three prosecco four

MAXXI - better late than never

2010-08-15T22:53:00.001-07:00

We mentioned MAXXI in an earlier blog. It's the massive new art gallery in Rome designed by Zaha Hadid. It's taken a long time to build and has gone well over budget. But we went up there just the other day and it's spectacular. Inside is especially disorientating, which is fun. Most of the stuff inside was even quite good, which is rare.

Frittata-rama!

2010-08-15T22:35:00.000-07:00

And this is the best thing we've made recently. I was taught this by a Neapolitan friend. It's basically like an Italian Spanish omelette, and it's amazing. When I first saw it in a shop in Pompeii I didn't know what it was and described it to my friend as a blocco di spaghetti - it's actually called a frittata, but I prefer blocco. It's essentially just cooked spaghetti mixed with egg, cheese, and lots of pepper, which is all fried. We added ham, obviously. You fry it lots then flip it over - ideally into another pan. Quite delicious, but seriously heavy. And very good cold the next day.

Gnocchi

2010-08-15T22:28:00.001-07:00

We've been rushed off our feet recently, zooming between Naples, the UK and Turkey. Now we're back and the internet is bust in our flat. It's Ferragosto at the moment in Italy so everything is shut and everyone is at the seaside; in other words, we ain't going to get our modem fixed for a long time! In the meantime, however, we've been making lots of strange stuff. Home-made gnocchi for one:

A happy customer:

Yummy Sicily

2010-05-21T06:52:00.000-07:00

We both returned significantly heavier from our recent trip to Sicily - good job we got the train home instead of the plane! The man in the photo above is trying to roll Rachel's lunch into a pannino!

For produce, nowhere in Italy can beat Sicily. The markets are simply overflowing with amazing things and all of the fruit and veg looks like it has been on steroids - zucchini as long as your arm! Tomatoes as big as Rachel. Here are some photos from the mad Ballaro market in Palermo; for shots of the brilliant fish-market at Catania have a look at Rachel's blog.

Here are a few of the best things that we ate. Cannoli in Palermo:

Rachel nails another ice cream, this time in Taormina:

And Ben bids farwell to Sicily with a big, fat arancino on the ferry from Messina - our train was safely stowed away downstairs so it seemed a shame not to take advantage of the cafe!

And finally, because it's probably the best photo of Rachel in existence:

No, it's not what it looks like (there were no dogs involved!) - it's chocolate ice cream in a brioche roll, the local speciality. With hindsight, a non-brown flavour might have been a better idea.

Sicilia: cities and (more) ruins

2010-05-16T06:08:00.001-07:00

In sharp contrast to the countryside, Sicilian towns are pretty, well, mental. Palermo especially, where we began our trip, is a strange old place with a very middle-eastern/Spanish feel.

Syracuse, in contrast, at the other end of the trip, was an altogether more refined place. The oldest part of town is on the island of Ortygia, sticking out into the bay, and again has a middle-eastern feel to it, but is distinctly posher than Palermo.

The beautiful Fonte Aretusa, originally Greek in date, is probably the best fountain we've ever seen, complete with tonnes of fish and its own white ducks and papyrus plantation. The original Greek settlers of Syracuse linked this fresh-water fountain to the water nymph Arethusa who had leapt off the Peloponnese in Greece to escape an over-friendly river god and popped up here across the sea.

The ancient city of Syracuse was much larger than the modern one and lots of the ancient ruins are on the mainland to the north of Ortygia. These include the huge theatre, where they were preparing for a season of plays while we were there, and the ancient stone quarries, now full of lemon trees. The huge church of Santa Maria delle Lacrime in the modern town can be seen from everywhere in the city and houses a statue of the Madonna which is said to have wept for five days in 1953.

Last, but not least, of the big cities we visited was Catania, huddling under Mount Etna. The whole city is built of black volcanic rock and has been almost totally destroyed by earthquakes and eruptions on more than one occasion. In terms of bars, restaurants and markets Catania was probably the best place we went; we had a great dinner the night we were there on a street entirely lined with BBQs.

