I told you guys about World Pasta Day yesterday, so I thought it would be fun to share with you how we passed the day, and celebrate with a pasta recipe.  The dilemma I was left with yesterday was whether to have pasta with a red marinara sauce or a white garlic cream sauce.  (Tough dilemma, I know. 😉  Well, the white garlic cream sauce won.  After a trip to the market today, I decided to add broccoli and mushrooms.  Yummm!

• 500g Tagliatelle pasta (long, flat pasta similar to fettuccine)
• 1 bunch broccoli
• 500g mushrooms (funghi)
• 200ml heavy cream (panna)
• about 60g butter (burro)
• 2 cloves garlic (aglio)
• salt & pepper to taste (sale e pepe)

In the meantime, sauté the mushrooms in a little butter or olive oil in a separate pan.  When ready, add the butter and let it melt.  Once melted, add the heavy cream.  Stir together, then grate the garlic cloves over the pan.  Salt and pepper to taste.

Once the pasta is ready, drain the water.  Combine the mushroom and cream mixture with the pasta and broccoli.  Mix all together and serve.

Of course pasta is even better when accompanied with a glass of wine.  I had a glass of Italian Sangiovese today with our lunch.  I purchased the bottle of wine for only €1,29.  It still blows my mind every time I purchase wine!  If you missed it, you can read more about my cheap wine finds in Rome here.

We finished the meal in true Italian fashion … with Tiramisù.  Our neighbor made the tiramisù today and shared with us.  Such a great treat, and it was a perfect ending to our Italian meal as we celebrated World Pasta Day.

In last week’s Friday Fun post, I told you guys we were planning to go to Paris, France, to celebrate our first wedding anniversary.  Well, we went, and we had an AMAZING time!  We walked around the Eiffel Tower at night (the lights started to sparkle right as we walked underneath it…so magical), took a river boat tour along the Seine River, saw the Cathedral of Notre Dame, spent the afternoon at the Louvre Museum (saw the Mona Lisa, Athena Nike of Samothrace & Venus de Milo…my three highlights), relaxed by a large fountain in a beautiful park, walked along the Champs Elysees, ate plenty of French food and enjoyed just walking around Paris and taking in the city.  It was the perfect first anniversary celebration, in the city of love and lights!

One of the great things about living in Italy is being so conveniently located to other European countries.  It took us less than two hours to arrive to Paris.  Breakfast in Rome, lunch in Paris…not a bad day. 🙂

Another great thing about Rome is having access to low cost airlines, such as Easyjet and Ryanair.  The hubby and I both were able to fly to and from Paris for only around €100.  That’s about €50 each for a round-trip ticket.  Pretty incredible!

We can’t wait to decide when our next travel will be.  We are already talking about other countries we would like to visit soon.

To see more La Dolce Vita stories and photos, click here.  You can also check out other expats’ sweet lives in Italy, or join in the fun by sharing your own stories of la dolce vita.  Just click the banner below:

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Why Rome?

When I lived the in the States, I drove a GMC Yukon, a large sports utility vehicle (SUV).  While I loved my truck and wouldn’t dream of driving a smaller vehicle, I really like the fact I don’t have to drive anymore.  I can get just about anywhere I would like by train, bus or metro.  This applies to Europe, not just Rome.  Living in Rome, the capital city of Italy, we also thankfully have access to fairly cheap flights and trains to take us anywhere in Europe. 

You can’t always depend on public transportation (this is where the hate part of the relationship comes into play).  Sometimes trains run late or bus waiting times seem a little too long when you’re in a hurry to get somewhere.  Depending on the time of the day, transportation may be crowded and you may not always find a seat.  It also really stinks to wait under an umbrella for a bus when it’s raining.  Then there are the dreaded transportation strikes where the unions feel like they have to ‘punish’ the ‘regular people’ in order to get the attention of the ‘big dogs’, but we won’t bother to go into detail on that.  


On the other hand, however, public transportation is a much cheaper option.  As you can imagine, my large sports utility vehicle (SUV) used its fair share (if not more) of gasoline.  And as we all know, gas is not cheap these days.  When I owned my truck, I had to pay a good deal of money each month in order to be able to use it … monthly note, insurance, gas, maintenance, repairs (when they unfortunately happened).  


Here in Rome, I pay a monthly fee of €63 for a ticket (this is less than what I payed just for gas each month).  The monthly ticket allows me unlimited use of buses, trams, trains and the metro … access to all of them inside the city and any direction outside the city up to 60km.  Not bad!  I now do not have to pay a car note, insurance, gas, maintenance or repairs.  I also don’t have to search for a parking place each day, or navigate my way through traffic (the worst).  


While some days I would still like to just jump in my truck and go, I really prefer using public transportation.  I definitely prefer the difference in costs!