Istanbul, Turkey

Another day another flight. It seems like we’ve been flying half this trip. Oh well.

Our flight from Cairo back to Istanbul was in the morning, so we woke up early and got to the airport before traffic got heavy. There was no issue leaving Egypt. I half expected some attempts at bribes, but it was all good.

There were no money exchange places in departures (usually we see them everywhere in airports). I had originally planned to use up our remaining Egyptian pounds paying for the hotel, but we had prepaid the room and didn’t have any incidental charges. So we had 20 minutes to spend over $100 in duty free. Ended up getting a couple of things we had actually planned to buy in the markets (but hadn’t found the quality), but it was good here.

The excitement for today’s flight was the arrival at Istanbul’s brand new airport (opened on April 6). It still had that new airport smell :) The airport is huge, but doesn’t feel overwhelming. We still have a couple of flights left in and out of Istanbul, so will have more of a chance to explore, but so far it’s impressive.

There were over 100 immigration desks, a big improvement over the old airport where there was at least an hour wait. The whole immigration / luggage / customs took maybe 45 minutes. I had forgotten the hard copy of my multiple entry visa to Turkey, but the official was okay with looking at it on my phone.

We took a local taxi (which was clearly marked) into the city to our hotel. There were only a couple of unofficial taxi people. It was actually quite refreshing! Even in Toronto there’s more hassle for a fake taxi.

Our friendly taxi driver spoke as much English as we did Turkish, so it was a gesture filled drive. We had the business card from the hotel, which the driver used to call and get directions. Very handy. The new airport is 40km from the centre, and with traffic it took us over an hour. We went through a couple tunnels which popped us out very close to Taksim Square near our hotel.

Checked in. Our big task for the afternoon was getting our laundry done before we left for the Stans tomorrow. Our room had a combo washer / dryer, so we had been putting off washing our bigger items until we got back to Istanbul.

We were pretty hungry and it was only 5pm, then we realized we had only the hotel’s box breakfast and airplane food for lunch, neither of which were particularly filling.

We had a craving for pide or pizza, and our hotel recommended a place nearby. We walked over. The place had lots of character. There were other locals and even a few cats on the patio under the heat lamps (there is a big patio culture here). It was only about 15C, so we ate inside. Ordered a pizza each; we were about to order some appetizers, but the owner suggested that the pizzas might be enough food. Heather ordered a pizza with artichokes. On our way over, we had passed by a street vendor peeling fresh artichokes, so figured they were in season. Seeing the vendor reminded us a bit of Rome. I had a spicy pepperoni pizza - I wasn’t expecting pork on the menu, so went with it.

Had a glass of house red - alcohol doesn’t appear on many menus here (although places that offer it let you know). Our wine was served in a ceramic mug. I switched to a beer later, which was served in a ceramic white beer glass.

The pizzas were large and quite tasty, I actually finished mine! The restaurant had a serious coffee machine, so we had a couple espressos to finish.

Then it was back home for more laundry and off to bed.

Cairo, Egypt

I woke up with my cold feeling much better (although Heather might be coming down with it now). We had an early breakfast at the hotel, then walked out to the street and grabbed a local (metered) taxi to Khan Al Khalili, the historical Islamic Cairo area.

It was only 9am and still a bit early for the markets, so we wandered around and looked at the old architecture.

Visited the Mosque of Al Ghouri and climbed to the top of the minaret (for a fee). A lot of the rooftops have construction waste laying about; overall, the view wasn’t as picturesque as I had hoped.

Walked past the gold and silver markets and onto Al Muizz. There we purchased a multi-site ticket to the Madrassa and Mausoleum of Qalaun. The ticket gets you access to about six sites in the complex, although they’re not all clearly marked. We flashed our tickets and walked around the street and inside the sites; helpful locals motioned us in the right direction, just like in the movies. The sites were really cool, with no other tourists (maybe because of the early hour). We hardly saw any other tourists for the half day we spent in Islamic Cairo.

Retraced our steps back to the gold and silver markets. The stores were now open, spilling onto the old streets and making them even more narrow.

Ducked into the side alleys to see the spice market. The vendors were very low key, there’s not a lot of tourists that visit here. Spice dust filled the air. We walked down a back alley where the spices were being ground in barrel sized quantities. Our eyes were watering and we were starting to sneeze so headed back out to the main alley.

Looked around for a falafel spot for lunch (the falafel sandwiches we’ve had the last few days have been excellent). After lunch, we tried to grab a sit down coffee. Our request, however, got lost in translation, and we ended up with an equally satisfying Egyptian tea, served with a large bunch of mint that would cost $15 at Loblaws back home in Toronto.

Finally, we visited a couple more mosques. First off was the Al Azhar mosque, which is open to visitors. Heather was provided a scarf to cover her hair and a skirt to wear over her pants. We carried our shoes. It was very peaceful inside, and the white marble flooring was brilliant in the sun.

We also saw the Mosque of Sayyidna Al Hussein, but just from the outside.

Grabbed a metered taxi back to the hotel and called it a day. Relaxed in the lounge, had a few small bites, then packed up for our flight back to Istanbul the following morning.

Overall, the Egypt leg of our trip was very enjoyable. It would make a good standalone two or three week trip. Highlights included the Valley of Kings and Valley of Queens, Islamic Cairo, the many ruins (all equally impressive), the boat ride on the Nile, the National Museum in Cairo, the Luxor Museum, and the Nubia Museum in Aswan.

Cairo, Egypt

We flew back from Aswan to Cairo early this morning. We took the hotel ferry to the mainland and got a taxi at a reasonable rate to the airport. The Aswan airport is international, but still pretty small with only four gates.

In Cairo, we also took a local taxi from the airport, which was easy once we got through the unofficial taxi touts to the taxi stand. It was about $15 USD to get to our hotel on the Corniche.

We stayed at a different hotel in Cairo this time, the Conrad Hilton, for about the same price. It was way better than our first hotel, the Steigenberger.

We freshened up and found a falafel place literally one side street behind the hotel. The side street had a real neighbourly feel to it, with people going about their everyday lives. There was also no hassle at all, just people saying Welcome! as we walked by. The falafel place cleaned off a small table and served us our falafel, pitas, and accoutrements. It’s more typical to make your own sandwich if you’re sitting down (if you get a falafel sandwich to go, then they make it for you). They were super friendly at the restaurant, and also charged us local prices, 25 EGP, under $2 CAD.

