Scenes From a Life in Rome - Pranzo and Presepe

Sunday is a special day in Italy - not just because everyone is heading to church, yeah right, but because Sunday pranzo(lunch) is the most important meal of the week. That's when family and friends gather at home or a restaurant to look at the week that was, celebrate an engagement or birthday, eat Mama's unbeatable tortellini or the rubatello at your favorite trattoria. We discovered that Sunday lunch is an ideal company meal - guests arrive at 1:30 and sometimes stay as late as 8 but often until around 6. The meal can be leisurely, no one is worried about getting up for work the next morning or getting a taxi late at night and clean up can be done at a reasonable hour. And so much has been eaten during the day that the mere idea of anything more than a bowl of soup and some bread and cheese for dinner is unthinkable.

Sunday past we met Larry and Vincenzo for pranzo - they had been to church, we however had occupied Sunday morning with a few other things. The nice thing about doing Sunday lunch at a restaurant in town is the strolling afterward. You would never think of getting up from the table and heading right home. So stroll we did - we had pranzoed (there goes my Italinish) near the Pantheon so we headed over in the direction of Santa Maria sopra Minerva and popped into to view the incredible treasures - including Michalangelo's Christ with the Cross - and their Presepe. A bit more strolling - over to San Marcello to see their Presepe and listen to a very good Seniors choir rehearsing a concert. Virtuously we skipped Giolitti, we had just had Mount Blanc for desert after a meal of vegetable soup, saltimbaco and roast potatoes so ice cream would have been a bit of overkill.

A third stop at a church just behind the Galleria Alberto Sordi - I can never remember the name - to surreptitiously view their presepe as a mass was being conducted in Spanish with guitar accompaniment. Last year their Bethlehem was situated across the Tiber from Castel San Angelo - or at least that was the backdrop; this it bore a striking resemblance to one of the hilltop villages in Latina. As I've said previously the settings often resemble the world around the church than any attempt to reflect a real middle-east setting.

One of the fun things about strolling with Larry is his insatiable quest for the unusual and the remarkable in his adopted city. His enthusiasm is contagious - when he points something out or drags us down an alley way to see something a bit out of the way I am reassured that he is that rare thing: a natural teacher. I envy his students the insight and knowledge he brings to learning.


I hadn't noticed the RomaBike stations around town - too big to be seen I guess. The scheme is a simple one meant to encourage people to bike within Centro rather than taking their cars. You enroll in the scheme for free and are issued a card which will unlock bikes at 19 stations situated around town. The first 30 minutes are free and there is a nominal charge (against a credit card you have registered) after that time. You bike to the station nearest your destination lock the bike and continue on your way. If the station is full you have a padlock to attach it to a rail, a cell number to call to let control know. Larry has a colleague who has used it as her mode of transportation to work every day and so far it hasn't cost her a cent.

As we reached the Corso Larry drew our attention to two curious things on Via Lata - a fountain and a sign.

Water fountains for public use have been a feature of Rome since the Caesers - most tourists, and a few ex-pats, are scandalised by the constant running taps throughout the city but Romans take it for granted. This is one of the oldest fountains in Rome - the Facchino or Porter. He was a real person called Abbondio Rizi and was head of the Porters' Guild in the 15th century. He was famous for the heavy weights he could carry and the fountain was carved as a monument after his death. He is one of the Six Talking Statues of Rome.

And this little notice, put in place on August 6, 1784 is very specific in it's instructions. The basic message is "Don't shit on our doorstep, under penalty." Can't be any more explicite than that can you? And didn't I say Larry showed us unusual things?

15 gennaio - San Mauro

Sunday in the City

I've gone on often enough about how the only way to manage life in Rome is to get the hell out of it! And we are trying to do that more and more but there are times when a weekend in the city can have its own rewards.

Sunday morning we headed into Centro at around 1000 to meet our friends Walter & Robert and Larry & Vincenzo at Caravita, an English-language parish just near Piazza Venizia.

