One final foodie shot...

I can't finish this series of Italian postings without one more photo of some of the scrumptious pasta we ate!

Buon appetito! Sahara Gal

Roma

Well, I can say after our few days staying there, that Rome is now officially one of my favourite cities! What a fabulous place. The Desert Rat and I had three full days there so we seperated it into Old Stuff Day, Catholic Day and Shopping/Long Lunch Day! However, there is plenty left to see and do next time we visit.

We stayed right near the Spanish Steps which was great - lots of good restaurants, shops and cafes. The Desert Rat got up early one morning and took this photo before all the hoards came to sit on the Steps.



Not too far away is the Trevi Fountain. It is a pretty impressive monument and the crowds seem to love it! After our trip the Desert Rat and I watched Roman Holiday with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in it to check out the sights we had just visited!

People checking out the Trevi Fountain:

It was really interesting visiting the Roman ruins in Rome, and although they are pretty impressive, we realised how amazing the ruins here in Libya are in regards to the preservation and the the ability to see them without the crowds.

Overlooking the Coloseum

The Forum

The Coloseum

The next day we headed off early to go and check out St Peters and the Vatican. It was very impressive. I felt quite moved in St Peters - it is a very beautiful church.

St Peters

Inside the Vatican

The Vatican was amazing - room after room of incredible art and architecture. There were loads of people there so we tried to get to the Sistine Chapel as early as possible. This Chapel is pretty amazing and we spent some time with our eyes to the heavens looking at the detail of Michelangelo's paintings. We had pretty severe museum legs at the end of all this so the pizza and bottle of wine in a nearby restaurant went down a treat!

Sahara Gal

The Perfect Lunch

If you are ever near Castelvetro di Modena, we thoroughly recommend that you check out Agrisanpolo, a winery/restaurant/accomodation complex that does the most awesome meals. Their website is http://www.agrisanpolo.it/

We spent a wonderful afternoon eating and drinking. Lunch started off with homemade pasta with a wild boar ragut (not pictured). The next course was a platter of fresh organic vegetables (the best carrots I have ever tasted), local cheese, lard (amazingly good), sausages and ham all washed down with their own lambrusco. Dessert consisted of the most divine biscuits and a sweet dessert wine. Last, but not least was coffee - glorious!

We rolled out of the restaurant and had a wander around the vinyard and then went for a walk along the creek nearby. We were blessed with sunny weather and it was a great way to finish off the afternoon before heading back to Rome on the train.

Sahara Gal

Bologna and Beyond

We spent a very pleasant afternoon in Bologna with our friend who lives near there. After jumping off the train from Rome, we headed straight for lunch where we had some mighty fine Fettucine Bolognase - the locals never put Bolognase sauce with spaghetti! We then wandered through the old part of the city taking in the sights.

Ofcourse, checking out the fresh produce was a highlight and I have brought home with me some dried mushrooms and tomatoes and some pasta herbs.

Always game, we almost finished this pizza which was measured 1 metre!!!

Sahara Gal

The Old and the New

The Bastakiya is part of the old city and today is a cultural centre with art galleries, cafes and other activities. There weren't many people around the day I was there so it was quite peaceful wandering around. A feature of the old style architecture are the windtowers which were used in the days before air conditioning.

Of course there are many mosques around, some of them very beautiful. These are just two:

At the more contemporary end of the scale, Dubai boasts some awesome modern architecture.

Of course, after seeing it on tellie so many times, it was pretty cool to see the Burj Al Arab even from the top of a tour bus!

The newest architectural marvel is the amazing Burj Dubai which is still being built. It is apparently the tallest man made structure ever built - about 818metre (according to Wikipedia!) I can't say I will be rushing to go up this giant pencil!

Sahara Gal