And this is some wonderful looking bacon, check out the streakiness of it. We"re getting ready to leave in a few minutes for a full day of sightseeing in Rome, but let me just quickly show you on this map, sort of the rough plan, we are staying up here near to Spagna, we"re gonna take the Metro down to Colosseo. We"re gonna go to the Colosseum, we"re gonna go to the Palatine Hill, and we"re gonna go to the Forum. We"ll try to eat around here, go to the Pantheon, go to some other sites around here, walk around here, walk around here, and then maybe go back down here to visit San Giovanni, we"ll see how our time comes. (upbeat music) We took the Metro from Spagna to Colosseo Station, and immediately, right at the exit of the Metro, we are at the base of the Colosseum.
We are here a little bit early, before they open, so we"re just gonna walk around for a little bit, and I have pre-bought the ticket online and then printed it off, so I hope we can just enter as soon as they open. It was really good actually that we printed off our tickets because then after we got through security we passed the whole line, just scanned in, it has a little barcode, and we are into the Colosseum now. We have decided to climb the stairs to the top first to get a view, an overall view from the top. - [Ying] Look at the view. - [Mark] This an awesome view. - [Ying] Oh, you can see everything here. - [Mark] At one point this Colosseum could hold up to 80 000 spectators. (upbeat techno music) And it was covered in a flooring, so now you can see sort of some of the underground area, but this is where the gladiators would fight, and also this is where they would reenact battles, and it could even be flooded, so that they could reenact naval battles and depictions as well. You have seen so many photos, and you"ve seen movies that depict the Colosseum, and so just imagining the battles and the events, and the things that took place within the Colosseum as you"re walking through here, that"s what, that"s what really comes to mind when I"m walking through.
We are on our way next to the Forum. Right across the plaza from the Colosseum is the Roman forum, and this was the heart, the very center, of ancient Rome, and so many of the most important buildings, and this is the area where Rome thrived. (relaxed music) And I think one of the things that"s really making it amazing to visit right now is how quiet and peaceful it is. (relaxed music) Right behind me is what remains of the Temple of Saturn which is one of the oldest temples in Rome. It dates back to the sixth century BC, but the remains of what you can see right now date back to 42 BC.
Oh, they have fresh cold water. It"s just a short walk from the central Forum area up to the top of Paletine Hill, and from up here there"s the Imperial Palace, you can get a view of the Forum, as well as Circus Maximus on the other side. (relaxed music) And now I"m overlooking Circus Maximus, which is a giant open-air horse chariot racing stadium, and also they held public events here, and it could accommodate up to 150 000 people that would watch events. You could easily spend a couple of hours walking and exploring around the Forum area, but it is now my favorite time of the day, so we just exited.
(upbeat music) - Hi guys. - Hello. - Would you like to drink something? - Just water please. This is a restaurant that serves, actually I"m a little bit overwhelmed by the menu, there are so many things to order. Crepa? - Crepa, one. - One, and also amatriciana? - Amatriciana. - Amatriciana. In Italy, I really honestly have very, very little experience with Italian food, and even ordering Italian food, so I was looking at that menu, there are so many things that I haven"t tried, I wanna try it all when I"m here in Italy.
To begin with, I got a plate of antipasto, and this is, this is a mixture of different vegetables which appear to be slightly battered and deep fried, this is a red chili, there"s some eggplant, some onions, maybe potatoes, I"ll start with piece of eggplant. Oh, and some olives in the middle. Set this onto my plate, oh I gotta have some of that chili as well, or some of that pepper.
