SNOW in Munich

 Just a few snapshots from our porch and a christmas market. The snow has come early this year!!!!

Schwabinger Weihnachtsmarkt

Seat anyone?

My snapdragons holding their own against the snow...

Rome snapshots

Marble Palace built under Mussolini.

Right next to it is Trajan's collumn from Roman times

View up the street towards the Collosseum

Cat drinking out of a smal puddle within the Colloseum walls.
What an ancient waterbowl!

View inside the tunnels under the Collosseum where the animals where kept and the gladiators roamed.

View across the Forum Romanum.

Trevi fountain!

Nightly visit to St. Peter's basilica and St. Peter's square. Not a soul in sight!

It was wet and chilly.... and we said our "Hi's" and "goodbye's" in a matter of minutes.

Rome in November

 

At the top of the spanish steps with St. Peter's over our shoulder!

Breakfast at the Pantheon...with sunshine! Horrendously overpriced, but SO enjoyable!

Rome in November! Dinner for one...

My first night in Rome I found myself having dinner for one in a local Hosteria, with a middle aged truffel hunter named Giovanni, at the table next to me. It all started as I was obviously enjoying my handmade tagliatelle con tartufo nero .... as he asked me whether I also enjoyed the "white" kind. Starteled, I uttered a confused "Si,si", when he suddenly jumped up and opened his duffle bag, which was placed on the chair opposite of him. The truffel he revealed to me was of the more rare, white variety. It was the size of my hand! It would have sold on the market for roughly 300 Euros, he said, double that if you would buy it in a restaurant! My very much neglected Italian skills were surprisingly sufficient to ask him various questions about his truffel hunting methods and how long he has been following this unusual business. (25 years - and no, he doesn't use a pig, but a trusty hound to sniff out the culinary jewles). White truffel are much more expensive, as they are harder to find, due to the depth in which they grow. They are also not easily cultivated. Better said, not at all...as opposed to the black variety....

Above: THE truffle I got to hold in my hand!

Here I sat by myself in the Hostaria, filled with loud conversation and plates of pasta, shellfish, steak and deserts whizzing by my head. Giovanni offered me a grappa, of which he had been helping himself to numerous times from a bottle on his table... but the only digestivo I dared share with him was a limoncello fatto a casa, (meaning made in the restaurant) which when you compare it to the sicilian kind, was hardly worth mentioning...but it was Rome and the proverb says: "When in Rome - do like the Romans!"  So I drank.

I wasn't sure of his intentions and was relieved when he got up and called it a night. It was raining and I did have a 10 to 15 minute walk back to the hotel...which I planned on tackling sans Giovanni, as I felt safer without his company, considering the numerous grappa he had consumed. He seemed like a simple man, jet of good nature and I do believe he would have been a gentleman walking me to the hotel. Better safe than sorry though. When I stepped out into the rain, the cobblestone streets seemed deserted. As I ascended the Spanish Steps on my own, the light from the lanterns was glissening in the water trickling down every step I took. It seemed Rome was welcoming me in its very own, intimate way. 

In the end, my first night in Rome was different than I had imagined, but all the more memorable.

Click below:
More about white truffel from Italy

When in Rome visit the Restaurant and you might also run into Giovanni:
Hostaria da Pietro
Vicino Piazza del Popolo – Via Gesù e Maria, 18, Roma. 
Tel. +39 06 320 8816. Closed Sunday

Return to Blogger!

Dear friends,

We've been absent from our blog for a while, but I am determined to pick up where we've left off...

Too many great places and family pictures to share with our loved ones overseas!

Most recently, I accompanied Carlo on a work-related trip to Sicily and Rome. ROME-need I say more????