Ripabottoni – 2022 Italy Vacation

The four of us grabbed a cappuccino/espresso and a croissant and headed away from Ripabottoni on our return to Rome. We all felt like we were glad we came; we loved that classy little town. If there were things to do AND a grocery AND more restaurants, we could go together and buy a nice little condo. LOL.

Our 3+ hour trip back to Rome was complicated by a random stop by a pair of Italian Policia (federal police, not locals) who asked questions we didn’t understand until finally Dave took out his North Carolina driver’s license and we spent 10 minutes waiting for them to do whatever it was they were doing! He came back, said “Americano”, and let us go. Hmmmm. Another fun tale for our blog. The scenery along the way continued to impress us.

Mountains on road from Ripabottoni to Rome

We arrived to return the rental car in plenty of time then split up – Jim & Anne to have lunch in Rome then take the train back to Orvieto and Dave & Linda to grab a sandwich at the train station before taxiing to the Airbnb for the night.

In front of the entrance door to the building was a market that filled the piazza and had everything: all kinds of pasta and dry spice combos, olive oils and balsamic vinegars, huge fruit and vegetable stands, gorgeous flower marts, clothing, leather… you name it.

Scarves in market at Piazza Campo di Fiori

Fruit in market in Piazza Campo di Fiori

Produce in maket in Piazza Campo di Fiori

Linda with produce in market in Piazza Campo di Fiori

Produce at market in Piazza Campo di Fiori

Dave heard a guy go past and say, “I think it said Burger King”. Dave sees this as a store that competes with French Connection United Kingdom (FCUK). This is that fricking store.

We couldn’t get into the apartment yet, but they let us leave our bags and change into shorts (62° in Ripabottoni and 76° in Rome). So, we walked around the area which was more shopping than restaurants although there were a lot of those too. Linda keeps trying to find chocolate gelato with hot chili spice — maybe we’re getting the wording wrong because she knows it exists.

The apartment was our best yet (except for the fifty-seven steps to get to the main floor and fourteen more to get to the second level … we miss our lift in Florence). Dave chose a two-story flat with two balconies for our anniversary evening in Rome. Sonia, our host, met us at the door, showed us around then made sure we knew to talk to Sandro at 19:30 when we arrived at the restaurant where she had made reservations for us (her recommendation). We did a load of wash, ate fresh tomato wedges (HOW do they grow them so red, ripe, and sweet?) then got cleaned up for our evening out.

Rome apartment – view as you come up from the 19 steps after the door (living area and steps to bedroom)

Rome apartment – main floor patio (main floor is really the third floor)

Rome apartment – sitting area and bedroom

Rome apartment – upstairs patio with live flowers off bedroom

The restaurant, Rinaldi al Quirinale, was a 25-minute walk, but we only had 4,000 steps so far today, so off we went. We were greeted and shown a table and the rest was magic. Although we could see the item prices on the menu (most were cost per hectogram … 100 grams), we had NO idea how much those ‘extras’ were that they just showed up with: glasses of Prosecco, 4 kinds of bread, cheese by the scoop from Sardinia that was much like Parmigiano Reggiano for you to nibble with your bread, high alcohol berry liqueur similar to grappa, a plate of shortbread cookies AND an amazing crostata fragoline (strawberry custard tart) with an intense sparkler shooting out of it. The waiter brought it to the table with much fanfare and everyone sang and clapped. He took our phone to get a video and when he realized it was a picture, he insisted they get another intense sparkler and did it all over again!! The wait staff was so attentive and friendly; the customers were mostly foreigners. We took bets on the cost of the event and laughed when neither of us were even close!! Expensive but memorable!

Ristorante Rinaldi al Quirinale – 43rd wedding anniversary celebration

Ristorante Rinaldi al Quirinale – unleavened bread with olive oil

Ristorante Rinaldi al Quirinale – cheese from Sardinia

Ristorante Rinaldi al Quirinale – scoop of cheese from Sardinia

Ristorante Rinaldi al Quirinale – appetizer for mixed seafood (from top left, grilled octopus, fried shrimp, fried squid, squid/shark/shrimp ceviche)

Ristorante Rinaldi al Quirinale – available seafood choices

Ristorante Rinaldi al Quirinale – Linda’s meal of whitefish in white wine sauce with capers on potatoes

Ristorante Rinaldi al Quirinale – Dave’s meal of three varieties of shrimp in a scampi sauce

Delivery of crostata fragoline (anniversary strawberry tart with sparkler)

Ristorante Rinaldi al Quirinale – Sondro after taking video of fireworks

Ristorante Rinaldi al Quirinale – Happy Anniversary dessert

Ristorante Rinaldi al Quirinale – high-alcohol blueberry liquor

Ristorante Rinaldi al Quirinale – shortbread cookies

Ristorante Rinaldi al Quirinale – how about this fish?

