Spuma Bionda, or translated as Blonde Foam has a special meaning to Cart. As a kid, he and his childhood friend would buy these as it was more economical than say, Coca cola at the time. I looked at him amusedly as he would describe how he and Fabrizio would drink this by the litres.
It tastes pretty nice too, as it reminds me a lot of Schweppes Cream Soda which I gulped a lot as a kid myself. Unfortunately, the Spuma Bionda is increasingly difficult to find – I’ve never seen it at all in the supermarkets that I’ve been to. Instead, Fabrizio found it by chance by going to a bar (In Italy, bars doesn’t mean that they sold only alcoholic drinks, you could get coffee, aperitivo, snacks, sandwiches and the likes here)
Somehow this reminds me of a few other drinks that I consumed in my childhood but is increasingly rarer to come across in Singapore.
Been a while since I’ve seen sinalco
Inside is a red bubbly fizzy drink which up to now, I’ve no idea what it was supposed to be. Cherry? Strawberry? But it sure was strangely addictive. Up to the point that my siblings and I would gulp it all down before my mum even had a chance to drink some. I felt so bad when I saw her crestfallen face when she opened the fridge. We were such monsters
And its been a while since I’ve seen Kickapoo
Despite its strange name, as well as the cannibalistic looking cover of the bottle, I love drinking this a lot. It tastes like a combination of lime, lemon and others, but it was sweet and not too gassy. If I had my way, I’d drink this by the bottles.
And for sure, I’ve yet to any ICEE since secondary school.
While I’ve seen these slushies a lot during my childhood days, but somewhere towards my tween years, it was gone.
I was walking to my in-laws house when I saw this and immediately I felt a strong emotion in me.
This was a flyer of a man offering his services in teaching computer applications. And that is something that I’m very familiar with.
It has been a while since I left my workplace while in Singapore. I used to be attached to different schools where one of my tasks was to teach students on how to use computer applications. While it can be stressful, at the end of the day, it felt very fulfilling to me when the kids say, “Hey Ms Marina! Thank you for teaching me video editing, it really helped me in my project” or “Ms Marina! Can you show me how to do animations? I think its fun to play with”
I really miss all that. That’s probably why I’ve stayed on for over 5 years being a multimedia educator.
Unfortunately, Italy doesn’t recognize my certifications (it is disconcerting to know that Singaporean certs aren’t valid in a lot of parts of the world) And while I’m a lot better than last year, I’m still not fluent in Italian. This frustrates me. Because, I know I can do everything the man advertised and even more at the back of my hand.
And of course, one of the biggest motivation is the money. Certainly the money would be very useful in contributing my to my whims. After earning my own money for many years, it just feels wierd having to depend on Cart. I like having new shoes, bags and other frivolous but pretty things. But being on a single income, I feel that I should be more responsible in how I spend it. And though Cart never complains, I don’t want to be a burden.
I’ve countless of people always telling me things like, “Oh you should open a restaurant and cook Malay food!” or “Why don’t you open a business importing Asian goods to Italy, I’m sure there is a market there”. I know these people mean well, and I love you guys, but it’s not that easy and intangible. Especially I’ve no experience in this sort of thing. If you really believe that I can do that, and have the confidence that I can sustain from this, it would be much more helpful to give me step by step directions on what to do instead of giving me such vague ideas.
I probably could try to be a part timer and teach kids and young people to learn English, or be a nanny, but I just am not feeling it. Moreover, it really stung when I read a classifieds online asking for a English teacher who speaks English but she must only be from Australia, America, Canada and UK. What? Only people from these 4 countries can speak English? It sickened me.
Asking me to do something that I have no passion in is like asking say, Michaelangelo to be a plumber. He could probably be even good at it, but everyone knows that he was meant for this greatness.
I feel I am meant for my own greatness. I have so much to share and contribute.
The first time I saw the gay village banner, I was amused.
Though the name sounds dubious, turns out that gay village is more like a music event from June till September where DJ’s are invited to perform and people just enjoy themselves. Kind of like WOMAD
But the first time I saw this gay pride banner, I was stunned.
Mainly because I didn’t expect a country where the main religion is Roman Catholics to be so open about events such as these.
It looked pretty fun though and so festive! With so many people dressing up, a plentiful of cross dressers, it kind of reminds me of Thailand. We couldn’t stop because we were rushing to use the open bus before the services ends. I feel really bad that I missed it.
I even saw a tall one, all dressed up glamourously with a “Miss Italia” sash. I badly wanted a picture with her! Instead, all I could snap was is this lousy blur picture because the bus was moving.