The final stop before we returned to the mainland was fancy Taormina, famous for its incredible Greek/Roman theatre with its views of Etna. The beach below the city, either side of the appropriately named Isola Bella, was very pretty - and, much to Rachel's joy, accessible by cable car.

Sicilia: flowers and ruins

2010-05-12T03:11:00.001-07:00

Here are a few snaps from our recent jaunt around Sicily. Having a car meant that not only did we get to lots of the more out of the way sites but we also now have a new found love of life - having seen it flash before our eyes on more than one occasion.

First stop on our way out of Palermo was the magical temple at Segesta, thronged with tourists but still spectacularly isolated and covered in flowers.

Sicily was incredibly lush, much greener than we expected - silly really, since so much of the fruit and veg eaten in Italy comes from Sicily all year round. The verges along all the roads were like amazing herbaceous borders. So teeming is the island with reptiles of various descriptions that this little fella even tried to jump into Rachel's pocket...

Our next stop was Selinunte. We had a massive lunch of fresh fish before tackling the ruins, which in places look like something from a Hollywood set.

Rachel doing a spot of DIY, and as human scale below:

More famous, but a little less bucolic, was Agrigento, where the temples look like they've been carved from honeycomb - it's like Crunchy World. We had heard terrible things about the modern town at Agrigento but, even though it looks rather ominous from down in the valley, we thought the historic centre was really nice, especially for an evening stroll.

Hopper in Rome

2010-04-21T00:39:00.000-07:00

At the weekend we finally got round to going to the Edward Hopper exhibition in town. It was a lovely exhibition with some great examples of Hopper's earlier work and lots of his preparatory sketches.

One of my favourite things was the interactive section where Hopper sketches had been projected onto huge stacks of white paper so that you could make a copy of the sketch to take away with you. Below is my effort - I was pretty pleased with it!

La Primavera

2010-04-20T07:48:00.000-07:00

We've been away for a little while over Easter but while we've been elsewhere spring has sprung in Rome.

Ben has been super busy today with a spot of balcony gardening...

We've got lots of beautiful new herbs for our balcony now that it's got all sunny.

And some flowers for the box outside my window so that I have something inspiring to look at while I work. Yeay!

S.A.I.D.

2010-03-16T07:46:00.000-07:00

Without doubt one of the best things about living in San Lorenzo is the incomparable S.A.I.D. Founded as a chocolate factory in 1923, it's now a magic land of chocolatey goodness. We're having to limit ourselves to just one of their amazing hot chocolates a month in order to be able to fit back out of the door. Fortunately, they have a lot of other joys to offer - espresso with melted chocolate, chocolate platters, a massive range of teas... strawberries with melted chocolate, not to mention full meals... oh well, who cares about fitting through doors!!

Not only that, but the whole place is seriously stylish: above, the wall of chocolate moulds behind the bar; below, some more views of its labyrinthine corridors.

Well worth a visit, especially with pasqua coming up!

Fare surf... a Roma?

2010-03-04T08:21:00.000-08:00

As if the beach at Ostia, on the coast closest to Rome, wasn't strange enough already (mainly in a sort of post-apocalyptic way):

Surfing? Rather them than me... though I suppose the water must be a lot warmer than in Cornwall right now.

Janet Ross and her meatballs

2010-03-04T02:43:00.001-08:00

Rachel has just recently finished reading Sarah Benjamin's fantastic biography of Janet Ross, an amazingly well-connected nineteenth-century lady/traveller/farmer/food-writer. Janet lived the early part of her life in Egypt but after the collapse of her husband's banking business they both moved to Florence and then into the Tuscan countryside. Here, Janet set herself up single-handedly as the manageress of a large estate. She wrote several influential cookery books which aimed to introduce Italian food and ways of eating to a British audience. And all of this in 1903! (Jamie who...?) Her best-known was brilliantly titled: 'Leaves from Our Tuscan Kitchen or How to Cook Vegetables' and it's still being published:

Anyway the biography includes a choice selection of recipes. We're working our way through these now but we can recommend the delicious meatballs with white beans; this picture just doesn't do it justice:

Skinning a cat...

