A final day of pasta, gelato, pizza - goodbye Roma

Last day in Italy, it's Christmas Eve. 

The plan today was to do the colosseum and the ruins, eat lots and lots and non-stop, as we’re getting on the plane tomorrow already.

Lunch was in place on a random street, Via Ostilia, near the colosseum, I was again craving large forkfuls of pasta.

We had three pasta dishes between the two of us and greedily gobbled everything up. It was more a wine place with bottles of wine lining the walls, and an extensive menu, including salads and of course, pasta. 

Penne in pomodoro and basil

Garganelli with a creamy shrimp sauce and chopped zucchini.

Tagliatelle with bolognaise

We gobbled every morsel up hungrily - this place was cheap and delicious!

Dinner, on christmas eve in Rome, meant that quite a few places were closed. We had taken a long walk after lunch and had a final wander through the streets, it was gently raining sporadically all day, which was annoying but we made do.

Managed to stop by the same gelato place (Della Plama) and this time had a triple scoop of Toronne (like the nougat), passion fruit (creamy, not sorbet) and grapefruit sorbet, to offset the creaminess of the other two flavours.

Again, my pasta craving surged, and I wanted to order several pasta dishes for dinner, at hopefully a more “traditional” italian place, this being our last meal on this trip. 

J persuaded me into two pasta dishes - spaghetti vongole and penne amatriciana (tomato sauce with sprinked parmesan and bacon bits), and a mozzarella and saucissa (sausage) pizza instead. The vongole was slightly undersalted but still tasty, and it fulfilled my craving of huge forkfuls of spaghetti. The amatriciana was good but could have done with more bacon - perhaps they were running out of supplies for christmas eve?! the pizza didn’t come with a tomato sauce base as expected, just a generous bed of mozzarella and sausage chunks. When we arrived, the restaurant only had a couple of tables occupied, but by the time our food arrived, it was overflowing with people - tourists or people not eating at home I suppose.

The night we trooped to St Peter’s Basilica and arrived in the middle of the Christmas Eve mass. It wasn’t as crowded as expected, perhaps because rain still threatened and came down sporadically in gentle waves. It was cold, and I was huddled in my puffy jacket. 

But how can one be in Rome on christmas eve and not be right there in its heart and soul? 

Goodbye Italy, till we meet again not too far in the distant future we hope.....