Rome From Home: More Markets

Tuesday 25^th June

This morning we headed out to the Prati area for coffee and cornetti at Sciascia. Absolutely gorgeous setting with coffee served in china cups. The cappuccino and macchiato were delicious but sadly the cornetti were not as nice as those in, what we refer to now as, ‘the snooty cafe’ that we visited on Sunday.

Next stop the flower market. We knew we were in the right direction as you could smell the perfume of the flowers long before we reached the market. It seems like every variety of flower is represented here – we never knew that roses were available in so many colours.

We retraced our steps along Via Trionfale and stopped to pick up bread from Panificio Bonci then we visited the Trionfale market to shop for tonight’s dinner. We were spoilt for choice with all the stalls.

However there was one stall we just had to visit in order to get our 2 litre bottle filled with a local red wine that is perfect to drink at lunchtime and only costs €2.50!

Made our way to Franchi to check out their Tavolo Caldo but it didn’t look as good as Roscioli’s yesterday.

Back on the metro to Cavour via Termini and then popped into Elite supermarket to pick up drinks for aperitivo time. My husband refers to this as ‘the expensive supermarket’ but it appears to be the only place close to us to buy small bottles of ready made Campari spritz – Aperol is just not the same.

Stopped off at Gaudeo for Panini for lunch then back to the apartment just in time to let in a representative from the rental agency who is hopefully going to fix the WiFi problem.

After lunch we planned to visit an old haunt of ours in Trastevere. We first met Andrea when we were stranded in Rome due to the volcanic ash cloud in 2010. We have managed to catch up with him on every trip since but sadly this time his bar was shuttered up and the phone line was dead when we tried to call.

We crossed back over Ponte Sisto and walked part way up Via Guilia to the bus stop. This street was laid out by Bramante for Pope Julius II and has many points of interest along the way. We passed the Mascherone Fountain, which once spouted wine.

Also the spooky church of Santa Maria dell’Orazione e Morte. The latter has very macabre decorations on the exterior. The church was founded in the 16^th century in order to collect bodies of the unknown dead and give them a Christian burial.

A picturesque arch spans the Via Giulia at this point which is all that remains of Michelangelo’s plan to link the two Farnese palaces either side of the Tiber.

The bus drops us right outside Podere Vecciano on Via Serpenti so we pop in to buy a bottle of wine that is produced from the owners vineyard in Tuscany.

Aperitivo & dinner in our apartment tonight using the goodies we bought at the market – Caprese salad to start followed by Straccetti con Ruccola.

Dessert is gelato from Fatamorgana – tonight’s flavour of choice is Bianca Neve (Snow White), vanilla, apple & raspberry. Mmmmm. And thus ends another day.