The Tiber River runs west to east through central Rome.  I love walking along the river and watching the water.  The river also offers a respite from the streets where you are surrounded by tall buildings, because the river offers a wide-open expanse and view.

rapids on the river

rapids on the river

in the middle of the photo, you can see the remains of the ancient Roman bridge with the modern bridge behind it

a view of the river from the lower level

this section of the wall next to one of the bridges has plants and flowers growing out of it

You can either walk along at street level or you can go down to the boardwalk at the river level.  On one of our previous visits, there was a festival down on the boardwalk, and Chad and I spent an evening down there walking around, looking at things for sale amid the temporary tents with food and bars.

2018 riverside festival – food and crafts tents

2018 riverside festival – checking out the activities

2018 riverside festival – checking out the activities

There is an island in the middle of the river called La Tiberina.  On the island there is a hospital run by the Catholic Church, a hotel, a large church, a couple of restaurants, and a gelato shop.  We stopped at the gelateria and I got two flavors – lemon-basil and fresh pear.  Yum!  During a previous visit, we had lunch at one of the restaurants and enjoyed a wonderful tasting menu.

the west end of the Tiberina island

the island’s church

the island’s hospital

The river draws people at all hours of the day and night, and we walked along it or across it several times a day.  The river is particularly beautiful at night.

And finally, a video shot one night while we were crossing a bridge from Trastevere into central Rome.

On this trip, we stayed in the Trastevere neighborhood just as we have done on past trips.  Trastevere is just across the Tiber River from the Jewish Ghetto and the famous monuments just beyond.  Our street food tour guide told us that “tras” means “across” and “tevere” means “Tiber.”  However, I had previously learned that the neighborhood got its name from “tra” which means “between” and “stevere” which was an ancient spelling of “Tiber.”  If you look at the neighborhood on a map, you can see that it is nestled in a bend in the Tiber and that it is surrounded on three sides by the river.  It’s between the river.

In any case, I love this neighborhood.  It is a lively area with lots of restaurants and bars, good food and wine shops, pretty churches, cute streets. 

entrance to a small plaza

our go-to wine bar in the neighborhood

a typical street

another typical street

a little courtyard at the end of a street

the facade of this restaurant was covered in lights

outdoor dining

we found a cool little shop with lots of interesting foodstuffs

Of course, along with all of this great stuff comes throngs of tourists.  It wasn’t too bad now in May, but Chad said last August it was unbearable with shoulder-to-shoulder people in the streets.

Trastevere makes a convenient home base for seeing the sites of Rome.  You cross a bridge over the river and you’re in the Jewish Ghetto.  You walk a few minutes more and you’re at Trevi Fountain or the Pantheon.  Walk a little more and you can see the coliseum and the forum.  You can even walk to St. Peter’s and the Vatican from Trastevere, but it’s more of a hike.

Much like Molise in the springtime, flowers were in bloom in Trastevere.  Everywhere you look, you can see buildings draped in ivy, jasmine, and bougainvillea, so this creates walls of color in the spring.

There is also a lot of graffiti in the neighborhood.  Some of it is just straight-up spray paint tagging, but a lot of it is nice street art.

We had a couple of memorable meals in the neighborhood.  One evening, we walked up to the top of a hill to Ristorante Umbre Rosse (Red Clouds) which had a wonderful, two-level outdoor dining area.

steps up the hill to the restaurant

you can see the upper level of seating behind Chad

I was so happy to have a giant salad

Chad had a giant plate of meat and cheese (I helped with some of it)

notice the variations on the Caipirinha on the drinks menu

Another evening, we ate at Ristorante Moridionale.  we had wanted to dine here before but couldn’t get reservations.  We were happy to have the opportunity this time around, and we sat at a table on the cobblestones across the street from the restaurant.

restaurant entrance

seared tuna with sesame seeds

chicory pallotte (kind of like a meatball but made with bread and cheese instead of meat)

dessert – semi-freddo gelato with chocolate sauce and pistachios

And one final photo from the Trastevere neighborhood.

a mosaic mural of a swimmer

This was our fourth time in Rome together.  During previous visits, we made a point of seeing the monuments, going to other tourist sites, and exploring the city by walking all over the place.  On this trip, we did have an agenda, but it was not tourist-related.  Agenda items included figuring out how to get 24 liters of olive oil home, going to Ristorante Giulia, going to a restaurant specializing in Abruzzese food, and generally just wandering around.