My cold was progressing, so we took it easy the rest of the day. I took a nap in the afternoon and later we went up to the lounge and had some small bites. We were both still full from lunch!

Aswan, Egypt

The forecast today called for a high of 39C, so we didn’t plan for much.

The top thing on our list was the Nubia Museum, about a 25 minute walk along the river from the ferry drop-off. It wasn’t too bad on the shady side of the street. Dropped into the Coptic orthodox cathedral of the Archangel Michael as it was on our way.

The Nubia Museum was empty when we arrived, but quickly filled up with school kids and a visiting delegation from Gabon (the sky view restaurant at our hotel was closed for a private event for a Gabonese delegation yesterday, so we think it was the same group). The museum gives a full history of the Nubia culture, ending with the building of the high dam near Aswan, which flooded most of their homes and displaced the local population. I also didn’t realize the international effort at the time (late 60’s) to rescue some of the ruins that would be flooded, most famously Abu Simbel. There’s also a separate Egyptian hall in the museum, which included four mummies that were as good or better than the museum in Cairo. Anyways it took us a couple hours to walk through.

We wanted to stop in at the Old Cataract hotel, now a Sofitel, for a drink just to see the hotel. But they charge a minimum of 300 EGP per person (can be used for drinks / food etc) which was way more than we wanted to spend. So I guess their objective to keep out the riff raff worked.

Instead we walked back to the centre, and found the souq. The first bit was touristy, but then changed to more local wares. Went into a pita bakery and took some pics, then found a little falafel place for sandwiches. After we stopped at a cafe with sidewalk seating inside the souq and had an Egyptian coffee. Very muddy and good. We knew the going prices for coffee by this time, so it was easier to pay.

It was only 2pm when we finished up, so we decided to take a boat cruise around the islands in the Nile close to our hotel. Arranged with a boat owner moored at the hotel, who gave us a decent price (very surprising as we were staying at the Mövenpick!)

Outside it was around 39C, but on the water it felt much cooler and was really pleasant. From the boat we saw a variety of birds, giant sand dunes, the Masoleum of Aga Khan and the family villa. There were also good pics of feluccas with their sails up.

We stopped briefly for a Nubia coffee; the process is very similar to Ethiopia. They add some spices (cardamom, ginger, ginseng and a local seed) which give it a distinctive smell and taste.

Got back to the hotel, cleaned up, and then to the sky view restaurant. The views are amazing here. We watched the sun go down (with the clouds on the horizon though there wasn’t much colour) and then had dinner facing the lights of Aswan. It’s a beautiful setting.

I was starting to come down with a cold and we had an early flight the next morning back to Cairo, so we didn’t stay up too late.

Aswan, Egypt

Today we drove from Luxor to Aswan, stopping off at three ruins along the way. It’s more typical to do this by boat, but by car you can avoid the crowds from the boats, and take as much or as little time at each ruin.

We had another great breakfast at our hotel. Our driver met us at 8am and we were off. The temperature was still pleasant so we just had the windows down. The road is in good shape all the way to Aswan, although there are lots of speed bumps through the little towns.

First up was the Temple of Khnum in Esna. The temple is in the process of being restored, with the restorers working away high up in the interior on scaffolding. The before and after difference is astounding; the temple will look amazing when it’s fully restored.

The temple is very close to the Nile and easy access for the boats. There was just one temple to see, so it was only a ten minute stop for us.

Next we drove to Edfu for the Temple of Horus, about 90 minutes away. It was getting warmer (the high today was 36C), so we rolled up the windows and switched to a/c.

The Temple of Horus is further inland, likely an optional excursion for the boat folks since it required a taxi or horse and buggy, so the ruins were much less crowded. The ruins are also more extensive, dominated by the tallest wall ruin in Egypt.

Our last stop for the day was the Temple of Kom Ombo in the town of the same name. We stopped off first at a little place for some falafel sandwiches to go, and ate them on the walk from the car park to the ticket entrance. There were maybe five other people at Kom Ombo. The guards and ticket folks seemed impressed that we were eating local food. It took us about 15 minutes to tour around.

The last stretch of road to Aswan took us under an hour. Along the way we saw the brightly coloured and patterned houses of Nubians. Our driver also joked that in one view you could see all of Egypt - desert, Nile, road, desert.

We stayed at the Mövenpick in Aswan, on the northern tip of Elephantine Island. We said our goodbyes to our driver and took the hotel ferry across to the hotel.

It was already late in the afternoon, so we just had time to clean up and then head downstairs for a drink on their outdoor lounge overlooking the Nile. Had dinner in the Egyptian restaurant onsite restaurant which was okay, with an Egyptian Shiraz (I didn’t know they produced wine here).

Luxor, Egypt

We had planned to just do a half day of touristing today, all in town, so there was no rush to finish breakfast. We still wanted to get out earlier than later to beat the heat, but we weren’t on a clock.

So I had a 2nd cup of tea at breakfast and relaxed.

Caught the ferry across to the east bank. It’s only a 30 minute walk from the ferry to Karnak, on a beautiful boardwalk beside the Nile. The weather was nice so we decided to walk instead of taking a taxi.

Just as well because there was a kids running event along the boardwalk and the roads were closed. We saw the start of the run, although I think it was more a participation thing than an actual race. Half the kids stopped to say Hello! as they ran past.

Got to Karnak and through the stalls to the visitor centre. It was very easy to buy tickets, nowhere near as busy or complicated as the Valley of the Kings.

There were busloads of tourists already inside, but the ruins are so large that it wasn’t crowded.

We entered and then veered off to the right, following signs pointing to Temple of Khonsu, mostly because there was no one else going that way. (Yes, it was the path less tread).

The path led through ruin pieces carefully labelled for eventual reconstruction, to the Temple of Khonsu, about 300m from the main Karnak ruins of Temple of Amun-Ra.

Walked back to the Temple of Amun-Ra and wandered around. Most impressive was the Great Hypostyle Hall with a forest of giant pillars.

Next up for our day was the Luxor Museum. It’s about half way between the ferry and Karnak so we just walked over. The museum is easy to navigate and has really cool artefacts from the sites we had seen, with proper environment controls.

We walked down one of the main drags, Al Mahata, in search of a little lunch spot. Found a busy little place and had a some falafel sandwiches, which were really tasty.

Walked through the souq, bought some overpriced dried hibiscus for making tea, and then took the ferry back to the west bank.

