Well, I knew this day would come – the day when I'd eat my final gelato here in Italy. It's been a long and tasty road. We've visited 43 gelaterias, eaten 84 cones (or cups), and tasted dozens and dozens of flavors – some odd, some traditional, and some out of this world. That's a lot of gelato, and a lot of calories, but all well worth it. Today we walked over to Old Bridge Gelateria where I had a €2 cone with pistachio, cherry, and amaretto gelato topped with whipped cream. We'll make our next update from back home in Florida. Hope you enjoyed following us in our travels as much as we enjoyed sharing them with you.
As our 105 days in Italy come to a close many of you have asked us what we’ll miss about Italy and what we’ve missed back home in Florida. I know Cinzia has her thought on this, so I’ll let her answer those questions herself. As for me, Italy is just different than the States – some of it better and some not so much. But, if I had to answer the question of what I’d miss, here are the Top 3 lists. Italy has so many individual things I’ll miss, like the impressive sculptures, mosaics, frescos, and fountains.
We had a great weekend in Torre Orsina, but we have to pack today so we can head out the door for the airport tomorrow morning at 8:45am. Luckily for me, Cinzia will do all of the packing. I’m sure it doesn’t seem to her now that we purchased much during our stay in Italy, but I’m sure she’ll realize that we did once she tries to fit everything into our suitcases. So, while she’s busy folding clothes and cramming items into our bags, I hope to spend the afternoon uploading the last of our photos and videos onto our blog. I ran out to the grocery store and market this morning to pick up something for lunch – copa, tomatoes, mozzarella di bufala, and a baguette. We picked up some chocolates yesterday, so we’re set on sweets for the day. For dinner this evening we’ll either run out for a slice of pizza or buy some fresh pasta. We’ll finish off the last of our chestnuts too.
This will be our first Thanksgiving away from home since being married 10 years ago. Since we’re usually the ones to cook the big meal it’ll be odd not smelling the roasting turkey in the oven or assembling the antipasto Thanksgiving morning or stuffing myself after multiple desserts in the evening. So, I guess somewhere out there, there is a 35 pound turkey being spared this holiday season.
It was another nice weekend in Rome. On Saturday we bummed around the apartment and made more Carciofi alla Romana for dinner along with artichoke risotto. Cinzia spent time on the Internet, mostly on her Facebook account. She’ll read various posts and comments to me and have us in stitches. On Sunday I figured I’d start using a Facebook account too. We hit the market early and picked up little sausages to make some sauce. It was also a “no car day” in Rome, so we had a long walk during the day before coming home to make sauce. While it was simmering Cinzia walked me through all the set-up steps needed to get me up and running on Facebook.
It’s Friday. We slept in until 10am this morning then went to the store to pick up bread and copa for lunch. I also grabbed a couple bottles of iced tea and wine for Cinzia. The copa here is pretty good and the variety of breads is wonderful. We still have a couple small balls of mozzarella di bufala in the fridge, so we came home and had a good lunch. The grocery store, Billa, was finally out of their €2,99 panettone – we must have eaten 10 of them. The Billa in Rome is located below the Coin department store. You enter the department store, walk into it a short way, and then take the escalator down to the basement where there’s a huge grocery store. It’s kind of like putting the Publix grocery store in the basement of a Macy’s.
After breakfast yesterday we headed out of the apartment for our daily walk around town. Usually Cinzia leads the way, but she left it in my hands that day. There is a street parallel to St. Peter’s Square that is a tourist trap filled with restaurants. Tables line both sides of the streets and hawkers are positioned at all corners with menus in hand trying to entice tourists to dine with them. We passed them all and further down found a pizza place. Most pizzerias in Rome sell by the slice. Rectangular pans line the counters offering dozens of types of pizzas. They cut off as many inches as you indicate, reheat it in the oven if needed, then weigh the pizza before giving you your total. Prices can range from €12/kilo to over €20/kilo. This place was in the middle at €16/kilo.
True Neapolitan pizza has to be cooked at 485°C degrees (905°F). Just thought you should know.
While we explored Rome on Thursday Cinzia stopped to drink from one of the many public fountains throughout the city. I thought I’d take a video to show you how to use these clever little spouts. I posted the video in our Video Gallery and at the bottom of this blog post. When I reviewed the video I saw that the source of the water was carved into the fountain. This one was from Acqua Marcia. As you know from your history classes, Rome built aqueducts to supply fresh water to its citizens. Acqua Marcia was one of them. Here’s what I learned.
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