Mmmmm, it"s a really soft, like fully tender pepper. A little bit sweet, and sour. Maybe it"s the tomato sauce, or, there"s some tomatoes on there that make it really sour and tart. Yeah, that is equally as creamy, that eggplant. It"s kind of like a, almost tastes like breadcrumb crust, that"s fried, and crispy, and kind of almost gummy as well. Amatriciana? - Amatriciana. - Amatriciana, okay. The main dishes have arrived, and I got, we ordered, Ying and I ordered two different dishes to split, this one is trippa, which is tripe, and this is I think a Roman style preparation, very heavy tomato sauce, and then he sprinkled on some cheese on top, and I think there"s, I think it"s all, I don"t think there"s any pasta in here, I think it"s just all tripe. My kind of a dish, just sauce and tripe. Okay, I"m just gonna taste this first. Mmmmm. That tripe is nice and soft, but it also, okay bits of it are a little bit chewy, but it"s wonderful.
And then that"s kind of a, a little bit of a tart tomato sauce, but not too salty at all. That"s awesome. And then this is a type of pasta, this one is called amatriciana, and this is a, also a very common pasta dish, tomato based, and then I"m not sure if you can see, there are little cubes of cured pork belly, and then wrapped up in this pasta, and let me, let me stab some. Mmmmm. What I love about that is the tomatoes are so sour and tart, that is delicious, and that little pork belly just gives it so much flavor along with the tart tomato flavor. I think you gotta use some of this bread to scoop up all of that sauce because... You gotta scoop up all of that tomato sauce. That really mops up all of this sauce, and you can definitely, actually after I tasted the other dish, which is just pure tomato, and then going back to the tripe dish, you can definitely tell that it has a bit of a, an organy taste. The name of the restaurant is Luzzi, and that was, what I really liked was that tripe dish, if you can imagine a texture that is both very soft, but slightly chewy at the same time, and I know that sounds kind of ironic, but as soon as you have that tripe dish you"ll know exactly that contrast.
One of the reasons we ate here is because it"s right on the route of where we"re gonna be going, we"re gonna be visiting some churches next, and it"s just kind of on the back side of the Colosseum. We are walking towards the Basilica di San Giovanni, but on the way we were gonna stop at the Basilica di San Clemente, but unfortunately they have just now closed for lunch, we just missed it, and they won"t open up for another couple of hours, so I don"t think we"re gonna hang around, we"re on our way now to San Giovanni. (upbeat music) The Basilica di San Giovanni was commissioned by Constantine in 324, and it is significantly important in Rome because it was the first Christian Basilica in all of the city.
We just got through security, and we have entered into the foyer entrance way of the Basilica, and it is just stunning, it"s huge and the detail in the walls, in the columns, in the floor, is amazing. And then also the doors are just gigantic. It almost takes my breath away, and what really strikes me right off the bat, are the marble statues lining the side of the cathedral, of the 12 apostles, and then the roof is golden, with so much detail. You just walk in here and literally this sense of like peace and quiet and calm just overwhelms you. And I"m just gonna stop talking right now and just listen to the peace. That was just amazing to walk inside the Basilica, it"s so big and yeah, just such a quiet, calm, peaceful place. We just walked across the street from the Basilica di San Giovanni, and right here there"s another chapel, and inside there"s supposedly a staircase that Jesus walked up at Pontius Pilate"s palace in Jerusalem, and then the staircase was brought to Rome, and so you cannot walk up the staircase on your feet, but you have to walk up on your knees, and with every step that you take on your knees you also say a prayer until you reach the top of all 28 steps.
Ying and I are gonna make the climb up the staircase on our knees. Ying did a really good job, but I was definitely in pain the entire time. I actually wasn"t expecting it to hurt that much. I think that took us about 15 minutes, and you just kind of creep up the steps very slowly, but it was well worth it. We walked back to the Metro, we"re gonna take it a couple of stops to our next place. We got off the Metro at Barberini Station, and we are gonna walk towards the Trevi Fountain. (upbeat music) Hello, can I have the three cone? Chocolate chip, chocolate chip Ying. And anything else Ying? Thank you. - Thank you.
