That's okay, though. We planned on doing some marketing and designing a dinner to cook in the appartamento for a Friday night and even though the lovely market in the piazza Cosimato was certain to be a drippy affair, we made plans to go into the Testaccio neighborhood to a huge indoor market that just dwarfs any farmers market I've ever seen or been to.
Absolute heaven on earth for a market day And far beyond just mountains of fresh produce, the T-market has food stalls and cheese stacked as high a the moon, and hopefully, the one item I really wanted to find; a ferro - a pasta rolling rod for making my own custom pasta del campo.
But the fates got in the way again. Being rainy and forecast for thundershowers, we cabbed it over to the Testaccio neighborhood and in wrestling ourselves out of the tiny cab, a phone was lost. Which was pretty much a disaster as it was the one phone we jailbroke and inserted an Italian sim card and internet service for navigation and well, things like calling a cab while out wandering and being caught in a thunderstorm.
On queue, the sky opened up and started dumping rivers of water on Rome. I'm not sure what the Italian word for bummer is but it was definitely a brutta situazione.
We had another phone, which if we could find Wifi we could be saved, but although the market had gorgeous melanzana, wifi was non-existent. We headed out to try and find a cafe or ristorante with wifi. Not so easy as the huge Testaccio market kind of cornered the market, so to speak, on places to eat and we were in a bit of an industrial, warehouse sector.
After a while of walking fruitlessly in the rain, and beginning to consider throwing myself dramatically in front of a speeding Fiat so as to be taken by ambulance to somewhere warm and dry, Patty, of course, saved the day as she always does. She found a ristorante which since it was a bit early for pranzo was stone empty, but they said they'd certainly let us and provide some food.
La Toricella was a huge place with tables for days and it felt a bit weird to be the only customers, but the owner, an older gentleman, made us feel warmly welcomed (I love Italians) and said, of course we have free wifi while handing us a menu.
When I ordered the zuppa a castagne e faggioli he proudly told me he made it himself and congratulated me on my choice. Confidence was beginning to rise.
The zuppa was fabulous with roasted and softened chestnuts from Abruzzo floating alongside white beans with just the right amount of garlic in a steamy broth with tiny diced carrots. I could certainly tell why our host was so proud of his recipe. I sopped up every last drop with the fresh bread provided.
Happy and warm inside and out we got a fresh cab and made it home to the warm and happy puppies,
Indeed, The best laid schemes o' mice an men, aft gang agley. But they aft turn out just fine as well, due to the good nature of most humans. Graze Millie, Emiliano, wherever you are this morning. We won't forget your kindness.
Today we head back to the Testaccio Market for round two. I WILL have that ferro.
PS: We hit a small neighborhood marketo in Monte Verde and still eked out a modest meal of gnocchi in a sauce of guanciale and zucchini with plenty of fennel and rosemary and garlic.
A Presto!
Update!! Much more success on day two. We wandered for hours and saw everything, had a lunch of perfectly cooked suppli on demand, joined in the moda of a glass of prosecco while shopping and brought home a rabbit for dinner with veggies and fresh bread. I could go here everyday......
No comments:
Post a Comment