weekend

Saturday I went early morning grocery shopping and then came home, we had lunch and then went down on the number 62 bus to the Vatican Post Office. This bus starts at Piazza Bologna not far from where we live and comes down Via Nomentana across the city walls at Porta Pia and then on to Piazza Barberini and across down to the Tiber, as you cross the river on one of the many bridges this one to King Vittorio Emmanuelle II, on the one side you have Castle San Angelo, in front of you is the ceremonial Via della Conciliazione flanked by the different Embassies accredited to the Holy See and Palaces of the great families of Italy, at the end of which looms larger than life St-Peter's Basilica. Will had to mail a few things and being that Divine Providence works there, you know your mail will be delivered, unlike Post Italia where you do not know if or when it might get delivered.

On the way out of the Vatican Post Office which is snug between the great wall that runs along the Borgo neighborhood and the great colonnade of Bernini we went into the Piazza, it was strangely deserted, there could not be more than maybe 300 people, given the size of St-Peter's square, it looked empty. We crossed the Tiber river and returned to Piazza Venetia and again very few people around. The steps up to the Campidoglio, usually clogged with people, no one in site, strange for 3 pm on a Saturday afternoon. So we went shopping for clothes, fall and winter fashions are out. Will bought me a beautiful wool sweater at La Rinacente. You have to be careful in Rome buying clothes, so many cheap Chinese imports now masquerading for Italian fashion.
Even when they tell you it is made in Italy its not, what they mean is that it was sown together in a sweat shop in Italy by Chinese workers. The Mafia brings in container loads of pre-cut clothes each week through the Port at Naples illegally. We then went to our favorite ice cream shop near our house and got ourselves granita of watermelon, it was 34C Saturday, the granita was cold and sugary.

Sunday, we invited a few colleagues for lunch and Will made his famous signature Polenta crust plumb tomato and rugola pie.
We had a salad and chicken filet in lemon juice and for dessert white peaches cut up and served soaking in a glass full of white wine, that is an old Italian dessert and so refreshing.

On Sunday night, all our neighbors arrived back from their summer vacation at the same time, yes today is back to work, school starts on the 3rd. Already the city is more noisy and the gentle wailing of the ambulances going to the Polyclinico Umberto I are more frequent, parking is a little more difficult and yes some people have started to block sidewalks with their cars, etc....Ah! Rome, no wonder funny things happen on the way to the Forum.

This and that

In Rome we have a few Chinese restaurants, some combine Chinese with Japanese and do a bad job of both.
The usual complaint is too much MSG which gives you dry mouth, a light head and or a bad headache for a few hours.
I avoid Chinese restaurants in Rome because after eating Chinese cuisine in the PRC it is difficult to find anything well done elsewhere. There is one restaurant near the Office, they do both Japanese and Chinese, the decor is typical ticky tacky Chinese decor, the service is surly, the staff speak neither Mandarin nor Cantonese, it seems more like another dialect from southern China possibly Fokkien. I cannot imagine their lives being terribly interesting in Italy, not much room is made for anyone who is not Italian or Italian speaking. They do speak Italian but just enough to take orders and that's it. I often think that their world is a lonely ghetto existence within their own community.

There is one restaurant on Via Cavour near the Roman Forum, know as a Gay Chinese Restaurant, the only one of its kind in Rome. Again weird Chinese decor, which is supposed to please the white folk who eat there. When you enter the restaurant the Hostess who is always in a state of excitement, will decide if you go left or right in the dining room based on if she thinks you are gay or not, it seems to work somehow and the patrons find this hilarious. The food is not bad but it is Italianized Chinese meaning without spices and fairly bland. There are a couple of Japanese restaurants but I have not gone to any of them yet. Though I read recently that Japanese tourism to Italy is down 50% in the last 12 months to 1.5 million visitors, due to a series of scandals involving restaurants and bars in Rome and elsewhere overcharging for meals and drinks. One restaurant charged a Japanese couple 700 Euros for lunch, the actual price of their meal was 40 Euros. The Minister of Tourism apologized to the couple in a Japanese newspaper for this incident and offered on behalf of the Italian Government to pay for their next vacation in Italy, they declined the offer. Japanese tourist spend a lot of money in Italy but there is no appreciation for their value as clients and visitors. Other tourist on Via Veneto have also been the target of such scams, usually it happens in high end restaurants and bars.

