Stacey

Hint: You can’t get directions from Mapquest to get to the Pittsburgh zoo. Not the last I heard, anyways. Apparently the road the zoo is on isn’t actually recognized as a real road by the US census, or something like that, so Mapquest will (or at least used to) send you to some random road in some random residential district. Now I think Mapquest at least links you to the zoo’s website. But anyways, get driving directions from the zoo’s website or call them. It’s definitely worth going, you just don’t want to get lost on the way there.

I went to Il Piccolo Grande Chef four times in about a month and a half (and didn’t learn its name until the third time, but that’s ok). The place isn’t touristy at all, since it’s located in a residential neighborhood far from where the tourists normally haunt. It’s actually in Monteverde, near Stazione Trastevere, just off the fourth stop on the 8 Tram after the Ministry of Education (big white building) stop. The food is good, not the most spectacular stuff you could find in Rome, but it’s delicious and reasonably priced. My favorite part of the restaurant are the two owners. Actually, I don’t know if they’re the owners or not, maybe it’s the owner and head waiter, I’m not sure. Either way, the two older gentlemen who run the place are the best part about it. They bake you fresh focaccia bread when you come in. If you’re on a date or if they like you, you get heart-shaped focaccia. They’re very friendly and love to interact with their patrons. I brought my mother and grandmother in when they visited, twice actually, and the one owner (the one in my picture) bonded with my grandmother over grandchildren stories and my mother over a fondness for the Glenn Miller Orchestra (he likes the song “Pennsylvania Sessante-Cinque-Mille”). I came back with my roommate the night before my roommate left for the US, and not only did they give us heart-shaped focaccia and free wine and appetizers, but when we left they gave us each a couple fresh flower blossoms from their centerpieces with their stems wrapped in foil so they’d stay fresh. Whenever I get back to Rome, Il Piccolo Grande Chef is my first dinner stop.

If you go (and you should if you’re in town!), tell the two owners that their American friend Stacey and her mamma and nonna say “Ciao”.

“What you are now, we once were; what we are now, you will be.”

Creepy stuff. Although I kept thinking as I walked through it that it reminded me of a Disney Pirates of the Caribbean ride, and I kept expecting the skulls on the walls to break into pirate songs. Disney would definitely have fun with the place.