- I don"t know if anybody ever comes to Rome without having some gelato, there are many places to get gelato around this area, we came to a place called Gelateria Valentino, we ordered half chocolate chip and half coconut. Oh yeah, that is pretty awesome, really really milky. Wow the coconut is really good too. It has again a really, really milky, milky, creamy flavor to it, and even a very smooth texture. And then in the coconut you can have, you feel the little pieces of dried coconut as well. And that gelato should lead us to what is one of the most iconic sights in all of Rome. I"m gonna look over to my right hand side. And there it is. (upbeat music) As much as that was cool to see, we are pretty hot and tired now, so Ying and I are heading back to the hotel, we"re gonna spend a couple of hours, and tonight we have a very special big dinner coming up, stay tuned, dinner coming soon. Tonight Ying and I are going to go meet Valentina and Antonio, and they are from Rome, they were really helpful and they reached out to me when I mentioned that I was coming to Rome, and they really helped me put together a good itinerary of what to do and see, and also eat, in Rome, so we"re going to meet them for dinner tonight, I am predicting a very good dinner.
We arrived at Piazza di Spagna, and this is another famous plaza in Rome, there are the Spanish steps over here but it looks like they are doing some renovation on them right now, so I don"t think they"re open, but then it"s a nice plaza to just walk around and people watch as well. We are walking on our way to dinner now, and we have just stopped by the Pantheon. But we"re gonna come back tomorrow to go inside and to explore more, we"re just kinda passing through but it is just a breathtaking sight.
(upbeat music) (Italian conversation) - He"s not sure about the rabbit, he has to catch it first. (Italian conversation) (Italian conversation) - We met up with Valentina and Antonio, and we have come to a restaurant called Trattoria Dal Gino, and it specializes in especially Roman style dishes. So normally it would be common for you to have your own plate of pasta and you would eat by yourself? - [Antonio] Everyone chooses it"s own. - [Mark] Okay, but we have decided to combine Italian food with Asian eating style, so we"re gonna have a bunch of dishes and share them all together, so that we can taste all of the different dishes. This one is cacio e pepe. - [Antonio] Cacio is the other Roman name for sheep cheese. - [Mark] Ah, okay. And then this one is the carbonara.
With eggs. - [Antonio] Pork cheeks. - [Mark] Pork cheeks. - [Antonio] And pepper. - [Mark] Thank you very much. - [Antonio] You should take this, this and that, and you scrape it on top. - [Mark] Antonio says -- - [Antonio] That side. - [Mark] Oh, other side, okay, okay. Antonio says always more cheese is a good idea. What type of cheese is this? - [Antonio] This is sheep cheese. - [Mark] Sheep cheese. - [Antonio] Roman sheep cheese - [Mark] Roman sheep cheese, wow. And then, over both pastas? Over everything? - [Antonio] Just put it, in Rome we say cheese like it rains - [Mark] Okay. Alright, I gotta begin with the carbonara. Twist a, twist a fork bite. Mine"s gonna be a big bite. - [Antonio] If you"re not careful, you"re gonna get everything. - [Mark] Sauce all over, yes. Okay, I gotta work on my fork, okay there we go, I think I"ve got a nice twirl. Oh yeah. Wow. And this is also cooked with pork cheek, so there"s little pieces of pork cheek in here, and that gives a lot of flavor to the entire dish, and also you can taste that black pepper in there as well.
That is just absolute rich deliciousness coating the noodles. I"ll try this one next. Wow, okay that one is incredible. The combination of that sheep cheese, which has this like salty, kind of complex cheese flavor, and then it"s complemented so well just with that black pepper. And then just coating that pasta, that is a, just a superb combination, it tastes just simple, but all about the flavor from that cheese, and the pepper. (Italian conversation) Oh the wine is amazing. - [Antonio] The wine"s good huh? - [Mark] Yeah, oh it"s so like smooth. Oh, grazie, grazie. And we also got another pasta, with anchovies and tomatoes, and anything else in this one? Anchovies and tomatoes and garlic. And sheeps" cheese, also. And this one is the house special. This one is really good too, you can taste, of course you can taste the anchovies. A little bit of cheese in there, and then also, I think some kind of parsley in there as well. That tastes like kind of refreshing. Adding a little extra pepper. All of the pastas are just unbelievably good, I really, I think I really loved that one with the sheep"s cheese, and pepper, that combination just complements each other so well, but the carbonara is also impressively good, it"s so rich, and so like, yeah it"s just incredibly rich and creamy and just packed with flavor, the butter, the eggs, the pig cheek, and I definitely need to work on my pasta twirl.
