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

Pasquetta: in Villa Borghese:

Unlike most Americans, who go back to work on the Monday after Easter, Italians celebrate Pasquetta, or "Little Easter."  There's more eating to be done, of course, and most of the museums are open, which is unusual for a Monday.

But for Romans, anyway, the great pleasure of Pasquetta is spending the day at one of the city's enormous parks.  Most of the parks--Villa Ada, Villa Pamphili, Villa Borghese--were once owned by very wealthy families,usually families lucky enough to have royalty or a Pope  or two in their genealogy.  That all ended after 1871, when Italy became a nation and began to expropriate lands and buildings that had once belonged to the Catholic Church (in the case of Villa Ada's case, the land was purchased in 1872 by the Savoia family for their Royal residence in Rome).  One by one, the parks became public property, available for everyone to enjoy.

And enjoy them they do, especially on Pasquetta, as we discovered this past Monday on a walk through Villa Borghese, the massive and complex green space that lies north of Piazza di Spagna and
and northwest of Piazza del Popolo.

Very unusual--a table

The park has no picnic tables--at least we didn't see any--but Romans love to sit on the grass, with or without a blanket, and even if the grass has gone to high weeds, as it had in some areas of the park.

One family (out of hundreds) had brought a folding table on which to put food and drink, but by and large the eating had been done earlier.

Playing on the statue, or kicking a ball against it

Granddads and Dads (and now and then Moms) were everywhere kicking a ball with a kid or kids.

Three young men were throwing a regulation-size American football (though only one had any real sense of how to do it, and one of them gave up after a few wobbly throws and a dropped pass and retreated to a fountain bench to finish a beer--you can buy beer in the park, in glass bottles no less).

There was some tanning going on.  The Italians were/are late to quit smoking, and now, it seems, they're late to the recognition of skin cancer.


Bicycling was popular on the broad avenues that run through Villa Borghese.  You can rent a single bike or, for a healthy sum, a covered vehicle that can be pedaled by two or four.  Pedestrians watch out!

Line for the bathroom

Our goal was to see exhibits at two museums in the Villa, both of them free: the Carlo Bilotti Museum, named for the wealthy American who financed most of it, and the Museo Pietro Canonica Museum, home and working space to the sculptor (1869-1959) by that name.

Neither was crowded, and the long line at the Carlo Bilotti was for the restroom.

Notwithstanding beer sales, the police had little to do. 

We had a grand time watching the Romans have a grand time, en masse on Pasquetta.

Bill

Roman Women: Working in the Streets

There are feminists in Italy, and in Rome, but it would be too much to say that the country, and the city, have embraced women's rights.  Some of this reluctance has to do with the Italian family, an entity held in high regard (to say the least) for generations, if not centuries, and the normative role of women in that family. This was especially true under Fascism, when Mussolini demanded more children per family (at least 8, up to 20) and the state subsidized maternity homes with a tax on spinsters and bachelors, among others.  Naturally, most women stayed home to raise the kids.  Women didn't get the vote until 1946, but adultery by a woman was still a public offense.  Not until 1975 did the Italian parliament abolish the right of a husband to control his wife's existence. 

Caught taking her picture

By 2000, the average family size was 2.6 persons, and only about 2% of families had 4 or more children.  Moreover, women of all ages could be seen scootering around Rome, a form of physical liberation, at least.

Even so, as of the turn of this century less than 1% of Italian managers were women, only 10% of parliamentarians were women (and 33% of Italian women said they wouldn't trust a woman prime minister), only 44% of women were employed--the lowest figure in the European Union--and women were dramatically underrepresented in every basic job category--state employees, factory workers, business owners, self-employed--except office workers, where there was rough parity. 

What's surprising then, is that one sees women cleaning the streets and picking up trash.  Yes, cleaning the streets and picking up trash--jobs usually associated with men and, in Buffalo, where RST sometimes resides, an occupation apparently (from our observation) all male. 

Who would have guessed?

Bill

As part of her job, this woman postal worker gets to ride a scooter--on the sidewalk even.