Rome Italy Day 3

Rome | Florence, Italy Day 3

Day 3 started with a simple Jewish Ghetto walk that was very near our hotel. We used Rick Steve's audio guide again for this one. To start off, I made R stand there to stand a hipster shot but he's not hipster enough to do poser pose. Haha

The Jewish Ghetto lies on the right bank of the Tiber River. In ancient times, the Jews did not used to stay in the Ghetto. In fact, they stayed on the opposite side of the bank at Trastevere.

However, as Christianity took over Rome and the pope became something like the King, the Jews started to be discriminated and eventually was forced to move to the right bank which was more susceptible to floods.

During WWII, Mussolinni was allies with Hitler and this put the Ghetto in grave danger. The Nazis threatened to take all the Jews to concentration camps if they did not give them gold in 1 day. As jian as you can expect the Nazis to be, they took the gold and the Jews.

This triangular pediment is known as the Portico d'Ottavia and it dates back to 27BC.

An old woman who refused to sell her land there now own a priceless bit of the land which includes the ancient arch.

This is Theater of Marcellus and it predates Colosseum which explains why it looks so cui.

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Most of the Jewish Ghetto buildings were tore down so this is actually the only surviving one. The prices of the housing here also went up in recent years which is actually quite ironic because it was the poorer Jews who stayed behind in the Ghetto while the richer ones moved away in the past. Now the descendants of those who stayed are benefitting from the increase in value of the real estate.

One of the remaining passageway that leads to a little courtyard where thousands of Jews were forced to stay in.

This white column structure is part of a former Carmelite convent which was built in the Ghetto including a Catholic school to preach to the children, and forced locals to attend Mass.

After the guide, we just sat down at one of the Jewish cafes in the area for coffee before heading back to the hotel to check out the back to the Ghetto again for lunch.

Just walking back and forth the whole morning.

Cutie here super happy with his bread. Lol

The fried cod here is so much better than the one we had the day before. Look at his satisfied face. Haha

This is the artichoke that R kept talking about but I didn't give a shit when he was going on and on about it. So when he said he wanted to eat this, my reply was What is it? Lol. He got a but agitated and asked me if I ever listen to what he says. Fhl. #marriedlife #leftearinrightearout

He was especially happy with this plate of ravioli. Haha. I didnt order any main course because I was full af. Idk how he can keep eating...

The interior of the restaurant is quite cosy and because we were quite early, we were their first customers.

It was time to head to Florence after lunch and we got uber black to take us there. Lavish but I wasn't going to drag my luggage all the way to the train station on Rome's cobbled streets.

Because of all the horror stories that people had told me and those that I read online, I was so afraid that I might get pick pocket so I was holding on my belongings super tightly the whole time while waiting for the train to come. Haha kiasu af.

After a ~1.5h train ride, we finally reached Florence. Apparently there is no uber in this area and the bus was going to take as long as it would take us to walk to the hotel, we started dragging out luggage from Santa Maria Novella Train station to the hotel. It was an arduous journey and we got cheated of 20euros because we "donated" money for some movement to fight drug abuse. Everything happened so quickly and R just took out his money. I was too paiseh to ask him to keep his money by then.

After checking in, we started exploring the area nearer to our hotel. Then again, Florence firenze area is so compact, everything is within walking distance.

Duomo museum.

I am quite sian of museums alr so we didnt go in. Just took photos outside.

There are so many talents here in Italy. All their art work are super impressive. Like this street artist who was using chalk to recreate the picture. Omg. I was so amazed I gave him 2 euros. Not a lot but I don't usually give buskers anything.

Trattoria Dall'Oste

After some sightseeing, we went shopping since there were sales everywhere. I didn't get anything but R bought a jacket and a top. We went back to hotel to rest before heading out for dinner here.

This is the interior of the restaurant. Our resident Jessica Huang made a reservation through trip advisor and we got 20% discount!

I didn't take a proper photo of the dishes so got to make do with motion pictures. Thank God for Samsung's new feature.

#dayrefatties #dayrefoodies #dayretravel #dayretravels

This mushroom is so comforting in this cold weather.

My lobster pasta was da bomb. The noodle was super good though I only got half the lobster.

R's steak that he was raving about the moment he sunk his teeth into this piece of meat.

Day 3 ended with us coming back to wash clothes because we didn't bring enough for the entire trip. The towel rack is now filled with bra, panty, socks and etc. Haha 😂