I need to start this entry by back-tracking a bit. In a previous blog I told of how I tried to trick Dennis into calling our tour guide Alberto, when his real name was Massimo. Unfortunately, this didn't work, but a couple of days later we were travelling on the train to our truffle experience when Linda asked me what the name of the guide for the day was. At first I said Alberto, but Dennis shouted me down for not coming up with something original. So I said, "Ok, then, it's Giovanni". We all had a laugh and then went on with our day. I found out later that when Dennis and Linda were driving with Matteo to the truffle hunting, Linda piped up and said to Matteo "So, your name is Giovanni?".

We spent the whole morning on Wednesday wandering around the market in Testaccio. We started by visiting a stall that sells wines and prosecco. You can buy everything on tap. They take an empty one litre water bottle and then fill it with prosecco straight from the tap. The owner was very friendly and we had bought a bottle of prosecco from him and then had a drink at the tables around his stall. We then bought supplies for the next few days from the fresh food stalls, including zucchini hollowed out and filled with meat and some fresh veges. One of the veges we bought was Romanesco Broccoli, which is a cross between cauliflower and broccoli.

We ended up at a stall called CasaManco that sells pizza. They make the pizzas in long rectangular shapes and then when you order some they slice off the size you want using a knife. The board under the pizzas had slots in it to allow the knife to go straight through. We tried several different flavours and they were all amazing. Linda had blood orange and fennel. Dennis and I had anchovy and zucchini flower with provolone cheese. Lidia had Sicilian sausage and tomato. We tried a few others as well, but I can't remember what they were. They were uniformly delicious.

We then went to the local supermarket to re-stock on drinks. We found a supermarket with wine that is so cheap you don't know whether you should buy it. We had previously bought a 1 litre bottle of Baileys there for $22 Australian. Obviously, the taxes on alcohol here are so low that the prices of alcohol are dirt cheap. We ended up buying a bottle of Montepulciano red for 2 euro ($3.00 Australian). We thought if we don't like it, we'll just pour it down the sink.

After lunch we walked over to the colosseum. It doesn't matter how many times you see that place, it never fails to take your breath away. We tried to find a rooftop bar to have a drink and enjoy the view, but they were all on siesta, so we ended up buying a new suitcase for Lidia and then heading back to our apartment for a prosecco instead….and then two bottles of red wine. We drank the $3 wine and it was freaking delicious.

Thursday was a rainy day so we had a slow day. Fortunately, most of the market is covered, so we found ourselves back there around lunch time. Dennis and I walked past a fresh pasta stall, where a man was working some dough for fresh gnocchi. He was kneading away while another man was cracking eggs into the dough over his shoulder. Everything here is super fresh.

We decided to hang around the market for lunch again. We started with a suppli each (kind of like an arancini ball; Rice and mozzarella, crumbed and fried) and the stall owner gave us free fried zucchini flowers which were also delish. We then went back to CasaManco for more pizza. This time we tried an amazing pizza with blue cheese, pear and walnuts. Just scrumptious. Then Dennis and Linda had some casserole type dishes from another stall while Lidia and I went back to the fresh pasta stall to try the gnocchi. They took 250gm of the gnocchi we had watched them making, made up a Napoli sauce in front of us while they cooked the gnocchi and then dished it up. Divine.

That night for dinner, Dennis cooked up the stuffed zucchini we bought the previous day. We had bought 2 each but I wished we had bought 15 each. They were so freaking delicious, words can't describe how good they were. The Romanesco Broccoli was also really good. We topped off our dinner with a few more glasses of our $3 Montepulciano wine. We are so classy.

On Friday Dennis and I went for a Thai massage while the girls went shopping in Rome. We met the girls at the Trevi Fountain afterwards where Dennis and Linda fulfilled a bucket list item by tossing some coins into the fountain. We had been there about 5 times previously, but they forgot all of the other times. I then took Lidia to Bulgari to buy her birthday present.

That night Lidia made peperonata using fresh ingredients we bought at the market, along with some polpette we also bought at the market. It was a beautiful meal.

On Saturday we took the train back down to Zagarosa in the country. We had organised to go back to Furio's house for lunch. We had enjoyed our truffle hunting experience so much we just had to go back for another meal.

Furio picked us up from the train station and took us directly to a shop that is famous all over Rome for their prosciutto. We walked in there and there were literally hundreds of prosciuttos hanging from the ceiling all over the shop. Apparently, they sell 1,000 per week and you often have to line up for over an hour. Furio knows everyone so he was able to skip the line.

Furio then took us back to his house, where his partner, Serinella was already cooking up a storm. For the next 5 hours we ate one of the most sumptuous lunches I had ever had. We started with roast pork (as an appetiser!), along with home made roasted peppers, grilled eggplant, beans with truffles, a frittata made with Furio's own eggs, cheese made locally using Furio's truffles and fresh bread. All of these dishes were made by Furio using his produce wherever possible.

Next, Furio brought out some bruschetta he had made with truffles, anchovy and olive. He had given us this same dish the last time we came and Dennis raved about it so much that he made it for us again.

