A topless tour & Roma’s sweet spot

Snacks are a must when embarking on a two-hour bus tour. We picked up some tasty paninis & drinks near the Roma Termini before boarding.

ROME, Italy – Our first full day in Roma began with the perfect pizzette and ended with the accidental discovery of the sweetest spot on earth.

Call it touristy, but the best way to get an overview of a city is to take an open-top bus tour. Before boarding ours near Roma’s main train station, the Termini, we stopped at nearby Re Artu snack shop to grab some quick eats for the morning-long ride.

Local business people were lined up along the shop’s counter tossing back espressos and pointing at the sandwiches and pastries in the display case. We chose a classic pizzette – slices of prosciutto and provolone cheese with lettuce on a thin, toasted rosemary ciabatta. It proved to be the perfect take-along treat on the topless bus tour which took us from Piazza Venezia to the Vaticano and everywhere in between.

After lunch and doing what Rick Steves calls the “Ceasar Shuffle” – a walking tour of the Coliseum, Arch of Constantine, Forum, Capitol Hill & the Victor Emmanuel Monument – we returned to the Termini and decided to do the bus tour one more time (a $25 bus pass is good for 24 hours). We stopped again at Re Artu and were greeted warmly by the store staff. This time we picked up a split of Proseco, some Campari mix and a big bottle of Peroni beer and enjoyed a sunset toast with romantic Roma as the backdrop.

San Crispino & Gelateria Frigiderium were among our favorite gelato joints in Roma.

IL GELATO DI SAN CRISPINO
Via Della Panetteria, 42
ilgelatodisancrispino.it

Later that evening while strolling past the Trevi Fountain, we stumbled upon the world-renown Il Gelato di San Crispino. A New York Times food critic wrote recently that those who don’t agree that San Crispino’s gelati is the best in Roma have never tasted it. She was absolutely right.

The shop is bright, white, immaculate.  No posters of Audrey Hepburn licking an ice cream cone from “Roman Holiday,” or Anita Ekberg frolicking in the Trevi Fountain from “La Dolce Vita.” No generic, plastic, ice cream cone sign like the dozens we had seen at lesser shops across the city.  Gelato was the star here, and rightfully so.

The gelato is stored in covered, steel drums to ensure that each scoop is equally divine.  We savored the store’s signature flavor, Gelato di San Crispino – vanilla crème with honey – and cioccolato – a rich, dark chocolate. They were absolutely life-altering!

Later in the week we made a pilgrimage to Gelateria Frigidarium near Piazza Navona (Via del Govorno Vecchio, 112 / frigidarium-gelateria.com) where we read that the gelati is not just a food, but an artistic expression. We tried the cioccolato and an inventive flavor called “Mozart,” a combination of almond and pistachio. Delizioso!