Europe diary, days 3 & 4: A big Roman walk, and travel to Tampere

Monday 6 November

We slept in fits through the night, waking up on a few occasions, but managing to go back to sleep. We finally gave up about 06:30 and decided to get up for the day.

I found a nearby pasticciera using Google Maps, which opened at 07:00, Panificio Biscotteria Roscioni. We walked the two blocks over there to find a small bakery selling biscuits, cakes, and pastries. They had cornetti with Nutella filling, custard, and pistachio cream, but none with jam which was what M. wanted. I asked the man in Italian (as it seemed he spoke very little English) if they had any with jam but he said no, the fresh croissants were too hot to cut and fill just yet. So we got a plain one for M. and I tried a pistachio cream, which was less like the custard I expected and more like a pistachio Nutella, very sweet and sugary. After eating these we looked at some fo the other delicious looking things in the displays and M. selected a biscuit that looked like the Napolis we get from the Italian bakery at home. The man warmed it up for us in a microwave and cut it in half. It was indeed a Napoli and the filling was rich and intense with cocoa, not too sweet, which was nice after the pistachio cornetto!

We went back to the hotel to prepare for the day out. We decided to visit Trastevere, since we could just wander around and look at the various things there. I thought we could go there via the Colosseum, so we headed out in that direction. We got there quite early and walked around the huge structure, taking several photos in the morning sunlight. The weather was good despite a forecast of possible rain. Around the Colosseum we passed by the Arch of Constantine and then walked past the Palatine Hill archaeological site to the Circus Maximus. From there we passed the Basilica di Santa Maria in Cosmedin, which houses the famous Bocca della Verità. We wanted to see if we could go in and see it close up, but we were there at 09:00 and the church didn’t open until 09:30. Rather than wait, we crossed the Ponte Palatino into Trastevere.

We walked down Via dei Vascellari, stopping early on for a drink at a place called Terra Satis. It said it was a wine bar, but in the morning it was simply serving coffee and pastries like any other coffee bar. M. had a cappuccino and I had a spremuta orange juice. We then used the toilet before departing.

We continued down the street for several blocks, enjoying the quieter back street ambience before crossing over to the main Viale di Trastevere with its traffic and trams. At Via Emilio Morosini we turned west and then north into the maze of small streets that gives Trastevere its charm. We stumbled across a small produce market in Piazza di San Cosimato and bought a couple of small bananas, an apple for me, and some almonds for snacks. Next to the Piazza was a food store selling all sorts of Italian groceries and ingredients, which was fascinating to browse through. M. had a coffee in Bar Picchiotto on the western side the piazza and then we continued exploring.

We explored some of this area last time we were in Rome and accidentally managed to find and have lunch in one of the best pizza places to be found (Ivo Pizzeria). I was hoping we could find it again, but I remembered neither the name nor where it was, and we had no luck. But we found a decent looking place and stopped for lunch at Hosteria del Moro. We had an insulate caprese to start, followed by pizza margherita for M. and a pizza diavola for me, with spicy salami. We were also given a basket of hot bread slices with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, which was really delicious – very nice bread. The salad and the pizzas were very good too.

After eating we decided to walk past the Vatican, so headed north. When we got there, there was some sort of service thing happening on the giant video screens in front of St Peter’s Basilica, but I couldn’t see where the video was being captured from, so maybe it was just a recording or something. There were hundreds of people shuffling along in a queue to get inside the basilica, but having been in there a couple of times before we didn’t feel a need to go on again.

Heading east back to the river we were stopped from reaching Castel Sant’Angelo by some large construction work being done, which forced us to go back over the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II, rather than walk to the Castel and cross Ponte Sant’Angelo with its angel sculptures. We walked along the river as far as Ponte Umberto I and then took a route inland along Via dell Orso. We passed a couple of very nice looking restaurants and grabbed their business cards, since we’ll be staying in this area next week and could use some good places for dinner close by.

This eastward route took us into the high fashion shopping area of Rome, where M. browsed in some shops and we slowly wended out way towards the Spanish Steps. These we climbed up the hill so we could take the straightest route back to our hotel along Via Sistina and Via delle Quattro Fontane. This completed a circuit of Rome that completely enclosed the loop we did yesterday!

Back in the hotel we freshened up with showers and resting for a bit before heading back out for dinner. We had dinner booked for our special anniversary dinner at Il Convivio Troiani, a rather fancy place. But it required another half hour’s walk back to almost where we were earlier near Via dell Orso!

The restaurant is a nondescript door in an old wall along a tiny alley. You have to ring the doorbell to be let in, revealing an atmospherically lit dining room with square columns and arched vaults. The wait staff consisted entirely of gentlemen in immaculate suits and ties, who performed an amazingly choreographed and intricate display of attending to the dinner guests. We were the first to arrive and were shown to a table after they closeted my jacket in an and wooden garderobe. M. tried to hang her jacket over her chair back but was politely informed that that was not allowed, so she folded it and placed it on her handbag, which was resting on a small, plushly padded footstool provided next to the table.

