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Thursday, March 21, 2019

Providence Adventures: Day II and ZOOMA

Immediately after wrapping up at the RISD we decided to go to lunch.  We were starving!  It had been a very busy morning full of lots of walking and beautiful views so we decided to head to Federal Hill to get some Italian food.

My bestie, Ang, had given us a killer recommendation (that I can't currently remember) but I hadn't realized it wasn't open for lunch so we revamped our plans spur of the moment and it worked out incredibly well.

We went across the street to a place called Trattoria Zooma.  It was incredible.  I strongly recommend going there on a Tuesday for lunch.

The food is amazing and the specials are too.  They have a lunch special which gets you three courses for 15.95 a person (18.95 if you choose to get a hand made pasta which I strongly recommend) and on Tuesdays they have a half off wine bottle special.  It's crazy!  And the food really is great.

We ordered a typically $60 bottle of wine for only $30.  It was the perfect red for our food.  The name is Primo Antico and after googling it, it looks like it's a wine that can only be ordered by the case and usually for restaurants.


We each got an appetizer: an order of meatballs and some eggplant parmigiana.  The eggplant parm tasted like home. I immediately flashed back to Gram's eggplant parm.  It was so good that I almost didn't want to share... The meatballs were also very tasty (not Gram's but still really good).
Our beautiful eggplant!
Hubby with our appetizers!
The meatballs

After the appetizers we both had lovely pasta dishes to share.  We opted for the hand stretched farfalle and the hand stretched papardelle.  I'm sad that I missed taking pictures of them making them.  In the front window, when we arrived, they were making pasta, but I decided to wait until after eating (we were starving).  But by the time we left, they were done for the afternoon so I missed a picture opportunity.
We got the Rigatoni alla Zooma (although we switched out for the hand made farfalle instead) which is housemade spicy sausage, green peas, shallots and garlic pomodoro. We also got the Rigatoni Bolognese (with hand made papardelle instead) which is a traditional housemade bolognese sauce.  I really wanted Baros to try some traditional pasta sauce (and I've never made a bolognese before so it's something I wouldn't make at home).   
Look at those beautiful noodles
Zooma papardelle and delicious wine
Our beautiful farfalle
The master at work!
Our Farfalle sprinkled with parmigiana
 These pastas and sauces were incredible.  The fresh pasta was cooked perfectly al dente and was just the right texture and consistency.  And the sauces were incredible.  The spicy sausage sauce was a little heavier but it was so flavorful. We cleared our plates and were in such a happy full state.
Which kind of made dessert difficult.  The menu had a lot of beautiful options for dessert but we were so full that we opted for the gelato as it was the lightest option.  Baros got pistachio and I got the salted caramel.  His pistachio was rich and creamy and a beautiful pistachio flavor. I wasn't keen on the salted caramel.  The flavor was good but it was icy in consistency.  But it's the only negative of everything we ate.

I really enjoyed Trattoria Zooma as it had beautiful, delicious food, wonderful quiet ambience (at least on this lunch hour), great lunch and Tuesday special and an incredibly friendly and patient wait staff.  Our waitress was wonderful and helped us make the best decisions for our meal.  I definitely recommend going there!
The bar area
After lunch we were so full that we had to take another walk.  We walked around the federal hill district admiring the shop windows and random pineapples floating around.
Follow the Italian Pride
Walking out of a story book!
I'm so entertained by these
A giant chicken in our midst
Welcome to the Federal Hill... where pineapples grow? 
Pineapple love!
I love the Italian Names on the sidewalk


We're really cute
And... more pineapples
Welcome to Italy
A lovely fountain
 Eventually we meandered our way down the hill and found the state building!  It was gorgeous.  We spent a little while taking pictures and just relaxing.  If we go back, we'll plan to go back earlier in the day and take one of the tours inside.
Stunning from afar
loved the gorgeous architecture.
We sat near one of the memorials for a little while. 

We even caught a rally of sorts



 As it started to cool down for the evening, we wandered to the mall to warm up and then grabbed some drinks on the way home. We were so full from lunch that we couldn't even eat dinner!  It was crazy!

And then the next morning we headed to Boston for some more adventure!

Wednesday, March 20, 2019

Providence Adventures: Day II

For our first full day in Providence, we got up early and started walking.  It was a crazy, busy day and we did a lot!  We kind of wanted to see everything since we were there for such a short time.

We grabbed a coffee near our Air B & B and then walked along the river being epic photographers.
Beautiful day light views of Providence
Modern Art

modern art and a view
Beautiful Skies


Happy
Our Swan Friend
This wheel really spoke to me :) 




Flight
I was obsessed with this gorgeous mural
Beautiful flowers for fall
The views really are gorgeous
Welcome to Fall
Beautiful Fall Foliage
soaring
The Patriotic Soldier
A View from the Bridge
After our river walk, we went into the RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) Art Museum and we had so much fun.  It was our first art museum together and it was gorgeous.  The RISD really seems to have a little of everything.

We spent half the day in the museum and pretty much saw everything.  They have some absolutely stunning pieces that you don't always find under one roof.  There are Modern, Roman, Grecian, Renaissance, Chinese, Japanese, Impressionist and so many more styles of art represented in this art museum.  My favorite style is impressionism but I was so impressed with the quality and representation of so many styles.

The rooms were in order... but somehow my pictures have gotten mixed! I didn't have the patience to try and resort them since there's so many of them!


I was fascinated by this piece. It's gorgeous.



some beautiful laundry 

beautiful busts
And intricate woodwork
This has always been one of my favorite Renoir and I'm so glad I got to see it in person. 
And their Egyptian collection was beautiful

Picasso is always incredible
I remember studying the meaning behind the designs on these sarcophagi back in college. Seriously
fascinating

The biggest wooden Buddha in existence in its own special room
this was the largest Buddha I've ever seen!
The collection of Van Gogh  was stunning
the textiles were incredible
Another lifestyle
Monet
Another of my favorite Renoir
I'm obsessed with this beautiful little Hippo
Such a gorgeous piece
A combination of textiles and cultures
Our reflections with some glasswork
I enjoy a good candid
or two!

It's incredible how well preserved this clothing is!
A look at old Colonial furniture and the height of wealth
for the time!
Gorgeous plates
Love the intricacy of these vases

Golden vs Wooden Buddhas... both stunning
A random room but I loved this line work 
A gorgeous tapestry
beautiful jar
A statue from Italy (If I remember correctly, it's
from Vesuvius).


More beautiful Monet
I've always been obsessed with Ancient Egypt.
Beautiful glasswork
Preserved textiles
Political Commentary
Beautiful rooms with beautiful statues

I loved the colors of this wallpaper
more preserved textiles
the now and then... 


beautiful archways
and stairwells 
some of my favorite portraits 

gorgeous
And a nod to my mother and grandmother... I was constantly admiring statues like these
I always wanted to play with them and story tell, but I wasn't allowed because they were so breakable. 
Don't pass Go. 
Baros and I loved the art museum and we had the added bonus of checking off another of our Bucket List since it was our first Art Museum together!

That was only the first part of our day but I think it's quite long thanks so all of the pictures so I'll put up another post with a restaurant review of Trattoria Zooma where we had the most amazing Italian lunch, and information about Federal Hill and some of the final sights that we saw in Providence!