benevenuti a roma

All roads lead to Rome, but between a manifestation on the RER ligne B, a Air France delayed to the rafters full flight and a 9-5 strike by the Italian Rail workers, our what would be 5 hour trip became more like a 8 hour trip.

Ugh.

However, here we are on a coolish evening. We have stocked ourselves with latteria de commune di Roma milk, decaf from cammerino for the moka, some lovely tulips and crackers for all the cheese that TH purchased in Paris. We'll do a frutta e verdura shop tomorrow am at the Campo for tangerines etc.

I have had my hat trick of carbs today, something I've been pretty good about avoiding these days. They were all delightful-- macarons from Laduree, pizza from place I like and a exquisite cono picolo from Alberto Pica on via de seggiola. It is my belief that this gelato far surpasses San Crispino or Giolliti. Tonight I had a tiny scoop of riso con cannella (cinnamon and rice) and miele di arcancia de l'estate (orange honey from the summer). TH went with limone, cafe and cioccolato, which are good ones to use as a measure of gelato quality.

Rome is quite strange now, restos and bars are all non smoking on the interior. Yup, you heard me, vietato di fumare. This makes eating for me a much more pleasurable activity. Smokers can still smoke at outside tables and in Rome, eating outside is a 10 month a year gig, so things aren't that bad. There are restaurants I have been dying to eat at that a year ago, I couldn't have even stood in for five minutes due to the amount of smoke. Now, I can't wait to eat in them.

Well, I should sign off now. Tomorrow off to run a few errands, visit the scuderie di Quirinale and the Chiostro di Bramante and visit the lovely shops in the campo marzio and via della scrof area.

nm