The Bounty of Rome
By MIMI SHERATON
Published: March 26, 2006
HOW does Rome taste? An odd question perhaps, but the sort that comes to mind when I read travel accounts that define cities by sights and sounds, colors and tempo. What about the flavor, I wonder, meaning that more literally than figuratively.
Say Rome to me and my first thoughts are not of the swirling traffic around the marble wedding cake that is a monument to Vittorio Emanuele II, nor of the eaten-out stone melon that is the Colosseum, nor of the "Dolce Vita" set as immortalized by Fellini. Rather, I think first of the creamy foam, or spuma, that tops lightly sugared espresso at the always jammed Sant'Eustachio around the corner from the Pantheon, the coffee bar that I still consider this city's best.
Next, thoughts turn to Rome's own big, round globe artichokes available from late February to mid-April and most succulent simmered in olive oil with mint and parsley — alla Romana — or as carciofi alla giudea— flattened and fried to resemble dried sunflowers and one of the many Jewish culinary inheritances from the city's Ghetto — preparations that do almost as well by other artichoke varieties in other seasons.
Among Roman pastas, I remember favorites such as the guanciale-and-egg-decked carbonara, cacio e pepe with its cheese and pepper sting, the mellow tomato-and-onion-sauced amatriciana and the unusual, delectable pajata (pronounced pie-YAH-tah), pasta tossed with chopped intestines of newly born lambs that still hold remains of milk, resulting in a creamy, meaty tomato sauce. And gnocchi alla Romana, unlike others in Italy, are rounds of semolina baked under a golden glaze of butter and cheese, an elegant variation.
These lusty eaters enjoy their meats close to the bone, gnawing through roasted abbacchio lamb, suckling pig or braised oxtails. They dote on innards like tomato-simmered tripe and tantalizingly chewy coratella, a savory hash of mixed lamb organs. Suffusing all are the seasonings that define the Roman kitchen: the air-cured pig's jowl bacon called guanciale; salt-etched anchovies; garlic; fiery, red peperoncino chilies; black pepper; the pungent sheep's milk cheese pecorino; and rosemary, sage, parsley and minty mentuccia.
At Il Matriciano we found a robustly fruity, garnet-colored shiraz from Casale del Giglio for about $26. That same producer also accounted for the best white we tried, a fresh but mellow-edged Satrico chardonnay from Frascati. The tasting in New York was organized by Ian D'Agata, director of the International Wine Academy of Roma, a stunning multistoried installation in a 19th-century town palace beside the Spanish Steps. There one can have tastings of Lazio wines, among others, giving good reason to raise the Italian toast "A cent'anni" — "To a hundred years" — most suitable in this ancient city.
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Record Vatican crowds continue a year after Pope's death
By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- One year ago in April, the city of Rome saw record numbers of crowds when millions of people flocked to the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica for the funeral of Pope John Paul II, the conclave of cardinals and the subsequent election of Pope Benedict XVI.
In just one week, more than 3 million people descended on the Vatican to honor Pope John Paul, who died April 2, 2005.
According to the Vatican, the crowds have just kept coming.
In just the first eight months of his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI drew nearly 3 million pilgrims to public events.
According to the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household, more than 2.8 million people attended the weekly general audiences, the Sunday blessings, special papal audiences or liturgical celebrations at which Pope Benedict presided.
Also, the number of visitors going through the doors of the Vatican Museums in 2005 broke all records, even surpassing the huge crowds that came during the jubilee year when the museums extended opening hours into the afternoon. Last year, more than 3.8 million people squeezed through the turnstiles. That number was up from more than 3.4 million people in 2004.
Some speculate the unprecedented global media coverage the Vatican received during last April's papal transition had a hand in putting Rome and the Vatican back on the map as a sought-after tourist destination for both secular globetrotters and Christian pilgrims.
While curiosity about the new pope and the desire to pay homage to the late pontiff with a pilgrimage to his tomb have accounted for some of the boom in visitors, one tour guide said there are other factors involved.
For example, the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the euro, which became Italy's official currency in 2002, has stabilized, said Paul Encinias, co-founder of the Rome-based Eternal City Tours.
"That means there's more economic accessibility" for tourists coming from the United States, he said.
While the number of visitors "has definitely increased since last April, it was already on the rise from two years ago," he said.
"I would say having a new pope accounts for about 5 percent" of the increase in the number of visitors who use the company, said Encinias.
The Colorado native said while tourists want to see Rome's religious sites their motives are different.
"'The Da Vinci Code' is still a buzz over here; now that the movie is coming out, it's blown in some new interest," he said. "The secular tourists want to see the religious sites" depicted in Dan Brown's best-selling novel, "while the Christians want to see the sites, too, but for different reasons."
An official at the church-sponsored pilgrimage office said employees had seen an increase in the number of pilgrims coming to Rome.
Father Caesar Atuire of Opera Romana Pellegrinaggi told CNS March 15 that the wave of pilgrims has been so big his office has "had to enter into new agreements with Trenitalia and Alitalia (the Italian train and air companies) to offer special pilgrim packages."
"People want to come to Rome to see the new pope," he said, as well as to visit the tomb of Pope John Paul. "Also, there is an assumption that this pope will travel less, so people will have to come to Rome to see him."
He said German tourists are making Italy their vacation destination once again.
"Germans used to come to Italy" and its Adriatic coast, "but the last few years the numbers have gone down as they discovered Croatia and the Dalmatian coast. But since the election of Pope Benedict, this trend has reversed," said Father Atuire.
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Contributing to this story was Cindy Wooden.
END
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"Lolek Flame" commemorating John Paul II travels from Rome to Krakow
Mar. 29 (FIDES/CWNews.com) - To mark the first anniversary of the death of Pope John Paul II (bio - news), a "Lolek Flame" was symbolically lit at the tomb of the late Pope in the crypt of St Peter’s Basilica on Tuesday and will be carried by athletes to Poland, to arrive in Krakow on April 2, the date of the Polish Pope’s death.
The flame will be carried by military, civilian, and disabled Italian and Polish athletes, passing through Assisi, Loreto, Czestochowa, Wadowice, and finally to a prayer vigil in Krakow. "Lolek" was the name used for young Karol Wojtyla by family and friends. ?The flame set off on Wednesday, March 29, after a blessing by Pope Benedict XVI (bio - news) during the general audience in St Peter’s Square. On its path it will stop at the Marian shrine of Loreto on March 30, where there special prayers led by Archbishop Gianni Danzi. Friday, March 31, it will travel from Loreto to Czestochowa, then to the Pope’s birthplace of Wadowice, and on to his diocese Krakow.
In Krakow's Cathedral of Sts. Wenceslaw and Stanislaw the flame will be consigned symbolically to the people of Poland in the person of former personal secretary of the Pope, now his successor as Archbishop of Krakow, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz. The flame will then be used to light a large brazier of incense and start a prayer vigil to commemorate the Pope’s last moments until the hour of his passing at 9.37 pm on April 2.
The flame will be carried on foot, for a total of about 315 miles (140 in Italy and 175 in Poland), by air, and by road. The initiative has the approval of the Vicariate of Rome diocese and Msgr. Slawomir Oder, the postulator of the cause for the beatification of the late Pope.
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