Misto, misto!

Day one in Rome completed with a nighttime view of the Trevi Fountain.  I had heard Richard's story of his first visit to Rome....a local had asked him if he had seen the fountain yet.  Richard said, no not yet.  The man replied "You MUST see it at NIGHT"!  (Can you hear the emphasis?)  "Most people wish three times....to return to Rome, to find love, and to have money.  But ME, I am MARRIED, and I LIVE in Rome, so I toss the coins over my shoulders and say MONEY, MONEY, MONEY!".

I love the way Richard tells that story, and we saw the fountains at night and they were indeed incredible.   We saw them during the day as well.  Still lovely.  HUGE.  Like so many common areas of Rome, I was surprised by the scope of it all.  There are a number of public fountains where you can get a drink.  This is not normal in most of Europe and we enjoyed being able to fill up a water bottle here and there.

The second night at dinner was a Sunday, and the little place across the street was closed, so we asked the front desk for a referral to a "real" Rome restaurant off the beaten path that might be open.  Our front desk clerk obliged and off we went with her map.  We ended up alone in a bright green restaurant, having passed two other booming places.  I was hungry enough to want to stop sooner and was a bit taken aback at the empty interior of the place we were sent to.  But in we went.  The waiter spoke almost no english.  Perfect!

We ordered wine and then put ourselves in his capable hands.  I said I wanted the beans, he said "they're beans", I reconfirmed that I like beans, and he said "Ok, MISTO" for the appetizer choice!  Which we interpreted to mean "everything" because soon our table was filled with small plates of everything!  Later I read that it means mixture, or variety, or medley.  Cold zucchini and eggplant salad with parmesan, clams, caprese salad, the bean dish, which was excellent, and many more.

We were stuffed but were dying to try at least one pasta dish at the now FULL restaurant.  We had forgotten that the locals don't eat until 7:30PM.  They only open earlier than that in tourist areas.
Our order was for a linguini dish that ended up looking like the entire sea was mixed with our pasta and  it was fabulous.  Similar to a Cioppino.  We rolled ourselves back to our hotel after a leisurly and long meal that culminated with creme brûlée, also lovely although by then we couldn't finish it.

We are learning as we go.  Trust the recommendations.  Eat later, don't eat at the full restaurants at 6PM, they're for tourists, MISTO is GOOD!

We snuck some video of the hapless waiter, at some point in the dinner I realized he reminded me of an old boyfriend John, whom Richard also knows and we are still friends with.  I blurted out, "he could be John's uncle!" and Richard almost snorted wine.  So I have that memory as well:)  This turned out to be our best meal on the entire trip.

As a followup, John came by for dinner this week, we showed him the video and he confirms the guy could be a long lost relative.