In a densely populated city such as Rome, it’s beneficial to have a small car.  You can see lots of Smart cars which zip around and are easier to park than larger cars.

One benefit of a Smart car is that it can park perpendicular in a parallel parking zone.

We also saw some newer models of cars that we hadn’t see in the past.

Here’s a little 2-person electric car at a charging station.

Here’s a one-person electric car by Renault

All-electric Yoyo model by XEV

Of course, motorcycles, Vespas, and other scooters are also great, because you can zip in and out of traffic, and free parking is easy.

A church plaza filled with motorcycles and scooters

Speaking of driving, we learned two new things while in Italy.  First, if you move to Italy, you can only drive with a foreign license for one year.  After that, you have to have an Italian driver license if you want to drive.  Second, the driver test is extremely hard.  We heard this both from our Canadian friends and from Chad’s Italian relatives.  So, in preparation for a potential move to Italy, we went to a bookstore in Rome and bought a two-volume driver license study guide.  Volume one is the textbook, and volume two contains thousands of example test questions.  Of course, the books are all in Italian and the language is very technical, so, in addition to learning the Italian rules of the road, these books will be an exercise in translation for us.

driver license study books

We did walk past some of the famous sites such as Trevi Fountain and the Pantheon.  However, I didn’t take any photos there since I already have photos from previous trips.  Instead, I took notice of other interesting buildings and urban features.

I liked this stately building on the corner of a main avenue

This archway led into a grand courtyard

another view of the church that had all of the scooters parked in the plaza in front

a little alley in the Jewish ghetto

I liked the covered terrace at the top of this building – seems like a good place to hang out when it’s too hot in the sun or when it’s raining outside

this church was at the intersection of two narrow streets, so it was hard to get a good photo, but it had an interesting “coin offering” feature

this church had a slot on the front of the building where you can insert coins to support the poor who have died (and are perhaps in purgatory?)

I love this fountain with its turtles.

the fountain

close-up of the turtles

We also paused to notice the details that are typically overlooked by tourists who are on a schedule.

Parking on the main avenue along the river had notices indicating that parking would be prohibited that weekend due to the Giro d’Italia passing through Rome (the Giro is the Italian version of the Tour de France).

Many of the cobblestone streets are so narrow that there is no room for a sidewalk.  Instead, a pedestrian pathway is striped off and a symbol indicates which side to walk on.

Throughout our trip, we saw a lot of unique restrooms signs in restaurants indicating Men’s and Women’s.  Here’s one for the women’s room in Ristorante Giulia.

We saw some fun things in shop windows.

I liked this jewelry set inspired by leaves from the ginkgo tree

We saw this coffee service fashioned from chocolate in a confectioner’s shop

this is perhaps the world’s largest loaf of deli meat

And, finally, viewership of Stranger Things is not limited to the United States.

a cardboard cutout of Eddie Munson

at Easter time, giant chocolate eggs are given as gifts – here’s a Stranger Things chocolate egg that I saw at the beginning of our trip

Our return to the U.S. started out auspiciously.  Our flight landed 45 minutes early.  I know!  When does that ever happen?  We zipped through immigration, collected our checked luggage and went to Jim and Fran’s house to stay the night.  The plan was to relax, eat a light supper, and get a good night’s sleep and then pack up the kitties and go on to our house on Saturday morning.

