Eating My Way through Rome: Frascati

I should be grading compositions, but who wants to read woefully bad papers when blogging is an option?

I'd like to share a great night of fun and eating we had on our last night in Rome. Two friends, both Italians--and one a native Roman!--took us by car to Frascati, a town about 20km south-east of Rome. It, I've been told, is the site of Cicero's favorite villa. Ah, to have enough villas in order to have a favorite. We were joined by two other Italian friends and sat down to a joyful meal. (Strangely, the language we all spoke together was German, since that was the one most people felt more comfortable with, as opposed to Italian or English.)

It was a rustic little restaurant, with a family running the show.

We began with a serious platter of meat. Look at all that pork! It was beautiful.
Prosciutto, salami, various sausages, cooked pork, walnuts, hard pungent cheeses,
and buffalo mozzarella. I am drooling right now as I blog.

This was accompanied by a variety of olives, artichokes, grilled eggplant,
tomatoes, and peppers, all seasoned with delicious olive oil.

Then some hard cured meats.

Finally, sweet biscuits, called ciambelline with Roman wine. Ciambelline al vino romane.
You dip the hard biscuit in the wine, which is lovely and slightly sweet, and eat.

We had some fun with the Italians' demonstration for us of how to eat this.

It was a great night. Always let your Italian friends order for you in Italy.