There is one thing I didn’t write about in my piece about our visit to Rome. That ‘thing’ is called Pizzarium.
I thought this place is so special that I should mention it seperately. In short Pizzarium is a big hole in the wall type of place selling pizza. But lets go inside. You will find a cozy place with two big cooling cabinets containing a selection of beer that unless you live in a Nordic beer brewing country, one seldoms sees. Besides all sorts of artisan Italian beers they even sell the famous Schlenkerla Rauchbier!
Turn around and on the counter behold the thing we came for . Pizza, or is it? Never in my life have I eaten pizza so good. The dough is made from flour milled by Mulino Marino. For levitation there is a supposedly 80 years old pasta madre (sour dough). Anything put on the pizza wheteher it is oil, cheese, meat, vegetables or tomatoes, all ingredients are really top notch and bought from famous and good producers.
Tastes range from Margherita, pizza with potato and killer cheese, broccoli and sausage etc. all very very good. I’m not sure if one can still call this pizza but it it dough topped with delicacies. They also sell suppli, small fried torpedo’s filled with rice. I didn’t taste them but I’m absolutely sure you won’t be dissapointed.
The only small let down was that the owner, Gabriele Bonci, wasn’t there when we payed a visit as he was looking after his wife who had fallen ill. The staff on duty Patrizia, Diego and Gherardo made up for it with interesting stories and endless knowledge of the products on sale. Knowledgeable foodfreaks, we like that! Grazie infiniti ragazzi! When in Rome make sure you visit this place I understood they also sell bread during the day……
Pizzarium
La Selezione Gabriele Bonci
via della meloria 43, roma, Vat
+39 06 39 74 54 16
(Take the metro and get out on Metro Cipro. It is directly at the metro station.
I saw Gabriele has his own blog:http://adessomidiverto.blogspot.com/
The staff of Pizzarium recommended this place, we did not have time to visit but I tasted their beer some time ago and was impressed: http://www.openbaladin.com/
Some of our guests ask us if it is easy to get to Rome, where should they stay, eat, etc. Well most of our houses are no more than 2 hours from Rome by car. You can also go to a nearby station and catch the train and enjoy a lovely ride through the Italian countryside (best stations are Foligno, Spoleto, Orte, Chiusi or Terontola).
Last Thursday we made the trip ourselves in order to attend a very promising looking wine tasting. Due to a medical emergency (nothing too serious) we never made it to the tasting, a dissapointment if there ever was one. We kept ourselves busy with stroling around town, not always great fun since a lot of time it rained. But there is always the bus a great way to get around town. For 11 euro’s you can get a card which gives you access to bus and metro for 3 full days.
Thursday evening we dined at Ristorante Domenico dal 1968. A restaurant recommended by many. We had Carciofi alla giudea and alla Romana, pasta cacio e pepe and coda alla vaccinara. The pasta contained some cheese that was definitely not Pecorino alla Romana and the tomato sauce was a bit insipid. Not bad but rather lackluster food.
The following day we stroled around the Jewish quarter(il ghetto), the sun was out and we were getting hungry. Where to go? The answer presented itself on the opposite side of a square. We noticed some people hanging around a very small door which was covered in stickers. I chuckled, this was the famous Circolo Culturale ‘Sora Margherita’! You see a while ago I had read a piece by Giorgio Locatelli about a trip he took to Rome. Also he landed in this place by chance. Posto per due? No pieno! A few minutes later the man returned, two was possible but we would have to share a table. Fine with us! This place is fun, I read some mixed reviews, yes there are tourists but also lots of locals and the food is honest and good. We had the same as the day before in Domenico minus the Coda. The Artichokes where good, the pasta cacio e pepe superior and the puntarelle top notch. A must go but mind you not all that cheap as some people will make you believe.
In anticipation of the winetasting the following day we headed to the well known Enoteca Bulzioni who had organised a tasting of some natural wines. www.enotecabulzoni.it Bulzoni carries a very wide collection of wines. If you fancy Bourgogne and feel rich head to the back of the shop where in a semi dungeon some famous names are protected from prying fingers by big steel bars. The staff are very knowledgable and passionate about their metier and they really paid careful attention to the selection of the products they shelf. Whether you’re are looking for some gutturnio frizzante from La Stoppa, a nice Malvasia by Camillo Donati or practically anything from La Coste all attractively priced, you are at the right place. It is also possible to order by internet so if you are lounging around your rented villa and have had your fill of Sagrantino or need some special pasta, head to their website and start clicking! Oh and keep an eye on their website they organize all kind of interesting and fun tastings throughout the year.
How many village feasts does Umbria count each year? According to research carried out by the Regione Umbria it is a staggering 634!
They also produced the following numbers:
45,3% has a duration of between 5 and 10 days. (23,3% 10 days) 18% lasts for more than 10 days.
Most sagras take place in summer, mainly August but closely followed by July, June and September, 77% in total.
Umbria counts 92 community’s and in 86 of them at least one sagra has been organised.
To sum it all up, if you fancy a party, come to Umbria!
In Italy you can come accross the most fantastic words. How about for instance bamboccioni. This word is very much in the news these days after a court ordered a father to help keep paying for the living expenses of his 32 year old daughter who is still studying and living with her mother. In the end as far as I understood it is all about a divorce case and this came about because the man had stopped making the payments without seeking a new settlement. However this case has sparked a discussion about children still living at home with their parents.