It has been a while since I’ve blogged about our last gelato adventures, so I thought that I’d blog about one of the most famous gelateria in Rome, Il Gelato Di San Crispino.
This gelateria was founded by two brothers, Giuseppe and Pasquale Alongi when they were studying in university and discovered a gelateria. Having liked it so much, they decided to create their own gelato. And after much experimentation and years later, opened their gelateria which stands till today.
Entering the gelateria, the place looks clean and almost spartan. Instead of seeing the rows of colourful gelato as how you’d normally see in a gelateria, the gelati are covered by a metal lid so you cant see underneath how it looks like. And the only indication of the flavours are by the labels underneath it.
From the gist of the website, it is not necessary to know how the gelato looks like anyway, because the gelati are made from scratch and there are no preservatives or colourings used whatsoever. Hence the appearance might look muddy or weak as what we normally know them.
You can buy them in cups and here are the prices for the gelati here. 2 euro for a small cup, 2.60 euro for a medium and 3.40 euro for a large cup. Personally, I find the prices a bit high compared to the size of what you get. But I think its worth trying out once in a while. My only qualm is that the lady serving us seems to always be in a bad mood (that was not my first time going there by the way) to the point of throwing the lids roughly.
Notice that there are no cones? You can’t get cones here as the founders believe that cones contain colourings and affect how the taste is like.
And here were our gelati! Aren’t they pretty?
I had the San Crispino and lampone while Cart had the Pistacchio and San Crispino. We both had panna (cream) on top.
Of course as pretty as they were to look at, eating them was even better. The San Crispino flavour is a basic white ice cream with honey but it tastes delicate and lovely and tastes like springtime and I recommend this flavour to anyone who wants to comes here. The pink part, the lampone tasted lovely and fresh and sour, as how real raspberries should taste like.
I like the gelato here because of how light the ice cream tastes. You don’t get that cloying, thick feeling in your throat with this gelato.
Its also nice to know that the gelateria also has flavours according to season, like Mandarin Oranges for Winter and Strawberries for Spring. There are even rumours of a porcini flavoured gelato, although I’m not sure how true that is.
The one that we went to was in Via Acaia 56, but there are also other branches in Rome.
When its summer in Rome, its normal for the temperature to be at 35 and even to 40 degrees Celsius. There is a tradition here for many Romans to head to the beach in different parts of Italy. And some find this the perfect time to cool off in swimming pools.
The prices for the public swimming pools in Rome are unfortunately expensive though. Here are a few of the cheaper ones that I’ve found :
It’s probably cheaper if you could get a package or if you could find concurrent offers. There used to be a discount when you showed your ATAC ticket with hydromania but it might change depending on the year.
Here in Italy, there are two big sales mainly in January and the other in July. And since last Saturday, I’ve noticed loads of shops, mainly those selling clothes, shoes, bags and accessories being on sale, with big 50 percent off banners all over. Of course, that made me feel very excited!
With many of my summer clothes still in Singapore, this was a good excuse to buy moar pretty stuff, after all 😀
Hence, I went to one of my favourite clothes shoppe, Mango and scoured around for some wearable stuff and I saw a couple of outfits that I love. Like these :
I love the white cotton print dress. Its so comfortable and yet it makes me feel so pretty and girly. Pair it with a pair of heels and oooh laa laa, instant glam. I don’t think you could see it from the picture, but it has lovely lace details around it.
The green outfit is very wearable too. Its very comfortable as its made of a cotton blend. And because its stretchy, I don’t feel lumpy in this. It might look simple, but with the right accessories, its easy to look glamorous with this one too.
Unfortunately, in my opinion, the price doesn’t seem very sale-y. Even with the discount, it costs about 60 euro in total. Freaking heck. I’m just a housewife with no income. So this sale, doesn’t feel like a sale to me. But I do like my outfits anyway.
Anyway, I’m adding this picture of the dress I got from last year’s sale with me and Sweska. This was supposed to be an ala Marilyn Monroe shot. But it looks more like Sweska is doing something naughty instead 😛
Cart and I have been hosting the lovely Sweska and hensem Ntt and showing them around Rome since last Thursday. And just a few moments ago, we waved our goodbyes as they left for Venezia.
I could probably blog about the awesome food that we ate, like the orgasmic tiramisu that we had in Genzano.
Or blog about the interesting places and monuments that we’ve seen while in and outside of Rome like when we were on the open bus.
Or I could be cheeky and make a post about how the three of us had fun in bed with Cart taking footage of the whole act
Or how hopelessly addicted ALL of us were to the internet
But because I am still very sore and upset that no one cared to leave a comment on my spectacularly awesome video blog post about Bevagna, that I used brain cells, hours and creativity to edit.
