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Published: August 30th 2010
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My girlfriend had just finished her final exams at Uni so as a treat for the amount of hours she had put in to studying (it seemed like an eternity) I decided to take her to Rome for a long weekend. The biggest problem in taking her away after her last exam is where I was going to have to take her if she passed (which she did, luckily she was happy with a romantic meal lol).
When we arrived the sun was shining and we were both looking forward to some fine Italian cuisine and to see the sights that Rome had to offer, as my friends will know I love food, when I’m at home I try to eat healthily but when I’m on a holiday, albeit a very short holiday, I like to pig out on naughty food. Being a lazy Brit tourist I hadn’t bothered to learn anything about Italian culture, that was my first mistake, the first restaurant we went to I decided to avoid the nice healthy grilled meat and veg and go for a pasta dish. Nikki ordered a steak and when our food came out her steak was huge and my pasta
looked like a starter and had loads of cheese on it, after we left the restaurant I had to go to another shop to buy more food as I was still hungry then it was time for some sightseeing.
Before I visited Rome I had never even heard of the Vitorio Emanuelle II Monument but when I looked on our map it was the closest sight to our hotel, we took a walk and when we rounded the corner and caught our first glimpse of it I was amazed, it was so beautiful and absolutely huge, we were lucky to catch the changing of the guard too. We walked around the monument and when we got to the back you could see the Colosseum so we headed over to it and took a walk around that.
For dinner I opted for another past dish and Nikki another meat dish and exactly the same thing happened again, I got a small pasta dish covered in cheese and Nikki’s meal was huge, my food looked like a starter, I later found out that traditionally Italian’s eat a 4 course meal, a starter, a pasta dish, a main meat dish and
then a sweet. That was why my pasta dishes were so small they were starters, we decided to try a full four course meal one day and I just about managed to eat it all.
I decided to try to be romantic one day and paid for us to go on a horse and cart for a ride, the driver asked where we wanted to go, I hadn’t thought this through, he said “I’ll take you on a little tour” a little tour was fine, not asking how much before I got on was not, 15 minutes later we had seen a few of the sights “That’ll be 150 euros please” WHAT that’s just over £100!!! I couldn’t say no because I hadn’t asked how much it was going to be before I got on, note to self ALWAYS ask before you do anything ever again.
After breakfast one day we were going to visit the Vatican, we asked at the reception how to get there, the guy looked at us and said “you can’t wear that” I was young and naive when I went and didn’t realise that you couldn’t wear sleeveless tops inside, at least I
found out whilst I was at the hotel and before I got to the Vatican and the huge queue that was outside. It was amazing inside and the Sistine Chapel was awe inspiring, your told not to take pictures or film it but I held my video camera down low so I could get a picture, my video camera broke after that, spooky or what.
Another meal another load of cheese on it, I was beginning to get really sick of eating so much cheese, I don’t particularly like cheese at the best of times but I’d had it on every meal since I’d been in Rome. One night after our dinner cruise (full of cheese again) we got off at Castel Sant’Angelo and walked over the bridge, I was still hungry and found a little cafe beside the river, the food was absolutely amazing. I like good food and love good service, everything was so nice I wanted to come back the next night, as I enjoyed the service so much I gave a very well deserved tip, Nikki had a go at me and told me I shouldn’t tip so much. The next evening when we went
back we had got there a little late, the owner was just closing the restaurant, he saw us and ran over and insisted we come in, we had the same food as the day before (the brochette for starters was exquisite) he kept the restaurant open just for us, all the other tables had been cleared away we were literally the only people in there. We had our own private candlelit dinner by the river......thanks to my tip lol.
The architecture, the people, the history, not so much the food, but everything else about the place made Rome amazing, this is my new favourite city!
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