Luna died in the middle of the night.  I found her the next morning curled up under a table.  She was only 10 years old, so it was quite a shock.  We’re just thankful that we got to spend her last day with her.  She was a sweet and curious girl.  Instead of getting settled back into our house and enjoying the holiday weekend, we went to the pet crematory and grieved.  Luna was always looking out the windows and trying to sneak out of the house, so we will sprinkle her ashes in our garden.

So that was Saturday.  Sunday morning, Chad and I both woke up sick with colds.  I haven’t been sick in years, and I forgot how much it sucks.  Then on Monday night, a mosquito got into the house and feasted on me while I was sleeping.  I’ve got over 60 mosquito bites.  So in addition to concluding our vacation and dealing with jet jag, our cat died, we’re both sick, and my entire body itches.

On the bright side, we still have our kitty Bokchoy who has been very snuggly since we got home.  The packages that we shipped from Rome made it to Georgia without any problems.  The head colds will go away, and the mosquito bites will heal.  We miss Luna immensely, but we have many years of wonderful memories with her.  She had a good life with us, filled with lots of love and lots of cat treats.  Ciao, Luna.

our sweet, curious, cuddly Luna

We got up at 6 am to get ready for the airport.  We packed the final few things and washed the dishes in the apartment.  Then we walked to the taxi stand two blocks away.  As you may recall, we bought roller bags so we could check bags with large quantities of olive oil.  Once again, I was reminded of what a pain it is to pull a roller bag on a cobblestone street.

We stayed in the Trastevere neighborhood, and it is very easy to get from there to the airport, only 35 minutes.  We arrived at the airport 2-1/2 hours before our flight.  Plenty of time!  Or so we thought.

Since we had bags to check, we couldn’t go straight to our gate.  There were two lines – Check-In and Bag Drop.  Since we had already checked in via our phones, we got into the bag drop line.  Our line was moving very slowly.  Then we noticed that the Check-In line was moving much faster.  It turns out that the Check-In line had five counters open, and ours only had three.  At least we arrived at the airport with plenty of time.  Right.

Then the baggage conveyor belt stopped working, so all bag check stopped.  It started up again a few minutes later, and we were all relieved.  Then two of the three people working the Bag Drop counters went on break.  Now there was just one guy to receive all of our luggage.  People started getting nervous and looking at the time.  After about 15 minutes, one of the staff members came back from break, and people in line cheered.  Meanwhile, I looked at my phone to double-check when our flight would start boarding, and I noticed that it was now going to leave 10 minutes early.  Mamma mia!

Luckily, a Delta supervisor came over asking, “Who’s on the 9:45 to Atlanta?  Okay, come with me.”  She paused the Check-In line and cleared the way for us Atlanta flyers to check our bags.  Whew!  We dropped our bags.  The agent gave us paper boarding tickets with bag-check stickers on them and noted that our flight would board at 8:45.  What time was it?  8:45.

We speed-walked to passport control and zipped through security.  On the other side, we noticed that our gate was on the far end of the terminal.  Of course.  And Fiumicino airport is huge, so it was quite a walk to get to our gate.

Sure enough, our flight was already boarding, but they had just started with the premium class.  So it was a hurry up and wait situation for us.

We’re happily on board.  Lunch was pretty good.  Now we’re passing time watching Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy, reading, napping (me).

lunch on the plane – veggie lasagna, Italian salad with tomatoes/olives/mozzarella, strawberry gelato, red wine

We’re both looking forward to being home.  We thought we would be sad to leave Italy, and I guess we are in a way.  But we’re looking forward to being in our own house and, especially, sleeping in our own luxurious bed.  Plus, there are the cute kitties waiting for us.

After our street food tour, we took care of some final errands this afternoon.

While in Molise, we bought 24 liters of olive to bring home.  So, 5 liters of oil equals 1.1 gallons.  Um, yeah.  We bought some olive oil.  If you don’t know what 24 liters of olive oil looks like, here’s a photo of 17 liters.

