The tour of the ghetto with David was very informative, however, we did find that his tone and delivery was very derogatory of non Jews. He made some in appropriate jokes (references to lazy Mexicans at one point). The group we were with happened to be very yeshivish, but I met someone who was on another tour with him that was more modox but they said he was the same way. There were about 14 people on the tour.
Fun fact:David is NOT chabad. So why the chabad type beard? Related:why are priests called galach in Yiddish? Becuase monks used to shave their whole head, and later priests shaved their beards. It was therefore considered barbaric to have a beard, and the rabbis in Italy (or at least Rome) shaved their beards in order to avoid abuse. It was not however their preference. When David got married his wife told him she wanted him to have the beard as a way to thumb their noses at the centuries of persecution.
Most of my good pics are on my camera so I won't have much to upload now.
For dinner that night we went to Su ghetto for a cooking class. It was just my wife and I.
We started off making Jerusalem artichokes (cut off tips at an angle till the center form a point and trim down the middle of the stem, then open it up and press it flat upside down, then deep fry face down at about 175 for 8 to 10 minutes until golden flipping halfway, remove, add salt and pepper and deep fry at 350 for a couple more minutes.
Next we made gnocchi, which uses mashed potato and just fold in flour over and over until it feels like dough. Then it gets cut and boiled.
After that we made cod. Placed on a bed of thin sliced potatoes, add olive oil then the fish then more oil, then pine nuts, sliced cherry tomatoes, salt, pepper, raisins, parsley, then more thin sliced tomatoes then baked.
Finally, we assisted with pasta. They poured the flour and eggs into the pasta machine and we pulled it off as it oozed out.
Agter the class we took a break then came back for dinner. We ate what we made (as described in post above).
For lung bthay day we had 2 slices from Alice (I think one with ricotta and one plain), they were good but nothing out of this world.
Agter dinner we went on a Rome segway tour with Rex tours. The guide was very ni e and spoke great English. It took some getting used to the segway but it's a quick learning curve.
We hit all the big landmarks, pantheon, Spanish steps, trevi fountain, and some others I don't recall the name.
It was quite scary at times because of all the pedestrians and tiny streets with cars going through them, but overall alot of fun.
Day 2
The next day we got a VERRY late start as it had basically been 48 hours since we had a decent night of sleep.
We had time to walk to Alice again for pizza and got 2 different slices (pictures). The spinach and provolone slice was absolutely incredible. The cheese was smoked and was probably the best slice of pizza I ever had.
The fresh mozzarella and tomatoes was great but just didn't compare to the spinach and smoked provolone.
After lunch we grabbed a can to the Vatican where we had a tour scheduled with the other Rome Jewish company (Jewish Roma I belive). I heard great things about them too so I figured I'd try it. They were also 35 euro cheaper per person than David. The guide was not Micayla.
Unfortunately we were immensely disappointed. The only bit of Jewish information was the guide pointing out the statue of Titus. Otherwise it was a generic tour. If I had to do it again I'd go with David for the Jewish perspective despite his way of talking about non Jews.
Selfie sneak of the sistene chapel ceiling(no pictures officially allowed)
Fun fact number 2: Rome in the summer as hot as
!! And the Vatican has no air conditioning either! The temperature was about 97 every single day we were there.
For dinner we went to bghetto milky. We ordered the cheese sampler (pictured, delicious, 13 euro) and mozzarella sticks (balls actually, delicious, 6 euro I think) and then ordered the Ravioloni di Acqua as per Dan (as did the couple next to us, he lurks here, but I don't think he's a member, hi J!,) we ordered something else but it's on my camera so I'll look when I get it.
For desert we got tiramisu and a fig pastry or cake I think. The fig cake was just so so, but the tiramisu was great.
Day 3
We stayed off going to flour for breakfast.
We got machiatto, cappuccino and cold coffee, along with a custard croissant and Danish, some kind of Moroccan cigar with cheese and rice, a fried fish thingy, mushroom slice, and a tiny cream pastry cake.
Everything was delicious, however the fish in the morning was probably a wierd decision. But the fried breading looked so amazing that I had to try it.
In the afternoon we went to the colosseum and used Rock Steves audio tour. While it was informative, I can imagine a tour guide giving way more info.
If we had the time I probably would have booked one of the underground tours which cost only a little more but have a guide (I think) and take you places you can't go otherwise.
For dinner we wanted to go to yotvata as we had heard it was very good from the couple we met the night before, but we had a 750 train to Florence and yotvata opens at 630.
We got a quiet table in the upstairs dining room which was empty and cool (most places have barely passable air conditioning that is horrible for spoiled Americans). Unfortunately one of the th ousands of German youth groups came in and were put in our dining room so it got loud and hot fast.
We ordered fettuccine with 4 cheeses and a truffle sauce which was absolutely amazing and
Tonnarelli with artichockes, sea bass and mullet roe scales. We thought it was a bit heavy on the roe, and didn't compare to the 4 cheese sauce but was still delicious.
After that we went to our hotel where we had checked out and took a cab to termini for our train to Florence.
Speaking of trains, we are pulling into Venice now, so I gotta unload.
Shabbat shalom!
