An intriguing restaurant in Rome: La Parolaccia

What could be so special or interesting about a restaurant?

La Parolaccia Restaurant, Rome

I’ll give you a hint. In Italian, La Parolaccia means ‘The Swearword’.

So, the basic idea is: You go into the restaurant, and you get cursed at and verbally abused by the waiters. And this is done in no small measure. You get a verbal thrashing. And language’s no bar: Even if you know no Italian at all, I’ve heard the waiters will make sure you get the point. And probably some juicy new words added to your vocabulary.

I haven’t been to the restaurant, but just crossed it, while strolling around the charming locality of Trastevere in Rome. Food-wise, I’ve not heard great reviews. It is mostly popular with tourist who go there for the novelty of being hurled abuses at. Well, to each his own! 🙂

I’d recommend exploring more of this quaint neighbourhood of Trastevere. It’s really pretty and feels ‘very Italian’! 🙂

Just another pretty street in Trastevere, Rome

I love old Europe!

Best of Travel 2011: Because it’s never too late!

One of my favourite travel bloggers, Angela, of Chasing the Unexpected, tagged me on this a couple of weeks back. Of course, I’ve been a bit lazy in completing it – The Best of travel 2011 rules indicate that the series ran through till Jan 16. But, bah, I still want to write this – reminisce in some of my favourite memories of 2011, and plan ahead for 2012.

2011 has been a pretty good year of travel for me – starting from the fact that the definition of ‘home’ changed right on January 1 on the midnight hour (well, not exactly, but sometime during my 10 hour long flight from Bangalore to London) as I moved to work in Nottingham, UK.

You might see a lot of destinations here that I haven’t written much about. Hopefully, this year, I’ll be documenting a lot more of my trips in both 2011 and 2012.

So, I’ll jump right in..

Best Domestic Travel Destination

Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland

It’s a surprisingly forgotten domestic travel destination, considering that very few Britons had even heard about it when I told them about my plans to go to see this Natural Wonder of the World. Giant’s Causeway, a naturally-formed collection of thousands of hexagonal shaped rocks, is located on northern edge of Northern Ireland, about 60-70 miles away from Belfast. Not only is the location itself very beautiful, it is also accompanied by a picturesque rope bridge a few miles of cliff-walks away.

Best Travel Experience

Paragliding in the Alps

When I signed up for the Contiki Eurotrip in early summers, this was one of the optional activities I was dead certain that I’d be signing up for – Paragliding. An unmissable opportunity – the feeling of flying, that too in the middle of the Alps – turned out to be as good as I had expected it to be. The wind fluttering against your face, the icecaps on the peaks of Alps shining on the horizon and the greenery and streams of water below – it was a very beautiful experience.

Also, got the opportunity to take some really nice photographs! 🙂

Paraglider at Hopfgarten

Best International Destination

La Pedrara (The Quarry), Barcelona

A 10-day trip to Barcelona turned out to be one of my best experiences in terms of solo-travel and immersing into the culture of a place. I was fortunate to have timed the trip to happen at the same time as La Merce, the annual festival of the city. So, not only did I get to see the architectural gems by Gaudi but also felt the real vibe of the city through the evening jaunts to cultural performances and carnivals, amidst visiting some classical pieces of art by masters like Picasso and Gaudi.

Watching Messi-magic at Camp Nou

Worst Travel Experience

This was the closest I got to the Colosseum - photo from a taxi rushing me back to our campsite

Although I haven’t had too many bad travel experiences (thank god!), falling ill with fever and unforgiving cough and cold in Rome, during my Eurotrip, was a very tough one to deal with. I didn’t want to miss any of the travelling, but did not want to fall ill further. I completely lost my voice and felt like I had zero stamina to walk. Thankfully, some rest and a cancelled visit to Colosseum helped me recuperate and enjoy the rest of the trip.

Most Embarrassing Travel Moment

Another one from the Eurotrip. Our tour bus made a surprise stop in Verona – the home to the legend of Romeo and Juliet. At the mansion claimed to Juliet’s house, there is a statue of Julietta. You aur supposed to cup her breast for good luck – every tourist does it. So did I. And it was very embarrassing.

I did manage to force through a very sheepish smile.

Best Local Destination

Alley Cafe, image courtesy http://www.alleycafe.co.uk/

Not sure how different this is from the first category, so I chose to talk about a local Nottingham treasure. Alley Cafe is a vegan cafe bar, tucked into an alley right next to the city centre , has an atmosphere right from Paris of 1920s with quirky music and artwork. I have found the place to be absolutely delightful every time I’ve been there. Make sure you visit it if you ever visit Nottingham.

Best Travel Lesson

The travel lesson from 2011 for me is to live life to the fullest, without regrets. And  that there is absolutely no harm in trying out something offbeat, something different. For example, I went to the Toone Theatre in Brussels (actually, stumbled on to it quiet accidentally) on my recent trip around Christmas time. Although I didn’t understand a single word of it, it was all in French, I still found it very funny and a very amusing experience.

Toone theatre in Brussels

So, here we go, that was the best of 2011 from my trips! And I have already planned a couple of interesting trips to Rome, Paris and India! 🙂

Keep watching this space!

Rome at night and my phone-cam surprises me!

I have a point-and-shoot camera which is pretty good at capturing scenery (and is a loyal friend!) but very useless at night. So, when we went city tripping at night in Rome for a ‘walkabout’ dinner followed by a quick city tour, I didn’t take my point-and-shoot camera along. Little did I know that Rome looks breathtaking late evening!

View from one of the bridges across Tiber, Rome

St. Peters Basilica and the obelisk in Vatican City!

And my phone-camera surprises me by taking such beautiful photos! Yayyy! 🙂

Photo credits – all photos by the author. 🙂