17 liters of olive oil – three 5-liter boxes and two 1-liter cans

Why a photo of only 17 liters?  Because 7 liters are already on their way back to Atlanta via FedEx, as of Tuesday.  Yesterday, we bought roller bags so that, at the airport, we can check boxes and cans of olive oil (plus some other things) that we can’t take as carry-on.  Today, we packed up the last 5-liter box of oil that wouldn’t fit in the luggage and took it to Mailboxes Etc to ship it back via FedEx.

brand-new roller bags with olive oil and clothes

And this is why we needed four days in Rome.  In addition to some sightseeing, we had to figure out logistics for shipping all sorts of crazy stuff home – olive oil, pasta, marmalade, rapini sauce, cookies, gifts, and other extra things that we accumulated along the way.

After our trip to ship stuff, we wandered through the Trastevere neighborhood for one last look.  (Aside from our honeymoon, we have always stayed in the Trastevere.)  We stopped at our favorite little wine bar which is away from the tourist area so it is easy to get a table at happy hour time, and there is a good wine list.  We each had a glass.

our go-to enoteca in Trastevere

one last happy hour

Before heading home, we stopped at our favorite Trastevere deli and picked up some things for a dinner at home.  In the deli, Chad told the owners (in Italian), “we were here 5 years ago and I bought some mortadella from you, and it was the best mortadella I’ve ever had.”  The proprietress said, “Well, it’s still the same.”  And then she smiled.  As we exited the shop, Chad said, “If we stayed here for a month, I would be on a first-name basis with those people.”  I have no doubt.

the deli case with cheese and meat

the refrigerated section with more cheese and meat

the shop also sells wine, pasta, crackers and cookies, jams and marmalade

Tonight we packed up our things and stuffed our new roller bags full.  We just need to make a final trash/recycle run to the neighborhood bins, and we are done with our errands for the evening.  We will leave the apartment around 6:30 am to go to the taxi stand two blocks away and then head to the airport.  I imagine we’ll get coffees and pastries at the airport and then have a long flight back to Atlanta.  I’ve downloaded some books to my Kindle for the flight, and I will also finish watching the Stanley Tucci travel series in Italy.  And if I don’t have too many tears, I might draft some final reflections about this Italian experience.

It’s been real, Italy!  I’ve learned a lot about the country and a potential life here, and I’ve learned a lot about myself along the way.  Win-win!

our sampler platter for dinner at home tonight – artichokes, eggplant, cheeses, pizza, olives, mortadella, beer and red wine, and an apple

Most people people have heard of Airbnb.  Lesser known are Airbnb Experiences.  These are curated events hosted by locals, and they include events such as walking tours, painting classes, cooking lessons, and other options.  While in Madrid in 2019, Chad and I signed up for an experience that included a drive through the countryside, a hike along a ridge overlooking a river valley, and a traditional Spanish lunch at the hosts’ house in a small village outside of Madrid.  Chad also did a guided pub crawl with the hosts on another afternoon in Madrid.  Last year, Chad and his family did a wine tasting and lunch experience at a farm outside of Florence.  We’ve done similar events (not Airbnb) with our friend Claudio in the Cinque Terre – two wine tastings and two cooking classes.  Every event has been well worth the time and money.  We always learn so much and get to meet people from other countries.

While in Rome, we signed up for a street food tour.  It cost 30 euros apiece for a 2-1/2 hour guided walking tour and included the cost of food and drink tastings.  In addition to trying street foods, our guide gave us lessons about food, history, culture, and architecture along the way.  We absolutely loved it.  If you’re curious, it was this tour: 

https://www.airbnb.com/experiences/3756484

The tour started in Campo de Fiori Piazza where we got a history lesson.  Campo de fiori means “field of flowers,” and this area was originally, well, a field of flowers, before being paved over.  During the Inquisition, the piazza was the site of the trials and executions.  This is why you don’t find any churches on the square.  The statue in the center commemorates a friar who was a philosopher and free thinker and was burned at the stake for being deemed by the Catholic Church as too dangerous.  The statue looks towards the Vatican, as if to say, “I have my eye on you.” 