(Italian conversation) All of the pasta, that was only the beginning of this meal, we have now moved on to the main courses, and we have a bunch of different dishes. We got some liver, which is a Venice style preparation, boiled beef which is then fried and then combined with tomatoes and onions and pine fruit, and then this is another interesting vegetable dish that we got here, which is chicory weeds, which I don"t think I"ve ever had before, rabbit which looks like it"s, I think it"s been braised in some wine, and also rosemary, and then the final meat dish I think we got is veal, thin strips of veal, with prosciutto? - Prosciutto. - Prosciutto, with prosciutto on top, and then with fresh sage on top, butter and white wine sauce. I"m gonna start with the liver, liver and onions. Oh yeah. I love liver, oh that"s really nice because you can actually taste the white wine in there, and I also got a piece of sage in that bite as well. That sage is wonderful. Okay onto the rabbit, and it looks like I got the, I got some ribs portion.
Let me flip him over. Oh it"s okay to grab it? Okay, I think it"s maybe easier to grab it with my fingers. Wow. The rabbit is amazing, it"s so tender. It"s almost like dark meat chicken. Onto the beef now, with the tomatoes. Wow. Yeah, that is a stunner. That beef, again it"s fall-apart tender but it sort of like, it sort of like flakes in your mouth. And then that"s like a, a sweet, but like very, very fragrant tomato and onion topping, and I"m trying to distinguish the spices in there, the herbs and there"s definitely the pine, the pine cone fruit, in there, although I"m not sure if I can decipher that on it"s own, but also there"s a little bit, Antonio was telling me that there"s also a little bit of fennel in there as well, that"s an amazingly, an amazing combination, that"s delicious.
Veal, let me take out a toothpick, and you can see that piece of sage on top. Oh yeah. That is awesome as well. The sage on there is what gives it it"s twist of flavor. This is the vegetable, that chicory, the chicory leaves. We"re eating that sort of at the end of the meal. Just a hint of a bitter taste to it. Really good, and you can taste that it"s fried with garlic as well. I have a piece of bread, in Italian it"s called scarpetta, and what you do is you take a piece of bread, I"ll go over here to this plate, and you just mop up all of that juice and oil and flavor from that dish, oh and some rosemary as well, you mop that all up, you get that all in there, and you clean the plate that way. That would make any type of bread taste good.
We finished off all of the food, and we decided it would be a great idea to order one more dish, and not only any one dish, but a baby lamb dish. Oh that just, oh that"s beautiful. Wow. That is like... It almost has a creamy texture, it"s fantastic, and again that like, butter, I"m guessing butter and white wine sauce with rosemary. (Italian conversation) Thank you very much. Mmmm, wow, you can taste all those herbs in there. - It"s about a hundred herbs or something. - It almost has a little bit of an anise flavor, a little bit of a peppermint flavor, a little bit of a, and that"s the combination of all those herbs.
Do we stand here and have it? - [Antonio] We stand here, yeah. - [Mark] Probably one of the best Italian meals I"ve ever had, huge thank you to Valentina and Antonio, it was fun to hang out with them, I"m gonna end the video for today right now, thank you all very much for watching, please remember to give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it, leave a comment below, and also make sure you subscribe if you"re not already subscribed, for lots more food videos, and I will see you on the next video, thank you again for watching, see you for the next day in Rome.
(beep) Or some of that pepper. Oh, I"m using the, I"m using the knife upside down. In Italian it"s called carpetta. - [Antonio] Scarpetta. - [Mark] Scarpetta. In Italian it"s called scarpetta. (upbeat music).
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