Thursday, October 30, 2008

Martha does Rome with a little help from a friend

Day 1:Old and New Friendships


As well as a much-needed vacation, this trip to Roma was important to me for a very special reason – I was finally going to meet my LJ Friend – spacedlaw – face-to-face.N. had suggested we meet at Castroni (http://www.castroni.com/), a delicatessen-food shop- café not far from the B&B which was my home base for this part of my trip.She was looking in the window as I walked up – N. is ALWAYS – early – and I recognised her immediately. We decided to have a coffee to get acquainted, which wasn’t strictly speaking necessary. Never in my life have I experienced such an instant sense of recognition.


We were shortly on our way; heading first through St Peter’s Square. The tides of people produced a distinct twinge of agoraphobia so we soon turned down Mussolini’s feeble attempt to match the glory of the popes, via della Conciliazione, which took us quickly to the river, passing the Ospedale Santo Spirito and the wooden barrel which had been used to receive unwanted babies.

Then further into Trastevere. We or N. found the perfect place in Ditta Trinchetti (Via della Lungharetta). Stuck in between two touristy looking places was a simple restaurant with it’s menu chalked onto a board, basically, it said: ‘Chose your wine and let us do the rest.’ – in Italian, of course. So we did. That brought us: bruschette made with rusks soaked with olive oil and topped with fresh tomatoes ands basil – lot’s of it; a plate of pickled vegetables and olive, a wooden board with several types of unusual charcuterie and cheeses. Oh, and N. also ordered ‘buratta’ the special fresh cheese that she has written about earlier in her journal. Just when I thought I couldn’t take another bite, the waitress brought the soup – a rich stew of pulses, lentils and diced vegetables. I really, really couldn’t take more than a few small tastes, so I have spent the afternoon trying to recreate it. THAT recipe will make part of my next post.


We finally collapsed in a café near the Palatine Hill for a cold neon yellow drink. Did I mention it was HOT – like high summer in Estonia.

As I lost my new camera just days before leaving for Italy, N. has given me permission to use a few of her photos to illustrate this adventure. You are the beneficiaries as she is a much better photographer than I.

6 comments:

spacedlaw said...

Did you show Mrs. Neri the sign that bbore her name?

martha said...

You have already seen the answer to that. Also, the original post left off part of the text. I've edited it back in. Soup turned out great - recipe tomorrow.

Unknown said...

What fun! How super for you. :) *hugs*

Aeneas said...

This sounds so wonderful!

And you lost your camera?! I wondered what had happened with your photos... or lack of. :(

Aeneas said...

Oh! I forgot! Aeneas is me, Traveler64, AR. Aeneas is my Google name.

martha said...

Hi Adriana - glad to see you finally got here. Welcome