2010-02-17T00:11:00.000-08:00

...apparently, there is more than one way of doing it. Beppe Bigazzi, the well-known Italian TV foodie, would know. Beppe is one of our favourite TV personalities. He has a slot on the midday program on RAI 1, La Prova del Cuoco, which is basically a re-hashed version of Ready Steady Cook with knobs on. In his ten minutes he usually talks about regional Italian foods - the best salami one week, cheese another; he tends to prattle on endlessly while the presenter (a former Miss Italy) vainly tries to steer him in the right direction. Anyway, the other day, instead of keeping to the usual format, he decided it was time to share with the nation his favourite recipe for cooking...cat!

A famous dish in the Valdarno region of Tuscany, better than chicken or pigeon, or so he claims. It's casseroled in case you're interested. He has now been suspended following huge numbers of complaints, which is a real shame - we spent at least an hour last night wandering around San Lorenzo with a fishing net looking for dinner...

(don't worry, that's not cat he's holding)

For the full story (or The Times' version of it) look here. A campaign is sure to be started.

Bombay dreams!

2010-02-14T03:09:00.000-08:00

Last night we had a great night out in Pigneto. We started with glasses of red wine and a delicious platter of bits and bobs at Bar Necci - one of the best places in Rome (see below). Then we went to the amazing Tiger Tandoori just around the corner. Like desert travellers stumbling towards an oasis of spicey goodness, for once we were in our culinary element and knew much more about what was going on than most of the people there. The Fritti Misti - mixed fried stuff (pappadums, bhajis, samosas, etc.) - were immense and looked great served on a wooden board. The Chicken Tikka Masala, Goan Fish Curry with Idli, and the Kingfisher were all splendid. We feel properly topped up now.

The inside of Tiger Tandoori is a great mix of eye-popping decor, retro Bollywood posters and diner-esque vinyl-covered booths. Very cool. When we read up about it this morning we were unsurprised to discover that the people behind the rejuvenation of Bar Necci also set up Tiger Tandoori.

SNOWPOCALYPSE! Neve a Roma

2010-02-12T06:36:00.000-08:00

Never in our lives did we think we would see this...

When we woke up this morning we had a powercut, which was very odd. But even odder, outside it was snowing! Madness. We jumped straight on a bus, but by the time we had got into the centre of town it had nearly stopped. We decided to go to the Capitoline Museums (no point going home to a cold and dark flat), only for the snow to start again when we were in there. We rushed out and managed to photograph the Forum in snow.

We then headed straight to the Pantheon, since it's been a lifetime ambition of Ben's to see snow coming through the hole in the top. Motorini were sliding everywhere, people were running out of shops and restaurants, and snowballs were whizzing around (think how mad people go in the UK when this happens, and snow is a lot more common there!).

Well that's one thing ticked off the list then. This winter has just been snowtastic, everywhere!

Casa di DIANA

2010-02-11T09:03:00.000-08:00

We just got back our latest batch of photos from our lovely Diana camera. Opening the pack to see if they have come out or not is quite frightening for two people who have got so used to digital cameras; and we tend to forget what's on the films! Anyway, here are some shots from a sunny Ostia in January - fittingly one of the best-known sites at Ostia is the House of Diana!

Freaky fauna (or animals what shouldn't be here)

2010-02-09T12:23:00.000-08:00

Now, we're as much fans of animals in funny places as the next person. But, seriously, parrots in Rome? There are loads of these noisy little green chaps in Rome now. We've seen them in Villa Borghese, on the Janiculum and in Pigneto of all places, the Bohemian pests.

Apparently, they're also in London now. They'll be everywhere soon. In fact, this reminds me of when a parrot landed in a tree outside Rachel's office in Reading and she phoned Facilities to tell them that it looked 'sad' - they phoned the RSPB, who said there was nothing to be done. Shame on them.

