It’s ONLY been about six months since my last blog post – and I sort of pooped out last time, too tired to post the last 10 days of the trip in Umbria and Rome. I’m not going to go back and try to remember what we did six months ago, as I sometimes can’t remember what I did six minutes ago! So I start anew, without a reprise of blogs lost a half year past! (So no remembrances of Spello, Bevagna, Spoleto, Assisi, Perugia, and Orvieto. However, I will comment on our private guide, Maura Baldoni, in Umbria- what a character! She’s a ball of energy, impeccably dressed and can devour a huge banana split in 5 minutes!
The theme of this trip is food. I’ll be doing two culinary themed tours- in Umbria and in Calabria. Before venturing to Todi, the site of the Umbrian Tour with Elizabeth Minchilli (renowned food writer, blogger and book author), I spent three days in Rome – taking a slower pace and seeing some less touristy spots.
The first Rome day started early as the plane landed at 7:30 am. The hotel room (Smeraldo Hotel) was ready yet but I was invited to partake of their lovely breakfast offerings. Then it was off to a one hour stroll around the historic center before returning to my single bed room with a small balcony. The shower and change of clothes helped a bit but the jet lag gets worse as one gets older! I had a gelato at Malve’ in Campo dei Fiori and then walked to Trastevere to visit the Museo di Roma (Trastevere)- the recent exhibition had been dismantled so there wasn’t much to look at besides some dioramas of Roman life in the Middle Ages and a photo exhibition of Mosul, Iraq. Then I took a tour of the Antica Farmacia Santa Maria della Scala, frozen in time when it closed in 1954. It was started in the 16th century by the Carmelite order, providing herbs, potions, and”medicinal” concoctions to popes and nobility for centuries. The tour is only given sporadically in English and no more than once a day overall, by reservation only, requiring a phone call or email to the rector. A donation of 5 euro is suggested, and definitely worth the price as the tour includes not only the pharmacy but the manufacturing areas in the monastery. Dinner was at Salumeria Roscioli where I was seated at the counter next to a woman who works for the State Department, who was based in Jerusalem. I had a mortadella sandwich as antipasto, pasta all’arrabbiata and broccoli (which was way too much food!) and a glass of a local white wine.
The next day I was up bright and early on this overcast day and walked 45 minutes to Porta S. Paolo Stazione to meet with friend and local guide, Francesca Caruso, for a tour of Ostia Antica, the site of ancient Roman city at the mouth of the Tiber River. It’s a huge place, majority of it not yet excavated, similar to Pompeii but surrounded by trees and devoid of tourists. After returning to Rome by the local train, we bid farewell and I walked to the nearby Testaccio mercato to have a pizza lunch at Casa Manco – pizza with melanzane, tomatoes, mozzarella and basil (eggplant parmigiana pizza!) and pizza with zucchini flowers , anchovies, and stracciatella with a Sardinian beer. The nearby Protestant Cemetery is a peaceful green refuge that had few visitors and several resident cats. The perimeter is marked by the iconic Piramide di Caio Cestio (tomb of Caius Cestio) . It was a 40 minute walk back to the Jewish ghetto and a visit to the free exhibit of Italian victims of the Holocaust. Dinner was at Nonna Betta, in the Ghetto- for a so-so meal if carciofo alla giudia, tonnarelli cacio e pepe con cicoria and a ricotta chocolate tart.
The third Rome day was overcast and humid and the lack of a decent night’s sleep for three days was getting to me. I took sn Uber to the Domus Aurea, escavated remains of Nero’s massive residence. It can only be visited by organized tour and tickets must be purchased online. The site was just reopened after a prolonged closure following the dismantling of an exhibition. It is very impressive but the combination of humidity, masks, and eyeglasses resulted in fogged up lenses the entire time! There is also a virtual reality portion where you put a headpiece that give a (nauseating) 3-D impression of what it looked like in Nero’s time. I walked back to the hotel and just crashed for the afternoon. I was supposed to meet my cousin for dinner but she canceled because of the terrible weather. So I dined on pizza at the nearby Emma pizzeria (very good Neapolitan style pizza). The next day I left for Todi by hired private car.
To be continued…..
Camino Musings 