The day began with Dave finishing up the blog and getting it out before we went for our morning cappuccino. We have now returned to the house, 3 hours later and what a morning it was:
- Double cappuccinos and croissants at Bar Cafe Calisto
- Arguing Italian men at nearby table playing cards
Off to Ponte Sisto bridge (bordering Rome/Jewish Ghetto) to begin Rick Steve’s Trass-ta-vorre walking tour.
- We were lost 5 minutes into the audio! Finally had to coordinate the tour with our GPS map to make sure we were on the right path (we laughed a lot).
Hoping to be past Sunday morning masses, we found very family events at both Saint Cecelia’s and Saint Maria’s, two of the most famous Catholic churches in Trastevere (popular section just south of Rome and the Tiber River).
As Rick Steve’s talked about St Cecelia’s being the ‘church of music’ and therefore very popular for weddings, there they were! The bride and groom kneeling at the altar with friends and familia dressed in their Sunday best. We got some pictures and a video of the music.
At Santa Maria’s (looking forward to photos because the two previous times we’d peeked in, Mass was going on), a Baptism!
A sampling of Suppli (a deep-fried tomato risotto) and Cacio e pepe Arancini (a deep-fried pecorino/black pepper cheese risotto – a Roman classic) then.
Bonnie and Tom’s craft beer bar on the way home – Dupont Saison for Linda and Wild Ale Sour for Dave.
We have over 6,000 steps in that little excursion (which, according to this author, doesn’t get 3 stars).
Things we learned today:
- There are a lot of Americans here too!
- In the fresco in St Cecelia’s, a small-headed person is less important and square hands means they were alive at it’s creation
- Italian brides have very long and elaborate gown trains
- Linda likes Suppli better than Dave does
- Confirmed that we both like beer!
After some work on the blog and a little R&R, we headed back out. For the first time, we crossed the bridge, leaving Trastevere, for the first time. We had gone half way before, but had not ventured to the other side of the Tiber. We had hoped to have an early dinner over there, but every place we wanted to check out didn’t open until 19:00 (yes, we know that’s early for here). We made our way back into Trastevere and had dinner at Tonnarello. This is the place that had the extremely long lines last night. Well, the line wasn’t as long, but we waited about 30 minutes for a table. We shared an order of calamari, while Dave had the Tonnarelo Cacio e Pepe (cheese and pepper), Linda had the Tonnarello Carbonara. Each of the dishes was good, especially the calamari. We also each had a glass of wine. Tonnarello is a handmade pasta that is thicker than spaghetti, but similar in every other way and is typical of Roman cuisine.
On our way home, we stopped at Cheisa della Santa Maria which is almost right across the street from us. It is a pretty church with some very beautiful artwork, but it is in need of some repair.
Well, we went back out, because that’s what we do. You won’t believe it, though … we did not have gelato. We did get to listen to a couple of musical groups One a fairly rocky band and the other more of a brass jazz band. Both were really good for their specific genre. One of the fun things with the rock band was the audience participation by one young lady during Johnny B. Goode. We did a couple of videos of the rock band. You can hear them here::
If you would like to see pictures in greater detail, you can click here: 2022-09-18 Trastevere
2022 Italy Vacation 