Il Brigantino Pizzaria

Today's our last day of Rome, and we'd hoped to have lunch at the trattoria down the street; however, it didn't seem to be open for lunch, so we had lunch at Il Brigantine Pizzeria instead.

We shared some prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella.

We also shared some fried pizza dough, which was surprisingly
good.

I had some bruschetta with tomatoes, mozzarlla, and anchovies.

And one of my favorites: spaghetti carbonara. 

Spaccio Pasta

My husband and I went to an evening Mass tonight - a 6 p.m. Mass, which on a Sunday is most definitely outside our normal routine, since none of our local parishes have Sunday evening Masses - but after Mass, we walked across the street and had dinner at Spaccio Pasta.

We started with Crocchette di Pollo - fried chicken nuggets.

I then had Nudo di Manzo - a beef hamburger served with
melted provoke cheese and speck ham.

And for dessert, cheesecake.

Grande Secolo

My husband and I did our last load of laundry while we're here in Rome, and since we had finished doing such glamorous work at about lunchtime, we stopped into Grande Secolo, a Chinese restaurant a few doors down from the laundromat. The food was excellent (and probably only partly due to our needing a break from so much Italian food). 

I started with soup with chicken and shrimp.

We shared some egg rolls with chicken.

I forget the name of these particular dumplings, but they
were fantastic - almost like they were steamed with ginger.

My husband ordered the chicken curry, but I ordered a beef
dish with a red sauce.

My husband ordered an ice cream tiramisu concoction.

I ordered a gelato fritto -
fried ice cream (cream flavored ice cream).

This is what it looked like on the inside.

Il Nipotino del Solitario

It's a rainy, almost cold evening tonight, and my husband and I didn't care to travel far for dinner, so we walked across the street for tonight's dinner at Il Nipotino del Solitario.

appetizer: mixture of salted pork meats, cheee, and vegetables

side order of fries

caprese side salad (excellent buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes, & basil)

Fiori di Zucca
(gourd flower, anchovies, and mozzarella)

Ristorante Al Chiostro

Staying in a hotel in a foreign city on a holiday presents some challenges, mostly involving not knowing what is likely to be open, or for how long. The front desk clerk at our hotel had apparently gotten at least one fax from Al Chiostro, a local restaurant advertising a special Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas day lunch, so for a slightly later lunch today, we headed there. The restaurant had a special prix fixe menu, which made things convenient. Unfortunately, we weren't quite sure what were getting some of the time. Our dinner also came with house wine, water, and champagne. (I got through half a glass of red wine and called it a day.)

We started with a warm appetizer platter that came with,
among other things, cheese, bruschetta with a sausage spread,
and seafood fritters.

Next we had cappelletti in broth.

up next: fettucine al ragù

The  main entrée consisted of roasted potted and some very
delicious roasted chicken and lamb.

Dessert consisted of a buffet of traditional Christmas deserts;
I chose a Clementine, a slice of pannetone, a biscotti, and
two small pieces of unidentified deliciousness.

L'Antico Caffè Santa Maria

Figuring out what's open today is a bit of a hit-and-miss sort of situation, especially since we're traveling far from home and don't know the neighborhood. After a quick bite at a wonderful hole-in-the-wall kebab place (apparently they were only selling kebabs right then, which was fine by me; they were delicious), we wandered around our 'hood for a little while and came across the L'Antico Caffè Santa Maria. We picked up a few large cannoli (with a cherry on one end and chocolate chips on the other), a couple miniature cannoli, and a mini-pie with walnuts (although I don't know what the filling is yet). The large cannoli was pretty tasty, though, so I have high hopes.

Tre Scalini

My husband and I attended a Baroque Christmas concert tonight, after which we had dinner at Tre Scalini. Turned out to be a very good choice!

I started with Vellutata di zucca con fungi champignon e grana
(cream of pumpkin and mushroom soup with parmesan).

Then I moved on to Polpette all romana
(Roman veal meatballs)...

...and a side of oven-roasted potatoes.

I also got a very fancy gelato dessert:
coppa primavera - fragole, crema, vaniglia,
panna montata
(fresh strawberries, cream, and vanilla,
with whipped cream).

Scusate Il Ritardo

We had a very busy day today, and got started a bit late, but before we got down to sightseeing, we decided we needed to fortify ourselves by having lunch. We decided to start our day by visiting the Pantheon, and conveniently, Scusate Il Ritardo was a stone's throw away. We had our lunch overlooking the Pantheon, sitting in the Piazza della Rotonda. 

We started with the Insalata de mare tiepeda
(warm seafood salad).

My husband had the pizza with prosciutto. 

I had the Abbachio a scottadito con patate al forno
(grilled lab with roasted potatoes).

Ristorante Alla Rampa

Today was my husband's birthday. We're currently in Rome, Italy, and I asked one of the hotel managers for a recommendation for a good place where one might celebrate; he recommended Ristorante Alla Rampa, which is close to the Spanish Steps. Turned out to be a good choice!

We both started out with a small Caesar salad with chicken,

I had bruschetta with spicy salami - good stuff! 

Ed had an antipasto plate with salami, cheeses,
artichokes, bell peppers, prosciutto, and salami.

my entree: spaghetti with seafood

And for dessert, a chocolate ice cream truffle.
(my version of a happy meal)

Il Nipotino del Solitario

For the sake of convenience we went back to Il Nipotino del Solitario, where we'd eaten on our first night in Rome, for dinner tonight.

We started with bruschetta bianca (toasted bread with garlic
and alive oil).

We also shared some mozzarella.

I had some sliced steak with excellent mushrooms...

...and ended with chocolate mousse. 

Shawarma Station

After perhaps about five consecutive meals that consisted of pizza or pasta, I needed a break from Italian food (as good as it is here in Rome), so my husband and I decided to try the local Chinese restaurant. Unfortunately, it was closed, so we went around the corner to Shawarma Station, which served Middle Eastern cuisine.

My husband ordered the Shawarma platter, which came with
unidentified (yet tasty) meat and falafel.

I ordered a meat tube of some unknown variety.
(Really, tonight was a loss when it came to
meat identification.)

I got the Shawarma sandwich, which is what my husband
had ordered, except in pseudo-sandwich form.

Caffe Moretto

Between our attendance at the Papal Audience and our scheduled tour of the Vatican Necropolis and St. Peter's Tomb, my husband and I had a couple hours in which to have lunch. Right outside the gates was Caffee Moretto.

My husband had a sandwich that had marinated artichokes,
tomatoes, cheese, and fresh herbs.

I had lasagne, which is I think the first time I've had lasagne
and liked it.

I also ordered some meatballs, which were serviceable but not
great.

Il Brigantino Pizzeria

I don't know why I didn't see it last night as we were leaving our hotel, but this morning I noticed Il Brigantino Pizzeria almost exactly across the street as we were walking by it, so we decided to try it out for dinner tonight. It was excellent  - I suspect we may be going back at some point.

We started out with some bruschetta - the classic variety.

We also had a fried rice ball with meat and cheese (on the
right) and some fried buffalo mozzarella (the smaller pieces
on the left).

This is what they looked like once open. The buffalo mozzarella
was especially good.

I had pasta with sausage and mushrooms in a creamy sauce.

And for dessert, some three-layer chocolate cake. Each layer
was a different type of chocolate.

Ed had the tiramisu - which is better than any of the stuff I've
had Stateside.