We had booked dinner at our hotel again, this time a beef with okra and tomato tagen (similar style of cooking to a Moroccan tajine). It was excellent as usual.

The evening and night were warmer than when we first arrived, their cool spell seemed to be ending. We only really fell asleep once it cooled down around 2am.

Luxor, Egypt

We woke up around 5:20am with call to prayers from the mosque next door. The muezzin was one of the better singers we’ve heard. I had slept really well up to that point, partially because I was catching up from the past couple days, and also the temperature fell to a very comfortable 16C at night.

Our hotel served the best breakfast we’ve had so far on this trip. Freshly squeezed orange juice, a soft cheese with a zataar-like spice sprinkled on top, crepes with honey, omelette, and Egyptian tea. Mmm good. I would have had more tea but we were starting our excursion to the west bank of Luxor at 8am to beat the crowds and the heat.

We had booked a driver for the day through the hotel, for about $40 CAD.

First up was the Valley of the Kings.

Buying tickets to Valley of the Kings is a bit confusing. Most of the folks at the ticket counter are guides buying tickets for their groups, and they know the drill.

For those interested in the logistics, the ticket counter is on the right, after you pass through the visitor center. Facing the ticket counter, there’s two wickets. First you go to the wicket on the right, where you buy the general admission ticket, as well as an optional camera pass. The general admission ticket gets you access to three of the tombs currently open. When we visited in April 2019 the selection included:

• KV1  – Ramses VII
• KV2 – Ramses IV
• KV6 – Ramses IX
• KV8 – Merenptah
• KV11 – Ramses III
• KV14 – Tausert – Setnakht
• KV15 – Seti II
• KV47 – Siptah

You can then purchase tickets to premium tombs from the wicket on the left:

• KV9 – Ramses V & VI
• KV17  – Seti the First
• KV62 – King Tutankhamun

The camera pass allows you to take pictures inside three tombs. You can choose from the regular tombs or premium tombs, with the exception of Seti.

Based on google, we chose KV2, KV6 and KV8 for our three general admission tombs, and then paid extra for KV9 and KV17. I used my camera in KV2, KV6 and KV9. You don’t need to choose the general admission tombs when you buy your ticket - every time you enter a tomb, the tomb guardian will punch your ticket. Same for the camera roll pass.

Finally you buy the tram ticket from a little booth just the left of the ticket windows.

First we went to KV2 and KV6. These tombs are the most commonly chosen tombs and the busiest. The tombs were impressive but you’re herded along the whole way.

Next we went to KV9. Most people buying a premium ticket choose this one. It was less crowded than the first two we visited and more enjoyable.

We then went to Seti. It’s expensive (1200 EGP when we visited, about 90 CAD) and so very few other people were in the tomb. It’s definitely worth it if it’s in your budget. The hieroglyphics are in relief rather than carved, the colours and contrast is amazing. We spent about 20 minutes here (the others we spent maybe 5 - 10 minutes each). Over that time there were less than ten other tourists.

We then chose the 3rd tomb for our general admission ticket, KV8. In my opinion, the lack of crowds made it more enjoyable than the other general admission tombs we visited, and the difference in quality to my untrained eye wasn’t that noticeable.

Took a couple minutes to find our driver in the parking lot, amongst all the buses and minivans that had accumulated since we arrived. (We took a pic of the car to remember). Our driver commented that the crowds were actually not too bad - sometimes there’s not even room for him in the parking lot! (The lot was over 50% full as we left).

Next up was Hatshepsut, the only Queen buried in the Valley of the Kings. It’s in a great setting, with high cliffs surrounding it.

We then drove to Valley of the Queens. The tickets are the same process, a general admission ticket valid for three tombs and a premium ticket for Nefertari. We hadn’t researched which tombs to visit in the Valley of the Queens, so asked the ticket guy. He recommended three and we have him a tip.

Turned out there were only three general tombs open, so there were no choices to be made. Oh well. The tombs here are virtually empty of tourists, and cool to see. We also bought the premium ticket to Nefertari, which some reviews had called the Sistine Chapel of Egypt. We actually weren’t that impressed with the Sistine Chapel so maybe the comparison wasn’t intended for us. In any case, Nefertari was amazing, the vibrancy of colour was the best of the day. It’s about equivalent to Seti as the top site of the day.

Our last big stop was at Medinat Habu. This is a ruin (as opposed to a tomb) and was really impressive in size. The pillars dwarf anything we’ve seen from the Romans.

We had a quick stop at Colossi of Memnon, and then back to our hotel by 1pm. It was a busy half-day of sightseeing. The tickets also add up if you do the premium tombs - make sure you have lots of cash as they don’t take credit card.

We had lunch at one of the tourist places near our hotel overlooking the Nile. They had a nice setting, but wouldn’t go there for the food.

Got back home and cleaned up, did some laundry, relaxed on the terrace, and then down for dinner at 7pm. Dinner was delicious, a chicken tajine, with rice, salad and other accouterments. Had a beer (Heather had some of her rosé, we just bought the bottle yesterday and kept it in our fridge). The weather was a perfect temperature and a nice way to end the day.

Luxor, Egypt

Another transit day, from Cairo to Luxor. Our flight was at 7:30am so we booked a taxi for 5am. I woke up at 2am and then was worried about sleeping through my alarm so only had two hours sleep :(

We had a not-very-nutritious breakfast at the airport. It’s a short flight to Luxor, enough time to get a tea but not nearly enough time to drink it.

The airport folks were very efficient in Luxor. We were out of the airport in less than 30 minutes! The drive to our hotel was longer than to the city cause we’re staying at a B&B on the west bank and had to drive south some distance for a bridge.

The hotel was pretty quick too - we were able to get early check-in and so had pretty much the whole day!

We’re the only guests at the hotel, even though it’s getting into busy season, I think because it’s mostly tour groups which wouldn’t fit here. We’ve seen very few independent travelers.

Had a great lunch at the hotel and then took a five minute ferry ride to the east bank to see Luxor Temple. There are many people offering boat rides across, but the ferry is much more comfortable and only 5 EGP each (about 25c).

We walked almost 360* around Luxor Temple to find the entrance. Finally figured it out.

Luxor Temple was pretty amazing, and it’s not even a top attraction in Luxor according to the Lonely Planet. We both felt it was more impressive than the ruins we saw in Rome. It was getting later in the day and we had the ruins to ourselves.

We had an errand to get local cash, found ATMs near the big hotels in the Nile.

