Paula, my Portuguese friend, and I invited Kate, a spouse from Sante Fe we met last night, to join us for a day of roaming around downtown. We took a cab to the city center with the intent of visiting the Jewish quarter and having lunch. Before randomly choosing a dining experience we strolled down a few of the main streets and window shopped at high-end Italian stores displaying lovely merchandise WAY out of our price range. Monuments and ruins were a stone’s throw at all times. We popped into a small church to light a candle for Aunt Jerry. As soon as a man saw me get a coin out of my purse (for the candle), he produced a small paper cup and tried to convince me to donate it to him instead. He followed me around like a devoted puppy until we left him empty handed at which time he reversed tactics and began to tell us all off in passionate Italian.

The Jewish sector, formerly known as the Jewish Ghetto, was home to impoverished Jews living in miserable conditions for over 300 years until things slowly improved in the late 1800s. The most sobering thing we saw were small brass plaques set into the black cobbles in front of homes that housed Jews taken to Auschwitz during WWII. Unimaginable! Rome is still home to one of the largest Jewish communities in Europe.

Lunch was our reward for all the strolling around. We chose an outside table at a place called Ba’Ghetto which serves kosher food. We shared two amazing Jewish artichokes. The leaves were fried crispy and the hearts soft and mushy. We enjoyed them with thick slices of bread that were warm, soft, and as dense as a sponge! For the main course we shared one of the specials: salmon and pistachio linguine. We passed on fried brain with artichokes, lamb interiors with artichokes, (it’s clearly artichoke season) and a few other delicacies far too sophisticated for our palettes. Three cappuccinos and one shared dessert topped with pine nuts later and we got our €42 check for what was essentially one meal split three ways and three coffees. Ouch.

A quick €13 cab ride had us back at the hotel before 4:00 … just ahead of the rain. We toured the spa just in case the mood strikes in the next couple days and then separated for a little down time until dinner.

We three spouses were encouraged to join the conference attendees at a buffet dinner here in the hotel. We had a delicious array of Asian food to include all the sushi and sashimi you could possibly hold, lobster, Thai, and a few Italian dishes to make it interesting plus marinated artichokes cooked the Roman way. Dan and I enjoyed the chance to catch up with two Brits, one living in the UK and one living in Dubai.

Looks like we’ll make it to bed well before midnight since we did not stay to the bitter end. ;~}