Hard to believe we're on our third day in Rome, which means we'll be saying Arrivederche to the Eternal City tomorrow morning. The time has gone so quickly and I really wish we had another day here. But we have much adventure ahead so don't cry for me (you probably weren't at all close to crying for me at the prospect of having to leave Rome for Naples).

Today was a really fun day for us: we went on a food tour. We met our guide, Sophie, at the Campo de'Fiore, a famous flower, fruit and vegetable market in the heart of old Rome. We started off with some delicious fresh baked Roman bread at the Forno Campo de 'Fiori, an ancient bakery on the northwestern end of the market. There's a window where you can watch the bakers at work. I said they were making focaccia but Sophie said it was not called focaccia when made in Rome, even though it looks just like focaccia. They call it pizza, so I'll call it pizza too. Romans are kind of funny in this way. They have a lot of rules that are on known very clearly to themselves, but are sort of mysterious to outsiders. And that seems to suit the Romans just fine. And the pizza, fresh out of the oven, was out of this world. A great start to the tour.

After the pizza, we walked to the other side of the Tiber River to an area called Trastevere (meaning "across the Tiber" said Sophie). First we visited a bakery called Biscottificio Artigiano Innocenti that makes very traditional cookies and other baked goods and was founded in 1950 by the current owners grandparents.
Sophie explained the reason there is no sign in front of the bakery was because the city collects a fee if you have a sign outside, so the shop owners will often not have a sign outside. Instead the sign is on the inside. We each got a bag of cookies with a great selection from the bakery. We munched a few on the spot and brought the rest along home with us.

After the bakery, Sophie took us to a very authentic local cafe where she ordered us the coffees of our choice. Cath and I got our first taste of proper Roman coffee. We both ordered cappuccino. It was delicious, much better than the Nespresso we had been drinking in our hotel room. The weather had been pretty good that morning with a few high clouds etc but as we were sitting in front of the cafe drinking our coffee a cloudburst occurred which sent a deluge of water onto the cafe's front porch. We all ran inside and sat through the storm in the interior part of the cafe. It was really interesting to sit with the locals and enjoy the atmosphere of this old cafe. With us on the tour were a very nice young couple from Charlotte, Jessica and Ben, so we enjoyed having a lively cafe chat with them over coffee and cookies while the rain beat down outside.

When the storm subsided Sophie guided us to our third stop on the tour which was a Roman specialty food stand called Suppli Roma, which served what I believe were arancini (fried rice balls) but again Sophie corrected me and said that these were not arancini but instead suppli. Sophie explained that arancini are smaller and rounder whereas suppli are bigger and oblong. In any case, the Suppli were simply delicious straight out of the deep fryer, crispy outside, moist and savory inside.

Sophie then guided us to another market where we had a chance to sample a selection of Italian cheeses and cured meats such as fresh Mozzarella, a cheese with lavender in it, duck prosciutto, and culatello, an expensive and rare type of prosciutto made from pork thigh. What a spread of great, tasty salumi and cheese!

We ended our tour at Otaleg Gelateria where Sophie explained to us the proper way to order gelato: first say whether you want a cup or cone, and the number of scoops (two is most common) then the flavors you want. Don't tell them which one goes on top; that's for the server to decide, depending on the relative weight of your choices. My order, delivered like a true Roman: cone, two scoops, passion fruit and coffee. It was, of course, delizioso

With around 2,000 gelaterias in Rome, how do you choose the best ones? Sophie says that if they have too many different flavors, that's a bad sign. If the colors of the gelati are too bright ("Smurf colors") that's bad too. Also, the metal trays holding the gelati shouldn't be too full; that might indicate too much air in the gelato. So now you know!