From Quadraro, La Scoperta del Giorno

The latest in the now-and-then RST feature, La Scoperta del Giorno (the discovery of the day or, better put in English, Today’s Discovery). The Italian word “scoperta,” and its English equivalent, “discovery,” are similarly constructed; each is based on the verb “to cover” (coprire/to cover) and each is converted into “uncover” or “discover” with a prefix (the “s” in Italian, the “dis” in English).

Yesterday we returned to Quadraro, a center of street art that occupies both sides of Via Tuscolana in the heartt of Tuscolano. We  couldn't resist a look at the short tunnel that runs under Via Tuscolana between Via Decio Mure (on the west) and Via Lentuli (on the east). Below, what the west entrance looked like 9 years ago, in 2016. Even then, the black interior of the tunnel had been painted white, probably to encourage pedestrian use. The artist is Mr. Thoms.  (See our post on street art in Quadraro, including a now-defunct app, here: https://www.romethesecondtime.com/2016/11/quadraro-street-art-center-of-romes.html) 

Here's what it looked like a few weeks ago:

And that's the Scoperta del Giorno for October 9, 2025!

Bar Latteria - Bar and "Milk Store" - What's Up?

Latteria? Having spent 2 months each year in Rome for more than 2 decades, we had seen the word hundreds of times, often in combination with Bar, as in "Bar Latteria," or with Caffè, as in "Caffè Latteria," or even, curiously, with Cocktails, as in "Cocktails Latteria," And we knew enough to know that a "latteria" meant a "milk shop" or a "milk store." OK. But one can buy milk at the supermarket or at any mini-market. So what's the deal with the "latteria"?

Through conversations with our Roman friends, we pieced together the story of the Roman latteria.  

It was the consensus that the Bar Latteria (above) located in the large via Catania public market (in the orbit of Piazza Bologna), 150 vendor stalls, was "authentic." One could downplay the "Bar" part of the name, if only because the market itself closes for the day at about 1 p.m. No late afternoon Campari Spritz to be served here, although, as the bottles on the shelf would suggest, you can still get an a.m. Scotch.

A "milk board" posted outside (photo below), listing milk products that seemed to be unusual, also lends the place an air of authenticity. Then we learned that those milk products weren't so unusual—in fact they could be purchased at any supermarket, or even down the street at the mini-market. So much for authenticity.

It was not long before the very concept of authenticity was undermined. And that brings us to the history of the Latteria, insofar as we know it. A friend and professional chauffeur, who drives us to and from the airport, grew up in the 1970s in San Lorenzo—Scalo San Lorenzo to be precise. He remembers picking up milk for the family at the neighborhood latteria—one of about 4 in San Lorenzo at the time, as he recalls. He also remembers that in those days there was a central latteria in Rome, a distribution center from which all the city's latterie (the Italian plural of latteria) were supplied. 

It's unlikely that the signage of this Bar Latteria on via dei Sabelli in today's San Lorenzo dates to the 1970s—we think the term "Snack Bar" is a more recent invention. In the mornings it's full of mothers who have dropped their kids off at the school just down the block.

The first coffee bar we tried in San Lorenzo was a traditional establishment on Piazza dei Sanniti. Later we noticed a sign on the via dei Volsci side of the caffè. Missing the "L," it reads "atteria" (below the word "BAR").We asked the barista, a man in his 70s, if the bar was a latteria. "Not for a long time," he replied. I asked how long it had been since it was, in fact, a latteria. "Cinquant'anni" was his answer—dating the end of its days as a latteria to the mid-1970s. Indeed, the city's latterias ceased to exist as legal entities in 1975.

Before 1975—how far back we don't know, yet—milk distribution in Rome (and doubtless other cities) was regulated for health purposes. Milk was available only through licensed vendors—the latterias. When it became clear that this regulatory regime was no longer necessary, the latteria as a legal entity ceased to exist. That was, as the barista—and our driver—confirmed, almost 50 years ago. The year was 1975.

Even then, latterie didn't just disappear. The "milk store" was by then a tradition, and milk stores continued to exist, and even to open anew. This latteria, on via Tiburtina in San Lorenzo, was—according to its window signage—founded in 1980, 5 years after the law changed.

In our fall, 2025 Re di Roma neighborhood, a small, old sign suggests that a coffee shop we frequent, Anima Nera (Black Soul), was once a latteria:

The latteria survives in the memories of Romans, and in the signs of an earlier era. So, stop into your local milk store—and have a Jack Daniels. 

Bill 

Toilet Equipment, and La Scoperta del Giorno

The latest in the now-and-then RST feature, La Scoperta del Giorno (the discovery of the day or, better put in English, Today’s Discovery). The Italian word “scoperta,” and its English equivalent, “discovery,” are similarly constructed; each is based on the verb “to cover” (coprire/to cover) and each is converted into “uncover” or “discover” with a prefix (the “s” in Italian, the “dis” in English).

We reported on gentrification in 2019, and one of the neighborhoods we included was Quadraro, which occupies both sides of Via Tuscolana just south of the Porta Furba Metro stop on the A line. Quadraro made some sense as a locus of anti-gentrification sentiment, because it's a leftist, working-class neighborhood, while also being one of several Rome street art/murales centers, and hence associated with artistic elites.

That said, Tuscolano to Quadraro's south had always seemed to us relentlessly middle-class, impervious to gentrification. Until yesterday, when, window shopping, we were shocked to realize that we could have walked into a store in the heart of Tuscolano and come out with a $400 toilet brush! 

