Roman Sunset
Have you ever been to Rome? I’ve had the privilege of visiting the Eternal City two or three times. Despite the tourist and vehicle congestion, I never get tired of that great city. It’s so majestic. At the end of each visit, I promise myself that I’ll return. How can I not? There’s always so much more to see and experience.
The last time I went I had forgotten to replace the batteries in my camera. I had no choice but to buy one of those Kodak disposable cameras from a street vendor’s cart. Don’t get me wrong: there’s absolutely nothing wrong with disposable cameras, especially these days when they can achieve very nearly the same kind of resolution and picture quality as a good digital camera. The problem, I found out much later upon developing my pictures, was that the camera I had picked up had probably been sitting on that vendor’s cart for far too long. Most of my photos couldn’t be developed! Most disheartening was the fact that I had no souvenir of my visit to Trajan’s Column. If you ever have a chance to get up close to this towering sculpture, definitely do so. It’s truly a wonder of political propaganda through art. I had written about it many years ago, using professional photographs as my guide. So, to finally see it in person was awesome. Oh well, that’s just another reason to draw me back to Rome, I guess.
In the meantime, here’s a cocktail I devised one warm and sunny afternoon…
Roman Sunset
Italian Volcano Tangerine Juice is produced by Dream Foods International. They also sell bottles of blood orange juice, lemon juice and lime juice. What I find particularly intriguing about their product is that all the fruit is grown organically at the food of Mount Etna (hence the volcano reference). Both tangerine and blood orange juices are less sweet (and a little more tart) than regular orange juice. Feel free to use whatever juice you like best.
2 Tbsp Campari
3 Tbsp tangerine juice
Pour Campari and tangerine juice into a cocktail glass. Add ice and garnish with a sprig of mint. Top with sparkling water, if you’d like.