By the Sea

For our friends last full day in Rome, we took off for the beach, and Sunday lunch at La Vecchia Pineta in Ostia Lido.  When the weather is hot, the Italians hit the beach, with gusto.  Each beach seems to charge a fee, but that will get you a lounge chair and a place close to the water.  We took the train from Piramide station to Ostia, and then walked the path to the restaurant.

We had made a reservation and got a table ringside, as our friend Rick would say.  It was a gorgeous day, and there were regattas going on so it was fun to watch the boats, as well as the food that continued to come to our table.

We began with two platters of these---fritte miste---fried, crunchy everything, my faves are the tiny octopus mascardini

Scampi cream ristotto

Pasta alle vongole

Squid Ink pasta with vegetables and scampi

The fish cart is brought to the table, and you choose dinner

And then, hello gorgeous!  Roasted fish with potatoes, olives and lemon

They remove the bones, etc from the fish and serve you a plate

We lingered over the main course, it was exceptional.  Then we were trying to decide what to have for dessert, when our waitress said they had scgropino a delicious concoction of lemon sorbet whipped with vodka and prosecco---so we HAD to have that.

The perfect ending to a perfect day; we had to go back to Prati and pack up our bags for flights the next day, but this is a lovely way to end a trip to Rome.

Ciao for now.