Took the ferry back to the west bank, and called it our sunset cruise on the Nile. There’s a huge difference in feel between the west and east banks. The west is way more laid back.

Earlier in the afternoon we had walked down to the main intersection in town (about five minutes) to get water. On the way back we passed by a restaurant with rotisserie chicken and a big grill on the front sidewalk. It looked tasty so we ordered pigeon and a half chicken for dinner (the restaurant needs lead time for both). Pigeon is popular here in Egypt, we’ve seen it on a few menus. Took some pics so we’d remember what the place looked like.

So after getting back from the east bank we washed up and headed back to the restaurant. I don’t think they get many tourists as they made a big splash for us. The food was all excellent. Pigeon tasted like chicken, it’s served like a stuffed Cornish hen.

I was starting to fade so we headed home and crashed.

Cairo, Egypt

We were up early to catch the start of breakfast at 6am and be on the way to the pyramids by 7:30am. We had booked a guide through the hotel cause we weren’t sure of how bad the hassling would be. (It wasn’t bad at all so it’ll be independent travel for the rest of Egypt).

We got our first view of the pyramids in the distance on the drive. The clean lines of the pyramids poke out of the jumble of the city buildings which makes a cool contrast.

We arrived at the entrance gates around 8:30. Our guide got our tickets and then we entered the grounds.

The whole Giza pyramid experience has been disneyfied since I first saw them almost 25 years ago. The pyramids sit on a plateau and there’s a set circuit that guides whisk their clients through. You get dropped off and picked up between the three main locations on the circuit (entrance, lookout point, Sphinx), ensuring everyone gets the exact same pictures. I went off-menu and walked around a bit to get better camera angles.

It was really cool to see the pyramids, but we would have been better off just getting a taxi to the entrance and then walking the whole circuit which would have taken maybe 90 minutes.

After the obligatory stop at a ‘papyrus museum’ and ‘perfume shop’ for tea or coffee, we were driven back to our hotel in time for lunch. We actually asked to get dropped off at a nearby restaurant, Felfela, which is a pretty good tourist option. Had a bunch of grilled meats and vegetables, and a artichoke filled with ground beef and topped with bechamel which was really tasty.

We went back to the hotel to wash up before walking down to the museum. We became pretty good at crossing the streets, five lanes of non-stop traffic. Otherwise it’s a bit difficult to walk to the museum even though it’s less than five minutes.

We navigated the unofficial tour guides and bought our tickets (it’s extra to see the mummies and cheaper if you buy the joint ticket up front).

We had timed our visit well, arriving at 1:30 when the tour bus folks are having lunch. Went straight to the 2nd floor where they have the key things we wanted to see.

I was amazed at the quality of the many sarcophagus (sarcophagi?) and other relics from the tombs, all thousands of years old. The sun was streaming through the museum windows onto the artefacts which I’m sure is not best practise for museums. They don’t allow flash photography, but direct sunlight is okay. There is a new museum building under construction close to the pyramids, hopefully it will be completed before everything fades away.

The mummies were really interesting to see, I had no idea how well the bodies were preserved, including hair, teeth and fingernails. The former royalty were also much taller and lived longer than I had thought. Some were almost 6’ tall and most lived to their 60’s.

There’s actually two rooms displaying mummies, on opposite sides of the 2nd floor beside identical staircases. That’s our excuse for not realizing there were two rooms until we got back to the hotel.

The biggest highlight is the room for King Tutankhamen. We saw this last, around 3:30pm, and had the whole room to ourselves. It was really amazing to see one of the most famous museum pieces in the world all on our ownsome.

Went down to the 1st floor but by this time we were out-sarcophagused, and so called it a day.

The weather was gorgeous - about 24C and sunny. If only it could stay like this but we’re in a cold snap here right now (it’s all relative) and it’s going to get stinking hot in a couple days.

Went back to the same restaurant as lunch. It was a dry day (no alcohol served) so went back to the hotel for a beer.

Cairo, Egypt

I was up at 4am jetlagged so just worked on my lede for yesterday. We didn’t have much to do today - another transit day to get to Cairo.

Breakfast was pretty good, mostly traditional Turkish, including really fresh halloumi and bagels similar to Montreal bagels.

Cause we have Istanbul as a base, we only need to take whatever clothing is needed for each leg. However the forecast for Egypt over the ten days we’re there ranges from a high of 20C when we arrive in Cairo and then a high of 40C five days later in Aswan. So we don’t really know what to take to Egypt.

The flight from Istanbul to Cairo is just over two hours, but door to door it took us nine hours. Immigration was no problem leaving Turkey, although they stamped on my Observation page :( Heather also got pulled over for a random search going through security.

Our departure changed gates four times before we boarded and then our plane waited an hour in line to take off. Hopefully Istanbul will have more capacity at their new airport.

Cairo International was strangely empty, maybe all the big planes arrive at a different time of day. Also most of the gates were available but we still parked on the tarmac (maybe the airport fees for using a gate are too high?).

Egypt immigration was a bit confusing, but no issues. Got our luggage and looked around for our driver after exiting the luggage area. A few minutes later we figured out that the hotel drivers aren’t allowed to enter the terminal and so we had to meet them outside. The drive from the airport to downtown took about 90 minutes, which is about normal.

My credit card got flagged for a fraud alert cause I tried to pay for the hotel and then our excursion in quick succession, even though both were chip and PIN. CIBC really has to work on their fraud triggers. So had to call CIBC to un-hold.

We had no motivation to head out for food so just ate at the hotel restaurant. It was okay.

Two days in and I haven’t even taken out my camera yet! Anyways tomorrow we’re going to the pyramids so I’ll finally have pics to post :)

Istanbul, Turkey

It wasn’t until our taxi exited the highway into the organized maze of narrow one-way streets of central Istanbul that I started to feel like we were traveling again.

Before that it was the generic air travel that is the same for everywhere, although that does a disservice to Turkish Airlines, which was one of the best airlines we’ve flown.

Our flight was delayed a bit for de-icing (! - it’s almost April). We landed in Istanbul nine hours later and quickly got through passport control. They didn’t care to look at our evisa printout - they just scanned our passports and I’m assuming that looked up our visa info automatically. Going through Pearson seems so antiquated in comparison.

Istanbul’s new airport opens on Apr 6 and it was a bit sad to see the old airport in its last few days. Then I remembered the IKEA commercial about feeling sorry for the old lamp and was fine.

