Saluti Dall’Italia. April 11 2023

Ciao!

Arrived in Rome on Monday (April 10) evening around 6:30 after an excessively long layover in Frankfurt (our least favorite airport). Taxied to our hotel which is in the Trastaverre section of the city—a neighborhood I’ve walked on previous trips but never stayed in, so this will be fun. First a bit about this trip. When we made our plans for our December 2022 trip to the Middle East, there was always the possibility that the trip would need to be canceled: Egypt’s economy had crashed; Jordan was having problems; and of course Israel is always problematic. Beyond this, we were supposed to start our journey in Ethiopia and they were having problems with the Tigray. Anyway, we decided to book a backup trip to someplace easy—some place easier than our usual travels to more distant and less-traveled locations. We decided that a driving trip through Italy could be fun and require a lot less planning than the Middle East. So, for those of you who followed the trip in December know, we did go to Egypt and Jordan and Israel, and the backup trip became unnecessary.

But, driving through Italy—to both new places and places we’ve been to sevral times in the past—seemed delightful. So, we decided to postpone rather than cancel that “backup trip” and thus we are now here in Italy. It’s a pretty calm trip and we don’t expect too many crises or problems (to which we are accustomed based on our usual travel). But stay tuned, we always manage to have a few adventures.

And as usual, feel free to ignore this travelogue or to read it. Eventually, it will all be on my travel blog which includes aobut 40 countries, but is missing a lot of photos (and thus I haven’t officially launched it, but it is up there in the blogasphere).

So after reaching the very charming Hotel Donna Camilla Savelli (more about the hotel later), we settled in and then headed for dinner. It was a Monday night and all of Rome had celebrated “Little Easter” (Pasquetta) — everything is closed and many restaurants served big lunches instead of dinner, thus limiting our options. We decided to stroll the narrow and gnarly streets of the Trastaverre in search of an open restaurant and stumbled on Osteria Roody, a little place that has probably been in that location for many decades. Very friendly staff (even though only one English speaker) and we had a good meal –shared the famous Roman style artichoke which was heavenly and a pasta dish and lamb chops with grilled chicory, all followed by great tiramisu. Then we strolled back to the hotel at about midnight to have a nightcap.

Donna Camilla Savelli Hotel is a former convent that was commissioned by a noblewoan whose name is now taken by the hotel. She also apparently funded the adjacent church in 1642. Within the hotel proper there is still a small chapel, where a nun sits and asks for an offereing when you come inside to see the space (which is lovely).

On Tuesday morning, following breakfast, we headed out to stroll Trastaverre and the nearby Jewish ghetto. We stopped in at the Fondazione Museo della Shoah which had large historical photos of Rome during the 1930s and 1940s along with a short film that depicted the roundup of Jews in the area and their subsequent demise. The exhibit and film were interesting, but I felt as if it was all about what the Germans did and had very little about the role of the Italian Fascists and Mussolini.. sort of “whitewashed that part.” We also visited the grand synagogue which is famous for having a square dome.

From there we walked to the Testaccio neighborhood which is one of Rome’s many gentrified areas that used to cater to working families and is now an “in” area, complete with great restaurants and expensive apartments. We were starving so we stopped at the Testaccio Market and meandered the stalls—finally deciding on a fantastic pizza place that makes about 25 different kinds of pizzas each better and more interesting than the other and all available to purchase. You make your selection (after standing on line behind dozens of Italians who seem to all be regulars) and then the pizza guy cuts from the large pizzas the types you select— making them as big or small as you like (everyone gets many different kinds—a sort of “platter of pizzas”) and then the pizza guy weighs your slices and gives you the price. Mike went to find a table in a courtyard in the market, while I made the pizza decisions. Turned out to be a good thing that there was a wait—I was able to see all the different options and there was one English speaking person on line, ahead of me, so I got to hear the options in English. Thus, I was very ready when it was my turn. We had one that had a white cheese base and then lemon and mushrooms (amazing) and one tomato piece: sun dried and fresh tomatoes and red onions with spices; one with roman style artichoke, prosciutto, and some other ingredients; and two other kinds of pies.

Then we walked to the Ostensiense neighborhood which is known for having a lot of murals and graffitti. It, too, was a former working class area and is now borderline chic. The neighborhood was the location for a lot of Rome’s industry and there were major power plants in the area as well. One of those power plants has been turned into a museum, which I am certain the designers and curators had a lot of fun creating. Much of the original machinery remains (now painted black) and all sorts of white marble sculptures (figures) uncovered throughout Rome from the Renaissance and Baroque eras, stand in front of the machinery—great contrast. The “museum” is called the Centrale Montemartini. We loved it—the contrast (and similarity?) between the machines and the sculptures was great: both beautiful and requiring a good deal of artistry. Nearly all of the male statues were missing their penises (broken off) … not sure what that’s about, but I’m sure one can do some research and find some academic who has studied this issue.

Despite having already walked more than 9 miles (which we felt in our calves), we decided to move forward and head to the Garbatello Lots – a neighborhood that was created in Mussolini’s time (and still functioning) that was planned and modeled on British planning concepts for workers who toiled in the nearby factories. By then we definitely needed some gelato… and then—way too exhausted to walk back—we got a taxi (using my new Italy Taxi app!) back to the hotel.

For dinner we headed to Rosciolo which is across the Tiber… and we saw the area we had been walking in all day, at night. By the way, the walking bridge closest to our hotel has hundreds (maybe more) of little locks (suitcase locks? Bicycle locks?) stretching across the entry to the bridge – placed supposedly by young (and old) lovers who carve their names in the locks and then place the lock on the chain and throw away the key. This is probably a copy of what was done on one of the bridges leading to the Île de la Cité in Paris, where all of the locks needed to be removed because the bridge was collapsing since it was not structurally sound enough to handle the weight of over 700,000 locks that had been installed by couples.

We wanted to eat in Rosciolo’s ittle salumeria but with only about 4 tables it books quickly and despite having tried to book well before we left for Italy, we were unsuccessful. So we opted for Rimissi Rosciolo which is owned by the same family but is more of a sit down osteria although it too is lined with shelves and shelves of canned and jarred goods that look totally yummy.

We got the fixed meal which included: an antipasti of tuna, white beetroot, and peaches (amazing); small pieces of lamb with giardiniera (equally amazing); two pasta dishes: fregola with fermented lemon and smoked herring (thought it would be weird but it was delicious); marinated risotto and raw prawns (this dish turned out to be a little strange, although the prawns were super); a cauliflower dish that was made with coffee, kombucha, and Jeruslaem artichoke (another winner); lamb chops with black cabbage…. All followed by ricotta eclairs with oranges. They could have rolled us out.. especially with the wine pairings. I feel like I gained 10 lbs with just the one meal.

Guess it’s obvious that we are not going to any of the famous monuments, chruches, museums… We’ve seen them all before and this whole trip is dedicated to seeing neighborhoods in many cities and to avoiding tourists.
We are good and hope you are doing well.

Tomorrow more Rome, and then we are off on our driving adventure.

Meglio per te (I think this says “best to you.”
Fern