Nom Wah Tea Parlor, on tiny Doyers street in Chinatown, looks from the outside like a Wes Anderson movie set with its faded red sign with yellow letters and it did not disappoint inside either, full of old knickknacks and signs. And the dim sum was delicious. After a short wait in line outside in light drizzle at 2 pm on a Sunday, we got in and quickly got oolong tea, sautéed greens with oyster sauce (I think) scallion pancakes, shrimp and chive potstickers and pork shu mai. Delicous, hot, fresh. The place was packed but service was swift. Maybe that’s why it’s been around since 1920.
Nom WahThe swimmers on Park Avenue
For dinner, we went to a good Mediterranean/greek place called Elea on 85th street near Amsterdam. And today, after going to the Henry Taylor show at the Whitney with my dear friend Myra (Myra Monday!) we picked perhaps the most unassuming place in the meat packing district, a diner called Hectors cafe that serves breakfast all day and has a perfect tuna sandwich. And they let us hang out for hours, which was great. We walked on the high line and then across town in the 30s to Grand Central where we lingered in the basement, first at a cheerful place for smoothies and drinks then at the Oyster Bar, for some fried oysters. Good hot tea too, which is what I needed for laryngitis.
My cousin Scott showed us a great hike through the woods onto a rocky beach with a spectacular view of Shelter Island in the distance and beyond that, the North Fork of Long Island. A handful of trails begin behind the Sag Harbor golf course. The area is refreshing unspoiled by development.
First two days here are for work so had some lunch meeting dining. Good crab cakes at Row 34 (and ridiculously expensive parking – $42 for day) in Fort Point area, seaside in Boston with lots of glittering high glass and steel buildings (Including the contemporary art museum.) Flour bakery is a great lunch and coffee spot near my publisher’s office on Farnsworth.
Harvard square installation 🥲
Finn for seafood in Salem. Lunch today at Toscano in Cambridge – good pasta and thin crust pizza near Radcliffe’s Schlesinger library where I had a great morning looking at old diaries including one written on toilet paper. Single ply! Also went to an excellent craft gallery: Cambridge Artists Cooperative. And saw a sobering tribute to the people kidnapped in Israel.
There is nothing like old friends and it was a particularly wonderful treat to see old friends Art and Nell after some very trying times. On a warm fall day we wandered around several lovely towns along the coast north of Boston on Cape Ann (Gloucester/Rockport), soaking in the scenery and catching up after over two years apart.
Rockport
We started at a little coffee shop in Gloucester, which seemed a tad less touristy than Rockport, but both are on breathtaking spots on the ocean. We splurged on a lobster roll (hot, buttered) at the Fish shack in Rockport, which has big picture windows overlooking the water and walked on the big rocks that form a walkway into the water. Lots of art galleries, old Yankee monuments and wood frame shingled homes.
In Marblehead, my favorite, we walked down narrow streets lined with multi colored (powder blue, navy blue, mustard yellow, rust red, Forest green) wood shuttered and shingled homes from the 1600s to the 1800s with historic plaques telling us who lived here and there (yeoman et. Al.). Our friends found a charming inn in historic Marblehead (Harbor Light) with an outdoor veranda overlooking the small garden and pool. (They also found a good is place in Gloucester: Ocean House Hotel at Bass Rocks.
RockportRockport
Harbor Light was a Great place for an evening drink, admiring the sky and stars. The occasional flight heading to or from Logan, I gather. We had a good dinner at the popular Five Corners Kitchen in Marblehead.
We made the most of our last day in Rome by visiting the covered market in the Testaccio neighborhood, which has excellent food stands to pick up lunch and nice little boutiques to pick up last minute gifts. It was blissfully free of large tour groups and instead there were small discreet groups of foodies on tour. We had superb fried artichokes (from Foodbox) and pizza, including one pretty (and tasty) one with zucchini flowers and burrata. We wandered around the former slaughterhouse grounds near the market which still have the rusty conveyor belt-like track with big hooks. Oddly, the place is now a contemporary art museum (closed when we were there, on a Monday) and what appeared to be an art school.
Lunch
Made one last attempt to find a mother-of-the-groom outfit at the chic boutiques along Via del Pelegríno by the Campo di fiori in centro storico but no luck. Dinner was at daCesare Al casaletto, a humble looking trattoria on a residential street in the Monteverde neighborhood, an easy #8 bus ride from Trastevere. Glad we had the hotel book ahead for us (I couldn’t do online.) Very unpretentious for one of Italy and Europe’s best restaurants (according to several lists). We had the best pasta matriciana (what we’d call amatriciana ) of our trip, bucatini in a red sauce with inch-size slices of extra crispy bacon. The lamb chop, also recommended, was a disappointment, the meat gnarly and unappetizing. The service was spotty too. Our waiter kept forgetting us but the owner kindly offered us a free glass of a bubbly white wine akin to Prosecco. We didn’t try some of the restaurant’s best reviewed dishes – fried appetizers, meatballs, Cacio e pepe ( Parmesan cheese and black pepper spaghetti, a Rome dish) because we’d been there, done that elsewhere.
