Italian lettuce

Winter is not the time to experience the best of Italian vegetables, certainly. I've seen purple artichokes in the fields ready to harvest, as well as in markets. But there haven't been any offered up in the menus of the restaurants we've been at, alas.

But, I've been fascinated by the sizeable areas of lettuces growing under hoop house covers, acres and acres of them; they're butter lettuces (the green ones) and lovely purple ones, maybe a romaine, in alternating blocks. We've been driving by these farmed areas, without a chance to stop and peer closely at them.

Along the coast from Naples north to Rome, above the historic coastal town of Sperlonga (lovely, but no lodgings were available), large areas were being farmed in rich soil, although other areas lay fallow.

We're now in the center of Rome; I'll see what the markets are offering up in tomorrow's explorations.