The Real Reality

Let’s face it. We live from meal to meal. Today is a perfect example.

Breakfast is a non-event except for the fresh squeezed orange juice made from Sicilian blood oranges. It’s enough to make a girl give up Diet Coke for good. Then there’s lunch which today I pick up from various salumeria and bakeries in the neighborhood. We’re talking fresh bufolo mozzerella, artichokes alla romana, thin slices of pork stuffed with spinach and sweet pachinos (tiny tomatoes) from Sicilia, accompanied by a few wedges of pizza bianca.

As for dinner tonight, we decide to leave our neighborhood and try a restaurant near il Campo di Fuori just a 10 minute walk across the Ponte Sisto. First we stop for a pre dinner prosecco at some random bar and then we head for Al Bric. It’s adorable—a tiny restaurant with an open kitchen and an awesome wine list. To begin, Steve has gorgonzola with pears and walnuts all wrapped up in a crisp pastry package--a winner-- while I start with the more ordinary baked tomatoes topped with parmigiano. Next course is home made pasta with broccoli and pine nuts for Steve and tiny home made gnocchi and baby octopi for me. Both are fabulosi. All this washed down with a dynamite Brunello from Montalcino.

Last but not at all least is a selection of goat cheeses accompanied by a drizzle of delicious honey. By now, we are truly in heaven. We get up to leave and discover it’s raining for the first time in nearly two weeks. Non c’e problema. Holding on tightly to each other, we totter home carefully over the slippery cobblestones feeling very righteous that we resisted dessert.