It is hard to believe that something so small can have such an intense fragrance. Mind you, the normal farm grown strawberries from the Castelli area, about 20 kms. south of Rome, are also very fragrant, but it’s the tiny wild strawberries found in the woods around here that are simply intoxicating.
This first photo shows the difference in size between the two types. Keep in mind that ‘normal’ strawberries, to the right, are already quite small, rarely larger than a bottle cap. The fragoline, on the left, therefore really are miniscule, about the size of a fingernail.
Nemi is a well known destination among Romans, who come here on weekends to escape the city heat and to consume prodigious quantities of this fruit. Usually eaten either with ice cream or simply with lemon juice and a bit of sugar, they are just as good eaten plain, as is.
It is simply impossible to walk down the main viale of the town of Nemi without breathing in wave after wave of fragoline fumes. This table below made its presence felt from around a corner about 100 feet way before it was even visible . . .
– Contributed by GB (see bio), Editor, Italian Notebook.
