Directions: Pincio

: From the terminal follow Vie L. Einaude around the traffic circle straight and it will become V. L. Rissolati. On Vie L. Einaude you’ll pass through the Piazza dell Republica. On your right on V. L. Bernini you’ll see the S. Maria di Vittoria. Rissolati will naturally curve to the right and become V. V. Veneto. On V. V. Veneto on your left you’ll see the Casion dell Aurora. V. V. Veneto will lead you directly into Monto Pincio.

Directions: Piazza Navona

Piazza Navona Directions: Follow Vie. L. Einaude up through the traffic circle and make a left onto V. Barberini. On your left you’ll see the Pal. Barberini, V. Berberini becomes V. Del Tritone. About one block down the Trevi Fountain will be on your left. Make a left onto V. Del Corso, this is where all the nice shopping is. Make a right onto V. Del Plebiscito, follow it about five blocks and make a right onto Corso Del Rinascimento. Go down a block and Piazza Navona will be on your left.

Once at Piazza Navona get something to eat, it doesn’t really matter where, the food is all good. The real magic here though is at night. The street performers are some of the best in Rome since this piazza is very popular. There is everything from guitarists/bands, to artists, to clowns. On top of the fun to have there the fountains are also beautiful to see.

Cars: Lack of Ingenuity

Europe is sorely lacking when it comes to ingenuity in their car production. I had thought that maybe since I was in Rome, the vehicles were tailored to that horrific driving environment. I am quickly realizing though that this is not the case. Almost every car looks the exact same....completely lack luster. For example, the most abundant domestically made cars that are in Europe are the Ford Fiesta and the Chrysler PT Cruiser. Not even the people who drive them in the United States even want to be driving those pieces of garbage. Those are the kind of cars you get for your kid when they turn 16, because you know they are going to beat the crap out of it or crash it.

Food: Barelona

The food in Barcelona was not quite what I had been expecting from Spain. Though there were some good native dishes there was not a lot of it. This very well may have been since Barcelona is very touristy and it seems that most of the food was all Catalonian...whatever that means. For the most part though they seemed to have more food that you would see in the States than Rome. Their paella dishes were good, but besides the foreign name, you could just go to the freezer section of a Giant or other grocery store and buy a stir fry pack and have the exact same thing.

The seasonings that they used for some of the food though was welcomed and very good. I had some of the best cannelloni I have ever had in Barcelona actually. I also had a steak there which was really good, and I could not figure out the seasoning to save my life. That could be said just as much though for other restaurants back home for that matter. All in all though I would say if you want authentic Spanish cuisine DO NOT go to Barcelona.

Cars: Palermo/Mondello

It is strange how much the car cultures can different so much between Italy and Sicily. Well Rome and Palermo to be more specific. In Palermo and Mondello there are almost no Smart cars or Vespas. The roads are also much larger, longer, and paved. I was in awe just to see a four lane road that stretched for miles. Which, is also why there is a much less significant presence of the vehicles mentioned previously.

Also, you actually see a pride in people's vehicles here. In Rome everyone drives like a nut job and half of their cars are all banged up as a result. In Sicily I have noticed many cars are polished up, had some custom work done to them, and you can tell that they want their car to be unique. This was refreshing to see since most of the cars I have seen in Rome were garbage, even the ones that could look alright would never receive the care necessary for them to.

Piazza Navona: Vs. Piazza Mondello

Piazza Navona is much bigger than Piazza Mondello, but the things that Mondello has that Navona does not is the hometown local charm. The places where we often go in Rome are riddled with tourists and people trying to make money off of them. In the Piazza Mondello, you see more of the local hang out, there are teenagers with their significant others, the elderly, everyone, and not one of them speaks English. This was a nice change since the usual Piazzas we go to are quite the opposite. We got to see the Sicilians in their element, without any interference from anything, just their every day lives.

The Piazza Mondello though was lacking in fun in comparison to Navona. Navona has street performers, artists, and more, while Mondello reminded me of the Arnold's (Happy Days reference) of Sicily. There are no gimmicks, no touristy price tags, and most importantly almost no one stares at you for obnoxious periods of time! So, although Navona has that big appeal with all the hustle and bustle, and entertainment, if what you are looking for is to see what normal Italians do in their piazzas where no tourists are, then go to Piazza Mondello.

Food: Absolute Best Meal Of All Time

Josie and I are spending the weekend in Palermo and today we went to the Piazza Mondello which is the piazza of Mondello Beach. The beach is absolutely gorgeous and while walking around we found a great restaurant with a sweet deal. It was a bottle of water and a bottle of wine, six appetizers, two first courses, one of two choices for a second course, a choice of either orange or melon for desert, and either coffee or some drink we never heard of all for 25 euro! Every single dish was phenomenal and unlike in Rome everything was not subtitles in English, so we took a gamble because we did not know what half of the things were, but the gamble definitely paid off.

The staff there was incredibly friendly, and catered as best as they could to us barely speaking any Italian. The appetizers were, a seafood pasta, which consisted off octopus, shrimp, mussels and calamari. Then a plate of fried calamari (exquisite), then a plate of mussels, a plate of salad in a garlic-lemon seasoning with shrimp, then a plate of (it is hard to explain because I have never seen this before) fried mashed potatoes and bruschetta, then a plate of the absolute biggest oysters I have ever seen in my life. After that it was time for the first course, which consisted of rice and clams in this sauce that I could not quite put my finger on, but it was great all the same. Then a plate fettuccine in blush sauce with shrimp. Then for the second course we got a fish (head attached and all) with four huge prawns. We could barely finish everything and actually had to leave some of the plates unfinished. Then we wrapped everything up with a cantaloupe and the drink we had never heard of which turned out to be a shot that tasted somewhat like a lemon drop.

All in all, if you want the best meal for the best price, then go to Sicily...in specific, this restaurant in the Piazza Mondello.

(Will be posting pictures up later of the meals and the establishment)