banane e fragolini

I'm trying to knock something off of my Italian Bucket List every weekend so Meganne and I decided to go to Nemi for the day. It's less than an hour south of Rome but it's pretty tough to get to by public transport alone so we decided to rent a car. When we drove down to the Amalfi Coast a few weeks back we had a pretty decent car, a Fiat Punto. I mean, it's Italian made and everything so it's kind of junk but at least it had a good sound system and was slightly responsive. When I went to rent the car the lady told me that I was getting a brand new car with only 6 kilometers! We were like, "Sweet, new car!" We proceeded to head up stairs, key in hand, we passed it off to the guy running the company's lot and we asked him which one it was. He didn't know so he pressed the button on the key to unlock it. The lights flashed on the ONLY yellow car in the lot! NO!!! A freaking banana yellow Fiat Panda! Unfortunately, the photo really doesn't do justice to its true banananess.

Even better was the interior, sky blue with a dark blue racing strip! It's purely coincidence that my sweater matched the interior. Meganne had a good laugh at my expense.
Keep in mind that the Fiat Panda is actually credited as the car that brought Fiat back to being a 'good' company (Was it ever?). The Panda brought many stylistic changes, blah, blah, blah. If this is the car that brought the company back then I can only imagine what the previous generations of Pandas are like. Now that Fiat and Chrysler have a partnership going you may see a Panda in a neighborhood near you. Really, this Panda should be extinct. In fact, just about every time traffic was slow while driving in and around the Amalfi Coast, it was a Panda holding it up.

But on to the good stuff. We stopped in San Cesareo for lunch. There is a place called Osteria Di San Cesareo that I had wanted to go to for about two years. When we walked in we were greeted by the Chef, a mountain of a woman but really friendly and the server, who had already hit on Meganne on the phone and was even happier to see her in person. It was totally worth the wait and the smile from the server. The menu is not only written in Roman but is completely Roman in terms of food. The food is heavily influenced by the Jewish-Roman cooking and by the Quinto Quarto, meaning the innards and guts or the more pleasant sounding "sweet breads". The wealthy took all of the good stuff and left the rest for the Plebs. We had Coratella con Cipolle, which is the heart, lungs and the liver of a young lamb cooked with onions. It was delicious. Meganne opted for the classic Amatriciana with homemade pasta, which is a tomato sauce with cured pig jowls and pecorino cheese. I had the Rigatoni co la Pajata which a tomato sauce and the the intestines of a young lamb, killed right after it fed upon it's mother's milk and topped with plenty of pecorino cheese. Mine was also great. We decided against dessert because we wanted to hit the road to Nemi and have some strawberry gelato for dessert.

Nemi is famous for tiny, wild strawberries. Along with some gelato, we also had two little desserts typical of Nemi. The town overlooks a beautiful lake, unfortunately for us, the day was overcast and a bit rainy so we didn't get to watch the sunset as I had hoped. Oh well, it was a great day nonetheless.


We drove The Banana back to the car company and vowed to never be seen in a yellow car again.

Three Birds, One Stone

With about eight weeks to go, I had to start knocking things out on my list immediately. The list included having a pizza in Naples, eating fresh buffalo mozzarella in Compana and and driving the Amalfi Coast. Meganne and I decided to rent a car and make a little road trip out of Friday and Saturday. One of the best perks of teaching English to Italians is the wealth of information I'm privy too. I asked a student from Naples where I could find some great mozzarella and where his favorite spot was in Naples for a pizza. He gladly gave me names and directions to many of his favorite places and he also recommended another place along the coast where we could find yet another beautiful view of the two gulfs.


We set out early Friday morning, the first stop was at a place called Caianello. It's basically an autostrada exit but it's quite famous for a place that produces mozzarella di bufala. We arrived at about two p.m. and the place was packed. Through a glass window, you can watch the workers stretching the mozzarella and then forming balls of all sizes. They drop it into the water and minutes later, there is warm mozzarella in your hands! Delicious! After we bought our mozzarella, we continued south until we hit Salerno.

From Salerno, we drove north along the Amalfi Coast. I've heard so many horror stories about the white knuckle driving that is the Amalfi Coast that I had prepared myself for the worst. Either I'm an excellent driver or traffic was light because it is off-season. I tend to believe the former, of course. It was a beautiful day and an easy drive, we pulled over many times to take in the views. We only ran into one snag along the coast but really, everything worked out quite well, ie, no damage to the car.