                    And that's La Scoperta del Giorno for an afternoon in October, 2025!

The Orecchiette Wars and the Search for Authenticity

Made in Italy is a label that still attracts attention, and buyers. Italy has been very protective of its country’s indigenous food products, and we’re not talking just wine here.

A recent article on the front page of a daily Rome newspaper, Il Messaggero, brought this point home to us as it proclaimed that the authenticity of orecchiette, the “little ear” pasta form, was at risk. Orecchiette, as we learned, should be a product of Puglia. Moreover, the “nonne della pasta” (“pasta grandmothers”) of the region are accused of making it only partly by hand—"ma loro negano”—“they deny it.”

In Bari, according to the Messaggero article, which was based on a UK Guardian article, there’s been a “blitz” of authorities going after the pasta makers. I like the Guardian headline: “Barricades in Bari: why the city’s ‘pasta grannies’ are under scrutiny. Sellers of fresh orecchiette in southern Italy are fighting back after being accused of tricking tourists with bought wares.”

The blitz, which started in January and has continued, includes the local prosecutor, the local police, the national Guardia di Finanza (tax police), and the Carabinieri (national police force). Says the Guardian, “Authorities said the most conspicuous evidence was piles of cardboard boxes for factory-made pasta found dumped in wheelie bins on the outskirts of the old town.”

The full article on the inside of Il Messaggero started with a typical—and enticing—yellow journalism approach:

“Not everything that ends up on your plate is truly Italian. From Parmigiano Dop* that hides foreign milk, to wine labeled from Tuscany but produced elsewhere to mozzarella ‘made by hand: sold as ‘artigianale’: the risk of being cheated is around every corner, and it doesn’t hit just tourists. Olives, salami, dried tomatoes, fresh pasta. The “made in Italy” label at times is corrupted by deceptive brand labelling, in stores in the center of Rome that are tourist traps, and on packages both in windows and on tables. And the case of the ‘orecchiette wars’ in the oldtown of Bari [in Puglia] is just one vivid example.”

The full newspaper page, which had an overall headline of “Add Doubt to the Table,” also featured wine from Pantelleria (an Italian island about halfway between Sicily and Tunisia) that was in fact made in Germany. And a third piece on adulteration of cheese products—Mozzarella and scamorza in Barletta (also in Puglia)—another blitz by Carabinieri, in this case specifically by their Nas division. We were unaware of this division of the national police force (we knew about their division that finds stolen art, and have appreciated and written about it). Nas, or Nucleo Antisofisticazioni Sanità, is the department of the Carabinieri responsible for controls of foodstuff, drinks, medicine etc. from adulteration, impurities, and fraudulent labelling. We couldn’t tell whether the Nas division of the Carabinieri was involved in the orecchiette wars, but they were involved in this cheese product adulteration.

It seems the cautionary tale is to watch what you eat, or don’t believe everything you’re told. It would be hard for the Italian authorities to keep up with the counterfeit products, we think. That won’t stop us from eating what we like here in Rome. Though maybe we’ll pay more attention to the recommendations of food experts like Katie Parla. Unfortunately, learning about these scams, while entertaining, adds a bit of cynicism to the table. 

Dianne 

*”DOP stands for Denominazione di Origine Protetta (literally “Protected Designation of Origin”). As the the name suggests, this certification ensures that products are locally grown and packaged.” Walks in Italy, a tour provider with a rich website, has a good piece on Dop here. (Italians tend not to use upper case for all the letters in their acronyms.)

La Scoperta del Giorno (Today's Discovery): Inside a Nasone

 

La Scoperta del Giorno (Today’s Discovery): Inside a Nasone

Today we’re launching a new (and not daily) RST feature: La Scoperta del Giorno (the discovery of the day or, better put in English, Today’s Discovery). The Italian word “scoperta,” and its English equivalent, “discovery,” are similarly constructed; each is based on the verb “to cover” (coprire/to cover) and each is converted into “uncover” or
“discover” with a prefix (the “s” in Italian, the “dis” in English).

The big event of September 20 was a huge pro-Palestine demonstration starting in Piazza dei Cinquecento in front of Stazione Termini, which we attended along with about 50,000 other people. But La Scoperta of that day took place about an hour after the “manifestazione” had left Termini to proceed through the city to the university. We were not part of the ongoing march, but headed home on foot, through Piazza Vittorio, where we took a break for a coffee at a sidewalk bar just outside the Piazza. There, sitting at a table, we could see dozens of those who had been at the demonstration—or were still part of the ongoing march—pouring out the gate of Piazza Vittorio and heading for a nearby nasone (one of thousands of “big nose” water fountains in Rome, most of them flowing constantly) to have a drink and fill up their water bottles.

 

The line was long, because a second nearby nasone wasn’t working. Then a man reached inside the top of the non-functioning fountain and, within no time, it was working! How did he do it?

By inspecting other nasoni, we soon learned that some but not all of them have a handle inside that turns the water on and off. 

The handles were likely installed in 2017 during a severe drought when more than 2,000 of the nasoni were “turned off.” Since the handle revelation, we have often tried, usually without success, to remove the cover to access the handle—or just to see if there was one. Here's a nasone without a handle:

Most of the covers appear to be fixed—that is, not easily removable by a passer-by. It looks like one needs a special round tool with a triangular interface to get the cover off.

Some nasoni have handles to turn the water on and off! That’s La Scoperta del Giorno for September 20, 2025.

Bill