All roads lead to Rome, stone fruit has arrived at the markets, and an update on my permesso di soggiorno.

Plus, we're officially a Bestseller newsletter on Substack!

We’re a Substack Bestseller!

This week, because of all of you who have chosen to support this publication as a paid subscriber, the Barrett and The Boys newsletter is officially a bestseller on Substack! We can't believe it, and we can't even begin to express how much this community means to us. A year ago, we decided to build something here as a forum to continue sharing our passion for food and life with a more intimate audience. And, for the past 54 weeks, your support, feedback, encouragement, and love have made it a joy for us to invest our energy and resources into creating (what we hope is) valuable content for you. Writing and developing this material takes a lot of time and energy, but we truly love the whole process. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your continued support. Let's keep spreading the word and building this together into something even bigger and better! Sending all our love from Italy. x

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Rome, here we come!

Rome is a part of our love story. When Andre and I first met, he always talked about how much he wanted to take me to Italy, especially Rome, his favorite city in the world. At that point, unlike Andre, I'd only been outside the United States once, on a trip to Cabo with my dad when I was in 3rd grade. But, Andre had been traveling his entire life, especially to Italy, because of his father's ties to Puglia. "It's just such a magical place," he always said. "You can walk around with the purpose of getting lost so you can stumble on beauty or ruins around every corner. So much goes back to Rome at so many points in time and the city has an infectious energy. There’s a New Yorker like quality to the Romans who are warm, matter of fact, and firm all at the same time and, my god, the food is so good! It's mind-blowing to experience it in person." 

So, over twelve years ago, as the first part of our honeymoon, we went to Rome and spent a week strolling amongst the cobblestone streets, eating bowl after bowl of Cacio e Pepe all ways (creamy, saucy, dry, super peppery!), gazing up at the Colosseum, sampling all the gelato we came across, and walking through the Pantheon during a rain storm and watching the water fall into the center after stuffing our faces with focaccia from the Forno Campo de’Fiori. I was pregnant with Costa and happy as a clam. Andre wasn't lying; it was magical. And from the moment we left, I knew we would return many times over.