Rome - the city of women. It was so for Fellini and it is so for me - not that I aspire to compare myself to the cinematographic genius of La Bella Vita in the times when Via Veneto was filled with life and laughter as opposed to the overpriced cafes with bad bellinis for confused tourists on the honeymoon Soprano's style at the Exelsior. Of course I belong to the less posh but far more lively and authentic Roman quarters. If you know me and you've been to Rome with me on one of my weekday evenings - chances are you have been dragged to the Tre Scalini on at least one occassion. This certainly is not the place for those in Italy after refined wine tasting tours offered on the Tuscan vineyards. This is the place though that certainly offeres the best atmosphere that a Roman wine bar can possibly pull off when in need of a table to meet your girlfriends. The food is good and most importantly cheap, the bartenders still remember me from the time we shared that bottle of Zobrowka straght out of Warsaw (courtesy of my friend Olga) securing a small "sconto"(discount) for future libacies and you can always find a good bottle for a decent price on the wine list - the trick is not to go for it per glass.
So it is in Tre Scallini where we often meet. Probably the best addition to the oh so "BOBO" (Borgouise - Bohemian) Monti quarters. I can just hear Lynda lecturing me that Monti still lives in its antique tradition of small fruit vendors and proper working girls behind the facade of Soho styled boutiques and Chinese dry cleaning.
But I was supposed to write about women. Yet, they are not just women, they are my friends, my amazing friends. THe people with whom one can discusses the pains of love, the misunderstandings of distance relationships, the need of hugs in the time where good hugs are a rarity, the twisted stories about everpresent exes or unpresent future love interests. The expat stories of what brought us here. The conversations are worth writing down - they strike me as better then in Sex in the City. So perhaps, I will, one day, risk writing it all down in the form of a new series starring a multiculutral community of women in Rome with the Cheers like element of the regular meetings in the Wine Bar where everybody knows your name.
