Sunday, October 03, 2004


hit the ground drinking

ok, so a twist like me touches italian tarmac, and naturally the first thing i do is take a deep breath at the dispiriting worthlessness of the u.s. dollar (henceforth known as "doesn't even make a decent tissue") against the euro. i kept hoping if i double-clicked it like a thumbnail pic, it would grow larger, but alas. . .

tazza then of course i hop into a taxi and tell the driver we're going to the tazza d'oro. devoted readers and all coffee lovers know this hallowed coffee bar near the pantheon in rome.

some feel it serves the best coffee in all of italy. and no one can deny the silkiness of those cappuccini. . .

but the real roman beauty is lurking in a bakery, panarella, on via meraluna, not five blocks from the santa maria maggiore. this place is famous for its handmade, traditional italian breads. all those rare and lovely loaves you've read about in carol fields' "italian baker" can be seen here in person.

panarella is basically a dean & deluca just for bread and pastries. but with worse attitude. i entered to see the 8 kinds of heritage flatbreads you can't get anywhere else in italy anymore.

what's interesting is that the near-vanished "contadina" loaf, a focaccia-like bread made of whole dark grains, is a very reasonable E1.80. but the pizza bianca with prosciutto crudo and fresh figs -- a roman staple for snacking -- was E35 a kilo!

(hint: il forno tucked away in a far corner on the campo di fiori has this same fabulous snack, but with san daniele ham, and at only E3 for a giant portion. it's even better than the panarella pizza bianca and costs about 150% less!)

arduino but what i found unexpectedly was an incredible, sexy, gorgeous, gleaming chrome 100-year-old-and-didn't-look-a-day-past-new vittoria arduino espresso machine. i thought i was gonna faint dead away.

of course, i had to have a cup of coffee. unfortunately, the uniformed barista felt i just wasn't up to his standards, even tho' i was wearing a big-city dress, acting like a grown-up and even speaking decent italian. maybe he objected to my walking shoes, i dunno. . .

but after a lot of sighing and some eye-rolling, i did in fact manage to get a ristretto. it went like this: "potrebbe darmi un caffé per favore?" (may i have a coffee please?) to which he responded with an eyebrow and a sigh: "cappuccino."

as it was past noon, well beyond normal cappuccino time, i nicely corrected him: "mi dispiace, un ristretto, per piacere." (i'm sorry, a ristretto, please.) and then he asked me in english if i was english.

arduino this is when i learned that i apparently speak italian with what is perceived as a british accent; this dogged me all over italy, north and south.

anyway, i got my coffee, and it was terrible, frankly, as you can see from this candid moment. . . beautiful machine, but really he did butcher the illy. . .

knowing me as you do, dear readers, it won't surprise you in the least when i tell you i bought eurostar train tickets to naples purely for the pleasure of drinking coffee there as well. well that's not exactly true: i think naples is fantastic.

in naples i always try to make it to the famed caffé gambrinus, caffé del professore, bar mexico, and of course pastry heaven, scaturchio. i did take some time out to pick up a bottle of the wonderful and delicate cologne by acqua parma, the iris nobile.

how i love its blend of iris, orris root, ambrette, star anise, and vanilla. . . sorry. back to the coffee. . .i do agree that fame has lowered the quality of gambrinus a tad. but that still means it's damn fine coffee, made with a wonderful old-fashioned four-group lever machine.

plus the baristi in gambrinus are always pleasant and a joy to watch work. they too wear uniforms, honored by time, and take themselves with a great, charming seriousness. gambrinus

i also stopped in at the professore for one of their special "caffé del professore" drinks. this is espresso in a wide-mouthed tumbler served with chocolate sauce, hazelnut sauce, hazelnut liqueur, and cream. yummy.

it may be the only flavored coffee drink anywhere that's actually worth drinking. sadly mr. right didn't get a picture of this concotion; you'll have to go to naples yourself and order two.

however, he did manage to get a snap of the bar mexico across from piazza dante, which is much changed now that they have finished the subway construction there. after lunch i sauntered down the via port'alba past all the student bookstores and picked up a nice, basic workbook for myself, "l'italiano per amico, un corso di italiano per stranieri." (friendly italian, a course for foreigners).

this is a great workbook, used by the national program aimed at assimilating refugees into italian life. all the characters in the book are named abdullah, habeba, wang ching. . .very helpful in helping pass the time during the dull parts of train journeys. . .

mexico at the mexico they serve a 100% arabica blend, "harem," which you can see in the background of the pic. the mexico's a place where you can meet all naples: students, shopkeepers, business people, cab drivers, just everyone.

and of course the coffee's wonderful, widely thought now to be the best in naples. i also recommend their second location across from the train station and just 3 blocks from that neapolitan institution, mimi's, a restaurant whose fame has been long-trumpted everywhere but which has maintained its high standards and great food.

scaturchiothen finally scaturchio. i have a picture here somewhere. . .i'll find it in a bit. ah, here it is; can you imagine my sorrow when it was time to leave the gorgeous city of naples?

of course i managed not to do until i had a pizza margherita d.o.c., the certified pizza verace napoletana, at trianon. . .more on that later. . .

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