The Palazzo Rinuccini faces Venizia at the entrance to Corso, the main shopping street that joins Piazza Venizia to Piazza di Popolo, and was the residence of Maria-Letizia Ramolino Buonoparte, Napoleon's mother, after her son's fall. She lived there from 1815 until her death in 1836 at the age of 86. Much of her time, even after the onset of blindness, was spent on the green shuttered balcony overlooking the Piazza.

After mass we headed over to Il Barroccio on Via dei Pastini for a nice leisurely lunch: Cured meats and sausages, mozzarella, grilled eggplant and zucchini, a vegetable-chocked Rubatela, lamb stuffed pasta with a light fresh pea-studded sauce, a very good Sicilian red, a slice of confetti cake and a glass of amaro. And much laughter and a bit of carry-on.
After lunch we strolled down to see what was happening in Piazza della Rotonda and found the area around the Pantheon crowded with Sunday strollers and tour groups. There really doesn't appear to be an "off-season" for tourism these days in Rome. Next week, with the beginning of Holy Week, will be madness. I think we'll just avoid Centro or better yet get out of town.

And of course if your going to wear the uniform of the Polizia Municipale its always best to fashion accessorise with trendy red-framed glasses but do hide that cigarette in the palm of your hand just in case the Commissairio walks by.

When Pius VII had them proclaim his glory for restoring the Pantheon and major work on the Piazza, I'm not sure he was thinking of the Macdonald's that would be installed there two centuries later. He was the Pope who, though having been kidnapped and held for six year by the French, asked for better treatment for Napoleon on St. Helena. And he offered refuge in Rome to members of the Bonaparte family including Maria-Letizia. (I have to admit the Macdonald's sign is so unobtrusive that I missed it the first few times I was in the Piazza.)

If the crowds were bad at Rotondo the mob was worse at Giolitti, but service was quick, efficient and any wait was worth it.

What we were all after - the best gelato in Rome. Mine: a medio cornetto - half coffee-half pistachio. Larry's: the same but without the fattening cornetto! The world is a good place!

And to further prove that point the camellia tree outside the front door is in full bloom.

11 marzo - San Constantino

Parma - a Few Final Words Involving (What Else?) Food

Well actually three words - I Tre Porcellini. That translates as the Three Little Pigs and it was an osteria I stumbled on coming back from the band concert on Sunday. I wasn't all that hungry and it was only 1230 a little early for lunch, so I thought I would walk, build up an appetite and come back around 1300. Then, of course, I couldn't quite remember where it was. I wandered around and had almost given up when I turned a corner and there it was.

I love watching people in restaurants and the place was filled with highly watchable Sunday diners. There was a family beside me - Mother, Father, two brothers and the little boy of one of the brothers - so where was the mother of the boy? Was she working that day? Maybe Mama doesn't like her so she wasn't invited? Or they're divorced and it was Dad's turn with the kid? Whatever it was the kid was more than pleased with the second helping of lemon gelato he was allowed courtesy of one of the owners. In the next room there was a large noisy group: 8 women (elderly, middle-aged, teen-aged) with one man - very much Pater Familias chunky gold pinkie ring and all - and a chihuahua that occasionally added to the conversation. In another corner sat a young couple who, I suspect, had spent their first night together - that morning-after glow, strangely more on him than her and all little touches and caresses, knowing looks and giggles - so damned cute. An elderly gentleman, very nattily dressed in jacket and tie, shuffled past with his Filippina caregiver, seen to the door by one of the owners. It was a colorful cross section of people - many it would seem regulars others like me simply passing through - enjoying a good Sunday lunch.

And it was a good Sunday lunch:

Polenta Grantinée with Brie and Porcini mushrooms
Roast Fresh Parma Ham with
oven roasted rosemary potatoes
A pleasant half litre of the house white wine
Honey torte with brandy sauce and vanilla gelato
The house Amaro
An espresso to finish the meal off.

It was the perfect meal for a chilly Sunday, the price was reasonable, the setting comfortable and the service friendly. And unlike the evening before I wasn't made to feel uneasy about being a single dinner. Damn another reason to go back to Parma.

10 novembre - San Leone Magno