A couple of quiet days for us here in Rome. Sunday was quiet, because I am a very, very old woman, and it took me a full day to recover from Saturday night's antics, even though I didn't drink all that much. I was clearly within my father's one drink per hour guidelines. I think just being around that many desperate attempts to be shocking and/or cool was exhausting. Plus, it is hard for me to even find my groove, let alone get it on. Monday, we (blissfully) switched apartments. Our landlady offered us the move when we were having the initial internet problems, and we jumped at the chance, perhaps a little faster than she was expecting. It's a good thing we did, too, because in addition to the internet problem, the not-really-a-one-bedroom problem, the on-display-like-a-whore-in-Amsterdam problem, the noise issues and the fact that that apartment was never cooler than 100 degrees, it developed a particularly nasty odor in the bathroom. At first we thought it was the wet mop the cleaning guy left wedged behind the washing machine. Eventually, Jeremy ascribed to my theory that something had died behind the washing machine, and was slowly decomposing.
So, as of Monday morning, we are happily ensconced in Vicolo del Cedro 5, a true one bedroom on the third floor. The kitchen isn't quite as new, and the entire apartment lists heavily to port. I guess the listing is a side effect of living in a medieval neighborhood. I put a dinner plate with sauce down on the table, and had to shim it before the sauce landed in my chair. Still, all in all, a wonderland of cross-ventilation and clean air. Yeah!
Monday was quiet because Jeremy had to work, and because everything is closed on Monday in Italy. I tried to make reservations at a little restaurant we had walked by the day before, but it was closed. I tried to buy a bottle of water at our local store, but it was closed (although, mysteriously, it was open in the evening. It is a recurring theme, perhaps even a leit motif, of me in Italy that I do not understand when things are and are not open). I looked for a Pope-ener for Erik. I found a Vatican-ener, but nothing with the actual pope, alas.
Today, we were planning on going to Florence, but last night I figured out that the train tickets would cost us 190E, which seemed way, way too much for lunch with Pat and seeing Megan's baby. I would love to see Megan's baby, and it is always good to see Pat, but my frugality kicked in. Good thing, too, because Jeremy woke up this morning with a vicious sore throat and general malaise. I'm hoping a quiet day in the apartment, with a lot of tea, sleeping, and good food, will have him feeling better tomorrow. I spent my day shopping at the market in the morning, and trying to see Bernini's Ecstasy of St. Teresa in the afternoon. I totally navigated the Roman transit system and arrived at the church to discover it was -- wait for it -- closed. Even though I had checked the hours both in our guide book and on line. Drat. Tomorrow we have reservations for the Borghese Gallery, so maybe we can hit the Bernini on the way home.
What I did accomplish today was a pretty great dinner, which Jeremy and I ate before I remembered to take any pictures. I purchased a strange cut of chicken at the market this morning. It was half a chicken, but the back half, rather than a side. It had two legs, two thighs, and part of the back bone. I seared it in some olive oil, then braised it in water and red wine for an hour and a half or so. I finished it by reducing the braising liquid, and adding it to some sauteed zucchini, cherry tomatoes, and spinach gnocchi, and topping the whole think with parmesan. It was sort of Italian-flavored coq-au-vin, and if not quite chicken soup for Jeremy's cold, then perhaps it contained the healing essence of chicken soup.
(As I am writing, about three different church bells have started ringing. It's 8:26, so I don't have a clue why they are ringing, but it is beautiful. I love the way the church bells here start in one area, and then play tag across the neighborhood until there is a full cacophony, and then die out until there is one lone bell in the distance. )
So, due to the overall quiet days, not a lot to report. We had a very casual dinner at a place around the corner called Da Olindo. There were about five tables in the whole place, which was decorated with pictures of Roma soccer and (bizarrely) Tony Soprano. Excellent house wine, and perfectly acceptable if over-sauced pasta, which I didn't think was possible here. We split a super simple secondi, chicken with butter and sage, which was just as it sounds -- a breast, split and (I think) slightly pounded, sauted in butter and sage, finished with a spritz of lemon. It was surprisingly tasty, largely because it was perfectly seasoned. Tomorrow we see art, and maybe on Thursday we rent scooters and see what is outside walking distance. I promise to remember I have a camera.
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