Instagram is like the watering hole, a useful place to gather info and catch up on the news. At least that’s how I use it. The convention for mentioning an Instagram account is with the @ sign, for example, @madventures.me.
For Rome, these are some of the accounts I follow. Many of these are tour guides or bloggers and have their own website and blog (but that seems to be less of a thing these days):
ElizabethMinchilli and her daughter/business partner, SophieMinchilli, WantedinRome, RomeTravelers, RomeInside, TourguideMitra, Romewise, MCMcGuire, @TiffanyParks, and @AnAmericanInRome.
I find it useful to look at who follows whom — because it might be someone I want to follow…
Instagram (not owned by Facebook/Meta) has a DM, direct messaging, (like email — they even use the @ symbol) system with three inboxes. To get to the mailboxes, one taps on the paper airplane in upper right corner. I mention this because over the past six months, I have noticed instagrammers talking about it. The three mailboxes allowing for prioritization.
Then there are the restaurant accounts that I follow, for example, Marigold, mostly so I can keep up with when they are open and to see what specials they have (or if I need a reminder that it is fresh pea season!). Instagram (owned by Meta/Facebook) allows you to search by hashtag (subject) and by person, so it’s easy to find stuff to follow. You can also block people and you can “mention/tag” accounts when posting.
I find it interesting that many instagrammers only post to the “stories” (circular auto play across the top) and not to their “feed.” I try to post to both but usually a truncated version to the feed.
If you want to binge on watching videos about Italy, here are some I’ve found. Mostly on food. Mostly about Rome. I will not list all of them as there are too many, but a few that will give you some leads to follow.
Rick Stein is one of my favorite TV chef presenters. The thinking chef’s chef. Here in Corsica and Sardinia.
Insider is a channel about food. This host is Italian and in this short video, the topic is Limoncello. There are many other videos from Insider like this one pasta in Bari. Or focaccia in Genoa.
WocomoCook is another YouTube channel that I found. Here is an episode about food in Umbria.
Floyd was a chef who had a good time, this time in Liguria.
Pizza by the slice (taglio) sold by weight is a very Roman food.
If you want months worth of binge watching, Rick Steves provides! Rick Steves has eight hours of free TV shows on Italy alone! He also has free audio tours, apps, books, etc. He is much raunchier on his audio tours! If you want a private guide in your ear, he has those! If you just want to watch him give good advice, watch him here.
Also, many people like Dream of Italy. Here, the host is in Amalfi and Naples.
Then, there’s this guy is quite wealthy (he is an angel investor and helped start Virgin America) but decided to make a travel show because he didn’t find any that matched his lifestyle. Swish.
Possibly the most famous car in Rome? This is in Monti.
Carnival, carnevale in Italian, translates to “farewell to meat” and marks the festivities before Lent (the 40 days of fasting before Easter in the Catholic religion, this year starting on February 17). Traditionally, one had to use up all the fat and sugar (luxury items), therefore the treats served during this period are deep fried. There is one type called “Castagnole di Carnevale” which translates to “mardi gras chestnuts” — donut holes. Also called “frittele.” Another fried dough is the “zeppole” which is a lump of fried dough.
The lasagne style fried dough are called “cenci” which means “tatters” as they look like tatters. There are other names for these (just there are many names for the same type of pasta depending on the region) including “frappe (commonly called this in Rome), chiacchiere, bugie, and guanti.”
Frittele, fried lasagne dusted with sugar.
As it is, Italians eat sweet things for breakfast. Many do not eat very much at all for breakfast. Some even considered the milk in their coffee to be breakfast…
Savory lasagne at my local.
While Italians eat lasagne all year round, it is served more during this “farewell to meat” period than at other times of the year. Another thing I noticed about lasagne in Rome is that it’s not very saucy, although during carnival it is meatier. Lasagna with an A at the end is one piece of lasagna. No one wants that!
When in Rome? In ancient Rome, they used a rag on the end of a stick instead of toilet paper (one of the possible reasons for the phrase, “getting hold of the wrong end of the stick” — the other origin of the phrase may derive from 19th century printing press when the letters were placed in a stick and backwards — so if you got hold of the wrong end of the stick, you would not comprehend the sentence).
Toilet and bidet in Rome.
Modern Roman toilets look much as they do in other parts of the world, but the flush handle is usually a button on the wall. Another thing is that Roman toilets include a bidet (“bee-DAY” or “beh-day”). The bidet is basically a bathtub for your nether parts. It looks like a toilet bowl and to use it, you back down on it, wash yourself, and then dry yourself using a towel (hence why there is a towel rack nearby). The cultures that do use a bidet consider those that don’t, a bit baffling, as they wonder why one would only use paper to clean up a sticky situation?
In the middle east and Indian subcontinent, people use “the mechanical action of the left hand” instead of toilet paper. Many of these countries also have a “bidet shower” — a spray hose. In my apartment in Bangladesh, there was a spray hose near the toilet instead of toilet paper. The water pressure on the ones in my apartment had the force of a power wash, but I was told that it was to clean off my left hand, not for direct application. The bidet shower, or spray hose, is also used in Finland and Estonia, according to Wikipedia. The Japanese of old times used a stick to clean the backside but now they have electronic toilets with sprayed water and air, both warmed. Japanese toilets also can include a heated seat and “politeness” music.
The average American uses 50 pounds of toilet paper every year. Many countries do not use toilet paper. Many Catholic countries use water rather than paper, or a combination of the two. Also, considering how much paper and water flush toilets waste, perhaps the bidet shower is the way of the future? In terms of wasting resources getting rid of our waste, the city of Los Angeles spends four million dollars each year unclogging toilet paper from their sewers. In many countries, one can’t flush toilet paper down the toilet. In Peru, one puts the toilet paper in a trash can next to the toilet.
Can you tell that I’m writing a book about toilets? Due to the pandemic, toilet paper has been on our minds — a lot. I have actually been interested in toilets from a cultural viewpoint for quite a while, as toilet habits have been a bit different in many of the countries where I have lived. Going to the toilet is one of those things that people don’t talk about too much, but it is that one thing that we all do, and affects culture, from water usage, home construction, art, language, religion, and customs.
One of the many memes I collected during 2020’s toilet paper hunt.
Back to the bidet. The bidet means “little horse” in French and refers to the straddling position one assumes when using it. The bidet was popularized in France in the 18th century, supposedly much used by the French prostitutes. The British considered the French to be hedonistic, and therefore their bidets to be hedonistic. Americans of those times followed British customs and this is, supposedly, why Americans do not use bidets. But, I know more and more who are installing Japanese toilets and bidet toilets in their homes. Like in the ad below, perhaps it will become a thing in the new American toilet. Freedom Toilets?
Suppli are the Roman version of “arancini” — basically a croquette from cooked rice or pasta. The name, suppli, derives from the telephone cord because when you pull the two halves apart, the mozzarella should string out like a phone cord.
In the south in Naples, arancini are “mini” oranges and they are usually made of rice. In Rome, the suppli are often made with pasta. Suppli are smaller than arancini. They are greasy. As you can see in the photo, the suppli is not that big (it cost 2 euro because it was amatriciana — the normal one with mozzarella is 1.5 euro). The one that I got was a amatriciana, a pasta sauce made with guanciale (pork cheek bacon), cheese from Amatrice, and tomato sauce. The pasta in mine was tube pasta — like a straw.
Many appetizers in Rome involve something deep fried. These fried pasta or rice balls are very popular either as an appetizer or a snack. For some reason, always eaten with pizza. I don’t know why since I don’t associate pizzerias with deep fryers.