I was just reading that Chris Brown 20 yrs old the ex-boyfriend of Rihanna 21 yrs old singer from Barbados has been sentenced to physical labour and probation for 5 yrs with counseling over his anger issues. Now I do not know who these two people are but according to Yahoo news they must rank on the same level as Bill Clinton or other world leaders and their lives are fascinating apparently. What struck me as funny was the fact that a record label owner and a pastor had written letters of support on his behalf to the Judge at sentencing. His career is over apparently and Rihanna thinks the punishment was too harsh, though he beat her up at least 3 times according to police reports. She appears to suffer from low self-estime. Brown blames his family for the violence he saw as he grew up, he appears to have lack maturity issues.
But why is it that each time one of those so called celebrities get in trouble, a pastor will pop-up as if that is the cure all.

Who will believe that Chris Brown found religion all of a sudden, pastors are a dime a dozen, you probably can rent one before sentencing in the hope of influencing the judge, a bit like the Twinkie defense.

streets

These last days of August are quiet ones in Rome, living outside of the immediate centre, just outside the Aurelian walls of the Eternal City, no tourists in sight, though there are things to see here too, but not so well known. Quiet residential neighborhoods were people live and work like in any other city, lots of dusty parked cars left by their owners while they are away. Everyone is gone or almost, some have started to return, come next Monday, all will be back to the routine, Romans call it the new Season, in French it is Le debut de la saison, meaning a new social year.
Will go back to a more formal wardrobe for the fall, light grey suits, tie and jacket, the heat wave is passing. No more short sleeve shirts or open collar shirts, no more casual looks. Here the last photos of this summer in a quiet Rome.
Photos taken in the afternoon around the area of Via Regina Margherita, Via Nomentana and Via Alessandria

cooking

Since we returned from our sea side vacation, Will has been busy cooking, first he made his signature dish, the Polenta and rocket crust tomato basil pie. Made with cherry tomatoes, it is very good and so nice as a starter for dinner. Tonight he made with more tomatoes, a garlic tomato soup, usually served hot but this time he wants to try it cold. I am sure it will be nice, it is far too hot to eat hot soup right now. But the cold soup I really want him to make is the Curried Zucchini soup with buttermilk, absolutely love that recipe. I don't think we can find buttermilk in Italy but I am going to ask at the office if anyone knows what it is called or then we can substitute if need be.

Now all the new colleagues have arrived, summer is almost over. The colleagues are all agog with the city, I tell them wait you'll see. Rome is a little busier this week, but still very quiet, next week school starts and everyone will be back on the same day, magically the roads will choked with traffic and noise, no parking anywhere available, not the good kind of magic. Anyway that is Rome, not the majestic Eternal city of Augustus but the crazy bag lady pushing her cart full of priceless memories.

Ms. Cuddles

Our little puppies are growing and now this week they are at the 6 month old mark. Eleonora aka Nora or Ms.Cuddles is near her first heat and Mr. Nicky is very interested but she is not and has been beating him up, sort of play like and he whines, she growls.
On Friday morning she is going to the Vets to get fixed. We do not want puppies and litters and all the responsibility that comes with it. We also did not want to have Nicky fixed because the consequence on a male dog in terms of change of personality etc.. are far more apparent. So I called the Vet this morning and arranged it all.
Nora is so cute and loveable, though it is a routine practice we are anxious about it.
Here are two pictures of them, one taken 4 months ago and one taken 2 weeks ago in the morning sun light. Nora has this far away look, while Nicky is sniffing her head.

Some wines

Italy is always thought of has a great wine country, in fact it is not or I should say it was not until about 25 yrs ago. When we first arrived in Rome we took some wine appreciation courses at the Wine Academy of Rome on the Spanish Steps. The sommelier of the Academy gave us a history of wines and their evolution in Italy. Romans in antiquity drank a lot of red wine, it was heavy and high in alcohol more than 16% in volume and was fermented in clay amphoras which gave the wine a very distinct earthy taste. People then would dilute their wine with water so it could become drinkable. For today's wine drinkers it would probably be undrinkable, too heavy and too pungent as a red wine, there was no white wines and no rosé back then.

