Still Eating my Way Through Rome

---

So I will be very surprised if I haven't put on five pounds by the end of this conference because of all the good food! We have yet to do any touring, so tomorrow, I will actually have a blog about the Coliseum and the Forum (yay!). But today was still all about the food.

For lunch, we went to Obika, a local mozzarella bar which is opening locations around the world. I expected there to be a lot of mozzarella, but I had NO idea how much! We had our Board of Directors lunch there, so about ten of us gathered around a table and after struggling (at least for me) with the Italian menu, we suggested that our host make a selection of various dishes for us to try and share. They first brought out four plates with five different kinds of mozzarella on each. They represented five different regions in Italy, and the owner instructed us on what order we should eat them. We started with a very creamy mozzarella, which was so liquidy that it came out in a glass. This was followed by a ricotta-like cheese, which was much drier and fell apart more easily. Then, we moved on to the buffalo mozzarellas: the first was good (well, they were ALL delicious really), the second was the one that "cried milk" because when you cut into it, milk would squeeze from it, and the third was from the same region as the second one, but was roasted over a fire, so that it tasted like being at a campfire. It was all interesting and delicious. This was accompanied by vegetables, which I avoided, and a plate of smoked meats, which I was a big fan of. There were also tomatoes, and caper berries, as well as an eggplant tapanade. I stuck with the meat and cheese, which was wonderful. Everyone enjoyed it, and was very full as we headed to the office for our Board Meeting. I was glad of the walk back to the hotel from the meeting, which took us up the Spanish steps - I needed a little bit of exercise after all that food!

After resting a bit, I got ready for this evening's welcome reception, which was being held at the Casina Valadier. The Casina was apparently originally a farmhouse, transformed by Valadier into a small neo-classical villa with terraces, loggias, columns and capitals for Cardinal Della Porta. It's too bad that I wasn't able to take more pictures (or any at all of the outside), because the building itself is very beautiful. But it was dusk, which is a tough time for photos, so I only got a couple.

We began in the courtyard with a cocktail, and commented on how lovely the evening was once the sun had gone down. I'm hoping it does cool off this weekend, but that it doesn't have to rain to do that! We eventually headed inside for dinner, which was held on the very top floor, with a view to St. Peter's Basilica and the Castel Sant'Angelo, where we will have dinner on Saturday. It was really beautiful - this I did try to take a picture of, but it really doesn't do it justice!

Dinner started with stuffed zucchini flowers, and yes, I ate them. They were surprisingly delicious, and I only had to stop when they tasted more "green" towards the end. This was followed by a great pasta, which is a specialty of a southern region - I ate all of it, though I knew another course was to follow! The next course was a meat course, and I didn't eat much of this because it was cooked a little bit more rare than I like. I was also saving room for dessert, a trio of sorbets, lemon, raspberry and coconut. It was a refreshing end to a heavier meal. I'm glad that we will be walking a lot tomorrow afternoon, because I think I need it after this lunch!

Tomorrow, I give my presentation on Social Networking - yikes - and then we have lunch before heading off to the Coliseum and the Imperial Forum!

---