you can see the statue rising above the market stalls

Today, the piazza is the location of a major market where you can buy fruits and vegetables, meats, cheeses, limoncello, clothes, jams and pesto, oils, trinkets, and all manner of other things. 

view of the market from a previous visit to Rome when Chad had short hair

a pasta vendor

a limoncello stall

The market is open seven days a week from 8 or 9 am until 5 pm.  After the market closes for the day, the trash trucks and street sweepers come in to clean the square, and then, as our guide says, “it is a market of Aperol spritz and aperitivi” for happy hour.

the trash collectors and street sweepers were hard at work – it was pretty interesting to watch

Our first food stop was a family-owned cured meat shop where everything is made from the pig.  We tried five different products served with a glass of chilled red wine.

the entrance to the salumi shop – Norcineria means that it is in the style of the town of Norcia, Viola is the family name, and the shop has been around since 1890

the interior of the shop

our salumi tasting plate – I don’t remember all of the descriptions, but the chunks on the left are part of a big meat stick, the next is typically eaten at Easter, the third is made with Barolo wine, the fourth was delicious, and the far right is made with truffles

As we left the piazza, our guide pointed out a Renaissance palazzo (mansion) that reused columns from a Roman theater as part of its construction.

the front facade of the palazzo

a view of the side where you can see the reused columns – Architectural observation: the dark brown construction and the mustard yellow portion above are newer construction and not part of the original palazzo

Our next stop was a pizza shop.  Unlike a pizzeria where you sit down and eat, this shop prepares pizza sliced to go.  Roman-style pizza has a thin, crispy crust.  We tried three different pizzas served with a glass of cold Peroni beer.

the pizza shop

pizza on display

more pizza on display – notice that the closest one has shrimp on it

and this one has mortadella, ricotta, and pistachio

our first taste was pizza rossa – red pizza – with just marinara sauce and oregano

the next was margherita, named after the first queen of Italy, Margherita, after Italy was unified in 1871

our last taste was potato pizza – just pizza crust and potatoes, fresh out of the oven and piping hot

As we left the pizza shop, we saw this Medieval building with a fresco of the Madonna on it.  (Notice the uplight mounted underneath the painting.)  During the Medieval times, it was dangerous to travel after dark with limited lighting.  It is rumored that people would walk from Madonna to Madonna to have some light to travel by and, hopefully, some safety.

the facade with the Madonna fresco

closer view of the fresco

Right in front of the Madonna building was one of Rome’s public drinking fountains.  These fountains run 24 hours a day and are a good place to fill your water bottle with fresh, cold water.  A fountain is called a nosone (meaning “big nose”) because of the size of the spout.  The spout also has a hole on the top that, if you use two fingers to block the spout on the bottom, water will shoot out of the top to make a drinking fountain.  Genius!  The fountains also have QR codes (that cream-colored tag) that take you to a map showing the location of all of the drinking fountains in the city.

one of many drinking fountains found around Rome

Next to the Madonna building is the Passetto del Biscione.  Biscione is the name of the family that built the mansion, and “passetto” means “little passageway.”  The passetto has a gate at either end to closed it off at night to protect the frescoes in the passetto.

entering the passetto

the wall frescoes

ceiling fresco

the end of the passetto with a shrine to the Madonna

the gate at the other side

Next we stopped in a plaza that used to be a Renaissance (I think) theater.  The theater is no longer there, but the curve of the palazzo walls helps you imagine what it was like.  We were standing on what used to be the stage.

the curve of the palazzo used to be the walls of the theater

from this piazza, you can see this church which is 80 meters tall, and only Saint Peter’s at the Vatican has a taller dome in Rome