Then wine continues to evolve but the technique to making wine did not change much for centuries in Italy, amphoras were used for a long time but with time oak casks started to appear has taste changed. But red wines dominated the scene because everyone could make it at home in the countryside, it was cheap and available to all. The Nobles of course wanted better for their table and this is what moved things along. The great wines though start to appear only in the 1970's when producers started to compete in Europe with other producers and also started to improve on the making of white wines. It was a process of refining and improving the wine making techniques. Italy now has great red wines and white wines and it is not the old cheap Chianti in the funny glass bottle you could stick a candle into once you had drank the contents.

So while we were in Pesaro, we visited an Enoteca called Pane al Pane, Vino al Vino in the old town in Palazzo Gradari, it is located in the cellars of the old Palace on Via Rossini near the Cathedral, they also occupy the courtyard of the palace and you can have a glass of wine with some olives and charcuterie. The owner showed us around and we bought a selection of white wines from Le Marche region, very nice wines produced locally, you cannot always find wines from all the regions in Rome's Enotecas unless you go to Tremani or to some large wine dealer and even then there is no guarantees.

Here is what we bought, Le Vele 2008 a Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi, Colle Paradiso, Ekeos 2007, and San Sisto 2004 by Fazi Battaglia,all Verdicchio which I find to be a delightful wine with fish or any white meat, we also bought a Tenuta Campioli, Bianchello del Metauro.

Ciao Pesaro, Ciao

Tonight we went to Bristolino restaurant owned by Lorenzo di Grazioli a wonderful seafood restaurant. The food in its preparation and presentation is outstanding, of the highest quality and Lorenzo is a wonderful host, greets everyone and fusses over them. The tables are beautiful set up and the decor is homey and seaside like and also elegant. There is no menu and no wine list, though they have 167 wine labels in their cellar. Lorenzo comes to greet you at the table and will ask you what you feel like eating, do you have a big appetite, do you want something special, do you want to try one of recipes. The guy is charming, so he proposed that we start with 4 antipastos of fish, all simple and just to taste then we could proceed to our main course. So we agreed to let him arrange this for us, his staff by the way are superb professionals, the lady sommelier simply asked you what type of white wine would you like, from the Marche region or something from the rest of Italy or something else. I simply asked for a wine from the Marche region since we are in Pesaro. She goes away and return with a wonderful white wine.

We started first with a dish of sword fish in ceviche, it was a big dish, and we were wondering if this is what he meant, then a second dish of seafood salad, then a third dish of scallop, then a fourth dish of large shrimps in panceta.
This was quite a lot of food to start, all excellent, beautifully presented with a change of ustensils for each dish. Then we had our main course, a turbot is presented first and then it is brought to the table on individual plates, served with black olives, tomatoes, potatoes, anis and radicchio.

We also had a beautifully baked foccacia freshly baked.

Then Lorenzo returns to tell us about is surprise dessert. Can he bring it to us. We had no idea what it was but we did see other tables being served what looked like a mountain of something. It was a very large dish, enough to feed 6 people of ice cream different flavours all mixed in with an incredible variety of fresh fruits and whipped cream. He also sent 2 after dinner bottles of digestif, one was limoncello and the other an amaro and coffee a variety of cakes.

When the bill came I was sure it was going to be like in Rome and was expecting an astronomical amount given the food we had eaten and the variety of fish and seafood, wine etc... something around 500 Euros.
I was so surprised to see that it was a fraction of what we were expecting, we were only charged for the wine and for 2 covers which basically was a prix fixe, it was yet another pleasant surprise, extremely reasonable. We highly recommend this restaurant in Pesaro for the quality of the food and atmosphere.

It has been a nice week but now we want to return to Miss Cuddles aka Nora and Mr Nicky who are waiting for us at home in Rome. We have a dinner party on arrival to go too. Busy social schedule.