Roman moment

Saori and I took a late train from Florence and we arrived around six or seven o'clock in the evening. I'd picked out a B&B very close to Termini, 69 Manin St. De Lux. It was pretty cheap, a single room for about $50 (I opted to skip the breakfast), but surprisingly nice. The place was very small, perhaps ten rooms in the hotel, but nicely appointed and finished. The room came with an espresso maker and free coffee, and the shower was very nice with multiple shower heads. 

Anyway, the older proprietor checked us in, with an incredibly Italian accent, and gave us a map of the city and  told us to avoid any restaurants around the heavily touristy areas. (not that we needed that particular advice, but it was still nice). He did suggest we look in Trastevere, a neighborhood across the Tiber south of the Vatican. 

So Saori, who had lived in the city of Rome for a month, led us back to Termini and helped me buy a bus map and bus tickets. In Rome, the bus is by far the best way to travel. We took the bus line to a famous monument and worked our way across the dark, narrow alleyways and streets across the river. My guidebook had recommended a pizza place, but when we got there, we were greeted by a guy literally passed on on the bar. We walked through, and out the door. There were a lot of little restaurants in the area, and we were pretty hungry but nothing really caught our attention. 

Finally, we found a place that had a line of locals waiting to get in. Now, Trestevere is also a tourist scene, especially the more conscientious traveler, so to see a bunch of young Italians waiting to get into this place was like a giant neon sign saying EAT HERE!!!!!! Anyway, we checked in with the frenetic waiter and hung around outside. The place was called Trattoria Augustus and I highly recommend it if you have the fortune to be in Rome with an evening free.

After about thirty minutes, we finally got a table. Kind of. The place was really small, so our tiny table for two was side by side with another table already occupied by another couple. Whatever. There was only one guy running around taking orders and delivering food, so it took awhile to get him. Saori and I leisurely perused the menu, picking out what we wanted for our primi piatti and secondi piatti. When the waiter finally got to us, he knelt down because he was tired from running around. He indicated in broken english that they had a few menu items unavailable due to the late hour. Actually, there was only one item on the primi piatti menu and four items left on the secondi piatti menu. Ok, we laughed, we'll take the pasta and the chicken.

Actually, it was kind of like being at a big family reunion. It looks kind of like somebody's house, there's one guy running around like a maniac and trying to get everyone everything, and the menu is about as limited as flying coach. We did get a small carafe of the house red which turned out be the best wine I had anywhere in Italy and a loaf of amazing bread. 

Once we ordered, the dishes came out incredibly quickly. The pasta was astounding. It was a very simple pasta with lots of olive oil and parmesian cheese, but the olive oil was unbelievable. Imagine the best olive oil you've ever tasted- flavorful, subtle, fresh, and that was it. 

The chicken dish surprassed it. I don't even remember what it was called. Some kind of a Tuscan roasted chicken. It was phenomenal. Juicy, well spiced in a tomato sauce. It almost reminded me of Indian cooking. Of course, we had to order dessert to go with it, and we got a very passable tiramisu. Of course, it was only passable because everything else had been so good, but I'm sure by itself it would have been great. When it came time to pay, our waiter sat down in the empty chair next to us (the restaurant had become more open with all of our courses) and we helped him remember all the things we'd bought as he added it up on the paper tablecloth. Ended up being around $25 for each of us. 

We left incredibly full and happy, and slowly made our way back through the quiet and ruined city back to the hotel.