So hard to give comment is it? Will die one is it? Humph!
So I protest. I wont blog about our expeditions. At all!
So had to start all over again and I’m just starting to learn riding theory in a private school which was supposed to be an English speaking one but turned out that they were as fluent in English as I was in Italian. It isn’t necessarily bad though, since its actually useful for me as I could polish up my Italian by learning about road terminologies.
I’ve learnt to be a lot more patient and not to laugh because now that I’ve been thrown on the other side, I understand how difficult it is for non natives to learn another language. Even if I think sometimes it sounds really strange and non fluid. Like the book that I’m reading from.
Considering that it is supposed to be translated by a native speaker, it sounds quite babelfish to me.
In any case, some of the signs were familiar to me, many of the signs are pretty universal, pretty much most of the symbols on this page below.
There were some signs that I’ve never seen before though, for example, in Singapore there are no trams like as there are towards the Rome city centres.
Recently, I’m learning about the right of way – which vehicle has the precedence to go first and it confused me as I was taught a little differently when I was back in driving school in Singapore. It took me one whole minute just to compute. I cant imagine how it will be like in the actual exam.
And speaking of exams, Lynn passed me her driving theory quiz book for me to borrow. And I’m starting to feel overwhelmed. Blog reader Roberto said that its not difficult, but I still feel apprehensive. My theory test is in a month’s time and I’ve yet to cover 1/4 of the books. So much to read and study!
Last saturday was Cart’s birthday so we decided to try to explore a little and try out a restaurant that we’ve never been to before.
Somehow we ended up in Testaccio which was not too far away from an old fireman station which I think is still functioning by the way. We weren’t very familiar with the place, but I was game to explore. Surely there must be a restaurant within walking distance.
And thus, our traverse begins. We walked past a multitude of shops, some of them common, some interesting. We walked past a couple of people quarrelling dramatically and past some tourists who wanted to head to Circo Massimo.
But after an hour and still no proper eating place, I was starting to feel hungry. And everyone knows that a hungry woman is an angry woman.
At length, we both raised our arms in the air in defeat and decided to go back to the car and make our way to a restaurant that we were familiar with. Like L’insalata Ricca or something. I was just about to open the door of the car when I noticed something.
What’s that? Is that a restaurant?
Curiosity got the better of me and we walked closer and saw a menu and a large conglomeration of people sitting down, having a meal. So it IS a restaurant! We walked for about an hour fruitlessly finding a restaurant and turns out we parked RIGHT in front of one!
In any case, the name La Fraschetta di Mastro Giorgio and it’s actually a trattoria by the way. A trattoria is less formal than a restaurant and the service casual. Nevertheless, it was a really lovely place. I admired the lovely courtyard outside all covered with grapevines. It was such a lovely shade of green, so relaxing to see. I could look out of the window all day.
And in the inside, it was not too shabby either, everything looked very rustic, from the wooden furnishings and the barrels and such. With the grapevines, country style furnishings and all, I feel as if I’m really in the countryside, even when I’m in the middle of Rome city centre.
If you were wondering why it looks quite empty inside, I suppose everyone prefers to dine in the courtyard. But its just as comfortable inside as it was air conditioned, what with having walked for an hour.
And since it was a trattoria, service was a little slow but its worth the wait as we found out, the food was as lovely as the place itself. While it’s non traditional, the pasta was really al dente and very tasty. Like my tonarelli with cozze.
There was pecorino cheese sprinkled lightly on it and I was a little surprised. There is an unwritten rule in Italy that you never add cheese to seafood pasta. But the salty pecorino cheese accompanied my tonarelli well.
While Cart had fettucine alla sorrentina.
While most places would be gentle with the basil, the sauce was generous here and I can totally detect and I love it tastes like. I love fresh pasta! And its wonderful when its freshly cooked.
For dessert I had the mint semifreddo with chocolate sauce. Semifreddo is something that I just discovered recently and I love it so much. Translated, it means half cold and it is usually made of whipped cream and you can use a variety of flavours like white chocolate, raspberries.
I had to savour this one slowly so that it doesn’t disappear before I knew it.
While Cart had a crostata with ricotta e visciole which is a type of cherry. Cart loved it. He said that it tasted very home made and was really pleased that the waiter gave him a large piece.
All of a sudden, Cart started to stare outside of the window, into the courtyard transfixed on something. And he asked me :
Cart : Hey! Look at that lady behind you. Doesn’t she look like someone you know?
I noticed a young woman in a blue dress winding and tying the straps of her purse on the chair.