Ristorante Rinaldi al Quirinale – waiter shaving/grating white and black truffles on a seafood dish

We had a nice walk back to the apartment. There had been a political rally in the piazza in front of our apartment when we left for dinner, but it was all done when we returned home.

National Institute for Insurance Against Accidents at Work – looks like a nice place to work to do Workers’ Comp

If you would like to see the pictures in more detail, you can click here: 2022-09-22 Ripabottoni-Rome.

Sorry about not having a blog post yesterday, but we don’t have Wi-Fi at the house in Ripabottoni and we just didn’t have time to head down to the bar. By the way, bar here means cappuccino or alcoholic drinks all-day long. We have been able to stick to cappuccino in the morning, so far.

Rome to Ripabottoni

After getting the bags all packed and set by the door, we headed out. Because we needed another 7,000 steps before leaving Rome!

We got our usual breakfast and found it pretty quiet on the streets other than university students.

We saw these two cuties on our way back to the apartment … we’re guessing that’s the nanny, not mom

Architecture and vegetation in Trastevere

Traffic was heavy though and we maneuvered through clogged intersections on our way to the Vatican. There were several large tour groups, many couples, a few nuns, and a cardinal in the Plaza. We walked around and took some pictures.

St. Peter’s Basilica, St. Peter’s Square with the surrounding colonades, and the Obelisk of St. Peter’s Square

St. Peter’s Square colonades and statues of saints and marytrs on top

Saints and martyrs surrounding St. Peter’s Square

Leaving the apartment, we took a taxi across town to the train station. We met up with Jim & Anne then sat and had a sandwich before getting the rental car. Getting the rental car at Sicily by Car was, in and of itself, quite an experience. We had four other groups ahead of us that seemed to be unable to grasp what they needed to do. When it was our turn, it still took us about 20-25 minutes, but the process went fairly smoothly. With Dave’s nervousness of driving a new vehicle (manual transmission, again), we think it took ten minutes to get out of the parking garage (in fairness, we were on the sixth floor … lol).

We left Rome around 14:00 and only thought we were going to die once (and we weren’t even out of Rome, yet). We enjoyed the three-hour ride to Ripabottoni. The landscape changed from flat to rolling with lots of wooded areas and picturesque hilltop towns. It is most amazing to think about what construction must have been like here so long ago – it’s almost like they chose tops of hills for security because there are a lot of them scattered across the landscape. We knew when we arrived that we couldn’t drive right to the house. We passed locals but figuring they didn’t speak English; we lugged our bags across the cobblestones and up stairs until we found the place on the north edge of town. It is a beautiful area of old renovated buildings that must have been gutted because they look new. Claude’s place is the most contemporary place we’ve stayed so far — ‘wood’ tile floors, big kitchen including full-sized dishwasher and table/chairs in center of room, a half bath with washing machine, dining room, and living room with fireplace, 3 bedrooms upstairs with one hall bath. Claude has furnished his home with antiques and it is just charming.

Old door on one of the homes in the area we are staying in in Ripabottoni

You may wonder why we are here. Dave and Jim’s great-grandmother, Concetta Paradiso, grew up here in this small town (current population 650) and we are hoping to find some family information at the church.