Testaccio
Our Rome hotel, Casa di Santa Francesca Romana continued to be a good option. The triple room we stayed in on our return to Rome (a double wasn’t available) was worth the extra money, with more space, nicer bathroom. It’s still a no frills place, with spartan decor and Catholic knickknacks everywhere but great value, location, breakfast and service. Glad I remembered to book way ahead of time. The place was packed with an international cast.
Our rule of thumb on the lazy meandering drive through Tuscany backtoRome was simple: No tour buses. If we saw buses, and we often did, we passed on by the walled city. Which meant no going to Pienza or Montepulcino but brief stops in the pretty little villages of Trequana, which has a charming checkerboard stone facade Romanesque church and one coffee bar, and Montisi, where we found a little grocery store where the women sliced us selections of their favorite local salamis, which, combined with the Siena cheese we got yesterday and a picnic table in an empty playground in another small village, made for a fine picnic.
Fuzzy photo of our routeDirck in Trequanda
Rome was crazy on a Saturday night. A total crush of humanity, many Americans. Trastevere felt overwhelming so we walked across the river where there was slightly less chaos, found a relatively quiet square with a snack bar and had beer and mediocre pizza. On the way back to our hotel, we decided to embrace the chaos (when in Rome) and stopped on the bridge to listen to an excellent funk band and then an apparently cowboy straight out of Nashville playing country blues.
Rome got overwhelming today, too many tourists (a crush of people in matching blue hats, at times), too much noise, too much trash, too many shops closed in the trendy Monti neighborhood (but hey, it was a Sunday.) Sometimes travel and the pressure to make every moment count in a magical faraway place can be too much. Not to mention so much walking.
Piazza di populi, with fabulous lion statues spitting out water into fountains
Nothing that some down time and an afternoon nap couldn’t fix. And a splurge tasting menu dinner (yes, I ate a wee bit of rabbit) in a less touristed neighborhood by the Piazza del Popolo at Mazapane, a small out of the way “it” restaurant with a rising Spanish chef. I’m glad I booked a few restaurants out of our very touristed Trastevere neighborhood, although unlike Paris there is no handy metro and we haven’t figured out the buses so we’ve taken taxis.
Two observations: we had mediocre pizza last night in a great people -watching outdoor snack bar in central storico and excellent pizza today in an awful location, in an empty back room of a pizza bar. And near the restaurant tonight we were happy to be rid of American and other tourists but the Italians were shopping at American stores (Gap, Sketchers, Lush, sephora, Nike)…nearer to the restaurant we seemed to be in a neighborhood with recent immigrants from the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
We also were impressed with the quality of the buskers, especially on the bridges in Trastevere. We met a shopkeeper today in the TESSTACIO neighborhood who is also a busker. He said buskers have to get a permit for the location where they want to play.
What a change Siena is from Urbino. It’s got a lot more stunning architecture and art but way more tourists. So it’s a trade off. Other than Rome, we’ve intentionally and successfully avoided places with long lines and busloads of touristsby going to more off the beaten track places. I would have waited until at least October to travel to Italy if I had not had a work gig here (the diary festival) in September. Friends are visiting in February. Smart!
Siena at night or dusk
When we arrived, we struggled to find a free parking spot, finally finding one at the second lot we tried about a 20 minute walk from our Airbnb, which meant a long schlep, pulling our suitcases on rough pavement, dodging other tourists everywhere. The first lot was a five minute walk.
Our drive east from Urbino to Cortona (the under the Tuscan Sun town) took about 3 hours through spectacular scenery. At one point we were driving in the fog high in the hills/mountains. We landed unexpectedly in Cortona, which looked beautiful but we soon realized it would not work as a quick lunch stop. Too much effort to get in and out. Starting with too many people trying to find parking and figure out the parking machines. This was the 2023 Italy-overrun-with-tourists (including us) I’d read about and dreaded.
Lovely Lucignano
All was not lost. We ended up in the lovely rustic village of Lucignano, where we found a quiet little restaurant for lunch Vizi e Virtu (Via Giacomo Matteotti 90) and chatted with an older French couple, the only other diners. The place reminded me of one of the sleepier Cotswolds villages in England.
In Sienna, we are staying at a shabby chic Airbnb with lots of charm and character near the Magnificent Duomo but a little too centrally located. Although the town empties of many tourists in the evening, some high-spirited folks are still out-and-about and loud at 1 a.m. and even 2 a.m. and garbage pickup or street cleaning (??) happens at about 5 a.m., which sounded like an airplane landing atop us. And there is construction next door during the day, which we learned is for some sort of part tomorrow. It’s 10 pm and people are still outside discussing the construction for the party which looks like three wood teepees.
Siena street scenes
Suffice to say, I got little sleep last night and may not tonight eithe. So I felt jet lagged today. Such is life, occasionally, when traveling. It was great to visit the Duomo and Il campo at night, all lit up and the Duomo deserted. And I loved being here to walk in the early morning when the streets are empty.