We always book airport pickup through the hotel when we first arrive in a new country. There were hundreds of names listed on signs for pickup - we actually split up to search for our names.

The drive into town was quick, following the coastline of the Sea of Marmara most of the way. We crossed over the bridge to Karaköy and then onto cobblestone streets approaching the hotel. There’s a cool vibe to the area we’re staying - lots of pedestrian traffic, people sitting in cafés spilling out the sidewalk, steep up and down winding roads.

We checked in at Hammamane, cleaned up and then headed out to explore the immediate neighbourhood before having dinner. There’s small barriers separating the road and sidewalk which makes it less stressful to walk on narrow streets.

We also saw lots of food and water set out for the street cats. We had read that locals love their cats here, but hadn’t realized how much until we saw the homemade cat shelters on every spare area of sidewalk, and healthy looking street cats everywhere.

We had dinner at No 19 at the recommendation of our hotel. It’s basically home cooked food that is now a restaurant. Very yummy and a great way to get into Turkish food.

Walked around some more after dinner, looking for a cool coffee shop. The cool ones looked like they just catered to tourists so ended up in a bright neon-lit place which was very local, made great coffee and tasty pastries. The locals were glued to their TVs watching the local election results.

It was a relaxing start to our trip. Istanbul is our hub, tomorrow we’re off to Egypt. We’ll have some time to see Istanbul at the end of this trip.

Toronto, Canada

We were up early again today, this time to catch our flight back home. The hotel's checkout was very efficient, our taxi arrived at 6:45am just like we booked, and we were at FCO in less than 30 minutes.

Checked in and then had a croissant and tea. Went through security (we were flying via Amsterdam, so there's wasn't passport control here) and then waited in the lounge. Flew to Amsterdam, and then had only 50 minutes for our connection so rushed through the terminals and immigration to our gate, and boarded immediately.

The flight to Toronto was uneventful. Then we had to make it through Pearson. They've somewhat improved, but still rank near the bottom of airports in my opinion. Took us 80 minutes from landing to get into a taxi (about twice what it takes at the other end of the scale, e.g. in Singapore).

Overall I really enjoyed the trip. There's definitely more than enough to see and do in Rome over two weeks. We got a good sampling of Roman food, and saw the major sights (and lots of the lesser ones too).

My favourites, in no particular order, include:

• Midnight Mass at St Peter's Basilica with the pope
• Climbing to the cupola at St Peter's
• Seeing the Roman Forum
• Tour of the Vatican Museums
• Borghese Museum
• Palazzo Barberini
• Capitoline Museums
• Castel Sant’Angelo
• Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterno

We walked everywhere, averaging about 10-15km per day. We needed to walk that much, what with all the big meals we ate. We were very lucky with the weather. On average it rains about 50% of the days at this time of year; we did not get rained on at all. In fact, we only had a couple cloudy days. Rome is relatively crowded over Christmas, but it's easy to beat the crowds at major sights by going either first thing in the morning, or after 4pm.

And finally, for those counting (Gerry and Tanya), the Vatican is country #78 for me.

Rome, Italy — Vatican Museums

Our last full day in Rome started very early. We had booked the 'Waking up the Vatican Tour' of the Vatican Museums back in July, and even then were only able to get a booking on our last day here. It's limited to 20 people per day, starting at 6am and going through each room with the clavigero (key keeper) as the rooms are opened up for the day. As an added bonus, pictures are not only allowed, they're encouraged.

So we were up at 4:30am (!) to make sure we were there on time. The tickets said to be at the entrance to the Vatican Museums at 5:50am, even providing the exact latitude/longitude to make sure people went to the right spot. We got there around 5:45am, and were the second-last to arrive of our group. Looks like we weren't the only ones making sure we were there on time :) We waited eagerly for the key keeper to open the doors, saw the sliver of light under the door at 5:59, and at 6:00 he opened the door and welcomed us in.

During normal hours this is the exit to the Vatican Museum, at the bottom of the Bramante staircase. We took the old elevators up and started our tour! Our tour guide said that we would be going through most of the rooms with some pace, in order to maximize our time in the Sistine Chapel, so to please stay with the tour! First the key keeper picked up the giant 8-inch diameter key rings with dozens of keys on each. Then we went through the museums, at each door the key keeper gave one of us the key to open the door and then turn on the lights. Our guide had mentioned that the tour is more impressive in the winter, because it's still dark outside. The early summer sun ruins the impact of turning on the lights :)

Passed through the Egyptian and Etruscan museums, Octagonal court, Raphael's rooms, the Gallery of Maps and Tapestry Gallery, maybe not in that order. There were four of us in the tour who were keen on photography, lagging behind the group to get our tourist-less pictures. There was a lot to take in, and the time seemed to fly by. Heather felt it was similar to seeing the gorillas, it seems like you could blink and miss it all, even though it's a couple hours. Finally we were at the door to the Sistine Chapel, the grand finale of the tour. One of the tour participants unlocked the door, and we all entered by the key keeper's flashlight. Then, the lights came on and the full Sistine Chapel was before us! Everyone went camera-happy. Another couple took a timed selfie from their phone on the floor pointing at the ceiling, with their fingers lined up to touch Adam's and God's. It was silly enough that we took a similar pic.

The tour finished with a brunch. As we had read earlier in a review, you're not going on this tour because of the food.

Bought some souvenirs at the gift shop, and then took a whole lot of pictures of Heather walking down the spiral staircase. Luckily at this hour, there was no one else leaving (the early-access tours were just congregating in the lobbies to start their tours), and so we were able to get a few takes in without worry about other people on the staircase. It was one of the two pics I was looking forward to taking in the Vatican Museums (the other being God reaching out to Adam).

We were back at our hotel by 10am, in time to catch the tail end of breakfast. So had our 2nd breakfast of the day :)

We had originally thought we would spend more time at the Vatican Museums after our tour (the ticket allowed us to re-enter and wander at our own pace) but part of the magic was seeing the Museums tourist-free and that would have been ruined if we went back through.

So instead we took a taxi back to Via Appia Antica and to see the Catacombes that were closed a couple days earlier when we attempted to visit. Stopped in at Catacombe di San Callisto and bought our tickets. It's only possible by organized tour (our timing was good, we arrived at 11:20 and the next tour was at 11:30). I had hoped to not have to take a tour, but oh well. The mandatory tour made more sense when we we got down there -- it's a maze where one could easily get lost. Our guide was not the greatest, and it was cold and damp in the catacombs. We were shivering at the end. Also, pictures aren't allowed at all. The catacombs themselves were cool to see, but we didn't feel the need to see Catacombe di San Sebastiano just down the road. Even walking along Via Appia Antica wasn't the experience we had hoped, but that's because it was much colder today with a biting wind. At least we had brought our toques along.

