Today we had a fantastic day in a tiny village called Palombara Sabina. We were joined by Dennis, Linda, Irene, Alan and Irene's brother and his wife Alf and Goodrun and we went to make pasta with an Italian Nonna.

After a train ride out into the country, we were picked up by 3 cars and driven to Palombara Sabina. The village is a quaint little place perched on the top of a hill in the Italian countryside. We had a short tour of this village along the cobblestoned streets and saw the old fort, which was very cool. There was an archway in the fort with a hole in it that Valeria explained was used to pour hot olive oil on the enemy. I asked if the enemy would run around under it with a bowl of salad. This joke went down like the Hindenburg.

The venue was great. It was a room in the old fort with a cellar containing barrels of wine which we were encouraged to make constant use of. We didn't have to be asked twice. The kitchen contained a huge table and an ancient wine press.

The hosts were Valeria and Daniela who were so friendly and their Nonna's sister, Giovanna showed us how to make ravioli, fettuccini and cannelloni. We made the pasta from scratch and I must say we did an amazing job. It was Giovanna's birthday, so we all sang happy birthday to her.

While we were busy making pasta, the girls 83-year-old Nonna turned up. She had to go around and kiss everyone. She was so cute. She then proceeded to watch Giovanna and her granddaughters and complain that everything they were doing was wrong. It reminded me of Lidia's Nonna.

After we made the pasta, the girls cooked it all up with their sauce and we sat down and enjoyed a delicious lunch. Then it was back to the train station for the return trip to Rome.

After we got back to our apartment, Dennis and I decided to go for our afternoon coffee at the corner café. The girls went back to the apartment. When Dennis and Linda first arrived, Linda told us about a cheese she remembered from her childhood that she used to eat in Germany with her cousin. After our coffee, Dennis and I went to the supermarket across the road where they have an extensive deli. I said to Dennis that I thought they might have Linda's cheese there. Lo and behold, they actually did, so we bought some to take back to the apartment. Linda almost cried when she saw it, so we had to sit and sample it straight away (with a wine, of course).

After dinner we went for an evening gelati (as you do). I had sourced a local Giolitti, which was only a 3 minute walk from our apartment. It turned out to be the one Lidia and I had been to on a previous trip. The gelati was fantastic. Dennis and I particularly loved the hazelnut. So creamy and hazelnutty. The owner was a real card. He asked Dennis if he wanted cream on his gelati and Linda said no. He gave Linda a dirty look and explained that he was talking to Dennis. He was so funny you couldn't take offence. Lidia didn't want a gelati of her own and so asked him for a second spoon so she could share mine. He told her in Italian to get out of his shop. It was hilarious.

Lidia mentioned that she really wanted to see the Bocca della Veritas (the mouth of truth) and I looked it up and found we had already walked past it several times on this trip.

The next day we walked into the centre of Rome again, passing the Bocca della Veritas, then the forum and Piazza Venezia on the way. We took Dennis and Linda to Roscioli to sample the Suppli, then we went to Roscioli's restaurant for lunch.

While we were standing outside the restaurant waiting for our table, the Jolly's happened to walk past with Alf and Goodrun. I don't know what the chances are of seeing them in such a large city unless some sort of stalking is responsible, but we found this to be incredibly coincidental.

Roscioli's restaurant is very cool. All of the walls are made from wine racks and you sit amongst all of the wine bottles. The only drawback was that there was only one toilet. There was quite a queue to it caused by one patron spending at least 20 minutes in there. Dennis was next in line and apparently it looked like a s*** bomb had exploded in there, so he had to have a quiet word to the waiter to bring in the cleaning crew.

Despite this, the meal was the best we had so far in Rome. Lidia and I both had gnocci, because that's what you do in Rome on Thursdays, and it was sublime. Linda had an amazing fettuccini and Dennis had a penne type dish that wasn't penne, but that he absolutely loved.

After lunch we wandered over to the Spanish steps, the four fountains and then back to our apartment. We caught an Uber back and our driver told us of the best pizzeria in Rome, which happened to be on the corner next to our apartment. So naturally we had to see if this was true (after another trip to Giolitti for another gelati of course). We ordered two of their pizzas, which we ate in our apartment and then Dennis went back to get a third one because we enjoyed it so much. We of course enjoyed them with a bottle of Barolo. I am seriously going to put 100 kilos on during this holiday.

The next day we went on a food tour around the Vatican. Our host, Stefano, was dynamic, energetic and extremely passionate about food. I didn't start the day off well, though, putting my foot in my mouth yet again. When we arrived at the meeting point there was a couple from the U.S. there. We were all introducing ourselves to each other and the couple introduced themselves as Tonya and Beth. I thought I heard wrong and said to Beth "Did you say Beth?". "Yes, Beth". "BETH?". "Yes, Beth". I said, "I'm sorry, it's just that Beth is usually not a man's name in Australia." Turns out, Beth was a girl. While Lidia was telling me off under her breath, Dennis was trying not to laugh so hard that at one stage he said "I have to leave".

Anyway, we got over that little hurdle and had a brilliant day. We started with coffee (of course) and a croissant. We then went to the local fresh food market, where we tried cheeses, prosciutto, salami, some beautiful savoury jams that went amazingly well with cheese and then made our own bruschetta's with beautifully sweet tomatoes.

After this we went to a pasta factory which makes fresh pasta every day for 70 restaurants around Rome. The amazing thing about this place is that they still make all of their pasta by hand. They crack between 1,000 and 4,000 eggs by hand every day. The pasta is made with only natural ingredients. We watched one of the workers making giant ravioli by hand. He was so meticulous. I asked Stefano to ask him how many he made in one hour. He replied that he makes 70 per hour, when no-one is "breaking his balls".

The pasta was so fresh that we actually ate raw ravioli and they were delicious.

Our next stops included pizza bianca, fried polenta, an amazing home-made bread with buffalo mozzarella and then coffee and tiramisu.

The second last stop of the day was a gelati shop, where we had incredible gelati once again. Dennis loved it so much he went back for seconds. He was still eating it when we went to our last stop, a rooftop bar with an incredible view of the Vatican. Dennis was still eating his last gelato and moaning like a cow on heat in the elevator on the way up to the roof, which attracted more than a few funny looks.

The bar had an amazing view and we enjoyed a drink before heading back to our apartment.