Tag: pasta

Summer’s Last Gasps in Gaeta

As the summer approached its end, we hosted Dalia’s brother back for another visit to Rome. We’re lucky enough to be at the point of having a few return visitors, which hopefully means both Rome and us are providing inviting travel experiences.

This time Robert returned with his wife and young son, just about one year younger than Aleksander. This was the first chance for the cousins to meet in person and Aleksander’s first opportunity to hang out with another baby outside of his pals at daycare.

As it was Robert’s birthday weekend, the timing seemed perfect for an out of town escape to help close the summer season and spend some extended family time together. We set our sights on Gaeta, a little bit further down the coast than we’d been before and still within easy striking distance from Rome.

The weather was not exactly on our side as heavy clouds jostled over windy seas to put a bit of a damper on our well intentioned beach plans. Nonetheless, we did our best to enjoy the almost entirely abandoned beach front as Aleksander frolicked and kicked anything in sight and we searched for any last slivers of September sun.

As the beachfront didn’t end up as the weekend destination we had hoped for, we spent more time exploring the narrow streets and squares of Gaeta itself – and, as always, were not disappointed.

We ate as much of Gaeta’s amazing seafood as we could and paired it with as many lovely white wines as we could find. We made the most of this September long weekend, discovered another gem of a locale in Italy and enjoyed some much needed fam R&R.

Fifth Anniversary – Italian Cooking Class

Our two day mini-staycay for our fifth anniversary continued on Friday, following up on the museum visit the day earlier. We decided to dive right into a typical tourist afternoon in Rome and take a group cooking class.

We took our time getting going, dropped Aleksander off at daycare and stopped in for coffees at the one cafe in our area that’s more similar to what you’d find in North America than in Italy i.e you sit around sipping coffee, chatting unhurriedly and even pull out your laptop if you’re so inclined.

A cooking class had been on both of our Roman bucket lists and our anniversary felt as good a time as any to take the leap. Dalia found one near Piazza Navona that had good reviews and we signed up, like regular old fake tourists.

We started by making a double-time tiramisu (Dalia’s dream dessert) and then moved on to kneading and rolling out dough for homemade pasta. The instructors were patient with a ragtag of travellers, young and old.

We ended up with a tidy bird’s nest of fettuccine and a half dozen cute stuffed raviolis and all felt pretty proud. It wasn’t easy exactly but also not hard or long enough that one would be dissuaded from giving it a go at home.

The restaurant cooked the pasta in the students’ sauce of choice and provided a glass of wine for an awkward but ultimately harmless meal with a bunch of strangers. We played along, feeling somehow coy about the fact that we lived 20 minutes away and had to leave soon to pick up our child from daycare. Then the completely forgotten about tiramisu arrived and rounded out the few hours of wholesome fun.

We hustled back to pick up Aleksander, glad that we did another thing that we’ve been meaning to do here before it’s time to go. Happy to have enjoyed a rather lowkey day on our fifth wedding anniversary and talked about more upcoming plans to come.