Walked back into town and went to Vinando's for lunch. We had had lunch there last week and really enjoyed their artichoke and pecorino pizza the last time. So ordered it again, along with a charcuterie platter. They messed up the order and brought us lasagna instead of the charcuterie. The service went downhill from there so we just finished up and went back to our favourite cafe by the turtle fountain for dessert, and some craft beer.

I was starting to hit a wall, having woken up at 4am. Both of us took a short nap and then later went to Gino 51 for dinner. We had eaten there our first day in and enjoyed it. It was also one of the hotel manager's recommended restaurants. We discussed what we wanted, but then the restaurant person provided her suggestions for us (the benefit of name-dropping our hotel manager). Her suggestions were actually similar to what we had discussed, so that worked out well. Started with the zucchini flowers (stuffed with cheese and anchovies, battered and deep-fried, very yummy) and battered squid. We then had the zucchini and shrimp tonnarelli. For the main we had sea bass with sliced potatoes, and contorni of roman artichoke, and roman salad. We misunderstood the sea bass and potatoes -- when the dish arrived, we thought it was a plate full of scalloped potatoes. But the sea bass is actually baked in a pocket of sliced potatoes. Also very yummy. The roman salad had greens that we couldn't identify but were excellent, I think we had seen people prepping them in the market. We were stuffed so just had espressos. It was an excellent way to finish our tour of Roman food.

Rome, Italy — Museo Borghese

We were up early because we had tickets to Museo e Galleria Borghese at 11:10am. The Borghese is one of the top-listed sites in Rome. You need to book about a week in advance, which wasn't really clear in the guide books or any websites / blogs we had read. We only found out when we tried to buy tickets last week and had to get a guided tour ticket because the regular tickets were sold out.

It's about an hour walk from our hotel. Followed google maps the whole way which took us through the heart of the city but down streets we hadn't seen before. Picked up our tickets, and then had about 20 minutes to kill so checked out the gift shop.

Our tour started at exactly 11:10am. Most organized tours nowadays have a earphone for each participant so the guide doesn't have to yell and disturb other visitors. It's the first time I've used one, but that's because mostly we just explore on our own.

Our guide was really good. He knew his art, and explained what made a piece baroque or other styles. He also had a good sense of humour. There's some really expensive art at the Borghese for a relatively small museum. Plus, right now they have a temporary exhibit of Picasso juxtaposed with the permanent collection. From the museum's website:

The exhibition at the Galleria Borghese takes into account his experience of contact with Italian art to return to reflect on great themes related to painting and especially to sculpture from the Renaissance onwards.

The guided tour was 90 minutes and then we had 30 minutes to wander on our own. The Borghese museum was one of our highlights. If you're going to Rome, I'd recommend it, but book in advance!

Had lunch at the museum cafe which was pretty good, then wandered back home. Along the way stopped into some stores but with exchange rates it was cheaper just to buy stuff back home.

We had dinner at Taverna Trilussa. Our hotel manager booked it for us, and as usual for all his recommended places, he wrote down the name of the owner with which he was friends with, to make sure we were well received and not getting a tourist experience. Trilussa was probably the most upscale place we ate at over the two weeks. They had several kinds of prosciutto on the menu, so tried a 36 month aged for the appetizer. I would have liked it if there was the equivalent of a flight of prosciutto, so that I had something to compare. It did taste good, but how much better, I'm not sure. Split the bucatini all'amatriciana for the pasta (for Heather it was served in the pot it was cooked in, which I think is in fashion right now). Had the grilled lamb for our main which had really nice flavour. We were too full for dessert so just had an espresso. Overall a very good meal.

Rome, Italy — Via Appia Antica

We had big plans to walk along Via Appia Antica, which the Lonely Planet rates as one of the top highlights in Rome. There's a few catacomb sites to visit along the walk too. It's another nice break from the usual tourist sites. We debated taking transportation to the starting point, but ended up walking because it was through different areas of Rome that we hadn't seen yet.

It's about an hour to the starting point. Unfortunately the gates to the park were closed, so we had to take the road, where there's not much sidewalk. Finally we got to Catacombe di San Callisto, which is closed on Wednesdays :( So walked down to Basilica of Saint Sebastian Outside the Walls, which also has some catacombs. They were closed on Jan 2 because of repairs to the electrical system :( we weren't having much luck today! (the name 'Outside the Walls' is a reference to the ancient Roman law forbidding burying of the dead inside the walls)

So we walked back into the city. We realized we had walked right past Terme di Caracalla on the way in, cause we saw it on our way back. Looked it up in the Lonely Planet but it didn't sound interesting enough and we were hungry and tired and cold so just continued on.

We went back to the cosy little place in the turtle fountain plaza. Same as last time, the lady was overwhelmed at times with customers. We had a soup and chicory torte with a red wine. It was still overly busy so went across the plaza to have dessert and an espresso. Realized they had craft beer (we had read that same as everywhere else now, there's quite the craft beer scene in Rome) so I tried a witbier (Seta, by Birrificio Rurale). It was pretty good.

They had wifi (pronounced 'wiffy' here too, maybe it's a European thing) at the bar so we searched around for a place for dinner. Made a reservation at DanEl Tavernae based on the tripadvisor rating.

DanEl was more experimental with food, and very big into instagrammable plates. Had the tuna tartare for the starter (the tuna, as with all the ingredients here, was excellent), carbonara for pasta (which turned out to be deconstructed), and almond-crusted veal tenderloin for the main (served with about 15 ingredients in the presentation, but really just needed the veal, crusted almonds, potato slices and greens). The espressos were good too.

Rome, Italy — MAXXI

The art galleries are some of the few attractions open in Rome on New Year's Day. We decided on MAXXI (Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo), in part because the building extension is designed by Zaha Hadid. We'll be seeing another of her buildings in Baku on our next trip.

So after breakfast we headed out. The walk there went through Piazza del Popolo, much less crowded in the early hours. They were taking down the NYE stuff in the square. Apparently, the Roman thing to do on NYE is to walk from Piazza Venezia to Piazza del Popolo. This is normally crowded with tourists on an average day, I can't image it at NYE.