Next food stop – a “forno” which is one name for a bakery.  (“Forno” literally means “oven.”)  Here we had suppli which are made with tomato risotto and mozzarella, coated in bread crumbs, and then fried.  Yum!  Rome was part of Napoleon’s empire in the 18th century.  French soldiers would eat these fried treats, and when they discovered the mozzarella inside, they would exclaim, “Quelle surprise!”  (What a surprise!)  The Italians heard, “Suppli!” and now that is the name.

the forno

suppli

Roman Emperor Augustus divided the city of Rome into 14 districts.  We stopped at an intersection of small streets where three districts came together.  Plaques on the building walls indicate the names of the ancient districts.

the plaque for district VI (sixth)

the plaque for district VII (seventh)

the plaque for district VIII (eighth)

Our next stop was in the Jewish ghetto.  This was designated as the Jewish neighborhood in 1555 by the Catholic Church (who ruled Rome and central Italy at the time), and all Jews were forced to move here.  Jews could leave the neighborhood during the day, but men had to wear yellow hats and women had to wear yellow head scarves.  They all had to return to the ghetto before dark when the gates surrounding the neighborhood were closed for the night. 

This practice was in place until 1871 when Italy become a secular kingdom and the Catholic Church no longer ruled Rome.  At this time, Jews were allowed to move to other neighborhoods.  Many relocated to the other side of the Tiber River to the neighborhood called Trastevere.  “Tras” means “across” and “Tevere” means “Tiber.”  Across the Tiber River.

To this day there are still a lot of Jewish families here, but there are also people of other faiths as well.  There are plenty of kosher restaurants and bakeries and such good smells.  The Jews were limited in the work that they were allowed to perform.  One of these was fishmonger since the ghetto is located right next to the Tiber River.  As a result, you can also find lots of fish on the menus of the restaurants in the neighborhood.

a Jewish flag in the neighborhood

Our fourth food stop was at one of the Jewish restaurants.  We had carciofi alla giudia – Jewish-style artichokes.  The outer, tough leaves of the artichoke are removed, and then the whole artichoke is fried, twice, in sunflower oil.  The result is a delicious, crispy treat.

a plate of fried artichokes

On the way out of the neighborhood, we stopped to look at some gold cobblestones in the street.  During WWII, Italy didn’t follow the nazi protocols for Jews.  In fact, Jews were given sanctuary in churches, Catholic churches.  Well, the nazi regime didn’t like this, and on October 16, 1943, they marched into the ghetto and rounded up all of the Jews, 1000 of them, and sent them to Auschwitz.  Only 17 survived to the end of the war.

Each gold cobblestone is in front of a house where a Jew was rounded up.  The stone gives the person’s name, date of birth, and date of exportation (almost all Oct 16, 1943.)  The tradition today is the rub your foot across the cobblestone to polish and let the person know that they are not forgotten.

gold cobblestones – these commemorate four family members who were taken from this particular house

On the way to our final food stop, we past the Piazza Torre di Argentina.  This was the site of five Roman temples, and excavation is still underway.  Archeologists have determined that Julius Caesar was murdered under the tall pine tree on the left in the photo.

the archeology site

This area is also a cat sanctuary with a staff that feeds and cares for the cats.  Of course, every time we walk by this site, I have to stop and look for cats.

there is a white cat in the top left of the photo and another white and gray cat at the bottom right under the table

and a white cat

On the way to our final stop, I saw this church with a deer head on top.  Why?  I have no idea.

a church with a deer head

Our final stop was Gunther Gelato.  There is a part of northern Italy right next to Austria where people have German names and still speak German.  (This area used to be part of Austria.)  The guy who opened this gelato shop comes from this area of Italy.

Gunther Gelato entrance

The gelato is all made in-house with fresh ingredients, no preservatives, no added colors.  It has been named as one of the top ice-cream stores in the world.  I got a lemon and Chad got orange.  By this time it was so hot and sunny outside that I just scarfed down my gelato without taking photos.  This gelateria is a couple of blocks away from the Pantheon, and it is worth the detour.

