Painting Italy .......... goodbye to Ciao

The first time I ate at Ciao’s I was hooked.

We were in the main railway station in Rome and against my better judgement Tina suggested we go there to eat.

Now fast food in a railway station even the stylish Termini I thought would be a disaster.

But not so.  There was a range of fresh food most of it cooked as you watched and a shedful of fruit and salads and heaps of good bread.

Moreover it was cheap and as a result the place was full.

And so when we got back to Varese I adopted the local Ciao’s.

Whenever we were in the town centre I contrived to call in and then without warning it had gone.

We had last eaten there in the April of 2013 and when we went back near the end of the year it had gone.

I found a newspaper account of their sudden closure which was as much a surprise to the employees as to us.*

And now the place is empty along with another at the airport and I suspect the one at the Termini which is why I asked Peter to paint the old Varese restaurant from a picture I took in 2012, after all if I can’t eat there I can at least have a permanent reminder of the place.

*Addio a Ciao e Spizzico, di Redazione Varese News 30 maggio 2013 http://www.varesenews.it/2013/05/addio-a-ciao-e-spizzico/58961/

Painting; Ciao, Varese © 2015 Peter Topping from a photograph by Andrew Simpson 2012

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Painting Italy .......... the Tasty Corner Sorrento

Now it is one of those little streets which you only find by accident.

We were following the line of shops along Via San Cesareo and cut through an arch in a building which opened up on the even narrower Via degli Archi.

There will be the sniffy travellers who see only an alley but in the short distance it took us to walk its length there was a tiny sweet shop specialising in a range of bagged sweets including the sugar coated nuts which always go down well with the family and this tiny restaurant with a handful of tables inside and offering these two out on the street.

It was called L’Angolo Del Gusto or the Tasty Corner and its one review described it as  a family run “café and bakery [with] good food that is very reasonably priced."

They are very accommodating and it has just a few tables so you can eat there or take out. We enjoyed the service and the good food.”

Now given that we had paid €75 for a meal the Tasty Corner had an appeal but I couldn't fault where we had eaten and our position commanded a fine spot to watch as people went by so I was content.

I suppose I should have slid across and asked the couple if they were local but it isn’t the done thing.

So I shall just leave you at the Tasty Corner on hot day in Sorrento in late July with that observation that when in a new place never be afraid to wander off the beaten track.

Painting;   L’Angolo Del Gusto © 2015 Peter Topping from a photograph by Andrew Simpson 2014

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Painting Italy ........... Trattoria al Camoscio D’Abruzzo, Rome

After another of those long conversations about favourite eating places I set Peter the challenge of painting some of the places Tina and I regularly visit.

Tratoria al Comoscio D' Abeuzzio

This is the Trattoria al Camoscio D’Abruzzo and it's on Via Castelfidardo which is a long narrow street in the San Giovanni neighbourhood of central Rome.

We found it quite by chance which in a sense says little for our observational skills. It is directly opposite the hotel we were staying at and after trying a number of expensive, and some indifferent places we ended up here.

It was what I imagined a typical family run restaurant in the centre of Rome would be like. There were just two small rooms with the inner one a few steps higher than the outer. The tables were close together and on the nights we ate there full of locals. Now I know this reads like a tourist book but that was how it was.

It specialized in the food of Abruzzo which is a region on the eastern side of Italy, and it was here that I had first had aglio, olio, and peperoncino, which is pasta with olive oil garlic and chillies. It is one of our favourites and is eaten all over Italy although I have to confess that Rosa’s version is magnificent.*

Spagehetti aglio, olio e peperconcino

Usually served with spaghetti, the sauce is made by lightly cooking crushed garlic with olive oil and chopped fresh chili's. I have written about this wonderfully simple dish to which I often add a slight amount of tomato sauce, which according to Tina and Rosa turns it into something very different.

Rosa is from Naples and from her I learnt that you do not drain the pasta but just scoop it from the pan and drop it on to the oil, garlic and chillies which give a little moisture to the dish.

We have returned to the Trattoria from time to time and were last there while on holiday in Silvi. Now the weather had gone indifferent and we decided to head off across the middle of Italy for a few days in Rome.

Our younger two have never been and Saul at least was excited at the prospect of the Coliseum and the Circus Maximus.

What I hadn’t realised was that the two hour coach trip would take us through the region of Abruzzo. I can think of no finer way to see a country than by travelling by coach or train. You get to see things which are lost if you fly. But then I am sounding like the tourist guide again.

Suffice to say on that first day back in Rome we took the boys to the Trattoria and this time sat outside. The meal was a leisurely casual affair and in between courses we watched as the city went about it business.

And despite the fact that we had not been for some years, the food was as good as I remembered it.

*Spaghetti aglio,olio e peperconcino or pasta with garlic and olive oi, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/spaghetti-aglioolio-e-peperconcino-or.html from the series Rosa's cooking, http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Rosa%27s%20cooking

Painting; Trattoria al Camoscio D’Abuzzo  © 2015 Peter Topping from a photograph by Andrew Simpson 2012

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Painting Italy .......... lost on a back street in Sorrento

We were following the line of shops along Via San Cesareo and cut through an arch in a building which opened up on the even narrower Via degli Archi.

Now if I am honest we were not actually lost, because as we had discovered countless times already you just can’t get lost in this bit of the city.

Still it offered up some opportunities to take pictures and when I showed the collection to Peter he chose to paint this one, which may have something to do with  L’Angolo Del Gusto or the Tasty Corner which one review described as  a family run “café and bakery [with] good food that is very reasonably priced."

Painting; Via degli Archi © 2015 Peter Topping from a photograph by Andrew Simpson 2014

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