Suspended above the centre of our table by a fine thread was the dried stems from a bunch of grapes, holding eight or ten potato chips of different colours. The waiter said we could eat the chips from the table decoration. He presented us with menus in oversized cloth-covered folders. These contained the degustation menu and an almost exclusively non-vegetarian a la carte selection. I apologised for not warning them in advance that M. was vegetarian, saying that I has looked at the menu online and saw several options, and could we please know what the vegetarian options were. The waiter summoned the manager, who came to speak with us and listed several variations they could make to dishes. M. selected a fried zucchini flower appetiser, which had an anchovy sauce replaced with a miso sauce, and a pappardelle pasta dish which had another substitution. I chose a fried octopus appetiser and a spaghetti amatriciana with pork cheek. We also ordered a serve of mixed vegetables as a side. The waiter asked, “Is that all?” in a slight tone of voice that made me wonder if they expected us to order more food. But as it turned out it was plenty.

After ordering food, they brought the wine list, which came in a ring binder of well over 100 pages. There was one page of wine by the glass, plus another of aged wine by the glass. Some of the latter were pretty expensive, topping 100 euro per glass. We chose a 2006 Sangiovese from the non-aged section. The sommelier returned with a bottle and a gadget for extracting wine without removing the cork. He had three glasses and first poured a sip for himself to try, after which he gave an enthusiastic “Wow!” before pouring a taste for me. I tried it and approved, and he poured our two glasses. The wine really was very good, rich and full-bodied with plenty of interesting flavour development.

Food service began with an amuse-bouche. This consisted of a bite-sized rye bread roll for me, with salted cod and crispy cod skin, (vegetable like fennel?), and blueberries. M.’s vegetarian substitute was a tiny bowl of pumpkin soup with chestnut pieces. These were accompanied by a small glass with about three sips of spiced port wine mixed with some sort of juice or something (it was difficult to remember the full verbal description given by the manager). After this was a bite-size raspberry macaron filled with some sort of meat cream for me, soft cheese for M., and studded with granulated nuts. This was accompanied by another drink, a tropical juice with another liquor which he said was “infused for 24 hours” with some herbs and spices.

After this they brought house-made sourdough in a small individual loaf sliced into about 8 slices. It was still warm from the oven and delicious. The appetisers came out and looked amazing! They were both delicious, with different flavours and textures throughout. The pasta was also fantastic. The waiter served M.’s pappardelle and poured a green sauce into the hollow tubes formed by the pasta. He also said that the plate was only half of her serve of pasta and they would bring a second plate when she finished the first, to make sure it didn’t get cold as she ate (although I didn’t hear this at the time and thought she was getting a rather small serving!). For the mixed vegetables we expected a simple bowl of steamed carrots and zucchini or something, but what arrived was an intricately plated mix of mushrooms, cauliflower florets in white, yellow, and purple, semi-dried tomatoes, fried kale leaves, and dabs of orange and green sauces made from other pureed vegetables.

We looked at the desserts but one of the two options contained tobacco, and the other was a sweet penne pasta with various creamy and fruity things that didn’t appeal to me. The first one actually sounded good apart from the tobacco. So we passed on dessert and settled the bill. But on the walk back to the hotel we passed Giolitti, and so stopped in for some gelato. I had a cup with banana and black cherry flavours, and it was really good.

We were back at our hotel about 22:15 and prepared quickly for bed, since we set alarms for 06:30 to be up and check out of the hotel so we could catch a train to the airport tomorrow for our flight to Helsinki.

Tuesday 7 November

We are still getting used to the time zone shift, and were wide awake at 5:00, although we slept fairly well before this. We sat up and read for a while and then at 06:00 we decided to go to the station without out luggage and get an early breakfast, then return to the hotel to brush our teeth, finish packing, and check out.

We went back to the same place where M. had got her snack on arrival two days ago, but the pasticciera wasn’t open yet, and the lady there pointed us at another place opposite that served mostly sandwiches. But they had a few cornetti, including ones with apricot jam, so we got one each and M. had a cappuccino. After eating these we stopped at the station to buy tickets for the express train to the airport. Then we went back to the hotel, packed our bags, and checked out.

Back at Termini station ten minutes later we saw a Leonardo Express train sitting at platform 23. So we walked out there but the train lights went off and the doors wouldn’t open. We stopped to wait, thinking the train would be turned back on again in a little while. But I decided to walk back down to the indicator boards to see if there was any other information such as a departure time. I saw that the next express to the airport was due to leave from platform 24 at 07:35, in ten minutes. So I walked back to M. and told her we had to switch to the other platform. As we walked around, we stopped to inform several other people also waiting on 23 with luggage that they needed to walk over to platform 24. Hopefully they appreciated the advice! And indeed just as we made it to 24 another train pulled in. Travellers got off and we walked up to the front to get on.

