in which we traveled far and wide for the best tiramisu in rome

All film photos in this post were taken with an LC-A+ (plus wide lens attachment) using Kodak Color Plus 200.

After the Colosseum, we walked along Via dei Fori Imperiali to see the Foro Romano, Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II, and Il Campidoglio. Via dei Fori Imperiali was built by Benito Mussolini to connect his office in Piazza Venezia to the Colosseum (also passing by the Roman Forum), destroying 40,000 square yards of important Roman history, as this area was heavily populated in medieval and Renaissance Rome.

The view of the general vicinity of the Roman Forum from the Colosseum’s higher levels. We didn’t enter and chose to look at it from the outside, along the via dei Fori Imperiali. It used to be a bustling area, the center of Roman public life.

If you follow the street towards Piazza Venezia (that is, away from the Colosseum), you will run into the Monumento Nazionale a Vittorio Emanuele II, which houses the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It’s also called Altare della Patria, or “Altar of the Fatherland,” honoring the first king of unified Italy, Victor Emmanuel.

The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is guarded by two soldier and is watched over by an “eternal flame.”

We went to see Il Compidiglio, and there aren’t much pictures because that’s when it started to rain harder.

We took a bus to SS Quattro 24, because I read about a good pizza place called Pizzeria Li Rioni. We were lucky we got there just before their kitchen was going to close! The pizza was GOOD. I got bresaola with rocket and parmesan (of course). They serve everyone a whole pizza! But I was happy to eat all of it. HEH.

In pursuit of tiramisu that the entire internet has spoken about, we walked to Bar Gelateria Pompi at Via Albalonga. We thought we could walk it without a problem, but the scaling of the map we had was deceptive! We saw a lot of nice things along the way, though, but then it started to rain.

A vinyl store! I wish we had time to stop over, but alas.

SPQR is an initialism of the Latin phrase Senātus Populusque Rōmānus, or The Senate & People of Rome. It appears on Roman coins and documents and refers to the government of the ancient Roman Republic. I find it fascinating that this is still pretty widespread even today.

FINALLY! We found it! Bar Gelateria Pompi was bigger than I thought and served a wide array of sweets, pastries and drinks. We had the tiramisu, which was as good as people made it sound online. I mean, coffee-soaked ladyfingers with mascarpone? Yes, please! I wish I had tried the other flavors (e.g. strawberry), but I’m perfectly happy with the original. I’m glad we looked for it, even though we ended up soaked. The cafe latte we got was really more of milk, but that was okay since it went well with tiramisu anyway.