I just heard the weather report for this weekend in Boston and Cape Cod. This blog post is dedicated to you hearty New England souls.
There is a saying in Italian that Marzo è pazzo, March is crazy and usually this is true. I can remember March days with wild wind and dark clouds and fierce claps of thunder. Not this year. March 2017 has been blue skies and warm sun and this week, the trees and vines have started to turn green and the wisteria is in bloom with it's sweet purple scent.
So for those of you enduring for another gray cold weekend I hope these pictures of spring in Rome bring you at least the promise of sunny day.
Breakfast is a meal that get a short shrift in my house. I am perfectly happy with a big mug of coffee until lunchtime. (Unless I am in America and then I am all about a poppy seed bagel with lox.) Most mornings I am at my computer or in the yoga studio so making something for breakfast just doesn't happen. There other morning I tried something new. Breakfast delivery. Yes you read that correctly. There is breakfast delivery in Rome. And it includes avocado toast.
The last thing I need is more plates. I have more than enough. They have been collected two by two over the past three decades from fancy shops in Cape Town and Hermanus, dusty stalls in Marrakech, garages and backyard pottery studios in Harare, in Umbrian hill towns and beachside shacks in Positano. Nothing matches, but somehow they all go together. All that said, when my other ceramic fanatic pal called with a lead on a large collection of Buon Riccordo plates I somehow could not find it in me to say no.
One of the hallmarks of the Longworth McGuire death march of fun that we subject anyone that comes to visit us here in Rome is a trip the Aventine hill to peek trough the keyhole at the door of the Villa del Priorato di Malta. The Piaranese designed view of Saint Peter’s basilica perfectly framed by a long row of cypress trees is always a thrill. Did you know that a fews day a year you can go behind that green door?
Italians in general and Romans in particular get a bad rap when it comes to driving. In my opinion they are actually far more skilled than the average American driver, there is just a little more flair and emotion involved. Did you know there is a patron saint that looks out for all those Roman drivers? Her name is Santa Francesca Romana and her feast day is March 9. In 1925 Pope Pius XI declared her the saint of drivers because she was said to have an accompanying angel that always lit her path when she traveled.