Heading north from Piazza del Popolo, we were in non-touristy areas, with just locals walking their dogs. It took about an hour to reach MAXXI from our hotel.

Took some pics of the Hadid extension, and then entered. I found the temporary exhibit, THE STREET. WHERE THE WORLD IS MADE, the most interesting. It was a nice break from all the historical stuff we've otherwise been seeing.

The museum restaurant was closed for renovations (or something). There was a street food truck just outside the entrance, serving freshly-cooked pastas. Ordered a couple different pastas, and while I waited for the order, Heather bought some red wine from the coffee shop inside the museum. Ate our lunch in the remaining sunshine in the modern plaza (it was about 2pm by now). Got a couple espressos and cookies for dessert. Not bad for a street food lunch.

We had dinner at Ai Bozzi yet again, this time with a reservation. (There's not much open on New Year's). Kept to their seafood specials which were excellent. Also had their homemade pistachio gelato again for dessert.

Rome, Italy — Castel Sant’Angelo

Today was another day of highlights we’d missed on previous days. They were on opposite ways from the hotel. I suppose if we had planned better we could have had more contiguous sites. But whenever we tried to plan out our trip back home we got all glassy-eyed reading the guide books. It all makes much more sense seeing it IRL.

I finally got up early this morning to get pics of St Peter’s at dawn. I was out on the street by 6:30am! It was only 2C so I was heavily bundled up.

Realized the sunrise wasn’t as far east as I expected cause it was winter, so I’d have to find a different location for pics. Walked about 30 minutes down the Tiber for a south-facing view. This is the place to be for sunrise pics in winter.

Took a more direct path back to the hotel, passing through Piazza Navona. The lighting was still good and the piazza was empty so took a bunch more pics.

Got home and was awake; Heather was still trying to sleep so I caught up some more on my blog in the brunch room with a pot of tea.

Later we had breakfast and then walked over to Castel Sant’Angelo. There was a ten minute wait to buy tickets. The self-guided tour is excellent, following the ‘itinerary’ arrows. I was rather impressed with the castle. There’s great views from the top of the Vatican and other Rome highlights. I was disoriented from the perspective and it took a while to place all the sights in my head. There’s also a café near the top with tables in the crenels (probably not the right term as these were a couple feet wide) which was a cool place to have a coffee and check out the views.

It took over an hour to get through the castle. Next for today was Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore, 3km east.

It was a fairly direct route to the Basilica. The route took us past some of the more famous sites, with casual down-street views of the Colosseo and other places we’d seen earlier.

The basilica was framed in the last street we took for about 1km. It was already 2pm so we decided to have lunch first.

The hotel phone’s battery was dead so we couldn’t look up reviews, and had to resort to how things were done in the old days. We looked at menus and how busy places were and picked a spot.

We ordered quite a bit for lunch. The anchovies in the starter were very salty. The pasta was quite good - pappardelle with artichokes and mushrooms (we’ve been looking for the pasta labeled ‘homemade’ on the menu). The grilled lamb wasn’t so great. The espresso was so-so.

Maybe there is something to this internet and crowd-sourced review thing.

So onto Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. There was a short five minute line up for security. It looked like there was a mass starting shortly so we didn’t spend much time inside. There was also a mass in progress in one of the side chapels.

The basilica was huge but probably 3rd out of the three papal basilicas we’ve seen.

The walk home was straightforward. We’re starting to get to know our way about with all the walking we’ve been doing :)

Our hotel wasn’t able to get us in for dinner anywhere (we wanted an a la carte dinner for NYE). The hotel was having a little soirée on the rooftop terrace, with small bites. We were still full from our big lunch so just small bites for dinner sounded good (and is more typical here).

Quickly showered and headed up to the rooftop. Most outside areas in Rome are enclosed in wind breaks and covers, with heat lamps, and are quite pleasant even with it being only 7C or so outside.

Grabbed some key seats between two heat lamps. Had our free prosecco, then some wine. The small bites were tasty and enough food.

There was a good turnout (I think there’s only 15 rooms in the hotel so we recognized most of the guests). People started to peter out so we did too.

Around 11:30pm the fireworks started, lasting for almost an hour. There were three locations, we were at the epicenter. We were tired from the long day of walking and fell fast asleep after the fireworks were done, we didn’t hear any late revellers at all!

Rome, Italy — Trastevere

Heather had been fighting a cold the past couple days mostly successfully but today she wasn't 100% so we didn't plan for much. We'd also been having full days and we didn't mind some time to relax and for me to catch up in my blog and photo captions. So we just planned to wander around Trastevere. We hadn't really seen much of it except for a couple popular streets with restaurants.

First off was Santa Maria in Trastevere. Unfortunately there was a mass in progress (it was a Sunday, so maybe we shouldn't have been so surprised) so we didn't enter.

Took some random streets, keeping an eye out for the brass cobblestones that marked the last chosen place of residence of victims of the Holocaust. We did see some, usually in groups where a family had lived.

Stopped into a random basilica, Basilica di Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. It was a beautiful basilica. There are so many of these in Rome it's ridiculous.

Some more random streets and photo ops (somebody had conveniently locked their green bike on a street of red / orange buildings which made a great subject), and then we crossed back to our side of the Tiber.

There were NYE preparations in progress, as well a large line up of tourists for Bocca della Verita, literally mouth of truth, which is a marble mask where supposedly you stick your hand in the mouth and if you tell a lie it bites off your hand. I would suggest there's better ways to spend your time in Rome. But to each their own.

We wanted a cosy place for lunch and thought about the place we had lunch in the piazza with the turtle fountain. It was packed with visitors to the fountain so instead went to Il Vinaietto, a cosy little place kitty corner to other place. It was more of a small bites place with stools and little counter spaces, jazz CDs playing in the background. I had a bagel with salami, Heather had a soup of the day (carrot and potato with freshly grated ginger) and a broccoli pie. It was pretty good and fit the bill.

Back at the hotel, Heather took a nap and I tried to catch up a bit in my blog.

For dinner we figured on just finding a place in Trastevere. We had arrived on a Sunday and not had any problems. However it was way more busy today, possibly because we were out at a more respectable dinner hour of 8ish rather than 7pm. Gino 51, where we ate last Sunday, had an hour wait. Actually, it was more of a come back one hour which didn't necessarily mean we'd get in an hour. More like just come back and check if there's availability in an hour.

