DivinPeccato

Divin Peccato - essentially "Divine Sin". I've marked today as the day I've experienced the best meal in Italy yet. I've made a local friend here who has helped me out with the purse situation and has showed me some of the in's and out's of Italian culture. Because I was here for the weekend by my lonesome, he took me out for wine last night. We split a bottle of Brunello di Montalcino, a beautifully flavorful red wine, not too dry, and gets better with every sip. I've done a little bit of researching about this wine and it's extremely well known as well as pricey. There's been a bit of scandal behind it as well. If you're interested, check the Wikipedia link below to read more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunello_di_Montalcino

We met in Piazza Navona and made our way to Campo dei Fiori, a central hub for bar night life. It's a completely pedestrian area surrounded by bars and ristoranti. We found a lively little wine bar whose menu, strangely enough, didn't actually have any wine. But my friend negotiated a bottle of Brunello down by ten euro. We sat for a couple hours, chatted, and people watched (a special, perfected Italian skill). He introduced me to a Tuscan cigar. Long and thin in comparison to the cigaro cubano that I have grown accustomed to smoking. But deliciously flavorful nonetheless.

Today began around noon, finally convincing myself to roll out of bed. We went to lunch today and as I said before, this was by far, no holds bar, the best meal I've had in Italy, if not ever. It began with a complimentary flute of proseco (spelling?), a light, fruity, sparkling white wine. A delicious way to cleanse the palatte. Once again, my friend ordered us a bottle of wine. He's two for two on the amazing wine selection scale. We settled on white since both of us were in the mood for piatti di mare (I really hope I spelled that right) or a seafood plate. The first dish brought out was a plate of mussels and clams swimming in an incredible garlic, parsley, and lemon sauce. It wasn't oily like a lot of seafood dishes can be, for it wasn't swimming in a butter sauce. I had never had mussels before, but I must say, I'm hooked. The dish was incredible. After attempting to soak up as much of the sauce with bread as we could, our main pasta dishes followed. My friend had a lobster pasta with half a lobster that was later dubbed "Marvin." I ordered a pasta with calamari and olives. It had bits of tomato and covered in bread crumbs to give it an unbelievable texture. After the two dishes AND the wine (can't forget about that one. It complimented the meal perfectly), I was grinning like an idiot. I was in food heaven. We decided on a dessert, but the server gave us his recommendation of an apple tart with honey and somehow the two are (stored?) near hay that gives it a completely new depth of flavor. The plate was brought out and I dove in. I think I heard angels from the near by St. Peter's Basilica singing when I took the first bite. It was heaven on a plate. And to get back to DivinPeccato, the name of the ristorante, I've learned that it truly is a sin to eat that well.



After all that has happened within the past couple weeks, things have finally taken a turn for the better. Maybe just for this weekend. But nevertheless, I had a fun-filled adventured of a weekend and hopefully there will be a repeat in the future.