We enjoyed the sunset in Sorrento on Friday evening. After the sun went down, we headed into town for dinner. There was nothing special to report about dinner but the company more than made up for the 'blah' food. We didn't really have a plan on where we would end up for the night so all things considered, it wasn't too bad. Normally, i would research restaurants to find one that sounded good but we were just kind of going with the flow.

Surprise! I picked up Meganne's little brother, Will, on Monday morning and then we set a trap for Meganne. She thought she was meeting me for coffee on Monday morning but instead of me showing up on the corner, it was little brother! He spent his Spring Break Week with her, here in Roma! She was really happy to see him!

My Italian Bucket List

My time is up here in Italia. I haven't booked a flight yet but I'm thinking about a mid-May departure date. The plan was to live here for three years and it's been just about three years. I feel great about what I've done here. Things didn't turn out exactly as I had imagined nearly four years ago when we were planning this adventure but it's an adventure and my father always has always said, "Some people don't return from adventures." I'm going to return and I'll hold my head high because I know that I have succeeded here in Roma.

The way I figure it, I have about eight weekends left here in Roma. I'm quitting the Abbey after this weekend, at least on the weekends, maybe I'll work a weekday or two but I don't really want to. I'm going to continue to work for my school and do my private lessons until the end of April. With such a limited amount of time I decided that I have to make every minute count. No more half-stepping like "well, I can always go in a few months." There is only a few months left!

So here it is, in no particular order, My Italian Bucket List. I'll gladly take suggestions if you have them.

Drink Barolo in the Piemonte region, more specifically in Alba.
Go back to Milano for another piece of my favorite pizza in Italia and some risotto.
Have coffee in Trieste, the birthplace of Illy Caffe and the modern espresso machine.
Eat pesto and snails in Liguria, more specifically in Cinqueterre/La Spezia.
Drink Brunello di Montalcino in Montalcino, Tuscany.
Go back to Panzano for dinner with Italy's most famous butcher.
Eat wild boar in Umbria.
Eat arancini and gelato in Sicily.
Have a pizza in Naples.
Drive the Amalfi Coast.
Eat mozzarella di bufala in Compana.
Eat cherries in Bari.
Eat fragolini (little strawberries) in Nemi, south of Roma.
Eat ragu alla bolognese in Bologna.

I have a few plans for outside of Italy too:
Visit Paris to further my Hemingway/Hugo obsession.
Visit a friend in San Sebastian, Spain.
London for a wedding in mid-May.

The One-Armed Man

Recall my friend who had that little scare from the police while working one evening at the pub? All of that has seemingly calmed down but he received another reminder of his status about three weeks ago. At about five o'clock, he heard a ring from the main doors. He wasn't expecting anyone over and people don't generally just drop by. He answered but there was no one there. He thought it was probably just a person ringing a lot of apartments so they could come in and put advertisements in the mailboxes, it happens often enough. He thought nothing of it but then a minute later someone was ringing the actual doorbell! Odd. He looked through the peephole and said, "Si?" The reply was chilling, "Polizia Municipale". The police were after him! The world was closing in on him. He was trapped like a rat! For a fleeting moment he thought about jumping off the balcony and making a break for it in a fashion even Dr. Richard Kimble would admire. Wisely, he decided against it. Pause for a deep breath. With a pounding heart, he opened the door to greet the police officer. Now face to face, he asked again, "Si?" The police officer asked him if he was "Davide Pagliucci" or something like that, he replied "No." The officer looked him up and down and tried to peer into the apartment. Then the officer asked him if this was the correct number of apartment and correct address and if he knew "Davide" or if he lived in the apartment. Throughout this my friend was worried that he would have to show his passport or identification of sorts but the officer didn't actually ask to see it. "Davide" had obviously given the police a false address for some reason, it just so happened to be his! Of all the addresses in Rome, he gave one that belonged to a guy who had just weeks ago run for his precious life! Then a couple hours later, the pub called my friend and told him that when he arrived at the pub to just have a seat rather than start immediately because the police were there! My friend thinks it is time to go.