Food Truck Fairs in Rome

 

What's not to love about olive offerings from... an olive?

While haunting the near-in suburban area of Tiburtina, off via Tiburtina. we saw signs one day for what looked like an upcoming food fair in Casal Bruciato, part of that area. Besides the neighborhood's memorable name ("burned farmhouse"), the idea of a suburban food fair, far from tourists, appealed to us.

We got there a bit early, before the crowds started to build, and had our pick of food.

Above, the '70s housing some would decry, looming over a few of the 30 or so food stands, offering everything from Mexican food (far right) to grilled almost anything (the arrosticino stand at left).

We delved into some reasonably-priced carciofi alla giudia (Jewish artichokes, one of our favorite Roman foods), complete with sangria from the Mexican stand--probably not a combination of which Romans would approve.

The early fair-goers were mainly families with children, even in the shadow of the beer tents ("Birra Crudo") and cocktail bars ("Aperi-time" - their shelves lined with colorful bottles of Campari and Aperol).

The most prominent advertising was on the porta-potties (photo below): TTS Food ("Hey you, get a move on, the food is waiting"...."Your order is ready...don't take too long."

Only in doing research for this post (yes, even food fairs and Casal Bruciato require some research) did we learn "TTS Food" stands for "Typical Truck Street Food." The enterprise is active all around Rome and its environs and has a schedule. This summer they were in a dozen Rome neighborhoods, including Garbatella, Monteverde, and Trastevere. (Website here.)

Although we didn't stay for the music (see below), we will next time. It is just a pleasure enjoying  Italian food with real Italians - far from the tourists (I wonder how it all works in Trastevere?).

Right, a trumpeter setting up.

Left, arrosticini on the grill - we had some of these too.

The BBQ stand, right, seems to have an identity problem - American or Italian?

Left, pasta in a cup - with the Roman classics.

Right, grilled octopus (or pizza if you are less adventurous).

Left, catching the bus back - never far from Giorgia Meloni.

Dianne

The Auto Repair Garages of Rome

While walking in Rome, don't neglect the garages--the places where Romans get their cars and scooters repaired, or washed. Unlike many businesses, they are usually open to public view from the street. And they are in a variety of ways revealing--revealing of the interests and inclinations of the proprietors, who are invariably men. (We've seen a lot of women doing physical work in Rome--sweeping the streets, collecting garbage, delivering mail--but we have yet to see a female mechanic.)

Rome's a soccer town, and city-center Romans tend to be fans of the AS Roma team. 

Lots of AS Roma stuff, and a shout-out to the military, at left.

More sedate. Just a Totti jersey. Tools organized.

Sometimes you have to wonder how the mechanic can find anything. Not sure I would take my car here (below).

Garages represent the last bastion of sexism. Pin-ups are less common than they were, say, 20 years ago, but they're still around, here and there (far left and elsewhere in the photo below). This garage in the photo below (taken in 2018) is in Tiburtina. [And see the garage pin-ups Bill discovered in 2012 at the end of this post.]

Very organized, clean, highly decorated. 

Scooter repair shops often have a more subdued vibe:

This gommista (tire place) was closed when we went by, but the seranda was "revealing." 

Another tire place had created a waiting area for customers. Very "Los Angeles" we thought. 

It's not uncommon for auto repairs shops to do much of the work on the street. One could quibble about the use of "public property," but the activity is fun to watch. 

Steps from Piazza dei Re di Roma

This garage is interesting because of its location. It's cut into the Aurelian wall, in San Lorenzo. We saw it first on one of our "Wall Walks" in 2014, written up here.

And this garage is interesting because of what's inside and for sale: a 1965 1500L Fiat.  

We'll close with a couple of car-wash places. The first is an Auto Lavaggio a Mano--a hand car wash, probably do-it-yourself (fai da te). The attraction here is a large picture of Jesus (and a smaller one upper right, not too prominent).   

Christian car wash

And finally, from avant-garde Pigneto, a suggestion of who might be washing your car (as long as it's a Mercedes).

Bill (who else?)

A PS - In 2012, we found a set of pinups in a garage, and Bill declared it was the only one he had found to that point.  His post titled "Garage Art: the Pinup in Rome" is here.

The Station(s) at Tiburtina

The Tiburtina railroad station, the one near Piazza Bologna, was torn down about two years ago, and another took its place on November 28.  The old station was on Itinerary 7 in Rome the Second Time.  Not because it was of any architectural merit, but because it was the place where in October, 1943 over one thousand of Rome's Jews were put on sealed trains for shipment to Nazi concentration camps.  Seventeen returned.   Plaques on the station platform reminded travelers of that event of the massacre of more Jews, and other innocent people, by the Nazis at the Fosse Ardeatine.  The plaques are gone--at best consigned to some remote storage facility--and unlikely to reappear. 

The old station was small and crowded, and the new one should be a relief.  But the dominant impression is hardly one of comfort.  The new station is huge.  Almost comically so.  Like an aircraft carrier, or the hovering hunk of high-tech metal from outer space in the final scenes of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. 

Then, as one can see in the photo (right, center of photo), in July a fire consumed a portion of the new structure.  The authorities are still investigating (don't hold your breath). 

We'll have to wait to experience fully the new Tiburtina station.  But one part of the new building appealed to us: a colorful, angular box at the front of the station, positioned in playful contrast to the glowering mass behind it.  Almost as if the architect had had second thoughts and decided to include a day-care center. 

Back in our apartment, we were shocked to pick up one of our architecture books, Rationalism and Architecture in Italy during Fascism (a translation from the Italian) and see, on the cover, a design for a building--not identified elsewhere in the book---not unlike the fanciful cube at Tiburtina.  Had we not seen this drawing and seen it marked as an example of rationalism, we would have labeled it postmodern, if only for its complex window treatments, the use of the pink and blue (the colors of infancy), and the presentation of an unusual angularity that undermines a message of stark modernity.  While cut from the same cloth, the Tiburtina box goes a step further--and lifts our spirits.
Bill
[A reminder from Dianne - when itineraries need to change (e.g., because the station with its plaques is torn down), Updates are provided in an online document, and thru the ebook versions of Rome the Second Time.  Updates can be accessed with a click on the link on the blog at right, or right here.]