If you look at a map of Italy, there’s a ring road that surrounds the city of Rome. Fiumicino airport would be at the southwest spot, just outside the ring. Today we drove 90 minutes to the northeast part of the ring road. 

09:00: left Pico, driving the familiar road through the mountains and different towns to reach the A1 – the main highway that runs north to south.

09:08 – passing through San Giovanni Incarico we see porchetta rotating on a spit in the center of town

09:17 – passing through Ceprano, set up of a stage, lights, chairs and tables are underway. Must be a feast tonight

10:30 – arrived at Secondamano il Mercantino Dell’usato. I’ve been following this second hand shop on Instagram for the past year. We spent an hour browsing home goods, furniture, and accessories filling up the trunk for 107 euros. 

11:55 – the Talenti Village Shopping Centre (mall) has a huge Carrefour supermarket inside it. It was the largest supermarket we’ve ever seen in Italy so we stocked up on dry goods and a ton of snacks for the week. We popped in and out of stores and each ordered rectangular pizzas slices from the food court: zucchini flower, ham and cheese, tomato pesto and mozzarella, and a rice ball.

14:10 – passed the Mormon temple in Rome, built 7 years ago and features Italian marble and Murano glass chandeliers 

14:15 – arrived at Porta di Roma, a mall with 220+ stores which is the same size as the Natick Mall. It was packed with people; and their dogs, escaping the 100+ degree heat. 

17:00 – arrived at Mercantino Le Valli, another secondhand store. Not as impressive as the first shop. 

18:00 – stopped by a farmacia to pick up Miamo skincare products, an Italian brand unavailable in the US. 

18:45 – as we headed south down the A1, we stopped at the Autogrill for gas and Paul’s 4th espresso of the day. Pulling out of the Autogrill we saw a beautiful rainbow and it was visible for most of the drive south. 

20:00 – dinner at il Re in San Giovanni Incarico. We started with an antipasto platter and enjoyed a pizza with tomato, buffalo mozzarella and prosciutto, caramelle al limone (paper thin egg noodles filled with ricotta, speck, provolone and lemon), mixed grilled meats with a cold broccoli salad for Paul. 

22:00 – arrived home to unload all of our purchases from the day.

22:15 – Miss M fed the cats

23:30 – finished catching up with the Grandparents and then headed to bed!