How Do You Say "Truss" In Italian?

We're leaving Italy tomorrow. 

My diet can't start fast enough.

The ancient Romans had the right idea. Gorge yourself, then take your toga'd fat ass over to the vomitorium. 

Unfortunately, we just gorged.

Even though it looks like all we did was eat, we...well...I guess that is pretty much all we did. Oh yeah, we saw some stuff. But only in between eating. 

Here's the last of our bounty...

The menu above is hanging outside a fantastic restaurant in Rome. Their specialty is cacio pepe, which I think I already told you is a Roman specialty. Pasta, butter, pepper and cheese. The name of the restaurant is...Cacio Pepe. Clever, right?

Anyway, this menu hanging outside is the only one they have. You have to stand in front of it to order. The very cool waitress went over every item with us. The food was superb, to say the least.

I had to have something green. My carb overloaded body demanded it.

Then I had carbs. 

Cacio Pepe...for, I think the third time. Homemade pasta (when someone other than me makes it) is something to write home about. 

Hubby asked what they recommended other than the pasta. She told him they were famous for their 'meatloaf with-a the gravy sauce-a." Impossible to describe how good it was. I think it was ground veal and some sort of rich, juicy, miracle gravy sauce-a.

For dessert? Grandma's pie. Sweet ricotta with toasted almonds on top. I wonder if Grandma would adopt me...

Yeah, we had two desserts. You wouldn't have wanted us to starve, would you? Hubby had this mystery pie. The very cool waitress said it was "a cheese-a cake but no really cheese-a cake with-a chocolate." Fantastico!

Next day...free bar food. These didn't look like they were gonna be very good. I was wrong. Cheese, bread, tomato sauce? How could that be bad?

Caesar salad for lunch. What better place to have Caesar salad than Italy?

Bresaola with arugula, parmesan and a squeeze of lemon. 

Our whole trip we've made it a point to eat local, traditional food. Because this is such a touristy place, bad food is everywhere. We relied on friends who'd been here before to make recommendations, along with the hotel's concierge. We stayed away from high end, fancy pants food. But, we ran out of places that fit our usual criteria. 

So, we tried a high end place. 

Glad we did. It was fun to see a more modern take on Italian food.

The bread bag above was filled with house-made breads. One tasty little roll filled with carmelized onions got me started off on the right stiletto, I can tell you that.

This amuse bouche - a tiny bite served to "amuse the chef," delighted the hell out of us! I'm not sure if that's what its called in Italy but its what the French call it, and the Americans too. Fried anchovies on a house made cracker lounging in their bed of creamy goodness.
 
A crispy, salty, silky slice of perfection.

Our official appetizer...eggplant lovingly wrapped around melted mozzarella and some sort of pesto-ish sauce. 

I had the lamb in a crust of nuts with mashed potatoes and lime. This was beautifully presented, as you can see. It wasn't my favorite thing. Something about the lime and the lamb didn't mesh for me. 

Hubby had the beef filet with a roasted tomato in a mozzarella fondu with pistachios. Oh my. This was finger lickin' good. Although I don't think lickin' is smiled on at this place.

This fluffy knob of whipped chocolate with ganache and nuts was a gift from the chef. This is how my life is going right now. Gifts galore.

How on earth could we eat dessert (another dessert) after all that? 

Easy.

This is kind of hard to see, but its slivers of puff pastry, creme anglaise, strawberries and sauce with a spun sugar curtain gracefully lying on top. 

Sigh.

Every day I say, "I'm never gonna eat again." Every day, I get over it.

Lunch. We went back to the pizza place we'd gone to a few days ago, where we had the best pizza of my life. This ran a close second. Bresaola, arugula, cheese...

I've got a thing for bresaola.

The Last Supper. We ate at a traditional, apparently swanky place right near our hotel. 

You can tell swanky in Italy just like in the US. Lots of weird facelifts and bad dye jobs. 

The women look a little suspect too.

We started off with this salad. Fine enough. 

Hubby had lasagna. He's a fan. How they get these layers of pasta so thin and yummo, I have no idea. It was a thing of beauty.

The place is called Dal Bolognese. So I had the...bolognese. I think it was my favorite pasta dish I've had in Italy. OMG. The sauce to pasta was just perfect. The bolognese rich, tender, succulent. 

Definitely a death row dish.

Had to end with gelato. Gelato with brickle on top.

That's what this trip has been, the best gelato in the world with brickle on top. 

I'll remember it as long as I live.

Arrivederci Roma!