an old family house hidden in the woods and fields off Rome's Via Appia

…for the Roma Mangia Roma book take us this morning to a house in the most remarkable location on extensive grounds covered with thick woods, picturesque meadows, modest fruit orchards, and casual vegetable gardens, right off the ancient Roman road, where our thirty-something Roman subject grew up, where her parents continue to live on the top floor, where her brother lives downstairs, and where she shares the neighboring quarters with her Japanese boyfriend who used to work in an Italian restaurant in Tokyo (but has now lived in Rome for 7 years, the first few months of which he tried to make Japanese food, but when he realized that the proper ingredients just couldn’t be found, he surrendered and eats a typical contemporary Roman diet now, starting every day with a cornetto and cappuccino) – all of which made for some good talks about food, cities, culture, Rome, Tokyo, and what it means to share a house with your family, grow your own food in the city, and be dislocated from your homeland.