A lot-o Gelato

It took me over a week before I was able to have some real Italian Gelato and all I have to say is…why did it take me a week before I had some real Italian Gelato?!?!

Since there are no Starbucks here (Alas! Three weeks without my beloved Double-Chocolaty-Chip-Frappuccino), I really enjoyed the chocolate chip gelato—stracciatella.  Doesn’t that just sound soooo much fancier than chocolate chip???  I think I’m going to start using that term instead of chocolate chip back home…Friends, you’ve been warned!!!  Oooh, And my Starbucks drink could then, in theory, be a double stracciatello Frappuccino.  Ha!

Part of the fun of staying for two weeks in the same hotel is to get to know the surrounding neighborhood.  It didn’t take long for the local restaurant, vendors, and street peddlers to recognize us.  In some cases that worked out well (e.g. Hotel staff knowing who in our group liked cappicino for breakfast) and in other cases—not so much (street peddlers spotting when one of us was weakening to pressure to buy something…lol.)

Some in our group ventured much further to find the best gelatos around.  It made me think about tour groups that should exist.  Here are some of my ideas:

1)   The Gelato tour:  A tour that stops at all the best gelato in Rome.  You eat you way across the city.

2)   The Shade tour:  A tour that visits all the main historic and cultural sites but  recognizes that some of us enjoy them a lot more when we don’t have to worry about sunburns, heat strokes, and general sweating.

3)   The handrails on tour:  A tour that visits the historic and cultural sites but makes sure that the routes that are taken have handrails to get up and down the old uneven steps.  What is it with ancient ruins and the lack of handrails…Were they just naturally move coordinated than me???

4)   The “Fast-Trak “tour:  A tour that visits all the main historic and cultural sites but has an option for the people who are more interested in checking off that they have visited the location and then want to buy souvenirs that prove that they were there.

5)   Other ideas???