But better than parrots: beavers! Beavers, on the Tiber. We spotted these cheeky little rodents paddling around near the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II a couple of years ago and we've been keeping our eyes peeled ever since.

No idea where they came from - maybe washed down river in the flood waters - but I hope they come back.

(This is the bit when some random specialist in Italian wildlife pipes up to tell us that beavers are in fact very common in Italy, like pigeons, or worse, that these are in fact just big rats... We'd never live it down...)

Amendment: Oh!! Now we know what they are! They are coypu! Basically, beavers but not quite. In Italian they are called 'castorino', little beavers. Apparently they escaped from fur farms and were also introduced into parts of Italy in the early 20th century. Phew - now we can all sleep sounder at night.

The Society of Big-Eaters!

2010-02-09T12:15:00.000-08:00

A.S. Roma are now second in Serie A.
This may not mean much to many of you, but it means a lot to us. You see, the better Roma do, the less sleep we get. On match nights the social club across the road is packed out and screams and shouts greet every goal; we don't even need to leave the house. And since the boys in red and gold having been doing alright of late, the party has continued out on our street until way into the night.

To be honest, I'm happy to loose some sleep so long as they keep on winning (Rachel, incidently, is largely ambivalent). Both of us, though, are now massive fans of the A.S. Roma hymn. Like all good football songs, it's wondrously camp.
Some extracts:

...Roma, beautiful Roma,
I painted you
yellow like the sun,
red like my heart!

Roma, my Roma,

...you were born great
and great you have to remain!
...Roma, Roma, Roma,
heart of this city,
one and only love
of many and many people,
you made us fall in love!

Good stuff, no? But even better, is a second song that I found on an A.S. Roma fansite. This one, the 'hymn of Roman people' apparently, is called La societa' dei magnaccioni or 'The Society of Big-Eaters'. Amazing. The key lines (in the Roman dialect and then in English):

La societa' de li magnaccioni,

la societa' de la gioventu',

a noi ce piace

da magna' e beve

e nun ce piace da lavora'...

(or)

The society of big-eaters,

the society of the youth,

what we like

is to eat and to drink

and what we don't like is to work...

The above has been officially adopted as the motto of the Russell-Wilson household. Rachel is scratching it above the door as I write. But, what does it sound like you ask? Listen for yourselves here (and it's the karaoke version!).

Night at the Museo

2010-01-28T12:45:00.001-08:00

The other evening, feeling a little culturally deprived (and maybe a bit guilty for all the pastries and deep-fried cheese we've been eating), we decided to top up our museum quotient for the year. Palazzo Altemps is one of our favourites. It's a beautiful little collection of all of the best bits of ancient sculpture in the national collection housed in a white-washed palazzo in the centre of town. It's nice in the daytime but even nicer in the dark.

La stampa

2010-01-24T09:40:00.000-08:00

What a day we have had today! Screen-printing Stage 1 (and if you're reading Lorenzo, it wasn't at all messy).
Our brand new screen-printing gear arrived the other day and we've been playing around while we build up the courage to crack out the photo emulsion and acetate. Here are some progress photos and some results of a few designs made using hand-cut stencils.

More to follow, both here and on HelloWilson...

Umbria rocks

2010-01-18T12:29:00.000-08:00

This Saturday we went to amazing Orvieto, about an hour away by train, an Umbrian town built on a hill - one hell of a hill! Sheer rocky cliffs surround the whole town and you have to ride a funicular up (always a good start to the day).

The town is famous for its cathedral, which looks like it might blow over in a high wind, but its really an ensemble performance. If you ask us, the wild boar that Umbria is famous for is the real star of the show.

We had to fight our way past this grizzly beast at the gateway... But once we did there was plenty of time for posing:

And for exploring the many crazy underground attractions. The rock on which the town is built has been gradually carved out by the inhabitants from the Etruscans onwards. These caverns and tunnels are put to all manner of uses, but lots contain dovecots, the main source of food when the city was besieged (this one also contains a potter's workshop):

The most spectacular of these underground sites, however, has to be the well of San Patrizio, a 53m deep shaft skirted by two ramps arranged as a double helix so that the donkeys carrying water up didn't have to pass those going down for more.