After settling into the house, we walked a short distance to the local bar mainly to ‘show ourselves’ to these small-town Italians who must surely wonder why we are here! The bar tab for our 4 drinks (one beer and 3 wines) was $7.50. There were so many questions we wanted to ask about this town but if someone spoke English, they didn’t speak up. Our dinner reservation was at 19:00, so we walked down the bumpy street to the restaurant, where they were waiting for us. It was a house where we walked into the main kitchen then back to the dining room that was like a white cave (rounded stone ceiling). The main cook/hostess was just what you’d expect: a roundish woman in an apron! Her two helpers were her daughter with her fiancé. The daughter spoke the most English but even then, we didn’t always understand. The food was amazing and their hospitality was outstanding. The aperitivo consisted of focaccia, tomato/cheese buns, a plate of two cheeses (pecorino and goat?) and two sausages (a red salami and an almost purple blood (?) sausage, a twice-baked potato found filled with fresh spices and a bit of cheese, and bruschetta. We had still and sparkling water, red wine, and Prosecco. The first course was two types of homemade pasta (which were sitting in large wood trays at the ends of our dining table when we arrived) – a linguine with mushrooms in a truffle sauce and a ravioli stuffed with gorgonzola and radicchio in a thin white sauce topped with small strips of pancetta and pieces of hazelnut. It was so good; we couldn’t stop eating it. Then they brought out a second course of roasted pork and rabbit rolls with a pumpkin squash cassolette and more focaccia. We barely put a dent in this course because we were so full after the first course. Then, because we are in Italy, we had tiramisu for dessert, which we all managed to polish off, it was so light and delicious. This dinner was a typical almost 3-hour affair, but their timing was spot-on and we had lots of time to relax, eat, and chat. We paid the bill and thanked them, clearly feeling that the experience was more a family style event than one you would find in a restaurant. We slowly walked back to the house, up the hill the entire way (like walking up our driveway at home eight times!).

Setting for Tuesday’s dinner in Ripabottoni (the woman in the picture on the right is Nonna Maria)

Tonight’s fresh ravioli waiting to be cooked at Nonna Maria’s

Jim, Anne, and Linda at our dining table

Anne, Linda, Nonna Maria, and Dave at dinner

Linguine with mushrooms and tartufa (truffles)

Primo Piatto – Ravioli stuffed with ricotta and radicchio served with pancetta and nocciola (hazelnuts)

Secondo Piatto – Pumpkin, lakfkladklsklad

Simple table decoration of tea candle on top of wine corks glued together

We were all exhausted and overfed from dinner, so it was time to head to bed.

Ripabottoni – Sant’Elia – Campobasso

On Wednesday we woke this morning to beautiful views of the area surrounding Ripabottoni. We then headed to Bar Centrale to get our morning cappuccinos.

Morning view from ‘piazza’ outside our house

Parish Church of Santa Maria Assunta – Ripabottoni

We started off on our adventure to see the town where Dave and Jim’s great-grandmother was baptized. That is the town of Sant’Elia a Pianisi. We stopped at the church where she was baptized; Jim spoke with the friar responsible for the church about the baptism records. The friar took Jim’s e-mail address and said he would send the information to him.

Fixer upper on way to Sant’Elia a Pianisi

Chapel along road to Sant’Elia di Pianisi

Street and architecture in Sant’Elia di Pianisi

Trees and architecture in Sant’Elia di Pianisi

Altar area of Chiesa di Sant’Elia a Painisi

Jim with friar at Chiesa di Sant’Elia a Pianisi

Pipe organ pipes in Chiesa di Sant’Elia a Painisi

Mary and Jesus statue in Chiesa di Sant’Elia a Pianisi

Window and painting above altar in Chiesa di Sant’Elia a Painisi

From there we headed to Campobasso, the birthplace of Dave and Jim’s grandfather. It is significantly larger than city than anyplace else we have encountered here. Its population is a little over 40,000. While there, we decided to have lunch at a restaurant Linda found called Monticelli. Jim and Dave were prepared for the worst, but it turned out everyone had phenomenal meals.

Cavatelli with peas, bacon, and cod in oil, ginger, confit tomato, and lemon zest

Spaghetti with black garlic, manteca, anchovies, dried tomatoes, mullet bottarga, roasted pepper, toasted bread crumbs, and caper flower

We returned to Ripabottoni traveling through the countryside, which means stuck behind a truck.

Once back home, we headed back to the Bar Centrale. Jim and Anne came down a little before us and they met a woman from Toronto who purchased her family home here in Ripabottoni. She will gut the home and renovate. It seems that there is federal financing available to fix properties that were “damaged by the earthquake” in 2002.

After a nice time at Bar Centrale, it made sense to have some “real” nourishment, so we drove to Morrone del Sannio, about 15 minutes away, to have dinner at Chalet Casalpiano. This turned out to be another excellent food choice. While we don’t have the names and descriptions completely for the meals (it was an oral menu), you can trust us when we say everything was great.

Pasta with red sauce and turkey meatballs with basil

We then headed back to the house and began packing up to be ready to leave early in the morning to return to Rome.

Tag: Ripabottoni

Back in Rome for number 43

Rome-Ripabottoni-Compobasso

Rome to Ripabottoni

Ripabottoni – Sant’Elia – Campobasso