I ventured out of Lombardia!
As I type now I am snaacking on my Sunday afternoon treat of chiacchiere and asti, the asti is just kicking in, so please excuse floridities and typos! Heaven, really really heaven. DH has said that he now feels chiacchiere are the single best thing to be produced in Italy, and I am tempted to agree. Its so hard to bypass these delights, as simple as they seem, and I am now dreading the end of them being in the shops
If anyone wants a recipe I will find one and post it, these really must be tried.
Anyway, I left Lombardia yesterday, and got on a plane for Roma! Just one brief day, but a tantalising first taste of Lazio! As a citrus tree enthusiast I was enchanted by the lemons and oranges with their boughs bent with the weight of their fruit that line the railway lines of the airport shuttle train. My enchantment multiplied when i saw that some streets in Roma are lined with orange trees too, the merry little fruits bright like Christmas decorations, I wonder if people pick them for a snack whilst shopping?
Anyway, we had to go pretty much straight to DH's Rome office for some thing, but the location, CASPITA, what a location! Urmaniac will understand this, that it is practically adjacent to the Spanish Steps in Piazza d'espagna! so from the window I was watching four horses and carriages lining up, we thouht about taking a quick horse drivn tour, but at 150 erous and tight for time, we decided on Shank's pony instead, and our little feet practically ran the narrow streets between the Piazza d'espagna and Via del Corso. The difference in temperature between Rome and Milan was astounding, and we were peeling layers as we ran/walked the streets! Then we got a taxi to where we had to go, for a child's third birthday party. DH had brought his hornm, and met with a Roman clarinetest and a drummer from his office, and they entertained the children playing songs from Mary Poopins, none of these men new the tunes so I was shouting chords as they went and singing melodies in their ears and shaking some plastic maracas! It was amaxzingly good fun, and the broodiness hit in, DH wanted to take home a baby dressed as a bee who had her hands all over his sax
Any way, what intersets you lot was the party food! Pizza, but with NO cheese for these tinies, and in stead of Birthday fcake corostata di nutella, a nutella tart with latticed top.
After the party ended we had only two hours so we ran down th ehill back into the centre of Rome, crossed the Tiber and went into Trastevere, where we looked for a restaurant a friend had said we must go to called Gioacchino's, but this we never fouynd, and feeling the clock ticking we raced into a restarant in Via Pelliccia opposite Augusto (for urmanic's benefit!) where we wolfed down some crostata, one with blak olive pate and one with artichoke and truffle oil. The truffle oil was not on the menu, and I balked as I smelt it arrive but I have to admit I liked the taste. I hae a long standing repulsion to th smell of truffle, so eating it was smething of a feat, and to be honest I could smell it all through the night, but I am so glad I tried it, and it was worth it! DH then ate coda vaccina, a plate of oxtail and tomato stew, I was dithering, we were rushed and I wanted something reminiscent of the beautiful citrus trees that had captured me as I entered Roma, and to celebrate the warmth! But the only thing I fancied was the vitello al limone. I have issues with veal, and said, in English to DH, that I was saddened to not be abke to choose that. But the waiter, who spoke beautiful lyrical english, heard me nd offered to have it made with chicken instead, and knowing we were rushing, scampered of the the kitchen. It was all divne, and I wished we could have loitered longer, but the cats waited and we were latish for the plane so we lept in to a taxi, for the safest journey I have had in Italy on the roads...all though it was 8, when the shops close, the traffic seemed to part in front of us and our taxi driver was softly spoken and angelic, chatting to me aand patient with my painfully slow Italian, unliike the Milanese whop just resort to English!
I LOVED Roma! I can hardly wait to go back, next time I have a friend I want to meet with though!