Rome, Jewish Style

Since we did the Vatican thing, I also wanted a to check out the Jewish history in Rome.  Just before we headed to Italy, I saw a friend of a friend post on their Facebook page about a tour company called Rome for Jews.  This friend highly recommended it, and I was lucky that they had room for us on such short notice.  It turned out to be a good day to do this tour because in Italy it was a holiday.  Similar to Independence Day, this was a holiday to celebrate when Italy became a Republic.  We at least passed by the parade getting set up on our walk over to the Ghetto.

   

The Ghetto is on the water, and Jewish homes used to line right along the bank of the river, only to be flooded time and time again.

  

Our tour guide was extremely knowledgable and passionate about the Jewish history here.  He told us many stories and accounts of Jewish life here, from many many years ago, to more recently in the time of the Holocaust.  This building here is a restaurant now, but many years ago was a synagogue.

 

As we were walking we got a great aerial show for the holiday.  Check it out:

 

The jets flew by and out came colors like the Italian flag.

 

This is Jewish Hospital, and a church next door where nuns hid Jews during the Holocaust.  There remains a synagogue (a small one) inside the hospital.

 

We took a walk back over the bridge, and went to see some ruins.

 

Actually, the ruins are pretty much everywhere so not matter where you go, you will find something old to take a picture of.

 

Here is a cool fountain.  The turtles were added on later.  I also think this is the fountain that our guide said was originally supposed to be in a different location, but was placed here instead.

 

Then we took a walk back to the spot we had passed the day before, and it was at this time that we learned Julius Caesar was killed here.

 

One thing that was neat about the Jewish area was that you could find kosher restaurants.

 

We went on a tour of the Jewish Museum, and then also looked at the main synagogue in Rome.  Sorry, no pictures were allowed inside.

 

As we neared the end of our tour, we stopped at one of the many free, clean, public drinking fountains in Rome.  There we watched a little kid do something so cool that Ryan said I had to try it out.  If you plug up the spout, the water redirects out a little hole and makes a drinking fountain.  So neat!

 

Ryan and I wanted to eat at a kosher dairy restaurant for lunch, so our tour guide recommended this place and joined us for a nice lunch.

 

I had the mushroom salad and smoked salmon bruschetta.

Ryan and I split the artichoke.

 

Then Ryan enjoyed a pizza. 

 

After the Jewish tour, we headed back towards the hotel and thought we would check out the Pantheon. Nope, this was closed for the holiday.  But we were able to take some pictures outside.  On the way I saw this statue with an elephant and took a picture for my friend Mer, although she was in Rome and maybe she saw this for herself.  She loves elephants!

 

So here we are at the Pantheon, standing around with many others trying to reevaluate the days plans that were altered as a result of the holiday.

 

Quite an impressive building, and so well preserved.

 

While we regrouped and thought about the options, we stopped for a gelato.

 

After thinking about it, we decided to try the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.  Again, we were off by foot.

Here is a statue of the she-wolf from the story of the creation of Rome.  The two brothers were orphans and nursed by the she-wolf.

 

Score!  The Forum was open on the holiday.

Or so we thought!  It started to rain just as we gave our tickets to go through the gate.  We went in but quickly took cover and waited about 20-30 minutes for it to let up so we could venture out, leave, and head back to the hotel.  The Forum would have to wait one more day, just like the Pantheon.

We bought some umbrellas a braved the rain.  At the hotel we took a suggestion for dinner and tried out this place called Le Grotte.

 

This place was neat because they offered an antipasto bar filled with many vegetarian treats.

 

We enjoyed some bread, naturally.

 

We spotted some cheese on the menu and quickly inquired about one listed as grilled.  It almost sounded like the Greek flamed cheese, but we knew it was different.  It turned out to be really, really good.  It looked like a special kind of cheese that was smooshed in a panini press.

 

Also delicious here was the flat bread, similar to naan with herbs.

 

I started off with the antipasto bar.  I grabbed a little of most everything.

