The joys of Italian food and people.
“Most people die and go to heaven. Brittany dies and goes to Italy.” -Dad
There lies a perfect plate of food. Spinach tortellini smothered in creamy alfredo sauce, tied together with strings of melted parmesan cheese. Yum.
Man, I wish I was a food critic. But not just any food critic, one that eats ONLY Italian food. I could always eat nothing but spaghetti, salad and gelato. So, the story goes, once upon a time, there was a girl named Brittany and she went to the Old Spaghetti Factory in Orem. I was a bit reluctant about eating out, I don’t like people spending their money on me, and it had just previously happened: my mom bought me a new dress. But, as downright cranky as I was, it was a girls’ night out, so I put on a grin and bore it. And boy, did I bear it.
I’m a picky eater when it comes to Italian. If it’s not good, it’s not worth eating. There are two things that I could eat every day and not get sick of; strawberries and the steak-Gorgonzola Alfredo from Olive Garden. I have now discovered a third thing that I cannot live without. Spinach tortellini. Choosing my dish at the Spaghetti Factory was not hard. I picked the cheapest thing there, (well, the cheapest that sounded good) and expected to just be eating something as nice as a Sunday dinner. Double you, arr, oh, en, gee. Since I have not tasted heaven as of yet, this was as close as I have come. This was the most satisfied that I have been with food since Olive Garden. Green tortellini filled with meat, cheese and spinach sat in a HUGE pile on my plate. Carefully drizzled over them was a wonderful cream-Alfredo sauce, and topped over the whole thing was melted parmesan. The parmesan created strings of goodness in between each bite and the piping-hot noodles were…….. no comment.
Anyway, after a divine dinner, what could only come next is dessert. So, I officially decided that American Ice Cream is poop. Don’t get me wrong, I am all for the American way. I’m as patriotic as anyone you’ve ever seen, but when it comes to frozen treats, Roxberry and Italian gelato are the way to go. Apparently, dessert came included in the meal price, so I took it without question. I was a bit nervous though, when they brought me my gelato. Kind of like American Neapolitan ice cream, gelato contains chocolate, pistachio and cherry ice cream. Though a beautiful blend of brown, pink and green, I don’t even like 2 of the flavors on ice cream. Haha, I do now. It was so cold, that it had frozen to the sides of the metal tin that it was served in. Then, since the bowl was so cold, it had transferred the cold back into the gelato, and the whole thing had frozen into small ice crystals. There is nothing better than rich, soft, gelato.
After we ate dinner and that heavenly ice cream, we saw “Letters to Juliet” at the local (cheap) theater. It was such a good movie, and though full of cheese at the end, it was definitely a heart-breaker. 
The whole thing is set in Italy, and it just reminded me that I want to go there SO BAD. It is so beautiful there, and it has the BEST food. Italy has such heritage and history. So, with my new job, I’m going to save up for a car, going to college and maybe GOING TO ITALY.