City of nobody

August has arrived (and almost passed, cause I have been very slow with this post), august, is the month of holiday in Italy, with the culmination of Ferragusto, which is one of the biggest family get-together's in italy. Which I spend in the mountains at saras mother.

I was a bit hectic because we arrived in Rome from Denmark, the day before in the afternoon, rushed home to water the garden and get one of my danish cookbooks, for I was the hero of the day to come(confused, read on). Then rushed (of cause not above speed limit rushing) to the medieval village following the Salaria. The Salaria is one of the ancient roman roads, which (as the name implies) was used to get salt. Surprisingly it wasn't the romans but an ancient pre-roman tribe called the Sabini who came to fetch salt from the marshes at the mouth of the Tiber[1](sabini is also the tribe, which according the legend of rome, lost many of its virgins, to the men of newly formed rome thought they needed[2]). So they should actual call it one of the ancient Sabini roads (instead of Roman, but...)

(Maybe I should have split this into several posts.)

Anyway if you find yourself leaving Rome in car going north, Via Salaria is deferentially a road to consider. its very curved (so for the carsick, its a no-go), and goes through a lot of unspoiled (except for the road ofcourse) nature.

Well we arrived just at dinner time (at teen) for homemade Lasange, served in the fresh mountain air and with lots of candlelights (which for a northern European like me is very romantic, but looks allot like a cementary for grownup Italians, So Sara and I were happy). Sadly the danish air had washed all my Italian language abilities away, so I was the happy eating mute all night, which was about an hour because then we went to bed.

Ferragusto (the family get-together day) was pretty cool, since I was the one who was cooking the second course(which is not the main course, because you eat first pasta, then roast). I was to make "flæskesteg" (roasted pig/Ham, with crackli) (I have pictures, but they must come later), with sauce and sweet potatoes. I was a bit nervous since it was only my second try at making such a roast, and Sara had tried an excellent roast at my sisters place in Denmark only days ago, so I couldn't just do the stupid and pretend that it was suppose to taste like that, if it was bad. Anyway the roast, which were ordered at the local butcher "this piece of meat with skin", came as a roast, without skin and then a bag with the skin of a fourth of the pig. With some work I managed to cut the skin, salt it and tie it to the roast(only a part of the fourth), and make it crackli (I dont like the word crakli (but I dont have any other, may be "crunchy" but thats candy according to this page (link))).

Everybody ate like they didn't just had a large piece of Lasagna (which we had) and a lot of antipasto (which we also had). For me it was a bit strange to eat a traditional danish roast, with sause and sweet potatoes in the mountains of Italy so far away from Christmas, but everybody loved it, and then so did I. so success :-D

My lunch break is over, so I better stop for now. Hope everybody is doing great. Next time I promise to tell about why I titled this post "City of nobody", its also about august...