The train left a few minutes late and deposited us at Fiumicino Airport just after 08:00. We checked with the Finnair check-in counter in case we needed to do anything, or check any of our bags. The man there said as long as we had a boarding pass on our phones (which we did) we could just go straight in through security. He also said our bags were fine to take into the cabin. So we passed through the security check, which only took a few minutes as there were virtually no queues. Again we didn’t have to remove anything from our bags, and there were large signs saying to leave everything, liquids, laptops, etc, in our bags for scanning. They said (in Italian and English) that it was the security screening of the future. I commented to M. that it was also the security screening of the past.

We wanted to grab some food before the flight, because it’s a bit of a budget flight and they only have snacks that you can buy on board. Upstairs in the terminal is a large area with restaurants, cafes, and other food places. M. grabbed a quick cornetto with Nutella from a coffee shop, and then we sat down in a large seating area served by a cluster of food outlets nearby. One of them had salads and vegetables, and I felt that would be good. I went to order a chicken salad and a large cup of fruit salad for M., but the woman there indicated that her station was closed, but I could order from the adjacent pizza place. When I went there and asked for the salad the lady looked at me funny and said to go next door. I told her that it was closed, and so she walked over to the other woman and they had a brief conversation, and then she came back and told me to go over there and grab what I wanted and bring it back here to pay. It was all a bit weird, but I managed to get what I wanted.

After eating those M. wanted a coffee and suggested sitting in one of the restaurants that had a coffee machine. I said I could still eat something else as well, so we did that. The place M. liked the look of turned out to be some sort fo weird Brazilian-Japanese fusion place. I ordered plantain chips with wasabi mayonnaise and some shrimp gyoza kind of things which came with a spicy banana dipping sauce. It was strange but decent.

Once done there it was almost 10:00 and our flight would be boarding soon. We walked down to the gate and people were already queueing up. We joined in, just before they started letting people into the queuing corral. We got seats in the fourth back row of the plane, a small Airbus A321. The back door was open and I could see it had started raining outside, and it got heavier before we took off.

In flight they crew sold snacks and provided complimentary water and blueberry juice. We both tried the juice and it was nice. We’ve never had blueberry juice before. The flight landed just 2:45 after take off, making our arrival in Helsinki around 15:00. At the airport we stopped at a bakery to get a snack. M. had a rye sandwich with cheese, lettuce, and cucumber, while I tried one of the tempting looking cinnamon buns. M. also had a coffee.

Then we walked out to the railway station, which was deep underground below the airport. We could feel the cold, as the temperature on arrival was 8°C. On the platform were ticket machines, blue ones for local trains and a green one for long distance trains. We used the green one to purchase two tickets to Tampere, and it printed a local metro ticket for an 8 minute journey to Tikkurila and a long distance ticket from Tikkurila to Tampere. The next train to Tikkurila was only 4 minutes away so we didn’t have long to wait. At Tikkurila we switched platforms to wait for the train to Tampere. The ticket machine had assigned us seats in car 4, and we tried to find the right place on the platform to wait for the correct car. As the train pulled in, we saw several of the Japanese ISO delegates, who came over and greeted us with handshakes. They boarded elsewhere, but one ended up in the same seating area as us a few seats behind. Our seats were across the aisle from each other, as everyone else in the carriage seemed to have single seats by the windows. But at the first stop the woman next to M. got off and so I moved across to sit in that window seat so we could be together.

The train arrived in Tampere a few minutes late, just before 18:00. It was dark, the sun having gone down around 16:00, and colder than at the airport, around 4°C according to the Internet. A light misty drizzle was falling, but we could see some drifts of old snow on roads and footpaths. We walked the couple of blocks to the pizzeria Bianco, where we picked up the key to our accommodation. It was just around the corner and we entered to find a nice apartment, a little worn in places, but certainly fine for our needs for the next few nights.

After dropping our things we went out to get some dinner. I found a Spanish place just a block away and we liked the sound of that so we went over to Bodega Salud. There we followed the example of others before us in using the large cloakroom to put our coats, hats, and gloves into a locker and take the key. This is completely foreign to us, having to deal with cold weather clothing like this. We were shown to a table in the nicely atmospheric decorated restaurant. We ordered tapas: patatas bravas, codfish croquettes, garlic bread, and a dish of spicy chick peas and spinach, together with glasses of Spanish Tempranillo wine. The food was all good and filling enough to serve as dinner without ordering more.

On the way home we stopped in at the supermarket next door to buy some supplies: shampoo for the apartment, muesli and milk and yoghurt for breakfast, and we threw in some fresh blueberries to go with that. I also grabbed a cheap tub of chocolate mud ice cream to serve as dessert each night while we’re here, and M. got some liquorice and chocolate. Then it was back to the apartment to have showers and turn in for the night. Basically a full day of travel, which was rather tiring!