Roma Moderna

2010-01-18T11:55:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not there is architectural life after the grand plans of Augustus, Hadrian, and even Mussolini. When you need a break from columns and mosaics, Rome has some beautiful modern buildings to offer. The most famous and (not the least controversial) of these is the building designed to house the Ara Pacis.

The last time we went to the Ara Pacis there was a brilliant exhibition about design in Italy going on in the exhibition space downstairs. You can't help falling for design like this:

Another potentially very interesting building is the Zaha Hadid-designed brand new MAXXI museum, which, like most building projects in Italy, is running about 3 years behind schedule. MAXXI stands for Museo delle Arti (MA) del XXI secolo (21st century). I can't wait to stand up in the huge window, it looks spectacular.

Crazy paving

2010-01-13T09:58:00.001-08:00

Largely thanks to Mussolini, there are quite a few very odd places in Rome (see EUR below). But they don't come much odder than the Foro Italico. This sporting complex in north-western Rome was built between 1928 and 1938 and was intended to act as a symbol of Mussolini's new Rome - i.e. a pastiche of ancient Rome. The central piazza of the complex was a grand elongated square - the forum proper - entirely covered in black and white mosaics celebrating the ideals and achievements of the regime. There are a lot of mosaics in Rome but not many depict planes and tanks:

And just to give the whole ensemble a particularly surreal twist, the Foro Italico was the location for most of the 1960 Olympics. All of these mosaics, therefore, coat the main access route to the Olympic stadium and every weekend are walked over by tens of thousands of Roma and Lazio fans; in fact, the whole complex lies inside the ticket-gates for the stadium.

Just throw the key away...

2010-01-10T09:59:00.000-08:00

The Ponte Milvio - almost flooded in these pictures! - the oldest bridge still standing in Rome (built in 206 BC), has seen a few sites in its time: it was well-known in ancient Rome as a haunt for prostitutes and was the site of Constantine's great victory over his rival Maxentius; this is the battle, on the eve of which, Constantine is supposed to have had the vision which caused him to convert to Christianity. Nowadays the bridge is famous for an altogether more romantic ritual. From all over Italy young lovers and newlyweds come to symbolically 'lock' themselves to each other by chaining a padlock daubed with their names onto the bridge and flinging the key into the Tiber.

This is something of a recent tradition, popularised by a novel and then a film, but so large were the number of padlocks chained to the bridge that several street lamps actually collapsed under their weight. The authorities - accused of being 'anti-love' by many - have now introduced a series of chain fences along the bridge for a more controlled brand of celebration.

Here's Ben, pondering whether he can just keep hold of the key and fling the Winston into the Tiber...

New Year in Beirut

2010-01-09T10:33:00.001-08:00

Piazza del Popolo, 11.55pm, New Year's Eve: oh my. Every Tom, Dick and Peppe had turned up with a sack full of explosives - not fireworks, bombs - and a crate of prosecco. The former for throwing into the piazza, and occasionally the on-looking crowds, and the latter for, well...throwing into the piazza. We stepped up, threw a bottle, dallied with explosives (more below), celebrated when we thought it was midnight, but mainly we hid. Everyone dealt with the stress in their own way:

These are Dave's photos - the only soul brave enough to carry a camera - and they would have been more spectacular if only all of the explosives being thrown around were actual fireworks, with pretty colours and all. In our local, Chinese-owned assorted crap shop there was a scrum for fireworks, but most of the things being thrown around that night were definitely not over-the-counter purchases.

It has to be said, though, that our own attempts at joining in didn't exactly do our street-cred any favours...

Il était une fois Playmobil

2009-12-17T01:14:00.001-08:00

To celebrate the 35th anniversary of Playmobil, the Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris had this spectacular exhibition of some of the classics alongside a selection of the new ranges. We particularly like the Noah's Ark range, with the gorillas helping the elephants up the plank!

