Or, A Funny Coincidence
By the time we got to Rome we’d been in Italy for a week, and as much as I love Italian food, there’s only so much pasta I can eat. On our 3rd day in Rome, we took a train out to the ruins at Ostia Antica. A large, young American family made the train ride with us, and we kept a respectable distance as we all explored the ruins. There were few people there on that day, and it is a sprawling archeological site, so it was easy to get that wonderful feeling of isolation. We got back to Rome in time for our afternoon siesta (to miss the heat of the day) and more late afternoon sightseeing, ending up at the Spanish Steps, hungry.
Not being able to bear more Italian food that day, we determined that Chinese food would really hit the spot. We relied on our GPS to find the nearest one. And upon entering, who should we see finishing their meal? The young American family from earlier! As they were preparing to leave, they came over and spoke to us so we could all laugh together over the coincidence. They’d spent the afternoon at the beach, and had also reached the point in their trip where they needed a break from Italian food.
It should not have been a surprise to eat an excellent Chinese meal there – after all, Rome is a big city, and would therefore obviously have excellent restaurants of all varieties. So the new saying goes, “when in Rome, do as the Americans do, and eat Chinese food, at least once.”
p.s. I am very sorry that I didn’t record the name of the restaurant. It wasn’t super-close to the Spanish Steps, but not a bad walk. It may have been Tien Tsin, which seems to be in the right location, but I couldn’t swear to it.