A quick trip to Roma for lunch

Being doubtful about the quality of the dinner options that awaited us near Rome's Ciampino airport (justifiably so, as it transpired), our intrepid heroes took a sudden decision to duck into Rome for lunch. We'd had a memorable lunch back in 2005 at an osteria that, for us, had epitomised a local eatery so we decided to return. Great idea, huh? Well there were a couple of minor drawbacks....

Andrew had a loose recollection of where we were heading. Now that's not so bad in a small place, but central Rome is another matter altogether. We pointed Pierrot at the supposed street, and then had to actually get there. Rome traffic is probably not as terrifying as we'd feared, but it's not far from it. As well as being thick and slow, it's also full of drivers who are sick of waiting and likely to try out some radical manoeuver - and, naturally, without bothering to indicate first. Having acquired some new wrinkles and grey hairs, but happily no dings or dints, we reached our destination. Unfortunately it didn't look a lot like we remembered: unsurprising really, because it wasn't the right place. We were an unknown number of blocks away, in an indeterminate direction. Undeterred we strode forth, rapidly considering and discarding various streets that all looked a bit similar, but just weren't it. We eventually found our goal (aptly enough, called Miraggio), though without remembering the way back. Oops.

Tracey, contended in Miraggio

Things hadn't changed a bit since our previous visit. The red&white checked tablecloths were still there, several generations of a Roman family were dining at a long table and so on. The gorgonzola gnocchi was every bit as good (and heavy) as we remembered, but sadly the trippa alla Romana (Roman tripe) wasn't available. Luckily it was paiata season, and this was excellent (it's veal intestines tied up looking like umbilical cords and stewed in a lovely tomato sauce - much better than it sounds).

Somewhat slowed-down by lunch, we embarked on the Quest to Find Pierrot. We'd parked right near a big church, which in most cities would be a pretty useful landmark....but not Rome, where it feels like there are more large churches than there are bakeries in Paris. Having increasingly-frantically roamed the streets and getting close to out parking meter deadline we finally approached someone with a map....he was lost, and didn't speak English though he did speak French...and we pieced together our location. Turns out we were about 100m from Pierrot (Tracey's proposed a homing beacon for cars - great idea). All we had to do then was get out of Rome!