Wednesday 2 July 2014

Roman Roads

I had heard many things about driving in Italy, but one thing I didn't expect was that once you get used to the craziness, chaos, and general lack of regard for the highway code here, driving is probably the best way of getting around Rome, (aside from on foot - public transport here is a no-go unless you don't mind waiting anything up to an hour for your bus).

Whereas at home in quaint little England I'm used to getting around in a tiny Ford Ka (where the gear stick starts to shake if I travel at anything above 60mph), in Italy I have discovered that you get a lot more respect on the road if you're vehicle is somewhat on the larger side. On the cobbled and narrow streets of Rome I am now driving what I can only describe as a small land-rover (I think it's proper name is a Daihatsu Terios 4x4 which might be more helpful to anyone who knows anything about cars), which is a challenge in itself before I even take into account the actions of my fellow motorists, not to mention driving on the right (wrong) hand side of the road. Early on in my trip, while taking the car for a 'test drive' with my Italian host, I looked at the jumbled mess of traffic in front of me and wondered aloud which lane I should be aiming for. He merely gave a mighty chuckle and said 'There are no lanes!' as if only a crazy person would expect to find lanes on a road where four cars (and frequently more) can quite comfortably jostle alongside each other.

I have discovered that there are some benefits to being surrounded by crazy drivers though - it means that if I end up getting completely lost and doing something utterly illogical (I have nightmares about entering one of Rome's many one-way streets from the wrong direction) then no one bats an eyelid. However, one downside to this laissez-faire attitude to driving is that seatbelts are seen as strictly optional here rather than a necessity, and concentrating on the madness of Roman roads can be quite the challenge when you have two seven year olds practising gymnastics in the back, while the nine year old in-between them constantly leans forward to change the radio station blocking out half your view of the road, not to mention the 11 year old sitting next to you who refuses to be parked more than three feet away from the front door. Most days it's a miracle we make it home unscathed.

If I ever move to Italy again, this will be my new car




Welcome to EATaly*

*Not the shop

One of the upsides of living here with an Italian family is the abundance of fresh food and delicious delicacies that are on offer to me 24 hours a day.

The downside is my complete inability to resist any of it.

Every morning I am welcomed into the kitchen by a huge tub of Nutella, biscuit jars full to bursting, little mini toasts and jam, cornettos (croissants) filled with Nutella and dusted with icing sugar, plums, oranges, cherries and apples, (if I'm honest the fruit is usually ignored in favour of sweeter treats), cereal con cioccolata, fresh bread, proscuitto, and anything else that's been picked up from the local bakery.

Before I moved to Rome I dismissed the image of Italians as pizza-and-pasta-eating-only foreigners as a lazy stereotype. Well, I have since discovered that I couldn't have been more wrong. I don't think a day has gone by that I haven't eaten one or the other in the 2 months that I've been here. As an American girl from my language school lamented to me the other day - 'I'm just not used to it!'. I completely agreed with her at the time but if I'm honest this style of living is pure heaven for me, having arrived from a tiny shared kitchen in London where it was a treat if I could manage to cobble together any kind of meal that resembled something nutritionally balanced.

Italians are also much more refined in their eating habits than the English. Where we are inclined to pile something of everything onto our plates, to an Italian the idea of doing so is enough to put them completely off their food, hence the importance of the primo piatta and secondo piatta followed by (the most important in my opinion) la dolce. Italians also rarely snack and stick to strict meal times, which must be how they manage to eat bread, bread and more bread, and still look like they could do with a good fattening up.

Thus, while I am here - despite the consequences that will no doubt come from possessing an extremely English metabolism - I intend to simply do as the Romans do and live la dolce vita (with the operative word being dolce).




Just to give you an idea of the treats I'm struggling to resist at my local panetteria

Ciao Londra, Ciao Roma!

I promise I will try to make this blog have more substance than style and not just be pages of endless pictures, but I feel I ought to have at least one gushy post in which I try and show the never-ending charm and beauty of Rome -  which for me is an undeniable fact and one of the main reasons why I have always wanted to move here. Every street you turn down in this city seems more gorgeous than the last, and although some might say that this feeling won't stay forever, its an impression which I honestly don't think will ever leave me. Everyone knows the famous tourist spots in Rome, but here are few of my favourite parts with which visitors to Rome might not be so familiar (plus a few of the usual suspects):


The dome of San Pietro from Villa Borghese

Bubbles in Piazza del Popolo

The Tiber


Pasta, Gnocchi, Fruit & Vegetables near Piazza Risorgimento

Isola Tiberina - once home to the ancient temple of Asclepius, the Greek god of medicine and healing, it is now fittingly home to a hospital

Tiber by night, alongside summer bars and market stalls which spring up every July and August

Mirrored floor of the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna

Restaurant in Trastevere with a strict policy on tourist menus


Graffiti in Trastevere

Henry in Rome

Mouth watering Pizza's in Trastevere

Colosseum



Roman Forum


Largo di Torre Argentina -  once held four temples and Pompey's Theatre, now a home and playground for the stray cats of Rome


Monti


View of San Pietro again, this time from Rome's Botanical Gardens