Bella Parigi

2009-12-14T10:44:00.000-08:00

A few pretty 'Jules et Jim'-esque pictures from a very cold and wintery Paris:

La Ville-Lumière

2009-12-13T07:56:00.000-08:00

Paris really lived up to its name of 'City of Lights' while we were there. We made a beeline for the mammoth department stores of Au Printemps and Galleries Lafayette where each year they attempt to outdo one another with Christmas lights and window displays. Pretty spectacular, and just the thing to get us in the Christmas mood.

Ciao Sant-o!!

2009-12-13T07:40:00.001-08:00

An alternative Christmas card from Rachel and Ben x x

San Lorenzo: The not so Immaculate Conception

2009-12-13T07:27:00.000-08:00

To celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception, last Tuesday San Lorenzo became market central. All the main streets were shut off and market-sellers appeared from everywhere. Alongside the obligatory granny pants and assorted tack, there were sweeties, chestnuts, christmas trees, russian hamsters, terrapins (the size of 50p pieces), guinea pigs, chocolates and nougat, as well as more delectable treats:

Jazz-playing Santas ran riot (see above):

Blackpool comes to Roma

2009-12-06T09:53:00.000-08:00

We'd been wondering for a few days why the lights in our flat have been flickering. It turns out the glow from the end of the street is neither burning car nor riot but Blackpool come to San Lorenzo. Typical of local fashions, it's all a bit random (tulips, at Christmas?) but festive nonetheless.

HelloWilson work for sale

2009-11-30T08:18:00.000-08:00

Just a cheeky one to say that my work is now available to view, rate and buy on Society 6.

If you'd like to see it (and endorse/rate my work) go to:
HelloWilson on Society 6

More work will be arriving there soon.

Thanks!

Of Keats and cats

2009-11-25T05:17:00.000-08:00

This weekend we had a trip to one of our favourite places in Rome, the 'cimitero acattolica' otherwise known as the Protestant graveyard, home to the grave of Keats and Shelley amongst others. It was a gorgeous sunny afternoon and we had a little sit on the grass and played with (Rowena) / tried to avoid (me) the very friendly cats.

Keat's grave is a very modest affair, sporting a slightly downbeat epitaph:

This grave contains all that was mortal, of a YOUNG ENGLISH POET,
Who on his Death Bed, in the Bitterness of his Heart,
at the Malicious Power of his Enemies,
Desired these Words to be engraven on his Tomb Stone:

"Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water"

The cemetery also has a huge pyramid adjoining it, the late 1st century BC tomb of Gaius Cestius. A bit eccentric for a non-Egyptian but a striking way to be remembered.

We love Bar Necci

2009-11-23T08:13:00.000-08:00

Probably our favourite find in Rome so far is lovely Bar Necci in Pigneto. Almost every Sunday morning since we arrived we've made the quick trip by rattly old tram from San Lorenzo to Pigneto. Necci's cappuccinos are perfect and throughout the morning tray after tray of freshly baked pastries appear from the kitchen at the bargain price of 70cents.

Necci has been open since 1924 and was originally an ice cream parlour. It's major claim to fame is its appearance in Pier Paolo Pasolini's 1961 film Accattone. Now it settles for being a local institution.

After breakfast on certain Sundays you can take your sugar/caffeine rush for a trip around the flea market just around the corner.

EUR local?

2009-11-23T07:29:00.000-08:00

While Rowena was here visiting we had a quick trip to the very strange and striking Roman suburb of Esposizione Universale Roma (EUR). The centre piece of EUR is the Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana building - a masterclass in Fascist architecture and, despite its associations, quite beautiful. The area, now a little deserted and eery, was built as an Exhibition Centre by Mussolini and couldn't be a bigger contrast to the chaos of central Roman architecture and life.

Oh Diana!

2009-11-17T09:47:00.000-08:00

Here's something a little different now. We got around to actually getting the films from our lovely blue Diana camera processed today and look what we found! OK, so these aren't pictures of Rome but we think they're great. This is our narrowboat holiday from the summer, featuring Sally, Dave, Fraser and Micaela.

It's 1969 all over again.

