People who live and were born in Rome have different origins. Rome was and still is the so called “ventre molle” of public national government, destination and nest of thousands of civil servants and public managers, empire of merchants, taxi drivers and building contractors. But of course Rome is also a laboratory of art, music, literature, science, academic work. And a black hole of informal retail, criminal economy and drug market.
Rome is a trunk.
(picture from cambiaste.com)
Crack the lock! You can find small stones, debris, trash, old coins, overstated jewels and small pearls. Something smells bad, something blinds, but something shines as a diamond.
So, you have a big choise to take, as soon as the trash has been put aside. Following the mainstream or try something new....
That’s the reason why I will try to bring you to the discovery of few pearl drops. A small part of the bright side of the town, often little known and under appreciated by the majority of people.
PEARL ONE. TRADITIONAL FOOD
You can find three or four milestones of food tradition in Rome. Jewish tradition is one of the oldest, since roman jewish community is the oldest in Europe. Walking in jewish neighborhood you can tast delicious fried artichoke, capscum with chicken, tomato and oregano leafs, ricotta cheese pie with sour cherry and cinnamon.
Carciofi alla giudia (Picture from dissapore.com)
Torta ricotta e visciole (Picture from streatit.com)
Second choice, if you are not vegan, could be that of offals: pasta, vegetables and second dishes based on special offals cooking, using onions, garlic, bay tree leafs, juniper berries, and a huge amount of pepper.
Coratella coi carciofi (Picture from italianlinguini.blogspot)
Finally you can follow the safe way of roman traditional pasta. Two champions. Cacio e pepe, that is generally served with spaghetti o tonnarelli, flavored with a cream of pecorino cheese, hot wather and pepper. And pasta e patate, a winter extraordinary soup, made by broken spaghetti and potatos cocked with onions, celery, carrot, rosemary and just a taste of fresh tomato.
Linguine cacio e pepe (Picture from mmarysworld)
PEARL TWO. PARKS
Rome have a number of amazing parks and natural treasures too often underextimated by tourists.
Villa Doria Pamphili, 184 hectares of wood, lakes, historic residences and paths, extended from west Rome up almost to the historic centre of the town.
Villa Doria Pamphili (Picture from thefreak.it)
Villa Borghese, is the green heart of the town. A pretty lace of green silk, sprinkled of neoclassical house, fountains, decors.
Villa Borghese
Appia Antica Regional Park and Valle della Caffarella, in the very south of the town, is an alluvial valley of more then 19 square kilometers, spinkled of farmhouse and ruins of roman aqueducts.
Parco della Caffarella, Casale della Vaccareccia (Picture from bandb-rome.it)
PEARL THREE. INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY
Although Rome is not known as an industrial town, some industrial buildings deserve to be visited.
First of all the Pelanda complex, placed in Testaccio neighborhood. 5 thousand square meters devoted to arts and exhibition, it was the former slaughterhouse of Rome since the end of nineteenth century. Five buildings encircled a long gallery where you can still find the old tanks for animal’s blood and tools for flesh production.
La Pelanda (Picture from postitroma.it)
Following your walking in Testaccio, you cannot neglect a rapid view of the Ostiense industrial area. At the beginning of twentieth century, under the Nathan government of Rome the whole area of Ostiense neighborhood was lead to a huge development with the great market area, the Montemartini thermoelectrical station, the Gasometro structure, originally created to store and convert coal to provide town with energy, the river harbor and the Mira Lanza manufacturing restored at the very end of last century and converted into an amazing theatre, named India, the second largest public theatre in Rome.
Gasometro (Picture from archidiap.com)
PEARL FOUR. VERANO MONUMENTAL CEMETERY
Placed along Tiburtina road, it was a burial site since the period of the Roman Empire and assumed the modern structure thanks to Giuseppe Valadier project, under Napoleone reign and due to a special low that imposed to put cemetery out of the town walls.
The special light colour developed by the intersection of green trees and white monuments. The disquieting look of some statues…priceless
Verano Monnumental Cemetery (Picture from photocommunity.qtp.it)
