Campo di Fiori - Food tour

 Friday morning bright and early at 10 am I made the 5 min trek to Campo di Fiori (Field of Flowers). 5 minutes is probably the quickest walk I will ever take in Roma. A 'quick' walk here is around 20 min-half an hour and that is close. Every morning in Campo di Fiori there is a market where they sell in season fresh food, vegetables and the like. There is also the occasional stand selling Italy garb. But the tour took us around this small piazza and we got to taste some of the most amazing foods right down the road from where I live.

The first place we went into was a cheese shop. This was my favorite stop of the day because I absolutely love cheese and all of its different varieties. This place was fantastic, the best cheese I've probably ever had was at this place. We got to try 5 different cheeses and we ate them in order of light to strong so that our pallet would be able to taste all of the flavors.

 We started with the cheese on the right, which was called Burrata (this one was my favorite). It melted in your mouth. I can barely even describe how good these were, and fresh as well. The cheese on the left was next and that was called Provola Affumicata, it was a little stronger and not as soft as the first but nonetheless still great.

 Next was the cheese on the right in the bowl by itself, called Cacio di Norcia. This cheese was from Umbria, a region of Italy not too far from Rome. The next was a bit stronger and the bottom cheese of the two in the pan on the left and called Parmigiano. Then finally was the strongest cheese called Pecorino. It had a sort of zing to it that really enveloped your taste buds. All of these cheeses were made right in Italy in their respective regions. Some of the preparing for the different types took months and had to be prepared at certain times, like during a full moon.

Next up was oil and balsamic vinegar tasting. These stands around this piazza have been here for hundreds of years and this was the first one to introduce oils to the market when they were no longer allowed to sell fish without a refrigeration system.  I personally liked the oils better, and we got to taste 3 of them. The order of the tasting was from light to heavy and by heavy they meant strong! I also learned that in Italy you can go to college to get an "Oil" degree. And no that is not oil for cars but oils that you can eat!

Next up was the balsamic vinegar, these were all based on age and how they were made. Above is the two different processes in which they made the vinegar. We started with 2 years of age and went to 8 years of age when we tried these with bread. Some of them were very strong and some you could put on ice cream they were so sweet! They also can age them for a very long time - 50 years old some of them were!

Meat shop in Campo di Fiori

 Our next stop after the oil and vinegar was the meat shop. There were a ton of different kinds and the shop was small but filled with meat. It smelled so yummy in there and I ate every kind. I did not ask what each piece was because I really did not care to find out until after I swallowed. There was jerky I know for a fact.

Finally, after all of our sampling in Campo di Fiori we went to a family run pizza place where a couple people were able to make pizza. They also brought out pasta for us to enjoy. The ingredients are super fresh as if they were picked that day. After pizza and pasta our tour guide got us gelato as dessert.