Prague and Italy 2025 – La Vita Farniente

ITALY

Dolce Vita

PUGLIA

October 5th– Last Day in Roma

Today I got up early and did a bike ride at 6am which gets to the forum for sunrise and it was a treat. I somehow got the same guide, Duarte, and he was great. Portuguese and speaks 5 languages. This is the second time I’ve done this and it’s different each time because they keep changing up the route. Trevi Fountain had about 50 people there already at 6:30a and was still gorgeous.

I went back to the hotel had breakfast and went back to bed for an hour. In the afternoon, I took my leftover antipasti to Il Giardino degli Aranci (orange garden) and had a lovely picnic people watching and then a walk through the grounds. Afterwards, I walked back through a ritzy area of Rome with beautiful homes.

This wraps up a fun trip that I have been looking forward to for quite some time and I have had a great time exploring again.

Dinner in Trastevere

October 3rd

Travel day today on Trenitalia and it’s a 6 hour trip that turned into 9 hours due to a one day strike and other things. Luckily, I had gone to the supermercato on Wednesday and gotten some cooked salmon and veggie antipasti with eggplant, mushroom, peppers grilled in olive oil and some broccoli rabe which was delicious on the train for lunch.

Arrived on Rome and had a lovely dinner at Osteria Gensola again. I had gone there last year with Andi and Angi and the food was delicious. Lots of vegetarian options. However, I stuck to me meat and potatoes which was delicious and some sautéed chicory with olive oil. For dessert a classic and delicious affogato. Yum! I left with that warm feeling you get from comfort food in Rome.

October 1st

Wednesday we were supposed to get on a boat and tour around the coast but the weather did not permit. Lighting and thunder came up about the time we were to leave and the trip was cancelled. So….we went to….lunch instead and afterwards, to a gay man’s folly castle.

September 30th

Masseria Santa Teresa

On Tuesday we traveled nearby to another Masseria which was not a farm and instead more of a resort with rooms to stay in. We toured the limited grounds a bit and went in to the main building to make lunch with a chef. She laid out her ingredients and we found out were were making an antipasto of roasted eggplant and tomato with olive oil and salt. Then we make these little pastries with pastry cream piped into a sweet dough that reminded me of shortbread. Then we put together some delicious focaccia bread with tomatoes and olives and lots of oil.

As I spent more and more time with my compatriots we discussed things in common like air fryers and talked about their friends back home and getting their teeth veneered in Columbia for cheap (such a deal).

We also made a pasta with potato and mussels with a variety of pasta shapes. Tasty and we were definitely full afterwards.

After we made and ate a delicious lunch, we departed again in the evening for a trip to Galatina then Lecce after dark.

Galatina

Galatina is a lovely little baroque town that has a lot of charm. We went inside a very beautiful and our guide claimed “the most beautiful” church in Puglia

Lecce

Beautifully lit at night, the old tow was gorgeous They have particularly good examples of Fascist architecture from Mussolini. You can tell it by its symmetry and monolithic qualities.

September 29th

So now the food tour really starts and we are off today to tour a family farm, wine taste and make pastas local to the region. My favorite was the local specialty which is orchiette with chickpeas, fried pasta crisps and potato based sauce. We also made a tomato based sauce with onions cooked and blended together.

We began by making the pasta from scratch, no egg just flour and water with some salt.

Otranto

After eating our delicious pastas and tasting their wine, I bought a rosé which we took with us for our lunch on the next day after cooking some more.

Otranto is a beautiful little tourist town with a baroque Spanish church and fortification with high stone walls that date back to the 1400s. Winding cobblestone streets with shops and cafes are the calling cards of Otranto.

The evening was spent in a lovely little town that our guide Sergio lives in called Nardo. Sergio invited us to his place for some prosecco and antipasti. Very kind of him to take us to his lovely apartment with an outdoor terrace and many bedrooms at the end of a winding street.

Gorgeous stone streets, monuments and churches greeted us as we walked the town at night after our apperitivo.

September 27th

I arrived in Gallipoli via the FrecciaArgento (Silver Arrow) train from Rome yesterday the 27th on Saturday. The journey took roughly 5.5 hours and the train unfortunately was old and tired. The Prima Classe was full of tourists with lots of luggage and no place to put it. The train steward was not happy and started calling me stupid in Italian and I told I am not stupid and said I will help in Italian. I ended up moving to a second class seat which ended up being much better anyway. Italian drama. No pics of that experience but the countryside was beautiful to watch as we zoomed down the tracks at 150mph.

I didn’t get in until 10:00pm and went for a stroll in old town to grab a bite to eat. Found a lovely family owned trattoria with good food. After dinner I heard fireworks and walked one street down to the beach to see a beautiful and loud display. Fun!

September 28th

I met my two other compatriots on this food tour and believe it or not they were from Houston, Texas and unbelievably. They were a nice couple and HOW did I manage to find the only two homosexuals who were from Houston for this tour???!! Afternoon was pool time on the rooftop and it was lovely.

September 25th

Rome

The eternal city does not disappoint. As ever Rome is so beautiful day and night. I arrived in the afternoon and went straight to the hotel. Off to dinner in Trastevere across the Tiber. Walked quite a bit to find a decent small restaurant out of the way and found l Tarallo Vicolo della Scala 300153 Rome. Nice out of the way place to sit and have a glass of wine and some delicious Roman meatballs with broccoli. After dinner, back to the hotel for a long sleep. Averaging about 8 miles of walking a day so definitely burning off the delicious Roman food.

September 26th

Took a day trip outside of Rome to a little town that makes incredible white wine and visited a family farm that has been in operations since the 1400s. They make a delicious wine from Malvasia grapes and a late harvest sweet wine. They also press their own olives for oil that they use among the family and the workers. They have caves that were dug by Romans and used to connect the whole little village. The town sits on a dormant volcano so the soil is amazing for growing wines. The footprint is basically the remains of a caldera

September 27th

Capitoline Museum

PRAGUE

Prague is amazingly beautiful in the people, art, architecture and natural beauty. This art is a whimsical statement on the Czech Republic. Two men basically in a pissing contest standing in a pool of their own shaped like the Czech Republic with the man on the left standing in Bohemia and the man on the right standing in Moravia. Their hip section is mechanized and when working moves their hips left to right along with their you know what. Spraying all over. Bohemia known for culture and Moravia for agriculture are rivals in football and all other things, Hee Wee

SEPTEMBER 22

Arrived in Frankfurt and took a short 1 hour flight to Prague. Arrived to get my luggage and there is NO passport control in Prague because I flew in from Stuttgart. Literally, you get your suitcase and walk out. Thank God a car was waiting because I was bleary eyed after SF to Frankfurt and Frankfurt to Prague. Arrived at the lovely hotel Golden Star at the foot the the castle in Lesser Town and was pleasantly surprised to enter my corner room on the 3rd floor front with a view of Prague.

First meal is Prague was a deliciously cooked pork tenderloin with creamy mashed potatoes, glazed carrots and a small salad. Hotel at night looks great and a little side note that before there were house numbers here in this lesser town of Prague, emblems and iconography played a big part of how you distinguish your home. For example, my hotel is named the Golden Star and it has a golden star crest above the front and on the top cornice. My eBike guide explained that the people that lived in this building was a family associated with astronomy. Astrology & astronomy in Prague’s Golden Age – Under Emperor Rudolf II (late 16th–early 17th c.), Prague was a center of astronomy and astrology. Famous figures like Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler worked here. The city became steeped in celestial imagery, alchemy, and cosmic motifs. A golden star as a house sign would fit perfectly in that cultural atmosphere.