So we went back to Ai Bocci where we ate last night. The host was a bit hesitant when we said we didn't have a reservation, but luckily the owner recognized us and seated us.

We wanted to try the zucchini and shrimp (highly recommended by our hotel manager) but it got lost in translation and we just got the zucchini. It was stringed, breaded and deep fried and excellent. For pasta we had the cacio e pepe, a little salty but still good. For the main we tried the steak, served sliced with pecorino and balsamic. I was curious to try it (the table near us had it last night), but I found the pecorino made it taste dry-ish. Had an espresso and a deconstructed cannoli (which to me was just cannoli after you've taken the first bite). It was very tasty. Finished with a limoncello, which I'm liking more than amaro.

Rome, Italy — Capitoline Museums

Last night we looked through our guide books to plan out the next few days. There's a lot to see in Rome.

First on our list for today was Basilica di San Clemente, which is a 12th-century basilica built atop a 4th-century church built atop a 2nd-century temple over a 1st-century Roman house. Unfortunately we arrived just after noon and the lower levels are closed from noon until 3pm.

So onto our next site, Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterno. From the 4th to 14th centuries, this was the most important church for Christians. It's still the pope's seat as the bishop of Rome.

We had trouble finding the entrance, first getting nice pics of the obelisk in Piazza Giovanni Paolo II, and then the octagonal Lateran Baptistery which was pretty cool. Finally found our way the entrance of the basilica, fronting on another piazza bearing its name (or maybe the other way around).

The Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterno is amazing. As we read later, it's one of the four papal basilicas in Rome (this being the 2nd we've seen). The interior is designed mostly by Borromini, whose work we're seeing more and more (at least, we now recognize his name).

It was time for lunch so we searched for something close. Ended up at Le Virtù in Tavola. We split the cacio e pepe for the pasta and the veal saltimbocca for the main. It was excellent, one of our favourites meals so far.

We wandered around some of the nearby streets. We were a bit off the tourist trail and the streets had a nice vibe.

It was nearing 3pm by this point so we headed back to Basilica di San Clemente. Got our tickets, and then descended under the basilica. The self-guided tour of the excavated ruins is pretty cool.

On our way back to the hotel, we walked by the Capitoline Museums and we still had energy, and figured there would be fewer crowds at 5pm. So climbed up the stairs to the entrance, got our ticket, and entered.

The museum is very impressive. The masterpieces such as Caravaggio's La Buono Ventura have a plastic reproduction for visually-impaired to 'feel' the paintings, which I hadn't seen before. We had many of the rooms to ourselves which was nice.

Bought a couple small souvenirs at the gift store, and then exited. We then realized there was a whole other building in the museum that we hadn't seen yet. Later I looked it up in the guide book and there's a tunnel between the two. We were done for the day so even if we had figured it out at the time I'm not sure we would have spent much more time.

We asked our hotel for dinner recommendations (they said we'd need reservations as it was Saturday). They booked us into Ai Bozzi. Our hotel manager wrote down the names of the owners (he knows many of the restauranteurs personally) so we could name-drop at the restaurant.

Trastevere was hopping and we were glad to have the reservation. Dinner was great - we tried the sea bass carpaccio with a pistachio sauce, followed by a shrimp ravioli. For the main we decided on pig's stomach because it sounded interesting, until we realized it was a loose translation of pork belly. We also messed up ordering the wine, again lost in translation was that we were okay with going by the glass to make it easier to match. Instead we ended up with the house red which was good, but they have a large wine selection which we would have preferred. Oh well. It was an excellent day of eating all around.

Rome, Italy — Palazzo Barberini

Rome is a city of neighbourhoods, and our plan over the two weeks was to explore them bit by bit. Today was to Tridente, Trevi and the Quirinale.

First we stopped into the little church attached to our hotel. It's only open for two weeks over Christmas and the hotel desk staff suggested we check out the crib (or crypt, we weren't sure). Every church and lots of other places all have nativity scenes so we were pretty sure it they meant the crib.

The local priest welcomed us and gave us some pamphlets about the church. A younger kid gave us a little baby Jesus in a manger. They showed us their nativity scene (so it was 'crib') and offered that we could walk through, usually reserved for kids only. We left a small donation for the church.

Then onto Palazzo Barberini. The neighbourhoods we were going to today contain some of the more popular selfie sites in Rome - the Trevi fountain, and the Spanish steps. The streets were busy with selfie-stick brandishing tourists.

Palazzo Barberini is off the main tourist track, likely as a result of the €10 entry fee. It was commissioned by the Barberini family to celebrate their rise to papal power. Both Bernini and Borromini worked on the palazzo - I really liked the staircase by Borromini. The ceilings were amazing, as well as all the art. It took us a while to find the entrance - the Lonely Planet and google maps just show it in the middle of a block, but don't indicate the front. We got it on the third side we tried.

It was time for lunch so we tried a random place across from Palazzo Barberini. Heather had the gnocchi with sea bass, and I had a pasta with clams and guanciale. We realized after that these were both considered pasta dishes and weren't intended to contain much protein. So at least we knew for the future to split a pasta and then split a meat. I guess we sort of knew that already but forgot.

After lunch we walked up to Piazza del Popolo. The streets were very busy with tourists. Along the way we walked by Chiesa Della Trinità dei Monti, which is atop the Spanish steps. We walked down and then had to push our way through the crowded streets to get on our way.

Piazza del Popolo is huge. We were there primarily to see the Basilica di Santa Maria del Popolo, and in particular the Carvaggios in the Cerasi Chapel. So were hundreds of other people. I have some nice pictures of the backs of people's heads.

So we walked back towards our hotel, and passed by the Trevi Fountain. This was ridiculously busy - it was almost impossible to enter the piazza. We didn't get anywhere near coin-tossing range. I did get a nice picture, after cropping out the other people.

Overall for today we most enjoyed the Palazzo Barberini. There's a huge drop-off in numbers from the popular to not-as-popular, which we've also noticed elsewhere in the world. Although we still wanted to see the Trevi fountain and the Spanish Steps, we just didn't end up spending too much time there.

We had dinner at Pane Vino e San Daniele, named after the famous parma ham. Obviously, they specialized in parma ham. It's in the same little piazza with the turtle fountain, a five minute walk from our hotel. We had the parma ham for the appetizer (very good), then had risotto with artichokes and truffles, and braised beef cheek for the main. Overall the food was good, nothing spectacular.