As good as yesterday was, today is proving to be better. I just went on the best walk I have had in this sprawling city. On the recommendation of Camilla, a woman I met on the plane ride over here, I decided to get lunch at a pizzeria in the Trastevere District. This neighborhood is a bit of a hike from my hostel, over the river in fact. The walk was so nice, that I have decided to make a route on Google Maps for other people to follow. If you click this and then drag the little orange man on to the route marked in blue, you can see exactly where I walked.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=Alessandro+Downtown+Hostel,+Via+Carlo+Cattaneo,+23,+Rome,+Italy&daddr=41.8967259,12.4924771+to:Viale+di+Trastevere&hl=en&ll=41.887582,12.473559&spn=0.017987,0.038581&sll=41.898125,12.494996&sspn=0.008992,0.01929&geocode=FZVOfwIdOMK-ACEfHXaVmurfPg%3BFRVLfwIdvZ6-AClZSj_FsWEvEzGAyXCgmk8JEw%3BFWAofwIdgFK-AA&vpsrc=6&gl=uk&dirflg=w&mra=dvme&mrsp=1&sz=16&via=1&t=h&z=15
I decided to take a street I have never walked on before, Via Panisperna. The weather was soggy and drizzling, and almost no one was out on the streets. As I listened to Basia Bulat and Bob Dylan on my iPod with my hood up, I walked down Panisperna being greeted by the sights of authentic restaurants and the smells of freshly baked pastries. Most of the buildings were modestly sized apartments, all in different pastel colors and all covered in orange, red, and green ivy-like flora. This was all covered in a layer of water from the rain, making the entire neighborhood verdant. This honest, organic scenery contrasted 100% from the big monuments of Rome surrounded by ‘I Love Roma’ t-shirt stands that assail you with hundreds of key chains and other made-in-China memorabilia. It doesn’t sound as impressive as the Vatican, but after days and days of being surrounded by the vendors and trappings of tourism at Rome’s biggest sights, seeing the beauty of actual Rome was so welcome. I jogged in front of the Victor Emannuel monument as quickly as possible to avoid tourists and their vibes, and then crossed the river to emerge in the Trastevere district.
I looked around for the restaurant, ‘Mamma Mia!’, in what had to be the nicest side of Rome I have seen yet. It was a relaxed, smart yet not too pricey side of town where the streets were clean and the tourists scarce. After running around looking, I eventually gave up and asked a street vendor “Il dovay Mamma Mia pizzeria?”. In perfect English, he replied that I had walked past it by 50 feet, but it was closed until dinner at 7pm. Well great. What am I supposed to do now? I walked to where the restaurant was supposed to be, and saw metal garage door curtains pulled over all of its apertures. A few feet away, another restaurant was less closed. Actually, it looked quite nice. I peeked in to see groups of Italians smiling and laughing over freshly cooked pizza from a nearby wood-burning pizza oven. Perfect! Up until this point, most “pizzerias” in Rome I have seen merely cook their pizzas in advance and then reheat them for a few seconds in a toaster oven to a lukewarm temperature that turns cold in seconds. I look ecstatically at the waiter and say, “Are you guys serving piz-“
“Last pizza just was cooked,” he interjects. I sob inside. “Very sorry, just cooked the last pizza. Look,” he tells me before picking up two giant, empty boxes that had previously been filled with pizza dough, “all done, nothing left.” “Oh…” I search for a reason to live, “is there anything else for lunch?” “Sit down,” he said, “do you like seafood?” I assent, and after about 10 minutes, I have the house special in front of me. It was a plate so large I could barely fit it in the frame of my camera. On top of a feeble piece of ceramic trying desperately to hold its contents lay a heap of giant pasta tubes oozing with oily tomato sauce, small clams, and mussels as big as infant fists. Oh, did I mention the whole fish in a separate plate-compartment in the bottom of the dish? That’s right, this lunch was so big they had to invent a plate suitable enough to hold it all. “Thank you,” I offered to the waiter, but he had already left grinning a knowing smile. I would be happy. He knew this.
From the first bite, I felt validation. This was right. All of the accidents and happenings; meeting Camilla on the plane, Ai Mammi being closed, they had all led me here, to this plate of delicious. My zen and lunch even attracted the attention of others. “Are two more people coming to join you?” a blonde couple asked next to me. “No,” I replied with a calm smile, “this is all for me.” We three started talking, but I felt bad for them craning their necks away from their table. Seeing as they were done eating, I thought I’d offer. I told them, “Hey, you guys wanna bring your beers over here to talk?” They sat down, and made me very glad that I had asked Joke (pronounced Yo-kuh) and Chris from Amsterdam over to my table. They were both too nice. Joke is starting a job as an intellectual property rights lawyer, and Chris is a mucky-muck at a bank. I told them I would actually be in Amsterdam in a few days. Chris took this as a hint to give me some tips, and asked “Do you have a pen?” Once I gave one to him, he took my napkin and wrote a travel guide of things to do while in Amsterdam, as well as his email. I couldn’t have asked for a better pair of people or a more fortuitous state of events. Chris even invited me over for a home cooked dinner in Amsterdam on Wednesday, and I am meeting them both for dinner tonight. All because I ordered what the waiter recommended, because Ai Mamma was closed, because I met Camilla on the plane. Sorta seems like fate when you think about it.
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