A last day in Rome

Campo de Fiori market

A final day wandering through the streets of central Rome on a cool winter's day saw lots more people enjoying a Saturday post-Christmas. Tourists from all over, but also families out to lunch.

Unexpectedly, we ran across a upscale vegetarian restaurant (Il Margutta) at lunch-time, and enjoyed selecting eggplant, grilled peppers, and other dishes (more vegetables than I'd seen in our entire trip).The market at Campo de Fiori was open, with vegetables and fruits from warmer parts of Italy and abroad. The varieties of lettuce and radicchio were grown nearby, though, and cheese, dried tomatoes, and nuts were also being offered.

The nicest balcony that we saw in an otherwise plant-challenged city

These dogs were enjoying an outing on the Spanish steps (Mocha would NOT like to have any sort of sweater, however, quite popular for well-dressed Roman dogs).

The view was nice from the hills above; Rome was quite peaceful on this post-Christmas visit.

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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.

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Italian chicory & the Almafi Coast

We saw Sea Kale (Crambe maritima) along the coastal paths today, at least I think it was sea kale. A vegetable that I've seen only in Thomas Jefferson's vegetable garden at Monticello and in Old Salem, NC, it's a European native that looks like a very large leafy kale.

Of equal interest has been all the varieties of Italian chicory. I grow several (the groundhogs like them), and their bitter flavor makes an agreeable counterpoint to blander greens.

Bundles were displayed at a fruit and vegetable market in an Amalfi Coast town (Vietri del Mare); the grocer laughed when she saw my gardening companion taking a photo.

I'd look quite at home strolling here if it wasn't for my Keens!

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Crops on the Amali Coast

Even along the fabled Amalfi Coast, there is still food being grown. Traditional specialty crops, to be sure - the ancient terraces largely support olives and lemons, with vegetables grown occasionally. But it was remarkable to us to see this even in a heavily touristed area; I imagine that the land has been protected in some fashion, to remain agricultural in such a visited area.

In December, the tourist traffic is light indeed, but there's still only enough parking for locals, and we can only imagine the chaos that occurs in summer.

The Amalfi Coast IS beautiful; it's certainly the equal of Highway 1 north of San Francisco, or the area near Carmel, CA, always mentioned in terms of beautiful coastal drives. The Gaspe Peninsula in Quebec is also spectacular, but the Amali Coast is living up to our expectations, even in the winter!

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First impressions of Southern Italy (gardens)

What's remarkable about the slopes and valleys of Mt. Vesuvius (near Naples) are the vegetable fields and orchards. This is a heavily urbanized area, filled with (ugly) modern apartment houses, industrial plants, and various other things. But woven among them are pocket fields -- mixed plantings of onions, mustard greens, kale, cauliflower - aside of orchards of oranges, lemons, and dormant fruit trees. They grow nuts (hazelnuts and walnuts), as well as cherries, apricots, and probably peaches, nourished by the rich volcanic soil.

There are also rows of covered hoop houses, also growing greens, but also ornamental plants. It's hard to tell because they're obscured with the fiberglass and plastic.

To us, it's impressive to see the integration of small urban farms of 1-10 acres with an heavily populated and urban landscape. Behind many apartment blocks are small home vegetable gardens, including a few citrus trees, with dormant fruits and nut trees, punctuated by rows of greens, cauliflower, and onions.

Surprisingly, there are Japanese persimmons, too, thriving in the mild maritime climate. The tall leafless trees are loaded with fruit (putting my small tree to shame). They're hardly a traditional Italian fruit, but we've see a few in a small city fruit stall, in Sorrento, after escaping Rome traffic, and the jammed autostrada. Even in the business hotel that we stayed in last night, they served delicious cold greens, roasted red peppers, grilled zucchini with lemon and herbs, and roasted eggplant on the 'contorni' table. Yum.

It'll be interesting to see what's grown along the Amalfi Coast in winter (this is a fabled area for tourists and OVERRUN in summer by people of all nationalities.)

But the coast is beautiful, and in winter, and in a very down economic time, even budget-minded travelers like ourselves are finding quite affordable accommodation. Much less that you'd imagine for Italy even 6 months ago.

My gardening companion, an avowed olive-hater, pressed me to have a very large green olive, presented as part of snacks with pre-dinner drinks. Scrumptious, actually, not salty like the ones at home, or shriveled, but delicious, fresh, and light-tasting.

It's been raining, so we don't have any pictures yet, but the moon was bright, and almost full this evening, so tomorrow may be better!

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