27 November - icecream and lamb alla romana

After a morning at the Roman Forum, we headed for another recommended restaurant nearby for lunch. Unfortunately, it was all booked up and I was desperate for a sit-down, so we just plumped for a tourist joint round the corner. The food was actually perfectly passable, but it did highlight just how good all the hotel's recommendations had been in steering us away from dull tourist fare.

In the afternoon, back on message, we headed to Giolitti's, an icecream parlour and apparently a bit of a Rome institution. It's down a little alley, but not difficult to find with the buzz of the crowd outside. I don't much like icecream, but Tris ventured in to brave the crowd. He came straight back out describing the five-deep scrum at the counter rather like a city pub on a Friday night! I assured him I was happy to wait and sent him back in. He finally emerged some time later with what I have to admit, even to non-icecream lover, was a great icecream, well worth the effort.

For our final evening in Rome, we went to Grappolo d'oro Zampano, more traditional Roman food, but with a bit of a younger, funkier feel. I went for lamb alla romana, really slow-cooked lamb on the bone which just fell apart, served on a pile of greens with some crunchy cubes of roast potato on the side - great again! Finishing off with tiramisu and a couple of glasses of grappa, we needed the walk back through the city to walk it off.