After that came the truffle risotto (because Lidia had loved it last time), followed by home made carbonara. By this stage we had to go for regular walks around the extensive property to try to walk off some of the food. We were so full, and mains hadn't even come out yet.

For main, Furio cooked an incredible dish over the wood-fired grill. It was a pork mince spread on a piece of crusty bread and then barbecued. It was delicious. He then gave us all a thin steak rolled up like a sausage but wouldn't tell us what it was. Turns out it was horse. None of us had ever eaten horse before, but it was actually quite good.

By this stage we were completely stuffed and then Furio brought out the limoncello, mirto, grappa, etc. We had a couple of shots and then he produced a fresh apple cake his friend had made. We could barely look at food by this stage, but I managed to fit a piece in. I was moaning with pleasure, it was so good.

During our lunch, Furio told us all kinds of stories about his life and philosophies. He was a fascinating man. He built his entire home himself, is an amazing chef and makes his own wine and olive oil from grapes and olives he grows himself. We were touched when he told us that when Matteo asked him to make a lunch on Saturday for four people he said no straight away. When Matteo told him it was for us he immediately changed his mind and said yes. Lidia had done such a great job translating for him that he really warmed to our group. Apparently, he doesn't normally interact with the tourists because he can't speak English, so we felt privileged that he opened up to us.

We rolled out of Furio's at 5:00, sporting a container full of leftovers and the rest of the apple cake. We were so full that we couldn't eat dinner. We did, however, manage to eat the rest of the cake with our $3 wine later that night. We then walked over the our local gelateria for another ice cream at 10:00pm. The owner of the shop, Marco was getting really friendly with us by now. We had been there almost every day.

Sunday was our last day in Rome together. We started the day by ordering an Uber to take us to Galleria Borghese, which is an art gallery in a massive park in Rome. I really wanted to see this gallery, which has sculptures by Bernini and paintings by Caravaggio, among other art works of the renaissance period.

Unfortunately, the Rome marathon was on and the Uber driver drove around for half an hour looking for a way through before giving up and dropping us at a train station that was 3 stops further away from our destination than our apartment was. So it cost us 19 euro to get further away from where we started.

To get to the train station, we had to go through the marathon runners. There were thousands of them and while we were trying to work up the courage to make a break, a woman tried the same thing and ran straight into a runner. I don't know what he said to her, because it was all in Italian and I'm not too familiar with Italian expletives, but I don't think he was complimenting her on her beauty. Finally, we just had to make a break for it and I yelled "GO, GO, GO" as we zipped across the road, dodging runners. It was like real-life Frogger. We safely made it through and then took the 2 trains we needed to get to Galleria Borghese. We finally made it to our train stop and then had to walk another 25 minutes through the park to get to the gallery. It was a nice walk, though, taking us through an impressive piazza with another stolen obelisk and some beautiful parkland full of statues and monuments. There were lots of police vehicles around because the piazza turned out to be the last stop for the marathon and we were amazed to see a police car made from a Lamborghini. I s*** you not, a friggen Lamborghini police car. I want to know how the cops manage to decide who gets to drive that around.

We finally made it to the gallery, only to find that you have to book tickets two weeks in advance, so we couldn't even get in. So we walked another 25 minutes back to the train station and went back to our apartment. On the way we stopped to pick up some cold cuts and made ourselves an antipasto lunch. Lidia used the rest of the tomatoes we had to make a tomato and onion salad to go with it. As previously mentioned, the tomatoes in Rome are sweet like fruit and the salad was to die for.

After lunch we walked to Castel Sant'Angelo, which is a fortress where many of the Popes used to hide during periods of turmoil. There is a wall with a tunnel in it that joins the Vatican to the castle and the Popes built opulent apartments in the castle. There are also incredible views across Rome from the top of the castle, where there also happens to be a bar, so naturally we had to partake in a bottle of prosecco while enjoying the stunning views.

On the way back to our apartment, we stopped in for our last gelati at Giolitti. Marco gave us some free T-shirts and wouldn't let us pay for our ice creams. Such a nice bloke. We'll have to take Alex, Tona, Madi and Jye there later on in our trip.

That night, for our farewell dinner, Linda and Dennis took us to a local restaurant called Da Bucatino which was only about 3 minutes walk from our apartment. We had a delicious meal and reminisced about our time together in Rome.

As a final note, we both found it enlightening to spend 2 weeks with a dietitian. Linda taught us many things that we didn't know, including such gems as:

1. * It's OK to eat cake for dinner

2. * Ice Cream every day is part of a healthy diet.

3. * A minimum of 3 bottles of alcohol per day is required to maintain good health

4. * It is totally acceptable after breakfast to eat coffee and pastries. Two pastries is even better.

5. * If you start eating the minute you open your eyes in the morning and don't stop until you go to bed at night, you will always be skinny.

Thank you, Linda for your wonderful insights. Thank you to both Linda and Dennis for making the last two weeks in Rome so much fun. Together we saw many of the sights of Rome and walked 177 kilometres and 224,000 steps doing it. We laughed, we ate, we drank, we cried, we ate, we drank, we walked, we ate, we drank. We loved every minute.