Amazing duomo floors
But…we joined a succession of long lines to see the duomo. One huge tour group after another, American, English, German, Italian from what I could tell. We were told to start early, at 10 am but by 2 pm the duomo was much less crowded. Apparently it didn’t help that it’s a Friday (always busy) and one of the rare times when the mosaics on the duomo floor are all uncovered. And they are incredible. So is everything else in the duomo.
Dinner was excellent around the corner at restaurant San Desidero (next time we’ll eat inside, with the lively crowd, instead of at one of th quiet but very atmospheric outdoor tables on a little alley leading up to the duomo.) Lunch also fab today at Morbidi Deli (Fagioli/warm beans, spinach and squid, sliced pork…items I chose by following the lead of other customers, an old travelers trick). After, pastries at another famous place, the bakery Nanini (the rustic Sienese fruit bread makes a delicious breakfast eaten in our Airbnb) and in the early afternoon we enjoyed people watching at Il campo, while drinking beer (dirck) and eating gelato (me) at a crowded cafe. On our last night, with lightening adding drama to an already dramatic setting, we discovered the restaurant I’d been looking for – trattoria antica Papai, which was indeed behind Il Compo. And it was excellent. I found my chicken liver crostini! We also stopped at a very old fashioned cheese and meat shop Al Palazzo Chigiana (antica pizzicheria since 1889) on Via di citta 93/95 the woman behind the counter sliced us several regional cheeses to takeaway. When we wandered into her shop, she was making an amazing platter with cheese and sliced meats for a young couple who ate it on a tray, sitting at a makeshift table in the shop, with a jug of wine. Great idea.
Duomo interiors
I forgot to mention that except for some minor rain sprinkles, the weather has been perfect this trip, with highs in the mid-80s to mid-70s. (Which is another reason this is still high tourist season, although not as high as June-August.) All said, I’d pick off-season for my next visit to Tuscan hotspots and try to find more out of the way lodging in town.
For a change of scenery, we drove about 45 minutes west to the Adriatic coast, passing through two small walled villages high on a cliff with medieval castles (casteldimezzo, fiorenzuola di focara) overlooking the seaside. The area is very lightly touristed, and feels somewhat wild. It’s a nature preserve. We saw a few walkers/hikers and some very hardy cyclists (including one with one leg) who were navigating major uphills and downhills.
Lunch (second course)
This was the prettiest part. It was followed by two large sprawling relatively unattractive coastal cities, (pescara, Fano).
More lunch
But in Fano we found Da Maria an amazing trattoria serving fresh seafood that I’d read about, run by a mother (Maria) and daughter. Unassuming on the outside, inside it was very old world with funky decor and a patio with strung seashells hanging down from the ceiling over a handful of tables. There’s no menu. You just get one amazing fresh seafood catch after another. We were served polenta topped with sautéed pieces of shrimp, an enormous platter of steamed white fish, shrimp, langoustine, clams, followed by a fish and seafood stew in a tomato broth. Way too much food (and 50 euro a person but it would be way more in the states… or Rome) but delicious and nice change from all the meat we’ve been eating.
This plain Jane Tuscan town doesn’t have the stunning hilltop location, high stone walls, duomos, or frescos by famous artists that its more touristed neighbors have. Which makes it even better as the location of an archive and little museum, dedicated to the diaries and other unpublished autobiographical writing of ordinary people.
Over the past four days, it was remarkable to see this sleepy town fill up with hundreds of diary enthusiasts who sat through dramatic diary readings and diary-inspired theatre productions and interviews with diarists with nary a soul nodding off (except me, since it was all in Italian).
The festival winner
We joined a hundred plus people for Sunday lunch (when in Tuscany!) in the same restaurant we ate at on Friday for dinner. The food kept on coming, family style, five courses and I had to quit after the pasta course. (#3?) My stomach rebelled. . . The set meal was illuminating because it showed us what the custom is here. We can barely do pasta and a side vegetable and shared dessert, especially midday.
About 500 people crowded into a semi- open air auditorium for the final ceremony, the Pieve Prize event awarded to the best newly submitted diary or memoir or correspondence, which went past the 2 hour scheduled time. The eight finalist donors sat on the stage and a radio personality interviewed each finalist, plus there was a dramatic reading of their submission (that they or a family member wrote) by two actors accompanied by live music. It was hot and long but people’s enthusiasm never seemed to waver. Impressive.
The winner!Media coverage
The winner was finally announced, a young woman who wrote a memoir, not a diary, about having a devastating stroke at age 30 and five years of recovery. She discreetly wiped tears from her eyes as the audience applauded and photos were snapped. She wins 1,000 euros and her writing will be published and who know, it may be among the other published diaries/memoirs in the museum gift shop that festival goers were buying and sticking in their diary archive and museum book bags. Even before the winner was announced, copies of a regional newspaper were available with a multi-page special section on the festival highlighting the finalists and printing excerpts of their writing. Amazing to see such a fuss made over the humble diary (and it’s kissing cousins, the memoir and letters). And a wonderful way to preserve Italy’s culture and heritage and memory of “ordinary” Italians.The day after the festival, we toured the archive itself, full of thousands of handwritten diaries, memoirs and letters. The town had returned to its work-a-day nature with a street market in the central piazza.
TakeBetsywithyou 