Barb’s Italian Summer #2: Italian Lunch Rituals And The Magic Of Sweet Siesta

This is how lunch in Rome works: You go to one of your favorite family-run trattorias just around the corner. Today, in my case, Fior Fiore, whose owner Alessio has become a good friend over the years. Fior Fiore has been a household name in the Spagna area since 1975, and it’s one of the most popular places where locals buy delicious fresh pizza by slice.

You sit at one of the tiny tables outside the restaurant, with red checkered paper place mats, where chairs are so close to each other that you can’t help friending fellow eaters.

While Albano, the cook, diligently works on your scrumptious spaghetti pomodoro, you enjoy your glass of wine and watch passers-by. Every now and then, when a  garbage truck (or a BMW) too large for the narrow cobbled alley slowly drives through the crowd just a few inches from your shoulder, you instinctively scrunch yourself up.

When you finish the delicious meal, you have a cup of espresso and a chat with Alessio and the guys from Caffe & Pizza across the street (and in Rome “across the street” means two feet away), enjoy the usual batch of compliments and indecent proposals (I don’t know about you, but I can hear how bellissima I am two hundred times a day and it never gets old), you pay and go back home to enjoy a delicious siesta. The light Roman breeze gently blows into your bedroom through the open window. It makes the curtains dance and lulls you to sleep.

Stay tuned for more live reports from my Chique Italian summer! In the meantime, you can read previous live reports here.

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