Today we got to explore Rome some more and took an Italian cooking class. But I haven’t gotten a chance to talk about the amazing neighborhood we’re staying in, Campo de’ Fiori (meaning field of flowers).
This area was mostly unused during Roman times, it frequently flooded. Eventually in the middle ages the Pope had it paved. Then in the 1600s it was used for executions. Most notably the philosopher Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for heresy. He was a cosmologist and espoused the Copernican heliocentric model of the solar system. Now there stands a monument to him in the square. For the past two hundred years there has been a daily market selling produce, cheese, and crafts. The square is lined with cafes, restaurants, and a wonderful little bakery I’ve been getting lunch from.
Also today we got to take a cooking class. We made tiramisu, fettuccini, and ravioli. Tiramisu is deceptively simple its only a few ingredients but there a few tricks to get it just right, mine came out okay. The pasta was hard, you really need to use some muscles to knead it and we rolled it out by hand, not with a pasta roller. Mine was a little too thick but that’s okay. My fettuccini was topped with a tomato basil sauce and my ravioli had a butter sage sauce. Both tasted good but there is definitely better pasta to be had in Rome.
In the evening we got some more gelato. We did a little more souvenir shopping, buying a few more Murano glass pieces. And we stopped in a chocolate shop that has been making it since 1878. Up next the Vatican.