Il Vascello propietors Angelo and Dorina

…is the friendly, local, slightly hidden, Monteverde trattoria – just outside of the Aurelian wall from us – presided over since the early 80’s by gregarious hostess Dorina and Sardegnian chef Angelo, whom we have come to visit this afternoon for interview #14 for the upcoming Roma Mangia Roma book (featuring interviews with five generation of people living in Rome about food, how they eat, earliest culinary memories, etc…), to hear their stories of growing up in rural areas, coming to Rome, working in a restaurant under a nurturing father-like mentor prankster chef next to the Pantheon, and finally establishing  Il Vascello – by now a familial hang-out for friends, regulars, locals, the film crowd (such as Gianni de Gregorio) and foreign residents like us – Dorina loves America and has memorized the U.S. state capitals by heart, reciting them in alphabetical order when she can’t fall asleep.