Roma

By Wednesday last week I had started to get itchy feet, so I hopped on a plane to Rome to meet up with my dear friend who was there for the weekend. Staying at our other dear friends luxurious palazzo, it was a weekend filled with art, shopping, strolling, eating (a lot of mozzarella, pecorino, tomatos & roquette), drinking vino and sipping frothy cappucinos. Everything that makes Rome such a great city to visit! Start to finish it was non-stop fun – shopping up a storm and even being invited to a famous senators fancy apartment where we were taken on a guided tour of the palazzo and got to see the room where the Pope once slept!
Other things Kitkat & amici did:
• View the incredible Cy Twombly exhibition at Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna. Twombly is regarded as one of the foremost American abstract expressionist painters in the world today. His fascination with poetry and classical mythology presents itself in vast canvases of light, color, graffiti, squiggles from pastels, smears from a palate knife, splotches of paint and landscapes filled iwht movement and depth.
• Shopping – of course the area around Piazza Espangola is the best. Aside from the Gucci & Chanel’s we found some nice gems – and many of them on via Del Babuino . Of course I am a huge fan of Belstaff for leather jackets, great boots and pants, but our two lovely discoveries were TAD & Osklen. TAD is a concept store with a great range of clothing, shoes, accessories, perfumes, furniture, gadgets, fabrics and flowers. You can also eat in the café or have your hair styled in their salon. Great ambience, assortments and sensory experience. Osklen was another great discovery. A brazilian brand out of Rio de Janeiro, their menswear and women’s wear feature super soft , high quality cotton and linen which drape so beautifully. Most especially their leather bags and shoes were very unique and I love their range of sexy swimwear that the Brazilians are so well-known for. Also and absolute pleasure was the great salespeople who are very knowleageable (& proud) of their brand!
• Mangia, Mangia, Mangia!! Vino, Vino, Vino!! Ok so I confess that we ate at a few resto’s but frankly we hung out mostly at only one and kept on going back. GUSTO (Piazza Augusto Imperatore) was fantastico! – Ristorante pizzeria, osteria fromaggeria, wine bar and ristorante di persce. These different parts of the resto group are clustered around the piazza and we just kept on hopping from one to the next. So much so that the waiters asked us after day 2 if we were coming back the next day. Great vino, cheese, salad and pizza. Ambience and vibe is great in wine bar, ristorante, and live music on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Last and not least a trip to Roma is not complete without a great run in the Villa Borghese. Snaking up the hill, through the park and clocking up some mileage (and a great sweat), we looked down on the beautiful vista of rooftops and cupola’s below with church bells tolling. The true sound of Roma…