At this point, our tour was over.  We came back to the apartment to cool off and rest after all of the walking and sun and heat and carbs.  Just before reaching our apartment, we stopped at a little convenience store to buy some cold bottles of beer to take home.

Like our previous Airbnb experiences, this one was great, and I would highly recommend it.

We stumbled upon an art exhibit of women artists of graphic design featuring photographs, paintings, collage, prints, etc.  We love art and design, so we went to check it out.  When we entered the building, I went to the “pass office”  and asked for “due biglietti” for the exhibit so I could buy two tickets.  The lady responded that the exhibit was free, so we went right on in.

The exhibit was sponsored by the National Ministry of Culture and was beautifully curated.  We loved it.

the title of the exhibit

some of the artwork

I liked this one with multiple pages of writing pinned onto a board

these were done by the same artist

a painting of aspen trees

one of the paintings

I liked the grouping of these photos by different artists – on the top are the queens of Greece and Romania, on the bottom are two regular old ladies

this was a fun one with two colors of paint

self-portraits by three different photographers

this still life was realized with an inkjet printer

and perhaps my favorite artist who uses collage and a sewing machine

a close-up of one of her pieces – you can see the thread

Afterwards, we returned to a t-shirt shop that we had passed and which sold shirts featuring art by Banksy.  I couldn’t decide which shirt I wanted, so I bought two.  Chad bought one with Charlie Brown.  I have followed Banksy over the years, so it was fun to have an opportunity to buy a t-shirt.

One of Banksy’s most famous works

I like the subversive message here

I hadn’t seen this one before

All in all a fun morning with surprising discoveries.  This is what happens when you wander around aimlessly and don’t just rush from one tourist destination to another.

On our 2018 trip to Italy, we spent our last week in Rome.  While meandering around the city, we  came across Ristorante Giulia at happy hour time.  The restaurant is Giulia, and my name is Julia, so of course we went in for a cocktail and some snacks one night.  Wow.  The cocktails were wonderful and the complimentary snacks were showcase gastronomy.  Chad went back for dinner on our last night in Rome, but I couldn’t eat any more food so I stayed home.

On this year’s trip, we made it a point to go back to the restaurant for dinner.  In the last five years, most of the staff has changed, including the chef.  But we recognized the bartender and the restaurant manager and chatted with them, and the food and drinks were still wonderful.

We each got the tasting menu with the wine pairing.  What I didn’t realize is that it would be an eight-course menu.  We sat down for dinner at 7:30 pm and left at 10:30 pm, meandering home and arriving back at our apartment close to midnight.

Enjoy the photos.

like all other restaurants in Italy, you have your choice between still (naturale) and sparkling (frizzante) water

the first amuse-bouche was a beef dumpling with mushroom cream accompanied by housemade bread and olive oil, and a glass of prosecco from Veneto

amuse-bouche #2 – poached egg on the bottom, then sauteed asparagus, and potato mousse on top, and chardonnay from the region

crispy octopus, mashed carrots with lemon, cream mousse and herb sauce, Vermentino white wine

If you’ve ever done a tasting menu – you know that point where you think, “This is too much.”  For me it started here.

pasta carbonara with a kind of egg cream sauce and Italian bacon, regional white wine

potato dumplings filled with shredded chicken served in a white wine reduction, a local white wine

“boiled” beef with parsley salsa and cooked endive, local red wine

And then with the desserts, I was getting light-headed and seeing stars.  I never eat this many calories in one sitting.

a sugared donut filled with vanilla cream, local dessert wine

After seeing stars, I ordered a grappa as a digestivo to cut through all of this food and bring me back to earth – as I was served dessert #2.

biscotti, meringue, grappa

Then Chad and I took a slow stroll back to our apartment.  We stopped to look over the bridge at the Tiber River below which is beautiful at night, and we enjoyed the lights and relative lack of tourists in our Trastevere neighborhood at night.  (More on the Trastevere neighborhood in a future post.)