 

Ryan had some pasta to start, and for his entree he had some chicken.

I went with pasta for my entree, and I was super stuffed because I really took too much from the veggie bar.

 

We ended the meal with some coffee.

 

After paying and sitting a little to digest our food, the server bought us out some limoncello, which is a lemon liquor popular in Italy (we bought some in Florence).  What a great way to end a great meal.

 

Wait!!!  No evening is complete in Italy without gelato!  Too bad this was a place that really ripped us off and this ice cream you see here cost me 7.50 euro, which is more than $10 US.  That is why it is best to find a place where you pay first and not after.

Sadly, I wound up wearing more of the ice cream than eating it.  It looked pretty, but the shock of the price (mixed with the giggles from the alcoholic beverages) made it take longer than normal to get to eating the ice cream, and with the heat outside, and some not so frozen ice cream, it just dripped, dripped, dripped and went all over my hands.  Never fear, there was still one more day in Rome, and more gelato to be eaten!

QUESTIONS:  Have you ever toured a city from a religious point of view?  Have you ever visited a Jewish museum on vacation?  Do you usually have good weather on vacation?  When was the last time you were surprised by the price of something?

Sevilla by foot, boat and horse drawn carriage

I mentioned yesterday that Sevilla is my favorite.  There are some many places to see and places to eat, so on our first full day here we did as much of those things as we could.  Thankfully, the hotel served a nice breakfast with many delicious options.

 

Here is what I ended up selecting.

I thought these were really cute little single servings.  There is jam and olive oil.

The offered fresh squeezed orange juice and pear nectar.

After enjoying a nice breakfast, we were ready to hit Sevilla by foot.

Not a few blocks down the road and we were already scoping out the baked goods.

Then we headed to the main area with the Cathedral.

Since it gets hot here early on, and we knew there were tons of tourists, we decided to visit the Alcazar.  This place is unbelievably huge and you could not only spend hours inside its walls, but you can easily get lost.

 

I took many pictures both inside the former royal residence and then in the gardens as well.  I will only share some pictures with you to avoid the world’s longest post, but I think these are great depictions of the site although my camera can’t really do it justice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We stopped for a little break and enjoyed a cool breeze in a second story terrace area in the gardens.

After we walked around, we headed to the Torre del Oro.  It was decided that climbing this was out of the question after already walking for 1.5-2 hours around the Alcazar.

Instead we spotted these boats on the river and decided to sightsee by boat for an hour.

 

Here are some pictures of the tourist type places lining the riverbanks on both sides.

 

This river has quite a few bridges to connect both sides of Sevilla.

I am excited that there is now an amusement park here.  Ryan and I love amusement parks, so this may be a good excuse to come back again soon.

By now we were exhausted although it was only 2pm.  We headed back to the Catedral area for some lunch.  This is El Giraldillo. 

They had lots of good tapas options.

I could not resist taking a picture of the fish case.

We started with olives.

These are spinach croquettes and they were so delicious.

This is a fried green pepper.  I liked this a lot more than I expected.

We also shared a shrimp omelet.

Although the food was tasty, it was quite a rip off.  Bottles of water and soda came to almost 4 euros a piece.  The price on the menu did not include the IVA (tax) and did not include a charge for the patio.  I recommend only going there is you have this in mind when you order or your bill will come as quite a shock.  they also managed to charge is for 5 orders of bread.  We only had 3 people, and we actually did not get any bread at all.  Luckily I spotted the error and had the server correct this.

As soon as we finished, we headed to the Cathedral (or Catedral in Spanish…you have probably noticed I have been spelling it both ways).  Being Jewish, it is sometimes weird to be surrounded by so much Catholic items, but in the end, these are historical sites and impressive art works that really must be seen.  I did take a lot of pictures here too, so these are all from inside the Cathedral.

 

 

 

They had gorgeous stained glass.

 

Here is the organ.

