Today was a day of reprises – repeating things I’ve done in prior trips to Rome, but with some variations. I love food tours…..because I love all aspects of food (eating, cooking, taking Instagram photos) and because it gives me a sense of the culture, history and people of the place I’m visiting. In prior visits to Rome, I have taken a private tour of Testaccio with Katie Parla (2012), Eating Italy Food Tours (2018), and this time a private Testaccio tour with Sophie Minchilli. The Testaccio market building is new (2012) to me as it had not yet moved to its present location when I took the tour in 2012. The initial public outcry to relocating the market to a modernist rather sterile building has alleviated and this new market is an integral part of this non-tourist working class neighborhood. The collection of vendors and their products, most from local farms and farm-related industries, is a visual potpourri of color and aromas.
Not only are there produce, meat and cheese stalls, but there is a selection of prepared foods that can be purchased to be taken home or eaten on site, like the characteristic suppli.
We also walked through the old slaughter house, that functioned from the 1800s up to the 1960s.
There were also visits to a fresh pasta shop, bar and pastry shop.
These small round things are pizze tondo, little pizza snacks popular with kids.
The tour ended with lunch (pranzo) at Flavio al Velavevodetto featuring typical Roman pastas like all’Amatriciana and Carbonara.
We also (re)visited la bocca della verità (as seen in the movie Roman Holiday)
the Coliseum, Arch of Constantine, Trevi Fountain and a couple of obelisks/columns.
Of course, a (return) trip to the Cat Sanctuary at Largo Argentina 
has become a tradition for me. And I bought a couple of books at Feltrinelli bookstore.
Although threatening clouds hung overhead and the humidity was at times uncomfortable, the rains held off . We ended the evening with a visit with family and a wonderful dinner in the Jewish Ghetto.
Camino Musings 