When in Rome

One more week of inspiration to bring home.

Connor Fogel
January 27, 2025

When in Rome

The inspiration has been endless, and the question “Why can’t we have nice things like this back home?” has been limitless. Flying solo through all this has been quite an experience, so to those who said, “You’re going to love it and learn so much,” I get it.

One more week here in Italy’s capital, surrounded by history. Today I toured the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, which is incredible to think that people were just living life in these same areas 2000+ years ago. Allegedly, the first Gladiator movie is like 30% history and 70% fiction. Not sure what I want to believe.

Anyway, after a lunch of a much-needed salad and a pizza with anchovies, I had my first non-Italian meal for dinner: dim sum of steamed pork dumplings and rice noodles with vegetables. Funny enough, they still called them ravioli and spaghetti.

Steamed pork “ravioli”

Rice “spaghetti” with vegetables

Bet you didn’t think that’d be the first food you’d see in this week’s newsletter. But I have to say, it has been one of my favorite bites because it was a good change to the pasta + pizza + sandwich rotation I had going. And, of course, no hate there! Let’s get into some highlights.

Here’s to throwing a lightning speed round of unranked photos and captions your way as I try to get over a travel cold on my couple light days.

Maritozzo and Sicilian Cannoli. (Didn’t realize I went to the posh bakery located in the center of Florence but that Maritozzo… memorable.)

Quick stop at the coffee bar for a shot of espresso and a pistacchio croissant, filled with pistacchio cream. Need to bring this back.

Another coffee and croissant stop didn’t get the same phone-eats-first treatment. Nutella croissant was always bound to be amazing.

A requirement for the trip. The sando lived up to the hype. Perfect combo with prosciutto, mozzarella, fresh tomatoes and a pesto.

Another sando, of course. Shh don’t tell, but this one might have beaten the TikTok star. I will say though, Mortadella has my heart, so combine some creamy cheese and balsamic, and I’m in.

Pear ravioli. No notes. Wish I had more. Good one to recreate when I get back.

And on the final Florence night, I unknowingly ordered a steak loaded with cheese on top. 10/10. A Florentine cheese steak of sorts? I’m into it.

And on the first Roman night, I went to Corner Pizza and couldn’t have had a better Roman pizza experience. And brought it back with some Blood Orange Powerade, thanks to a rec from my brother. This was my first sick meal too, so more pizza was justified.

Are you not entertained? I still can’t believe I ate all this and feel pretty good overall (IYKYK). So far I’ve crossed Cacio e Pepe off my four Roman pasta list. Plenty more to come.

Pasta la Vista, and still Go Birds, baby ✌️

Florence in the morning from the top of The Dome. Frontrunner for favorite photo of the trip. Excited to see how the film of this turns out.