When T told me about her Roman adventures the night before I joined her, I was a bit skeptical. She mentioned eating at a random restaurant where the wait staff was incredibly friendly. In addition to having some wonderful food (and a lot of it), she had great conversation with the staff. She was having trouble finding the apartment we had booked, and they asked around to help her get directions. The waiter even told her he'd make a CD of tango music when she mentioned she was a dancer, as long as she'd promise to return.

It didn't take me long to put two and two together: A single American woman who speaks almost no Italian dines at a random restaurant staffed by Italians. Of course they're going to be incredibly nice to her, either to get some extra "American" tipping out of her or to try and put some of their Italian moves on her. So I was morbidly curious when she suggested we return later that week – I wanted to see this place for myself.

Much to my surprise, my thoughts about the place were completely wrong. This was the ultimate family pizzeria with a truly friendly staff, great wine, antipasti and wonderfully mouthwatering pizzas. We had a full multi-course meal with wine, and it was one of the cheapest dinners we had during our entire trip (21 euros, if I recall). Part of the reason was the fact that the owner, when asked for the check, just wrote a price down on a blank slip of paper that was obviously a lot less than the food we ordered. But the prices were cheap to begin with, even before our "frequent visitor" discount.

And yes, before we left at the end of the night, the owner laid on our table that tango CD he had promised. We returned the favor with some good old fashion American tipping.