Josh's birthday lunch in the country

After Josh returned from his Sunday morning ride, we took off for a drive to the countryside. Our destination was Civita Castellana, about 50km away. But the amazing thing about Rome is that just 12km from our home in the middle of the city, you can find pastures with sheep grazing. Get 20km out of Rome and you are surrounded by beautiful open fields with views of the mountains in the not too far-off distance. It doesn't take much time at all to be "away from it all." On the way, we stopped at Nepi - a village famous for it's water. Sure enough, just before you enter the massive, ancient, double-sided wall to get into the town's center, there on the right is a huge waterfall. There is also a very nice restaurant -- but too fancy for the kids this time.

I chose Civita Castellana, one of dozens of old Etruscan settlements in Lazio, because of -- what else but -- the castle. I figured it would be fun for the kids to visit yet another "fairy tale town" with a castle. But in the end, we never visited the "Rocca Borgia"castle or any of the other "not to be missed" attractions of Civita Castellana including mosaics from 1210 because...it was too damned cold to walk around. At 39 degrees with a solid wind out of the west, no one was interested in taking a walk. We did attempt it. We parked. We walked to the beautiful church with the columned portico where the parishioners were just concluding their Sunday mass. It was warm in there. But that's about as far as we got. We've simply turned into cold weather wimps!

So we high-tailed it to lunch. Fortunately, we scouted out our lunch spot, Mignolo, on our way into town and made a "reservation," because when we returned 35 minutes later, we were told they were fully-booked for lunch. Good thing there was, in fact, a table with our name on it: "Rosemberg." We have gotten used to being the "Rosemberg" family in Rome. There's something about the "n" never sitting next to the "b" in Italian that makes everyone assume the spelling is Rosemberg. At first, I wasn't getting emails from other parents at RIS because they were all

spelling our last name with the "m" instead of the "n." Well, the Rosemberg party of five has arrived. Sure enough, half an hour later, the place was packed. Needless to say, we ate heartily: an antipasti of mixed salamis and bruschetta; a primi of various pastas including the tasty papardelle with porcini; a secondi of steak with a balsamic dressing, and pork with mushrooms; a salad; and a couple of desserts. We sang "Tanti Auguri" as well as "Happy Birthday" but no candles were provided. Charlotte cried that she didn't get enough dessert as the waiter initially brought only 4 spoons and she had to wait to dig in to the quickly vanishing tiramisu and profiteroles.

The restaurant has no menu. The waiter simply tells you what's on offer. Therefore, you would expect the menu to be rather limited, but no. There is an extensive selection of pastas and main courses available. It's hard to remember what all the choices are. Here, you just have to tell the waiter what you like and go with his suggestion. Then, when the bill comes, there is just a number. No itemization of what was consumed, nor prices of any kind...just a final tab. How absolutely relaxed and wonderful an experience it is -- especially when the entire bill comes to 75 euro for five including the coperto, wine, water and coffee.

We were so ready for a nap by the time we got into our car, but first we had to drive home. It was a pleasant 35 minute drive...before we could all collapse into our beds.

Charlotte got together with a friend from school tonight. Her friend's mom picked her up around 6pm and took the girls to the Spanish Steps to see the big Christmas tree and the "Precipe" (nativity scene). Then, they went to an American style restaurant called T-Bone Station for dinner. According to Charlotte, the restaurant had a cowboy theme and she shared a steak and an enormous baked potato with her friend. The potato had melted cheddar cheese on it -- the first time Charlotte has seen or had cheddar cheese since being in Italy. She laughed with her new Italian friend about the massive size of the "American" portions...even the beverages came in huge mugs.

I made a late and light dinner for the four of us -- no one besides Olivia was particularly hungry. Then we opened the "Pandoro" box for dessert. Another Italian style cake for Josh and his birthday.