More San Lorenzo based shots to follow, here and on HelloWilson

Firenze e la macchina

2009-11-15T08:37:00.000-08:00

Italians, it would seem, are much more restrained than we are about Christmas. There are no lights anywhere here yet, no switching-on ceremonies, and no crowds crushing each other to watch X-factor runners-up (for those interested, in the Italian version she was called Giusy (!)). But we did hear our first Christmas song in the supermarket the other day and panettone have arrived in numbers on the shelves.
Anyway, I'm not supposed to be writing about Christmas (Rachel will tell me I ramble too much now...). I'm supposed to be writing about Florence, where we have been for the last two days. Florence felt very Christmasey - hence the connection. They had window displays there and lights ready to go. It was cold but clear and, mercifully, empty of tourists. So we got a cheap hotel and we ate, even if it was odd Tuscan food (stale bread as far the eye can see!).

We didn't go to the Uffizi this time, but even the scaffolding outside is a work of art. I'm sure Sig. Botticelli would approve:

We weren't the only ones who were cold. This little fellow was quite put-out and distinctly unimpressed by the old bridge:

And, just because:

Who'd have thought...

2009-11-09T11:09:00.000-08:00

...that one of the most exciting things about moving to Rome would be, wait for it, the broccoli. Seriously, it's ace. We're talking Romanesco Broccoli of course - that's Brassica oleracea for those of you with a veg patch (which is all of you!). It's like chameleon eyes and fractals and all those tricks. To be honest, it's actually a variety of cauliflower - that weird boring white stuff best covered in cheese - but it's green, and so broccoli in our eyes.
Anyway, we've been eating a lot of it...

And tonight, to mark the fall of the Berlin Wall, we ate our broccoli with schnitzel, or 'Cotoletta alla Milanese' as they call it in these parts, since the Milanese are basically Germans/Austrians anyway.

Gas works/Art works

2009-11-08T09:07:00.000-08:00

Old Giovanni Montemartini would never recognise it, his old electricity plant and gas works. Derelict until 1997, it's now the overflow for the Capitoline Museums and is stuffed full of statues. The old generator building has been restored but altered very little and provides a great background - dials, knobs and all - to gleaming white sculpture. It's a kind of Roman Tate Modern/Ancient.

Spot the Rachel (above).

When Ben met Mick...

2009-11-08T08:35:00.001-08:00

A little one photo wonder for you, just because.

Termini magic

2009-11-08T08:14:00.000-08:00

Most people hate Termini. Like most major train stations in big cities it can be a bit grim and at times seem full of crazy people (to be honest mostly it is full of crazy people). Add to this a bit of fascist architecture and you've got a recipe for disaster, no? Maybe, but from certain angles (away from its main doors) the hulk that is Termini Station can seem quite stunning.

These water-towers (a throw back from the days of steam engines) are right down at the San Lorenzo end of Termini.

Sunny San Lorenzo?

2009-11-08T07:55:00.000-08:00

In a brief break in the bad weather this weekend we were out and about enjoying what sunshine there was to be had. I took my camera along to get a few pictures of our area. Bar Marani has become our regular coffee stop since we arrived, by virtue of the fact that, a) it's a block from the flat and b) they don't charge you three times the amount to sit outside with your coffee. Plus it turns bar later and you can sit out (providing it's not throwing it down) with a nice Peroni.

The outdoor space is all covered over by vines, and has a bit of a Greek feel to it - quite pretty really.

To continue on the pretty theme for a sec, San Lorenzo's lovely church:

The highly elaborate wiring system:

And (potentially the best thing about our flat) its amazing salmon pink lift:

Wish you were here?

The Daily Scooter

2009-11-04T13:00:00.001-08:00

Don't know what to do with your free papers? Stick them on your scooter, Pigneto-style...

It's a bit of a twist on the Financial Times taxis. We were going to get a Vespa but we would die, paper or no paper.

Holy hairdo!

