Day 8, Part 1/2

Today we woke up at Hotel De Russie and had a quick breakfast on a beautiful terrace over looking the hotel courtyard. Pretty solid Italian breakfast with all the normal fixings. We also did some laundry this morning. Next up was 25 minute walk to Piazza Farnese, where we met our tour group for the morning’s food tour (https://www.viator.com/tours/Rome/Small-Group-R…). First stop was the local farmer’s market at Campo de Fiori - if we lived in Rome, this would be a regular stop. The produce looked phenomenal and the stands will actually cut up the fruit and veg for you to take home. The group visited a famous market performer who created his own vegetable cutting tools which are pretty cool! He put on his little show and we then completed the quick visit which is ok because we are going back there tomorrow.

Next up was a nearby seventh generation, family-owned salumeria (/deli) called Ruggeri’s. We sampled some buffalo mozz, which was the best we’ve ever had. Super flavorful. https://ruggericampodefiori.com We then filled up out water bottles at one of the many Nasoni, which are free water fountains throughout rome, named for the shape of the spout which resembles a nose. If you hold your finger under the water? It will shoot out of a little hole on top of the spout and become a drinking fountain!

Stop two was a surprise visit to Roscioli which is actually where we planned to eat dinner that evening. Roscioli is a bakery/deli/everything gourmet shop (think high level Italian Zingerman’s). It is also a “Forno” meaning that have a big wood burning oven and in addition to multiple other ovens on site. The bread and pastries look amazing but we were there for the granddaddy of them all - Pizza al taglio. The Roscioli pizza is cut into squares and there are many different kinds to choose from. We had the Margarita and Pomodoro slices, both of which were incredible (this entry is all Matt). So good that we will be going back for breakfast to try other things.

Following the pizza stop we walked through a “secret” tunnel which originally was the entrance to an ancient Roman theatre. In the tunnel there was a shrine to the Holy Mary, and learned that there are secret shrined apparently hidden all over the city. Romans will often say they are “looking for the holy Mary” when they can find something/someone/etc. we said goodbye to Mary and continued on to the Jewish Ghetto, which is something Katie and I had been looking forward to.

(Matt falls asleep and Katie takes over:) We entrees the Jewish quarter, a pedestrian-only area with the most expensive and desirable real estate in Rome. We saw gold bricks in front of certain apartment buildings acknowledging any Jewish person who sent to the concentration camps, including information on the date of their return, liberation or death. In one apartment building, there was a brick for a 92 year old gentleman who returned to his home and still lives there today. It was very powerful. I am not sure if this is completely accurate, but the tour guide said that until after WWII, all Jews still had to live in the Jewish Ghetto and needed to be within the walls by sunset. Anyone who married into the Jewish faith was included in this, and there was a significant amount of intermarriage. Of course the housing practices were horribly discriminative, but I imagine that they contributed to there being a thriving culture of business in this section of the city.

We headed to La Taverna de Ghetto to try some traditional fried treats, which have been perfected by the Jews. Suppli (rice balls with a little “surprise” of melted mozzarella inside) and fried zucchini blossoms stuffed with mozzarella and anchovy were on the menu.

We crossed the bridge and went through the Isola Tiberina, a small island in the middle of the Tiber River. This is the island where they used to quarantine people afflicted with the Black Plague. A large hospital still exists there today.

Ristorante Sette Oche in Altalena was the next stop. We sampled amatriciana and cacio e pepe. For me, I do not tire of the classic Roman pastas. I could eat them 10x a day. Which is problematic. Last stop was gelato. I don’t think I’ve discussed this in the journal yet, but there are two main types of gelaterias. The first is the kind with the beautiful mounds of gelato, decorated and enticing. Unfortunately these places are all show and no go. They use chemical stabilizers in the gelato to keep it from melting in the case. What you want to look for is a place where the gelato is stored in covered metal cylinders under the counter. This is the good stuff. Bonus if the place includes “Artigianale”, which means it was made on site.Read more