I have had the good fortune to visit Italy several times (although not, alas, during the past 20 years) – and some of the best food I had there (which is saying a lot) was during a 1982 visit when I spent the week cooking and eating with a family in Rome. This was not planned. I was supposed to spend that Easter week with our family friends Hugo and Romano but they were called away – far away – when Hugo’s mother died in Cuba.
I was taken in by the upstairs neighbors in Hugo’s modern apartment block – Rudy, Franca and their adorable young daughters Francesca and Veronica. I spoke very little Italian and Rudy was the only one who could speak some English but the family member I saw the least. Instead, I spent much of my time with Franca in the kitchen and at the family table and I could swear we had conversations – even if we didn’t converse in the same language. I knew a little about Italian cooking – she knew a lot more – and that’s what we did together. Cooked. And ate. The result, thanks to Franca (not me) was invariably delicious.
Now comes word in today’s NYTimes travel section that visitors to Italy can find a home-cooked meal via an outfit called Home Food (www.homefood.it) which appears to match tourists with locals cooking amazing home-cooked meals. (The writer had the good sense to pursue this adventure with someone who spoke near-fluent Italian.) The story also mentions agriturismo – ag-themed hotels that are apparently the the Italian version of agri-tourism, something we know a thing or two about here in Iowa.
When I return to Italy (and I swear I will), I am sad to say that I can no longer dine with Rudy and Franca as I did not only in Rome but during two later trips when they lived in Pantigliate, a modern suburb outside Milan. (“Roma bella! Pantigliate brutto!” lamented Franca – and I understood her perfectly.) They are no longer alive. But maybe a Home Food experience will be the next best thing.
TakeBetsywithyou 