Rome! A Broken Computer and the Beach! Plus 9 things I recommend in Italia!

I arrived in Rome and was about to post about my trip recommendations for Martha’s Vineyard when my computer broke. Black Screen of Death. An unexpected adventure ensued. The next day I traveled from Frascati to Rome with my friend Ada to go to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store on Via del Corso. I signed a form saying that it’s okay if everything on my computer disappears while they try to fix it and then I went out into the hot afternoon with Ada to get a gelato. That was Day 2 in Italy. The following two weeks I was blissfully without my computer—as if God/the universe/angels/ancestors were saying—“See! vacations are better without your laptop. Just enjoy yourself.”

The following is a list of things I enjoyed in Italy, including my recommendations for your trip to Italia.

1. Italian lessons. The theme of this trip was cultural immersion. I’ve been taking Italian lessons with Antonio since July so I’m definitely nowhere near fluent, but having a little bit of a grasp on pronouns and articles and key verbs and tenses helped me to understand and communicate more than any of my trips before. Making an effort to listen closely and communicate made this trip extremely special. Ada and her very big family were patient with me and we all used Google translate regularly. Everyday there was a big dinner at Ada’s with as many as 12 or 18 family members showing up for a birthday party or just dinner and on one occasion the youngest family members—age 8-14 taught me hand gestures and important phrases in Italian like “Che stai facendo?!” Or “what are you doing?!” I highly recommend having your Italian friend’s kids/relatives teach you the correct voice projection, hand gestures, facial expressions and phrases in Italian. These kids were brilliant teachers/acting coaches.

 

2. Make friends at weddings. I met my friend Ada at a wedding just after I finished culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. One of my friends from school, Patrick, had moved to Italy after graduating and was getting married to Daniela, in Rome and I was invited to their nuptials. Their mutual friend, Ada made the delicious wedding cake and Patrick and Daniela introduced me to her. Ada and I bonded over cake and it turned out that she wanted to do an apprenticeship in a French pastry kitchen in Paris so months later I organized a day long stage (French word for apprenticeship) at Taillevent, the restaurant where I was working in Paris. Ada and I have been friends ever since and for several years I made an annual trip to Italy to hang out with Ada and her family and see Patrick and Daniela. For some reason I stopped going to Italy for about 10 years but I’m hoping to make the annual visit a tradition again.

 

3. Frascati. Yes, Rome is great but check out the small town of Frascati where Ada and her family live—about 40 minutes away from Rome. It’s charming and beautiful and there are vineyards and a gigantic palazzo in the center of town called Villa Aldobrandini that you can rent for special occasions and there are lots of nice cafes and some of the best pizza I’ve had in Italy and great markets on the weekends. There’s a great place that makes gelato with wine that I highly recommend called Gelato Divino.

 

4. Bvlgari Hotel for aperitivi. I did not stay at Bvlgari. Rooms at Bvlgari in Rome cost 2000 to 9000 euros (that’s about $2331 to $10943) per night. PER NIGHT (not per month or per year). So, I didn’t stay there but my good friend Ali recommended it as a lovely place to get aperitivi. I called in advance to reserve a table and I recommend you do the same. If the weather is sunny, you want to get a table on the 5th floor outdoors or on the rooftop. Of course the rooftop has the most spectacular unobstructed panorama of the city, but the fifth floor has good views too. If you order a cocktail or glass of wine (they have non-alcoholic beverages too) it will cost you about 25 euros but you’ll get chips, olives and nuts to snack on plus, in true Italian style, they send out a complimentary tray of bites including 24 month aged Parmesan, a crostini with ricotta and anchovies, arancini, and a crostino with mortadella. On my second visit, I requested two trays of snacks because they are delicious and I was very hungry. Even though the place is super fancy the staff is quite friendly (not at all snobby) even if you’re not a hotel guest.

 

5. Cinecitta. If you love films, want to make a movie, or adore Fellini or Marcelo Mastrionni or any number of Italian cinematic stars, you should really make a trip to the outskirts of Rome to Cinecitta and visit the film and audio museums. Cinecitta was built in the time of Mussolini to be a studio where films were made (think of the Italian version of Paramount or MGM). Fellini made many of his films at Cinecitta and I think the studio is still in use today. It's a very engaging and educational museum with many different sections focused on all details of filmmaking. My three favorite parts are the exhibit focused on Fellini, which shares a lot about his creative process and biographical information; the green room which lets you pretend to be in an action movie and “film” scenes with you as the star—jumping out of the way of crashing asteroids or trains. I also love the director’s room, which has artifacts of famous directors like Martin Scorcese and Fellini and personal stories about their approaches to filmmaking.

 

6. Da Teo. Trastevere is one of my favorite neighborhoods in Rome and da Teo is a great restaurant in there. I had fried artichokes, grilled swordfish and a salad and will be going back and recommending this place a lot.

 

7. Napoli day trip. There’s a high-speed train that will take you from Rome to Napoli in one hour. I will be writing a whole post dedicated to Napoli, because I fell in love with it, but if you’re in Rome and have a spare day or two I highly recommend this trip. The day I visited the weather was sunny and gorgeous, so I walked around the Centro Storico and Lungomare. I ate amazing pizza and sfogliatelle and felt blissful. Go to Napoli if you can.

 

Sabaudia. I feel most serene near a beautiful body of water. The beach (anywhere) is one of my happy places—therefore I love Sabaudia. Located about two hours from Frascati, this is one of the loveliest beaches I’ve been to in Italy or anywhere really. I went with Ada and her family, we were about 18 people deep. Their approach to the beach was mine too—spend the whole day there, not just a few hours. We swam, (the water feels like bath water it’s so very comfortable) we lounged, we picnicked. We swam some more. I may have taken a short nap at one point. I walked along the shoreline to get my steps in. At the end of the day we had aperitivi—one of Ada’s cousins (a very hot, very fit 60-something gentleman who reminds me of a younger Giorgio Armani) brought nine bottles of wine and offered a glass to everyone including our neighbors on the beach. I felt like I was at a family reunion/cookout. It was a great day. It takes a while to get there but a sunny day in Sabaudia is heavenly.

9 . Villa Borghese is a gorgeous and enormous park near Piazza del Popolo. It’s got a beautiful galleria with works by Caravaggio that you should see. This trip I skipped the galleria and just walked around and sat down and stared at trees. 

My computer is still broken but who cares? I had a lovely time without it.

P.S. This is the second birthday of my book, For the Culture: Phenomenal Black Women and Femmes in Food. If you haven’t already purchased it yet you should buy it! Also—for theater fans—check out The Brothers Size playing at The Shed before it closes on September 28!