Saturday morning found us packed and reluctantly ready to go. We would fly the short distance from Florence to Rome, spend a night there, and then cross the Atlantic back to New Jersey. We enjoyed a quick breakfast, bid goodbye to our host Barbara and her staff, and drove to the airport. An uneventful flight brought us to the airport in Rome. We must have been the only couple not catching a connecting flight out of Rome. This would as we were about to find out, add a final and unpleasant twist to last leg of our trip. We talked about what we'd seen and done over the last we as we waited for our bags at the luggage carousel. By and by we noticed that we were the only ones still waiting and the carousel stopped turning. Traveler's nightmare, lost luggage! We went to the Alitalia office for lost things and filled out a report and claim. It being such a short flight we didn't have the foresight to pack a change of clothing in our carry-on bags. I had visions of our bags catching a connecting flight to parts unknown, while we stayed in Rome. We decided to go to our hotel and wait to see what the airline could discover.
The Crown Plaza Hotel at St. Peter's in Rome gets my personal thanks for having a staff that was very comforting and helpful to two very stressed out tourists. The concierge made repeated calls to the Alitalia office to find out what progress if any had been made in the search for our missing bags. We decided to carry on with our plans for that afternoon and evening anyway. We got a recommendation from the concierge for a restaurant to dine at that became the bright spot in an otherwise frustrating day. Dinner reservations made, we had about 5 hours to spend and given our disappointment with the efficiency of the airline, we decided to take solace at the hotel bar before doing a little sightseeing. I can now say that there is nothing (for me at least) to take your mind off of lost luggage like a good martini. A real martini, the kind with good gin, not vodka, and nothing more fancy than good olives to garnish it.It is a timeless cocktail that, when properly executed, does wonders for one's mindset. My mindset at that point actually required three of them. My wife, realizing that I might be perfectly happy to remain at the bar the rest of the afternoon suggested that we move on. We took a cab to a neighborhood referred to as the Old City. Not having time to see any of the major sights of Rome, it was suggested by our bartender that this was a good place to just stroll around and relax. It was an unremarkable part of the city. There were no real tourist attractions and it could have been any large city in the world. We both found it very interesting. We perused a couple of enotecas, a guitar shop, and stopped for a glass of wine before catching a cab to the restaurant.
Citta' del Gusto is on the outskirts of the city of Rome. When we asked the concierge for a recommendation, we were specific about not wanting to eat in a typical tourist trap restaurant. He couldn't have been more precise in his suggestion. Located on the west side of the Tiber River, in a hip looking plaza that also houses a movie theatre, the restaurant is on the 4th floor of the building that houses it. The restaurant is a lounge on one side and a dining room on the other with the bar dividing the two rooms. The dining room looks like a Manhattan loft space with tin ceilings supported by pillars. Hardwood floors and floor to ceiling bookcases line one wall. Instead of books, there are bottles of wine representing the wine list. There is a bar on the backside of the lounge bar with a display case of cured salamis and cheeses. The opposite wall is floor to ceiling windows that face out at the city and the Tiber. It was so hip we forgot all about our luggage issues and melted right into the scene.
We started out with glasses of rosato and read over the menu. Luckily our waitress, a remarkable young woman, spoke English very well. We ordered our appetizers and entrees and a very cool bottle of red wine to go with dinner. My appetizer order was probably the most tourist-like move I made the entire trip... Beef carpaccio. What is it that they say? “When in Rome...”The pairing with my rose was perfect. The raw beef melted in my mouth. My wife Stacey, not being as adventurous as myself, simply rolled her eyes. The waitress arrived with the bottle of wine I ordered to go with dinner. It was a Bonarda from the Lombardy region in Piedmont.
Bonarda is a red grape usually blended with Nebbiolo in Piedmont, but there are good examples of it being used as a primary varietal. This was one of those. The producer, Martilde, labels their wines with sketches of Siamese cats in various poses. This one, with a picture of a man and one of the cats sleeping was called “Ghiro d'Inverno” or Dormouse of Winter. One must infer that are residents of the estate. My favorite part about this wine and to a greater degree wine lists in Italy in general, is that it had some bottle age on it. It was a 2004 vintage. Medium in body with red fruit flavors and a dried fruit note, it was just right to pair with my entree, grilled tuna steak.
By the time we finished dinner, our troubles were very far away. A cheese course and coffee brought the evening to a perfect end. We got the check and asked if the hostess could call a cab for us. As we waited we told the hostess about how amazed we were that on a Saturday night, our waitress handled the entire room by herself and what a wonderful meal we had. We were offered after dinner drinks and we chose an Averno, a Sicilian digestive. The taxi arrived, we again thanked our hosts and waitress and headed back to the hotel. It had been a really cool week and this unexpected but delightful dinner capped it perfectly. The following morning at the airport I made one more inquiry about the location of our bags. After staring at a computer screen for a few minutes, the attendant told us our bags were waiting for us across the hall. It really could not have ended better.
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