I woke up this morning with a little wine-induced fuzzyness from our romantic evening prior. I was pretty proud that I set my alarm, charged my devices, and even pre-packed a little! I felt great though and it was time for another fantastic breakfast at the Coronaro Hotel. I didn’t eat apple pie for breakfast again this morning, instead opting for croissants, some prosciutto and cheese, and yogurt. Ryan ordered the “best pancakes of his life” which were more like crapes with a fantastic berry compote. He also got a ham and cheese omelette and I tried the Diocletian omelette made of prosecco and honey which, unfortunately, was brown/ greyish, looked pretty gross, and didn’t have much flavor.
After breakfast, we packed our room up, checked out of the hotel, and left our bags at the front desk. We had a minor panic when the front desk tried to give us our rental car keys back from the day before – the hotel was supposed to call the rental car company the night prior so they could pickup the car! Somehow, that didn’t happen and the hotel wanted to charge us for parking and who knows what the charge would have been from the rental company! Thankfully, the hotel comped our parking charge and got things sorted with the car company so the crisis was averted.
We decided to do a little shopping before our 1:30 ride to the airport. It was sprinkling a bit but that didn’t stop the businesses of the city! First, we stopped at Jupiter’s temple in the palace. Apparently, the tickets we bought to the bell tower two days prior included Jupiter’s Temple, so the guy at the front entrance just asked to see pictures of us at the bell tower as proof we bought the tickets – pretty smart move huh?
The temple was slightly underwhelming, consisting of one statue and 3 caskets, but seeing stone caskets from 10 AD was pretty surreal.
After the temple, we walked to the green market and it was bustling! I wish we had a market like that in Texas! The smells of the flowers, herbs, meat, and cheese were intoxicating and even made my overly full stomach rumble. We bought some freshly shaved prosciutto, honey, lavender, and olive oils for our families and didn’t want to leave.
Eventually, the time came for us to head to the hotel. I had left over cheese, bread, and meat from dinner the night before, so that was my “light lunch” before we took off to the airport. Our cab driver was quite talkative and pointed out all of the historical sites along our 30 minute ride. He also told us the state of the country and how governmental corruption has made it impossible for foreign investors to invest in Croatia, how there are only jobs during summer tourist season and that, during winter, there are not enough jobs to go around. How the pay is not enough for young people to start family’s so more Croatians live outside of Croatia and in Croatia because there are more job opportunities. It was quite a sad but interesting point of view.
The Split airport only has 8 terminals and is super small. Checking in for our flight took about 30 minutes and we had 1.5 hours to kill before takeoff. The airport was so small that, once we did need to board, we walked the tarmac to the airplane and walked up a short flight of stairs onto the craft. There wasn’t even room for carry on bags! Fortunately, the tiny plane had no issues taking us to Rome, though it was too small for a gate and we took a bus from our landing pad into the Rome airport.
It was about a 65 euro taxi / Uber ride from the airport to our hotel in Rome so we decided to take the train for 14 euros instead. The train was relatively easy to find as the airport is so well signed, and we were on a direct train to Rome quickly. The travel time taking the train vs. a cab was actually very similar too – so no time lost!
We were in a bit of a hurry at this point since we had a 8 PM reservation at Il Pagliaccio. Translated as “The Clown”, Il Pagilaccio is a two Michelin Star winning Italian restaurant in the middle of Rome run by chef Anthony Genovese. Since there aren’t any Michelin Star places in Texas, we wanted to try one out as a honeymoon treat! We arrived at our hotel at 7 PM and the restaurant was about a 15 minute drive, so we needed to change quickly – the only problem was the guy at reception had trouble finding our reservation. I got about 4 emails over the past three days from Expedia telling me our stay at the Dharma Hotel was approaching and I had my confirmation sheet printed, so I was so confused. I handed him my sheet and he directed my attention to the date of our stay, September 30th, and reminded me it was only September 25th! I accidentally brought us to the hotel we are staying in before we head back to Texas! Ryan was not happy and the time was ticking!
The front desk guy called us a cab and we rushed to the new hotel, he dropped us off on a side street and we finally found the Spagna Royal Suites and rang the bell. The guy who answered said we were, yet again at the wrong place, and we needed to go to the other Spagna hotel down the street – seriously? Ryan was laughing at me and it was already 7:40 so when we arrived, huffing and panicked at the Spagna, they quickly tried to calm us down. The two reception guys called the restaurant to bump back our reservation to 8:30 and walked us through the amazing concept hotel. They brought us down to level two, where our room was, and walked us through the amenities, including a sauna in our room! There were even a bunch of fish tanks spanning the entire wall adjacent to our room with jelly fish and other sea creatures. How cool!
We quickly freshened up and were off in another adventurous cab ride, squeezing narrowly through alleyways packed with people and cars. We didn’t think we were going to make it a few times but successfully got to Il Pagliaccio in good time.
The staff at Il Pagliaccio was so polished, with white gloves and perfect timing, and I loved the ambiance of the restaurant. We were seated in a corner table and I couldn’t help but eaves drop on some of the interesting conversations at tables near us, spanning from the hedged-fund class dating scene in NYC, to tips on how to write thrilling, non-fiction novels. It was quite a scene.
We choose to do the 8 course “surprise” tasting menu and started with a glass of Pinot Grigio before transitioning to a nice, 2012 Chianti Classico (Ryan’s favorite) to go with it.
The dinner started with 3 amuse bouche dishes, ranging from 36 month old parmesan cheese, dry yeast and venison waffle with salad, lentils and blue cheese, chickpea foam with anchovies and crunch bread, and a “surprise” mushroom dish.
The main courses began with a chilled mushroom soup and oyster in green, burrata and tapioca. The chilled soup was an amazing start to the night. To be honest, when the oyster arrived on our table, I was slightly hesitant, but I do love oysters. It ended up being a surprisingly delicious course with interesting texture bold flavors.
As a pasta lover, when the tagliolino came out with a savory sauce and freshly made noodles, all of my senses were sent to heaven! The first pasta course was followed with veal tortellini and carrots, and I was finally, again, reunited with truly Italian pasta. While my taste buds wished that the dishes were twice their size, my stomach was already starting to fill up – oh no!
We enjoyed some delicious bread variations with the main courses. One of the breads was a fantastical crispy and fluffy salted focaccia. It was by far my favorite. I finally flagged down the waitress to get a second portion of the carby goodness but, before I could take a bite, another waiter came and delivered our white fish and peas course and stealthily took my bread! I think that moment was the saddest I have ever been in relation to food. Like, envision your favorite piece of food ever, and then, as you are about to enjoy a miraculous bite, someone swoops in and takes it from you, never to ever be had again! And now you feel my ciabatta sorrow…
Do you know what the best way to cure bread-induced depression? Desert! After we finished our final entre, the desert train started down the tracks.. and was 5 carts long! It all started with milk ice cream, goat cheese, caramelized rice and pear compote in an amazingly complex dish. My favorite part was the bits of cereal under the ice cream which gave some crunch to the otherwise soft compilation.
Next was a lemon cake topped with mint and berry, a sorbet, assortment of truffles and other little pastries.
We were stuffed beyond reason. Thankfully, I came prepared in a flowy dress, and we had a long walk back through the streets of Rome to our hotel. We even got a sneak night-peak at the Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon before arriving at the hotel.
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The Impatient Traveler 