According to La Stampa almost 60% per cent of men and women between the ages of 18 and 34 are still living at home. A quarter of young Italian adults still lived with their parents because they were students. Half said they did so because of economic reasons.
The Minister for Public Administration, Renato Brunetta, incensed by this court case has now proposed a law to force grown-up children to leave their parents’ homes. Latest I heard was that he proposed a €500 incentive to get them to move on. Funny detail is that Brunetta admits that his mum was still making his bed when he finally left home at 30. I’m not sure whether this scheme will take off. In Italy a large part of the wellfare is entrusted to family members. This goes as far the family providing food for people who are in hospital.
The reason a lot of young people are stil living at home is because the grants provided by the Italian government are very low and most jobs pay extremely bad while the cost of living is quite high. The same goes for the state pensions. All this together makes clear why in Italy you can often find grandpa and grandma living in the same house as their granchildren.
The word bamboccione has been used before by Padoa Schioppa when he was minister of Finance in the Prodi government. Bamboccio is used as a term of endearment for a child but it can also mean puppet and simpleton. The -ne ending makes it a big version of a bamboccio. Hence the bamboccioni (plural version of bamboccione).
Two days ago we helped our neighbours carving up their pig. A very important moment in Umbria and therefore always followed by a sumptuous meal. Pigs have always played a big roll in Italian society and there are a lot of proverbs with the word pig in them. One I like is: ‘He who slaughters his pig is happy for a year, he who marries is happy for a day. Or how about ‘L’avaro è come il porco, che è buono dopo morto’ which says the miser is like a pig: he becomes good when dead.
The pictures below were taken with my phone.
Cutting up the pig and making all the different sausages, lard, pancetta and what have you out of it is a lot of work. You fail to understand how it is possible to buy a kilo of sausages for a few euro’s. Our work consisted of cutting, grinding and scraping the fat off the skin. The head butcher of this day worked with incredible velocity. He would make a great Norcino, the famous butchers from Norcia. During the work the lady of the house kept telling what wonderfull things could be made from every part while all the time drilling a forefinger into her cheek, the charming Italian hand signal for liking something. Great day, great food afterwards. Viva l’Umbria.
Somewhile ago villages in the surrounding area have been ornamented with speedcameras. I say ornamented since the cameras are housed in tall, sleek very orange plastic containers. Being Italian speedcameras they have lights flashing all over them. Bella figura!
The speedcameras are as you might have thought very noticeable. A nice service from the state since some of these villages are so small you are already out of them before you noticed you were driving through them. As you can see the cameras from far away you can adjust the speed to below the standard Italian level, more suitable for village life. A good thing not?
Well not according to the people I overheard in the Post Office. According to them it is ridiculous. One should be able to drive through villages at the speed one wishes. Three ladies kept on ranting about this while holding lovely little bambini on their arms, each looking like a Michelin man because of layer and layer of clothing they wore to protect against the ‘cold’.
Apparently, it is the cold that is dangerous here and not speeding cars!
(actually, I never see children playing outside in these modern villages)
For years a big piece of olive wood has been lying about in our shed. I tried to put it in our woodburner but it was too big. Last week while sawing some wood I decided to point the chainsaw in the direction of formentioned piece and cut a piece of it. Being dry and olive wood, this was no mean feat.
Big pieces of wood are a joy since you won’t have to feed the burner for hours to come, so in goes the olive wood. After a while a thick, dare I say, fat smell started to emerge from the stufa. The smell of olives! Not surprising but a nice reward for the tough sawing job.
If you have done some research on travelling to Umbria recently you might have stumbled upon two iphone apps (one for Todi and one for Orvieto) costing €5 each. In due time a third app, one on Assisi, will be ready.
I wrote the company who produced the apps and got a prompt reply inviting me to test the applications. I answered I would happily oblige and asked if they could give me access to the apps. I also included some points about the apps that I noticed while watching the preview version as well as some questions. What for instance were their criteria for including the different restaurants and hotels?
Back came a neat reply thanking me for my comments and a defence against what I had thought where some random comments. Clearly no further commentary was necessary. Thank you.
Well saves me some time. And to be honest I didn’t think the apps are that spectacular!
I always thought that ‘bellavista’ was used by Italians admiring a splendid view. Funnily enough past festive month I was literally inundated by folders from supermarkets showing pictures of food all ‘in bellavista’. How about the arragosta lovely presented on a bed of salad leaves flanked by some very creamy sauces. Nice picture!
To be honest it might be called ‘Bellavista’, but it reminded me a bit of those ‘lovely buffets’ one finds now and then in not that good roadside restaurants……….
Two ladies in my swimming club who have been working as lawyers for years have set up shop on their own.
In Italy it is usance to have young people working for you to let them gain work experience. They are a source of cheap labour since in most cases they work for very low pay. And even after gaining experience it is by no means certain that your pay will rise.
This work relation mirrors Italian society. Hierarchy is still very important here and a position with status will be exploited to the fullest.
I hope these girls are a sign of the future. Question is whether the existing bulwarks will leave them some space, I really wish them all the best and hope they succeed.
