Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Those gorgeous Italian women


At the small restaurant on Via Mario Fiori we checked the prices for breakfast -- 25€ ($38) for an American breakfast, 35 € ($53.20) for an English breakfast, 18€ ($25.70) for a continental breakfast.The cheapest breakfasts are eaten at a café bar – standing up. Order your coffee and biroche, pay the cashier, eat at the bar. Sitting down costs more. At the open air café on Via Frattina, we decided to sit anyway. I wanted to watch the people on that busy street, especially those gorgeous women of Rome who make jeans and a button down shirt look glamorous. Of course those jeans are often worn with high boots or stiletto heels (how they manage to stride so elegantly in those ankle-breakers is beyond me). The jewel-toned scarves they’ve tossed loosely over their shoulders or about their necks add just the right touch as do their shiny leather bags large enough to hold computers.The men weren't so bad either! These police in formal dress certainly cut an impressive swath along Via Frattini.



One of those gorgeous women is Vittorio’s niece Teresa who looks as lovely today as she did the last time I was in Italy 30 years ago. We had dinner with her companion Giulio in a hidden treasure of a restaurant, Osteria Casa Della Ioria (Chacco er Carettiere) which is tucked between a brick walkway along the Tiber and a bridge. This description of the Osteria's location might be colored by my imagination as I don't have a photo to refer to. I do, however, remember the antique cart in the entrance from which the Osteria drew its other name – Chacco er Carettiere. Perhaps Chacco means warehouse in old the Roman dialect. Carter's warehouse? Can anyone help here?




2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your posts make me want to go to Italy even more so! I've never been, but hope to one day! I love that your trip was filled with so many emotional connections--joining your past with present. I'll be e-mailing a response to your latest comment on my post.

Dave Carlson said...

Likewise in Nice and Ax en Provence, we found the walk-up food vendors most reasonable, and in good weather there is outstanding seating off the beach or in a park nearby.

Having just finished my 8th shift volunteering at the Vatican Splendors Exhibit in St. Paul, and not having been to Rome, I'd like to see the layout in person. Like, where was Nero's Circus, and how did Constantine carve out the site of his Basilica on Vatican Hill? Who was there to locate St. Peter's tomb? And then someone finds a marker etched "Peter is here" 1600 years later.

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