2009-11-02T09:19:00.000-08:00

While our mums and dads were visiting we went to the Vatican Museums. They are the most overwhelmingly huge museums with more in them than you could really see in one day. For me it's the Roman sculpture galleries that are the most fascinating and not the Sistine Chapel.

While wandering in the sculpture galleries, camera in hand, I got a bit obsessed by the barnets some of these ancient women sported. Ben reliably informs me there are volumes of academic study dedicated to the subject but for those of you who don't have time to do the reading here are some of my favourites:

Style one: The 'Sausage-roll Suprise'

Style two: The 'Multi storey'

Style three: 'Because I'm worth it'

Style four: 'Are you looking at me?'

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

2009-10-22T06:42:00.000-07:00

It's raining in Rome. And since the Nonnas that rule the roost have not commanded it the heating still hasn't been turned on. A soggy Ben arrived back from the library at lunchtime today with two tartine. It cheered me right up!

Pasta disaster!

2009-10-21T04:46:00.000-07:00

Ahhh how confident and naive we were, armed with our brand new 'PastaSmack' pasta machine and a bag of Tipo '00' flour.

It all seemed so simple: make pasta dough, leave in the fridge for a bit, start cranking the handle. What could possibly go wrong? It all went well to begin with, the dough was easy to make and even looked pretty professional.

30 mins later, we got the dough out of the fridge, set up the magical machine and then proceeded to try and feed the entire ball of (too sticky) dough the wrong way through the machine on its finest setting. Hmmmmm.

I feel we were possibly victims of our own disorganisation. Actually, I really think we were victims of Jamie Oliver's rubbish recipe - too many eggs!

Anyway, 1 hour, 3 arguments and nearly a kilo of pasta flour later we finally got the hang of it and managed to make enough pasta for a bowl of fettucine alla carbonara, and it was suprisingly tasty!

Nostra via

2009-10-19T07:50:00.000-07:00

Here are some views of our funny little street, which runs from the Roman walls to the Verano cemetery and has views to Tivoli at the far end. Like all of San Lorenzo it's covered in graffiti, most of it communist in theme. Opposite us are two communist social clubs (one, apparently, serves good pasta at lunchtime!) and just down the street is the market square and church. Most of the shops are only open in the mornings and evenings, and most of the bars...whenever they feel like it. The graffiti-covered shutters make it hard to identify closed shops, so every day we discover a few more that we hadn't noticed before.

Our house:

The Roman walls at the end of the street:

Via dei Volsci - the first sighting

2009-10-17T12:30:00.000-07:00

Here's home, finally... Just a few shots of our new abode. More to be added later.

And, on a related note, here's our first ragu:

Plus in the next exciting installment; Rachel and Ben venture outside...oooohhh.

Italian phrases of the day:

chele di granchio = crab legs, served deep-fried - quite exotic.

crocchette di pollo = chicken nuggets - less exotic, best avoided.

A pilgrimage to Pork Mountain

2009-10-17T12:09:00.000-07:00

Last week we went to Frascati, the home of goodness - porchetta! And wine! Yum.

The little train from Rome takes only half an hour, and costs €1,90. It's a nice trip, chugging up through the vineyards of the Alban hills. The town is pretty, overlooked by the Aldobrandini villa, and on clear days (like the day we happened to be there) you can see all the way to the sea and across all of Rome.

But back to the pork... The main square of Frascati is roast pig central. Porchetta people (their technical title) from all over the area - the home of porchetta - come here to sell pig. It's splendid. €9 got us two massive sandwiches and two plastic cups of exquisitely rough first-press Frascati - a winning combination, best enjoyed on a high wall in the sunshine, thus:

Ciao bella!

2009-10-16T10:28:00.000-07:00

Benvenuti - Monteverde

2009-10-16T10:02:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Week one, day one, and we're in a very tiny flat perched on the top of a big old mansion high up in Monteverde. The flat is minute but the terrace is huge and the views are fairly spectacular... not least during any one of the three storms that happened this week.

Anyway, we start as we mean to go on: plenty of this...

but also quite a lot of this...

Recipe: tomato, mozzarella, rocket - simples!