 

 

Next up we headed for the climb up La Giralda, which is the bell tower.  This is a 35 floor climb, but they are only inclined bricks, not actual stairs, which I thought was easier.  I lost a few family members along the way, but I managed to get all the way to the top.

 

It was worth it for the breath taking views, despite the extreme exhaustion I was feeling.

 

 

 

I zoomed in on a great shot of the bull fight arena.

 

Then it was time to head down, pick up the family, and keep moving.  Here is the bell tower from the outside.  As I was climbing I had no idea how high up I was.

 

At this point we headed back to the hotel to rest.  Of course we couldn’t make it all the way back to the hotel without stopping for a soft serve.  This was really neat.  the ice cream was in a cup, but the clerk placed it in this machine and pulled down the lever, which in turn smooched out the ice cream onto a cone in a soft serve fashion.  Have you ever seen this before?

 

Even though I was exhausted, there was a store I passed by the day before and I saw so many cute things that I had to go shopping.  The store is called Natura.  They make a lot of organic cotton clothes and I liked that everything was light and flowing, which makes for fantastic island wear.  I guess while I was out shopping my mom bought more olives.  She was nice enough to share a few with me.

 

After a quick swim and then a rest, we headed out for dinner.  It was about 8:30 and stores were just getting ready to close down for the night.  many things close 9-9:30 and then you can get dinner after that.  They bought those olives earlier at El Corte Ingles which is a huge department store.  Since they know I love taking pictures of food, they took me back to visit the super market in the downstairs level.

Here are some pictures inside this grocery store.

 

 

Giant figs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prepared foods.

 

Cheese

 

Pig legs for that ham stuff they serve.  Sorry I am a vegetarian, so I usually avoid this section, but I still wanted to share a picture with everyone.

 

 

I could not resist taking a picture of this product, which is the brand bimbo.

 

I thought these canned, prepackaged foods were interesting.  We know what we have in our stores and there are some major cultural differences here with their prepackaged goods.

 

 

 

Before we left the store, I had to scope out the bakery.

 

 

We finally made it to dinner around 9:30 pm.  We selected Bodega Gongora.  This place has been around since 1939.

  

Olives again!

This time we got some bread.

When the sun goes down, the sangria comes out.  We went with a 1/2 liter because the pitcher the night before was HUGE.

My mom and Joe both ordered the gazpacho.

I had garbanzos and spinach.

We split this beautiful tomato and cheese salad.

These are shrimp in garlic with olive oil.

I couldn’t resist snapping a picture of the sardines in the window.  These are really popular here.

After dinner we headed out in search of something else.  We weren’t quite sure what, but we headed in the direction on the cathedral.  On the way we found a horse carriage.  These are very popular and they are usually lined up by the cathedral.  My mom was curious about the route and the cost.  After some negotiating, we got in for a night time carriage ride to areas of the city we had not yet visited.

Because it was getting dark and the carriage was moving, it was hard to take pictures.  I tried, so here are some shots of Sevilla at night.

I love this picture of the three of us.  I am glad the driver was able to get the horse to pose too.  We had a fantastic driver despite his thick accent and lack of English.

When the tour ended and we were dropped off by the cathedral, it was 11 pm.  The city was still bustling and people were still packed into the restaurants and cafes.  It seemed coffee and dessert was in order.  Bar Companario seemed like a good choice.  We had been trying for 2 days to get a table at Cervecaria Giralda but they were always too busy.  Bar Companario is just across the way and they had crepes.

First up was a coffee.  Like my meia da leite in Portugal, they have a similar drink here known as cafe com leche.

My mom and I ended the night by sharing a cinnamon and sugar crepe.

If you are tired from just reading about all of the activity we fit into one day, you can imagine how exhausted I was getting back to my room that night.  Oh well, no complaints.  It was a wonderful and we have one more to go before heading to Granada and the Alhambra.

QUESTIONS:  Do you like to shop while you are on vacation?  Are you a light traveler?  What is your favorite way to drink coffee?