Wanted in Rome

Although I LOVE Italian food, sometimes I just can't conquer another four course, three hour dinner!  Last night was one of those times.  I was tired and not particularly hungry (also feeling a bit grouchy), but it was time to eat and we needed a little bite or two.  Following our host's great suggestion, we were led to a nearby trattoria.  We couldn't manage to eat another big meal so we ordered a pasta to share and a main course, and that was all.  The server looks at us a bit confused.  "Contorni? " (side dish?)  he asks.  "No," I reply.  "Legume?  Potatoes?" he continues to inquire.  "No."  "Bruschetta?"  Seeing as he's not going to give up, "Sure," I reply.

We enjoy the bruschetta.  Then the spaghetti carbonara arrives, one order split into two portions.  We both eat a few bites, but try to keep some space for our main course.  The waitress, looking flabbergasted, says, "Finito?".  "Si," I reply.  She talks some rapid Italian to the head waiter and he appears at our table.  "No like the Carbonera?" he asks indignantly.  I try to explain that it was very good, that we're just not very hungry.  He looks at us as though we've arrived from another planet and then he walks away.

Next the main course is served.  Mine is sea bass and it is delicious.  It is wonderful!  But I can only eat less than half of the whole fish.  Soon the waitress is at my side (she speaks English).  "No like?  Want something else?"

"No," I reply, "it was delicious.  I'm just not very hungry and I'm very tired.  And (trying to change to the subject)...what is this fish?" (referring to one of the many fishes on Larry's plate).

"You like?" she asks.  "Yes," I said, "it is very good."  "Want some?" she asks.

"No, I'm not hungry,"  I reply.  She looks completely confused.  She offers to replace my dinner with anything on the menu but I loved the fish;  I just couldn't eat another bite.  I look across the table to find Larry hiding the remnants of his dinner underneath his shells.  (He knows what's good for him!)

I'm expecting to find my face plastered on "wanted" posters throughout Rome.  To not eat a huge meal seems to be a crime here.  I feel horribly about insulting the chefs.  I didn't intend to commit a culinary crime! Yikes!

So today we headed to a "supermarket" (the size of a corner market in San Francisco) and got freshly sliced salami and proscuitto, fresh bread, some amazing olives...and called it dinner!  We're holding out in our hotel room.  We're anxiously awaiting our door to be knocked down and being hauled away somewhere.  I can just picture us trying to explain to some consulate....."We never meant to be criminals!  We just weren't hungry!!!



On another note...you never know what you might discover on a walk in Rome.  Here are a few sights we just ran across while out for a stroll.

(loved the reflection of this bridge crossing the Tiber River)

(such a common experience in Rome....just walking along

and then you run across a block of ruins being excavated.

The tops of these columns are just a few feet above

street level.)

(We just cracked up!  Where else can you find a Chinese,

Japanese, Italian pizzeria?  Well, maybe in Avignon,

where we saw an Irish Pub in a French town

serving Italian pizza and featuring Kareoke.)