A stroll with Rachel Roddy...

Today was by far one of my
most favorite days in Rome.

I didn't see any huge monuments that were 

built thousands of years ago, or get to shake the Pope's hand, or 

even eat my weight's worth of gelato. 

Today, I ate a bag of cherries, tasted some pizza, 

and walked around Testaccio with the food blogger Rachel Roddy at Rachel Eats.

Rachel is an English woman living in Rome who blogs 

about food and Italy. What's not to like???

We walked with Rachel through Testaccio to see the sights. 

And by sights, I mean a rugged-looking hill of broken pottery, the local market, and one of the oldest slaughterhouses still standing in Rome.

Testaccio's location is next to a large hill that is made of 

broken clay pots. In antiquity, much of the trade on the Tiber River took place here. The hill is made of the remains of the broken clay pots that stored various goods coming into Roma. We could see it as we walked around the neighborhood. 

We also saw the slaughterhouse... now housing an art museum and concerts, etc.  

Rachel took us to the Testaccio market, which had everything a stomach could possibly want (where the market is currently housed, you can see a portion of the old road that led into Rome). She bought a bag of delicious ripe deep purple cherries to share with us as we walked around. 

It could have been the fact I just had a fabulous weekend, the excitement that builds inside me being surrounded by history, or maybe just being in Italy period... but those cherries were the best damn thing I had ever tasted. 

After that we went to Eataly... I don't know how to describe it 

except to hesitantly say it's like a large supermarket supposedly full of Italy's best products.

You can buy wine, sauces, pasta, cosmetics, vegetables, oil, 

cookbooks, chocolate, pastries... you name it. 

 There are definitely a lot of products to peruse and I did buy a few things to make dinner and to take home. 

But shopping there was like being in a Costco at home.

I have loved being able to go to the open air markets to buy food, stopping in a particular shop, or even the local grocery store and asking

gray haired women (in Spanish because I can't speak Italian) what

cheese I should buy. 

Eataly doesn't give you that magic. It also takes away from

the local shops selling their products. 

But I think it's worth checking out if you are there. 

After Eataly we went home to eat gelato and then prepare dinner using our Eataly products. One of our classmates is a chef (and consequently the only man on this trip)and so we all 

whipped up a 'family' dinner.