aviv to rome and venice with a return flight from new york to tel aviv on alitalia. I added a flight to switzerland for another $118 and finally from zurich to new york for 20k aa miles.
Sunday April 3 2016 to RomeOur first flight departed tel aviv at 830am sunday morning. We arrived at 6am to catch a minyan and a quick stop in the lounge. Chck in went normal and we checked our bags directly to vce as that was the final destination and rome was a 23.5 hour stopover.(Was not sure if I should have done that as alitalia is known to lose luggage,only to find out later i made a mistake).
We were traveling in regular economy, but we did get an exit row(one of the requirements of being 6'3).
We arrived in rome at 11:15am and packed into the bus to take us to the terminal(one of the downside of alitalia, other than in jfk)
After getting all the tips on which drivers to take we got a official taxi for 35 eur to our hotel. We were booked at the Sheraton Roma for 5500 starpoints in the club room. Because we only had 23.5 hours in rome we wanted to get to the city right away. The 1230 bus was just leaving and we had it wait until we dropped our bags in the room.
It was already the afternoon without getting any real food in the morning, so we headed straight to Yotvata. Everyone on the forum really put my expactations really high in regard to the food thereand was not disappointed at all. For starters we got fried artichoke and fried mozzarela balls. the artichoke wasn't to write home about but the balls were on the better side.The main dishes were fettuccine alfredo with mushrooms and a pie of pizza. The fettuccine alfredo with mushrooms was by far the best i have ever tasted and the pizza was also really good. For dessert we got hot chochlate soufle which was ok and ice cream which was really good.
After a delicious meal we walked to the colosseum which was WOW! Well the first wow was the crowd. On the first sunday of every month the colosseum is free along with the fact that the vatican was closed, the lines were insane. There were numerous offers to skip the 3 hour wait by going with a guide. We took the cheapest one which was 15 eur pp. After making our way in the guide got pretty boring and we opted to use rick steves audio guide which was very informative and not to slow.
Following the colosseum we went to the arch of titus and the forums which were free as well. It was really niced but obviosly not as wowed as we were by the colosseum. We then headed for the jewish ghetto passing people playing all different instruments, it was really nice. Rick steves audio was once again put to great use in the ghetto as both my wife and i don't really enjoy listening to a real guided tour. On our tour we took a quick stop for gellatos ice cream which was amazing, going right back for doubles. Before we went to the great synagoge we had time to run to see the pantheon whichalthough not really knowing what we were looking at, the building was extraordinary to say the least.
Heading back to the ghetto passing piazza navona was nice especially at that hour. The great synagoge, wow, it's at a totally different level. I didn't mangage to get any pitures of the shul. Davening there was kind of interesting as it was some kind of memorial going on there(not sure exactly what). After davening we were still full from lunch but we needed a quick supper and being so amazed by lunch we wanted one quick taste again before we left, so we went back to yotvata. We got the fried rice balls along with a mushroom salad. Both were not as good as we were hoping so we had to end off on a high so we ordered a mushroom calzone. Wow, that one hit the spot.
Going to rome we couldn't miss the trevi fountain at night, which was really nice . It gets really full at night (and definetly the air is full of alot of wishes!).
After a long day we finally took the last bus back to the hotel. The ride was really fast and only four people on the bus. I was hoping to unwind at the club(which is why i booked a club room)but was closed for renovations. the hotel was ok for a nights sleep and not really more than that. It was extremely hot with no a/c, but we managed through the night with a fan(especially knowing we were to get the points back for this inconvenience).
We headed to the airport at 8 am to catch our flight to venice.
Stay tuned for that trip report....
P.S. This is my first TR I hope it is at DDF standards
