Fregene (Rome's wannabe St. Tropez)

Fregene holds a special place in my heart. For those of you not familiar with Rome, Fregene is a beach village about 40 minutes from Rome, not far from the airport. Its proximity to Rome, makes it an ideal place for people to commute during the Summer months, if one has property there or rents for the Summer. Prices are ridiculously high, which is why I make reference to St. Tropez, even though renting is not so expensive overthere! My love affair with Fregene began about 8 years ago when a friend took me to dinner. I then started going to the beach there, and continue to do so today. Fregene is also the place I fell in love with my husband, and the place where we spent several Summers. It was our place for summertime aperitivos and dinners by the shore and endless Summer fun. Today I look at it in a different way, since now we go there with baby. Our needs changed, and we no longer frequent the old kiosks and free beaches, but seek out beaches which offer a baby pool and a child friendly atmosphere. Having broken up with the "stabilamento" where we went last year, this year we are trying to find a new beach which we all like, and it has not been easy. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't like the last place, named after a Brazilian city, was that great. It has a nice atmosphere, a salt-water pool, and friendly (ok, fake friendly) owners. Their gimmick was calling you by your first name, so it seemed like we were all old friends. The truth is, they made these dear friends pay big time for some of the silliest things. Other than rent the standard two sun chairs and umbrella, we often had lunch at the restaurant, many times with friends who would come visit us, we would spend money left, right, and center and not really worry about it. Often the bill would seem a little too high, and I would give the owner a piece of my mind about that, and in turn they would watch it a little more. Recently, after going back during the winter and paying heavily, and going back this Summer only to be charged for a baby's meal when all they did was boil the pasta I gave, seemed a little too much. This is considering we had spent the day at the beach, had lunch at the restaurant, and had 3 bottles of wine and 3 pizzas as an aperitivo when a few of our friends dropped by. This was the last straw, hence the break up.

We have visited two other places since:
Delfino - nice has a pool, umbrellas are spaced properly so you are not stuck to your neighbors. Restaurant is good and not bad value for money.
Capri - a lot bigger than Delfino, has two pools, a children's pool and an adult pool. Big play area for kids, good restaurant. Umbrellas very well spaced out.

A round up of Fregene restaurants and beaches to follow.

Summer, Summer, Summer time.....

It is starting to feel a lot like Summer here in Rome. The temperature is in the 30s (C) and we are only at the end of June! Last week the streets were a little emptier, and lots of people seemed to be away. I love that, since to me that is what Summer in the city is supposed to be like. I enjoy the ease at which you can do so much more since there are a lot less people around. The Summer is when Rome is a little less chaotic. I can't do all the things I love to do, like aperitivos at the beach, open air movies, free concerts, dinners al fresco, and on and on, because now we have a baby to worry about and take care of. We try to do as much as possible, and I have to say, it works.We were at the beach this weekend, and it was nice to be able to stay cool when it is boiling in the city.
Here's to the beginning of (my) beach season. May it last as long as it possibly can!

When friendships end

It didn't occur to me how often this has happened in my life until the other day when I started thinking about it. Friendships end often due to fights, and I have had my share of those, but there is another kind that really bugs the shit out of me. I hate it when you lose a friend and you have no idea why. You can sit there and guess at possible reasons, but it is the not knowing that makes it hard to move on. I have had my fair share of drama, and due to that drama, things change, and realtionships end, and I can accept it. I often think about these people, wonder how they are doing, think about how close we were at some point in our lives, and what a pity that we no longer speak. The ones that really make me angry though is the ones that just ended cold turkey. I had one such friend. He was like a brother to me, we were inseparable when we lived in the same country. People even thought there was something more going on between us, but nothing ever did. Did he have more than "friendly" feelings towards me, possibly, but he never said anything. I loved him like a brother. Long story short, I moved countries, he moved countries, we slowly spoke/emailed/messaged less and less. I got a life which he was not a part of , he got a life which I was not a part of. I forgot to mention that he was married and had kids even through the early parts of our friendship. After visiting me, something went wrong, we didn't have the best time, we bickered, but I thought that was normal. We used to bicker all the time. He was cold after that visit, he was clearly angry about something, but didn't share. He wasn't very good at talking about his feelings. I got sick and tired of the way he was treating me and his immaturity for not addressing the problem. He left it there, I left it there. We didn't speak again. He sent me a message about 10 months ago congratulating me on the baby, I never replied. I had no idea what to say. Am I sad?Not really. Most of the time I don't really think about it, but to me the person I used to know was someone else. The person who he has become, is someone I don't know, so in a way I lost someone and that makes me sad. We used to laugh a lot, we knew things about one another that no one else did, we used to have the best time together doing very little. He was my best friend. I wish him all the best in life, but will forever be offended at how he treated our friendship, and how he decided to end it.

4 kilos to go....

Just thought I would post an update on the weight issue. I am currently between 57.5-58.5 kgs, and this weight has been stable for at least 2 weeks now. I have to admit that I have kinda relaxed on the dieting front these past few weeks. Today I decided it was time to go back on the diet and be much more strict so that I can lose these last 4 kilos. The hardest thing for me to resist is bread and dessert, but I will try and be strong so that I can get as close as I can to my target. Wish me luck!

Istanbul

I visited Istanbul recently and absolutely loved the city. We didn't have time to see all the sights but did manage to do some sightseeing. The above is a shot of the blue mosque.  I highly recommend the Sunset bar and grill restaurant for a romantic outdoor dinner with the most amazing view of the city and Bosphorus. The food is International and very good. We also had lunch at the Grand Bazaar at Havuzlu, where we tried the typical Kebap. It found it to be ok, and if I was to go back I would try something else. Overall it was a nice city break, but I think Istanbul merits a minimum of 4 full days in order to see the sights and different areas of this amazing city. Be careful with taxis, I think one we took had a doctored meter since we were majorly overcharged. Also, it's quite normal for taxi drivers to smoke and I found that to be a bit annoying, especially since it makes me nauseous.

Heart attack on a plate

I was in Madrid recently and as usual that means going out to dinner and enjoying the many delicious items the city has to offer. Among those items is this fried egg and bacon on top of french fries, hence the title of this post!

I have to admit it is delicious and you can get this in many traditional Madrid restaurants.

I also had drinks in plaza Santa Ana where there are many outdoor bars and places to eat. Just off the plaza I spotted an American style bakery with cupcakes, didn't have a chance to try it out though!

It's been a while....

I've disappeared for a while, apologies for that. It has been quite a busy month.

I am having the hardest time dealing with noise lately. It seems that a decent night's sleep has become somewhat of a luxury. In the past two years, something has happened to my usually quiet neighborhood. I live in the center, but not campo di fiori type center. I think if you make a choice like that, you do it knowing full well you ain't gonna get much sleep. I on the other hand live in a quieter part of the center, but it is quiet no more. Construction noise has really been the cause of my distress lately. It started with the place above ours, which was renovated on and off from about 2005-2010. Finally, one fine day the owners moved in and what was left of our peace and quiet went out the window. Then the building across the street got rennovated, problem being the construction workers who unloaded their trucks at 6.30 every morning. Then it was the shop under our building, the courtyard in our builiding, the porter's flat in our building, it is just a never ending list. Cars, garbage trucks, loud music, loud people who don't think that people in the center deserve to sleep. I have reached my limit and asked my landlady to install better windows or kiss the monthly rent I pay goodbye. I hope for improvement from the new noise reducing windows, but am also looking around for new places just in case.

I can go on complaining about Rome, but will spare you all. I will now close my eyes and dream of being on a sandy beach, listening to the sounds of the waves. I am zen.