Sunday, September 20, 2009

Festa Nazionale dell'Altraeconomia

Yesterday a new friend that I made in my drawing class invited me to go to an "organic festival" with her that was being held right here in Rome. She didn't know much about it, but she said that some of her roommates had gone a few days earlier and were still raving about it. It sounded good to me!

My roommate Kristin and I quickly left to meet Rose so we could all head over there together. Here are we are waiting for her



When she arrived we caught the number 3 bus and rode it a few stops. We got off and were unsure of exactly where to go, so we asked a local and she pointed us in the right direction. After a nice short walk, we arrived.

Our first impression of the festival was a good one, because they gave us a goodie bag as soon as we walked in!



Inside was some literature about the festival (all in Italian) and an amazing organic chocolate bar that was orange flavored. It sounds strange, but it was SO GOOD. And it is already gone...



So it turns out that this festival was not only a showcase of local organic foods, but also of organic crafts (there was a tent selling handmade decorative doormats) and energy-saving projects that are underway. Not going to lie though...the food was definitely our main objective!

Here's a view of some of the tents





This guy was cutting into a leg and selling the meat...yuck (unless you're into that kind of thing)



Cheeses!



Most of the tents were giving away free food samples...we tried cheese, organic honey on a big slice of toasted bread (this was amazing and the vendor gave us a little jar of honey for free so we will be recreating this at our apartment) and a piece of a lemon flavored cookie.

There were also vendors selling organic goodies, and since we hadn't eaten lunch that day, we took full advantage of the fact that everything was organic as well as inexpensive!

Freshly roasted corn on the cob sprinkled with salt...kind of expensive at 2,50 euro but it was sooooo worth it



Fresh bruschetta for 1,50 euro...heavenly


In addition, we also each drank a can of soda that's supposed to be better for you (not sure if I believe that, but I'll go with it) and were feeling quite full by this point. However, we soon saw this guy...



...and realized that we needed crepes!

They don't look very pretty because he folded the plates over to keep them warm, but they were amazing. The three of us split them...the one on the left has Nutella in the middle and the one on the right has strawberry jam



As an aside, crepe making is definitely an art. And I would most definitely suck at it if I attempted it.

We each bought a bag of these apples...we got all these for only 1,50 euro. That's only $2.20...and they're organic!



This festival was definitely one of the coolest things I've done since I've been here...my friends and I were literally the only non-Italians there, and it was so awesome to attend a local, non-turisty event. The location of it was kind of tucked away, and most tourists (myself included) would never find it if we weren't 'in the know' about it. My friend Rose's roommates that told her about it learned about it from one of their Italian professors.

Besides the things in Rome that you can't NOT see when you're here (the Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps, etc.) I'm trying my best to immerse myself in Roman culture as much as possible and attend events that few Americans go to. So the fact that this festival was full of Italians and the fact that it was about organic foods (which is something that is important to my friends and I) made it so much better!

0 comments: