Beautiful afternoon in Rome, after the full morning of rain from about 6am til about 1-2 pm. By now though I was already soaked though as was all my clothes and down parka....so whilst I very much enjoyed walking around Rome, my favourite place was Ostia as it was warmer even after dark!,)
My favourite restaurant in Italy,
Ristorante alla Rampa, is here in Rome (see other previous post photos), just around the corner from the Spanish steps fountain below.
Fresh roasted chestnuts below. They´re warm, and the outer shell is paper thin and crisp as you peel it off. They taste a bit like warm pecan-walnuts. More close, though still nothing like, pecans, but with a bit of a black walnut texture also. Hard to describe, tastes like chestnut, not really like another type of nut flavour. It is in gelato, and fresh roasted everywhere now, as it is in season, along with artichokes, wine grapes, truffles, and mushrooms, for instance.
The koi pond at the train station as you arrive/leave
Beautiful kinds of huge palms and palm trees, desert plants such as 3 foot wide aloe veras and other similar plants. The swooning trees everywhere are lovely too.
One of the public water fountains for drinking.
Map of where Ostia is compared to Rome. It looks far, but is an easy drive by car. Or, you can just as easily take the train. Two trains, from sentrum, but not that much time. It is much warmer out by the sea even in winter. It felt like about 62F out (so a bit warmer than 60F, but not quite as warm as 65 or 70F). It was balmy, humid out, really lovely weather. Overcast already though, as it is winter, and there is less hours even here of actual daylight. It´s 5:30 pm as I type, and already dark out here in Florence. so dark it seems like 11pm already. I keep checking the clock so as to not miss my train to Austria, even though I have several hours yet. It just looks so late outside, as it is so dark already out.
Lavender hedges of tufted lavenders, outside the castle gardens
Castle ruins further into archeological area across the road from castle
Ostia sea not too far from the castle and ruins
Restaurant below, courtyard area, very pretty inside and out, but my battery was going low, and it was dark inside as none of the lights were on.
