Several times per week we wander out of our lair to explore the city. Sometimes locally, sometimes to do chores like shopping, sometimes to see important sights. Almost always we incorporate lunch into the mix. Almost always we are delighted with whatever food we discover.
Today is a home chore day. We are making beds, doing laundry, cleaning the bathroom. So our wander took us about 1 block. First stop to pick up a few vegetables and bread from a market which has several stalls representing regional artisanal food producers. Yum--for dinner.
Then a few steps further to try a small restaurant which we have observed across the street from our most used bus stop: Sapori di Gaeta. There are so many food places within a few blocks of our apartment that we are being more deliberate in trying them out. Today was this one.
Sapori means flavors. Gaeta is a town between Naples and Rome along the coast which is famous for seafood, fish and these particular pie-type things called tiella. The cafe specializes in these things but will also serve you a fresh cooked plate of pasta or a few other things.
Tiella look like pies because they have dough on top and bottom and are crimped on the edges. But it is bread dough so they are more like calzones that we get in the US but pie-looking. Inside are many things: we had spinach for Nancy and onion for me. Chatting with the guy later we learned that octopus and a mixed vegetable one with escarole are the most traditional. Next time.
Then back home to hang out the laundry and unload the dishwasher. Maybe a nap. We are retired, after all.
Other lunches
Since lunch is one of the discoveries and delights of our stay in Rome, I have been intending to write about it for several weeks. I intend to take pictures of our food. I intend to discuss the Roman speciality pasta dishes we try.
The photos I actually take are of our empty plates after lunch or our wine glasses while we wait for our food to appear. How do people do this--remember to take orderly pictures of meals before they have eaten? At some point I may acquire such a skill.
What I can say about lunch is that it is uniformly delicious. We have eaten in very local eateries where the other diners are all from within about 50 feet of the cafe to high-end destination restaurants. The pork sandwich place near the bus/metro/train terminal Ostiense is about as "street food" as you can get and is excellent. So far it is all good.
Roman food has its own pattern. When in some of the areas of major attractions there is an inmixture of food from other parts of the country. (Lasagna comes to mind.) But even in the areas catering to visitors, we find good food most of the time. One bad experience, one mediocre, so far during several weeks of eating wherever we find ourselves.
Full Italian meals are beyond us: antipasti, primi, secondi with contorni, dolce and cafe. How do they do it? We watch people eat the full series and they look like ordinary people. They are able to stand up and walk out. We tend to have an anti-pasti, primi (which usually means pasta) and cafe. BUT we also have come to enjoy a mezzolitro of house white wine with most meals. Sometimes we vary that by having a class of prosecco which is intended to introduce the meal by clearing the palate, relaxing one from the hustle and bustle of the world outside the cocoon of the restaurant and meal.
Honestly--this seems like the right way to live a life. Definitely the right way to eat and drink. It appears we are learning to do as the Romans do. We may have to continue a Roman approach to life even after leaving.
So here are a few photos of meals not yet on the table or already finished. It seems to be the best I can do right now.
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