Our flight out of Europe was in Rome at noon so we decided to spend one final night in Rome near the train station to make our early morning commute a little easier.  When we came in from Venice, we had grand plans:  check in, find lunch, take a bus to the Vatican (you just can’t keep us away!), have an aperitif at our favorite little spot in the square near our past Airbnb, then do the nighttime tour of the Colosseum before taking another bus to our favorite restaurant in Rome for dinner.  Best laid plans and all that: Rome was having a strike for the buses and subways.   At least that is what the front desk of our hotel told us as we checked in.   

Okay, not a big deal, we could still do all this, we would just have to work at it a bit and use those walking legs we’d been building up for the past month to get from Point A to Point B/C/D…but then there was literally no food between our hotel and a long stretch of the city.  And when this girl gets hungry, she gets cranky.   So we’re walking unexpectedly for miles on a hot Roman afternoon unable to find a decent pizza and carafe of wine and ready to call the whole adventure off…when we see the buses running.   Tons of them.   Packed to the brims.   I’m not sure what a transportation strike means in Europe, but clearly we should have investigated it a little further before accepting the American definition.   

At this point, you would expect us to regroup and catch the next bus to continue our original plan…but we’re stubborn.  And also we were a bit wary of these buses running during a “strike” so we decided to continue down the long walking path of Rome mysteriously devoid of any food options.   I’m going to be real with you here because as much as I love my husband and the opportunity to travel non-stop for 3 months, there was no question in my mind that at some point or several along the way I would want to kill him…and today had become one of those days.   When you decide you are going to give someone the silent treatment, it usually works out better if you are able to have someone else nearby who speaks the same language, or even a basic understanding of how a map works so you can find your way back to the hotel and pout.   Nope.   I was stuck, still walking across Rome, hungry and grumpy and definitely not excited to see Vatican City for the 5th time in 6 days in Rome…

Thankfully, we eventually did our errand and got to our aperitif spot and had the promised wine and food…and suddenly we were friends again (which was a good thing because we had 2 more months to go and Europe was the “easy” stop…)  It was time for our nighttime tour of the the Colosseum, which was awesome and so quiet and just beyond words.  But I don’t want to talk about the tour, old and crumbly is my husband’s favorite part of travel, mine is food and wine.  Which brings me to our favorite restaurant in Rome…

On our first last night in Rome, just a week and a half into this crazy adventure, we stumbled into a new square near our apartment and decided to try a cute restaurant there.   The casa vino de blanco was great…and E8 for a liter!  And when my husband ordered a pizza which showed up with bread, cheese, and meat, he asked for a side of sauce.   Little did we know, they will deliver a steaming bowl of heaven.   I kid you not, this marina was nothing short of perfection.   We were spooning it onto both of our dishes and fighting for the last drop.  We had already experienced marina in Rome once or twice but compared to this, it might as well have been a jar of Ragu.   The best part though was when the check came.  A whopping E30.  Yup.   Less than a bottle of wine at any dive near our house and lightyears better.  We were hooked.   

We were also very tired and a tad tipsy, so neither of us thought to remember the name of the joint or the location on the map (remember, we stumbled upon it on accident…)   So when we left the Colosseum at 10pm, we tried to take the subway, but got kicked out since it closed due to the “strike”…so we waited for a bus…and waited…and waited…and when nothing came down the road for 20 minutes (seriously, not a bus, car, tuk tuk, nothing…) we installed the Uber app on our travel phone and debated the risk of Italian surge pricing to get to a location we kind of, sort of remembered this restaurant being at…  Luckily, buses started showing up, so we hopped on one and as we rode tried to figure out a stop to begin our hunt from.  

And we found it!  We found the spot, the maker of the excellent cheap wine and crack sauce.  And we indulged as you can only do in Italy and this time took a picture to remember this place for next time!   So, if you find yourself in Rome, take a stroll over towards Piazza Navona and eat here.   Order your pizza and after it comes out ask for a side of marinara sauce…and enjoy a little bowl of heaven!