We really enjoy the food in Italy, as John says, you have to try hard to get a bad meal. The trouble with Rome is that it’s so expensive we are limited to the breakfast, which is included in the price of the hotel room and one other meal. Is this a diet plan? There were no extraordinary meals in fancy restaurants for us on this trip. We sampled a lot of pizza by the slice and grocery store salads. Our hotel was close to Termini train station and the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, in the heart of the tourist zone, so many of the eating places in the neighborhood cater to budget travelers like us. Every restaurant posts a menu outside the door and most of them list a fixed price tourist meal that includes an appetizer, a pasta and a drink in the 10 to 15 euro range. Some of the more enterprising restaurants also have tables on the sidewalk and post a waiter outside the door to lure tourists in. During the evening passegiatta (pre-dinner walk about that happens in every Italian town) Nelson and I stopped for a glass of wine (me) and a beer (Nelson) at one of these places and it was a lot of fun to watch the street waiter interact with the travelers and the local folks. He kissed and tickled every baby, chatted in Italian, English, Spanish or German to every passing tourist, and was quite troubled that I had two glasses of wine but nothing to eat (you MUST eat with your wine, Madam, or you will be drunk!). Some of the restaurants use really creative signs, as well as friendly waiters, to draw in the crowds, the "scary hot-dog guy" above is one that caught my eye.