Some Have Gone and Some Remain

The past two days have been wonderful – a time of good food, great wine, and incredible conversation; and this is all thanks to the one and only Adrienne Levy, and her best friend from home, Ashley.

Just as a bit of background – Adrienne was NFTY Membership and Communications Vice President two years before I held the same position. So, essentially I have known Adrienne for a little bit over four years (!) - since my first summer of debauchery at Kutz way way back in 2003.

Anyway, Adrienne and Ashley just graduated college in the spring and they decided to plan a three-week romp through Europe, spending about two days in each city – and spending a lot of time on the train getting from place to place. The two of them popped into my life last night, and left me today, but it really was a great few hours with them.

Yesterday evening I met the two of them at the Pantheon because it was a nice and easy place to find. (Rome can be really confusing if you don’t have a good map, or you don’t know where you are going. A grid system is nonexistent here). I was given the honor of choosing the place where we went to dinner. My choice came right out of the guide books. It is called Cul-de-Sac, and it is the oldest wine bar in Roma. They are famous for having an incredible selection of pates, cheeses, smoked meats, and other small plate. But, what they are most well known for is having close to 4,000 different bottles of wine from Italy and beyond (the wine book looked like it was a huge frickin’ novel!). The walls are just lined with bottles - and they have this cool cherry picker thing-y that the waiters use to take down the wine.

The three of us ordered a bottle of the house red as well as a cheese, a plate of in season veggies, lasagna, and meatballs with mashed potatoes. Oh goodness. The food was out exactly what I needed – especially the meat. And although the portions weren’t heaping, they were a good size, and filled the three of us up quite nicely. We were even able to save room for desert and a bottle of the house white. Totally worth it! The nice thing about restaurants like this is that once you sit down, the table is yours – you can sit for as long as you want. It is great to feel like you have the time to sit and linger over that last glass of wine and finish your conversation without feeling like you are being rushed out.

Today after class I met up with Adrienne and Ashley again so that I could play tour guide for a bit, since they had done all the major sights before the morning. I took them to Compo di Fiori to see the reminisce of the flower market that is there every day. I also showed them around some of the back streets of Trastevere, so that they could get a better feel for the way that the Italians live.

Once their legs started to fall off, we set off on a quest to find a place where we could have some bruschetta and a glass of wine (no, I am not turning into an alcoholic – they wanted to make themselves a bit sleepy before their overnight train to Paris). The place that I had in mind was closed because it was a weird in between dinner and lunch time. So, we walked to the place a few doors down that had tables outside. We tried to order exactly what I said we originally wanted, and they told us they wouldn’t serve us because we didn’t want to have a full meal. It was SO strange. I have never had anyone be that rude to me since getting to this city over a month ago. We eventually found a place that had what we wanted, and would serve us, thank goodness. I just can’t believe that we were treated the way that we were. I was even trying my best to speak Italian to the waitress. Who knows? I guess they didn’t want our business.

Overall, I am so happy that I was able to spend this time with Adrienne and Ashley. Ashley and I discovered that our families have a lot in common, and Adrienne and I love to reminisce about old times, before we got to be old. Although I was sad to see them go, I admire what they are doing so much. I don’t think that I have the guts to pack a backpack up and go travel Europe for three weeks. But, I am glad that they did and came here! If you guys happen to be reading this, thank you for an awesome time! I hope that you will come and visit sometime this year in DC!