All good things must come to end and this was the end of a FUN FILLED Friends tour. Our cruise had anchored in Athens to mark the end of an Epic 10 nights of touring the Greek and Turkish ports.
Post breakfast, we disembarked smoothly and all outside awaiting our transport to take us to the airport.
Cheeky and I were headed to Rome to commence our Italian mini travels.
Doc, Jaynesh, PCB, Kosh were heading home with a 2 day layover in Doha. As our flights were only a couple of hours apart we all headed back on the same transport.


Arrived at the airport with loads of time, Cheeky, Meeta, Me and Nita said our byes to the others and headed off to our ROME Flight. We had a 4:30pm walking dessert tour booked in Rome, so lucky the flight was on time.
Flight and Transfer to hotel was uneventful, however there always has to be some drama. At our Hotel checkin-in , realised I had booked 2 rooms with only 1 person each !!! Yikes, had not noticed that setting in Agoda – sorted that out which added a bit more time….. cutting it fine to our walking tour.
Managed to make it to our meeting point on the dot at 4:30pm , @ Piazza S. Ignazio.
Met out tour guide, Martina, a lovely local who took the 4 of us around – great to have a private tour!
For those that have not done a walking tour – this is our first and recommended by PCB, it is the best thing ever, nothing like exploring food on foot, and even more fun when the food is desserts ;).
The Dessert tour was not just about desserts and sweets, it was also incorporating the historic monuments, churches, squares and much much more…. lovely time with her.
(there is the lack of detail here as I am writing this blog after 2 years – I now silly me and that is the issue when we get lazy and keep pushing things out, we loose out on so many details, I cannot accurately specify the names of all places, so sharing mostly in pics )





Post the first church, we headed to one of the oldest chocolatier to try some of the best chocolates/pralines…. met the original master chefs or chocolatiers who were still running the place – the nicest persons.
Like anywhere, the first stop of eating had us excited and we all took two chocolates each…. but after just a few small bites, the richness of it was too much and we could only finish half.





Next stop was walk past the Pantheon, and into the Santa Maria Sopra Minerva Basilica Church , here lay Saint Catherine, it is a tradition here to write a wish/prayer and lay that on Saint Catherine’s body that is in the church.



















Next stop was a cafe – so good to have a coffee and to try some local pastries. Espresso is so nice in Europe and this place delivered!











Bit more walking through alleyways, squares and streets…. walked into Piazza Norvana – place me and Nita visited in 1998!
Next was a savoury stop – at a specialist Pizza / bakery. The pizzas were so yum and the pastries were wow!







More walking through a maze of streets before we arrived at our Fav of the entire ROME stay – Roscioli , this is a bakery & cafe and had 2 other locations for sitdown eating.
Here we tried the Roman version of CREAM BUNs, called MARITOZZO. Nice one, not as sweet – Nita loved the balance and reduced sweetness of these.
Cream buns done, more walking through back streets showing us some hidden gems for eating, honestly so good to have some local knowledge!



















Next stop was another savoury / pizza cafe, however this time she got us to try some pasta/gnocchi – was so so good and another local fav which I cannot remember the name know , but it was so yummm! With so much food, we had to tell the man to only give us one portion and we would make quarters out of it….we just wanted to taste it, no more space for eating 😉






Walked back the way we had come through and made our way to the final stop – a Gelato place, great way to end it.








This had been the best method to quickly see some key sights of Rome and take it all in like a local on foot…. you truly get to experience a place on foot, highly recommend walking tour’s in cities.
We called it a night, did not need dinner and it was time to get some rest before the next couple of Days of Rome exploration.



































































































































































































































































































































































