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rooms…. Wiser after our taxi ride, we avoided falling victim to the rose scam at the Spanish Steps. “Ciao bella, I have a rose for you. A titolo gratuito! Free of charge!” We ate pasta at every trattoria — research for this, our pasta issue — cacio e pepe, spaghetti alla carbonara, spicy bucatini all’amatriciana. I can now say with complete authority that our authentic Italian Rouses brand amatriciana sauce is as good as the one served in Rome’s famous restaurants. Delizioso! From Rome we took a train to Bologna. I batted my eyelashes at the young man who helped us with our luggage. Ciao bello! But it was his older companion who took a shine to me. He blew kisses the entire ride. At the hotel we met up with Patrick Capriati, Senior Market- ing Director for the ITA, for a walking tour through the city’s covered archways to Piazza del Nettuno and the Fountain of Neptune. Patrick is a Cavaliere, meaning he’s been knighted by the Italian government. I’d met Mardi Gras royalty, but this was a first. Beverly and I also visited multiple food shops behind Piazza del Nettuno including several salumerias, which had rows of Parma hams hanging from the roof. At a formaggeria we bought whole bells of provolone cheese to bring home as gifts. The food show was dedicated entirely to private labels. We have our own line of authentic Italian offerings, like our amatriciana pasta sauce. Over two days, we met with dozens of new Italian producers and importer / exporters. I can’t wait for you to try what we bought! We also visited with Alexandra Cardone of De Nigris, which bottles our balsamic and premium aged apple cider vinegars in Modena —our Italian pizza crusts are also made there — and Sal Bono, whose family produces our olive oils. Their company, Bonolio, was established in 1934 in Sciacca in the southern part of Sicily. We also ran into the older man from the train. Sigh. Naturally, since so many of us were at the same hotel, it was business before, during and after the show, even in the spa. And Beverly is a boisterous negotiator. At one point, she got us kicked out of the spa’s quiet room for negotiating too loudly. We met a lot of great people, including Anthony Lenna of Botticelli Foods. You’re going to absolutely love his Alla Vodka, Roasted Garlic and Fra Diavolo sauces. Like our Rouses authentic Italian sauces, Botticelli pasta sauces are made with 100% Italian tomatoes. Beverly and I were worried about taking our cheese back to the United States. Anthony told us about his Sicilian grand- mother who was so passionate about food, that when a TSA agent told her she couldn’t bring a big tin of homemade angi- netti — glazed lemon knots — on a plane, she sat down next to him and ate every last one of them rather than give them up. After eight days, we headed home. Our trip included another layover in Heathrow. We boarded the plane to New Orleans with a dozen British Saints fans who were heading there to attend the NFC Championship Game. Having been victim to the fake taxi, and having seen the rose scam in action at the Spanish Steps, I warned them about the French Quarter scam, “I bet I know where you got them shoes.” I need not have bothered. It wasn’t tourists who got robbed in New Orleans that weekend. It was the Saints.

EDITOR'S LETTER

by Marcy Nathan Creative Director

Earlier this year, my coworker Beverly, a grocery buyer for Rouses, and I were invited by the Italian Trade Association (ITA) to attend a food show in Bologna, the capital of the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy. We decided to tack on a few days of vacation in Rome beforehand. Things started to go sideways almost immediately after we landed in Rome. Bleary-eyed after a long plane ride and layover at Heathrow, we caught what we were told was a taxi at the side entrance of the airport by the escalators. For a trip that should have cost 50 euro, we were charged 150. Siamo stati derubati! We were robbed! Italy is a tourist mecca, and we spent the next few days marveling over Rome’s iconic sites — the Roman Forum and Colosseum, the Trevi Fountain, the miniature, bathtub-like bidets in our hotel bath-

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