Green Gardens

Chapter: Meal

Both girls sprawled themselves onto their individual bed in their shared room with an exhausted sigh.  They had two connecting flights and ten hours' worth of wait and travel to finally arrive to Italy.  And an additional hour for checking into immigration for all foreigners entering the country, and finally being able to arrive to their hotel at seven that night.

"I'm so tired." Jaimee muttered her words muffled by her pillow, "Should we order something to eat or go out to eat?" She turned her head towards Julietta who was covering her head with the pillow.

"Let's check if they have room service, if not, guess we'll have to go out and eat." Julietta slightly lifted up the pillow and opened one eye to look at Jaimee.

Heaving a sigh, Jaimee sat up and reached for booklet and phone on the small table in between their beds.  Being the only one who knew Italian among the two, Jamiee was doing all of the talking considering that Julietta only new a few words in Italian.

"Their kitchen closes at nine." Jaimee said then read out the menu of options available at certain times of the night, "Which one of these do you want?  Or does it even matter to you at this point?"

Julietta waved her hand in a dismissive way feeling too tired, "I don't really care at this point, just as long as it's something to eat.  You can pick whatever you like from there." She dropped her hand onto the bed and then pushed off the pillow from her head, "I just want something to eat so we can go to sleep.  After all the walking, we need some good rest for what's to come in the following days." She sighed tiredly as she watched Jaimee look through the menu eagerly looking for something to eat.

Once Jaimee had begun to dial onto the phone, Julietta sat up and reached for her suitcase which was laying on the ground next to her bed.

While opening and digging through her suitcase, Julietta could faintly hear Jaimee speaking into the receiver ordering their meal.

"Here it is." Julietta muttered as she pulled out her pajamas and quickly set them on the bed then proceeded to close and zip up her suitcase.

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By the time their meal had arrived, both girls had already changed into their pajamas deciding that it was best to eat then go to sleep, rather than sight see the late-night streets.

"This is pretty good." Julietta said after she swallowed her first bite of risotto.  Jaimee had ordered them risotto with a side of bread and prosciutto, and water.

"Right.  I like risotto." Jaimee replied with a hum as she placed a piece of prosciutto onto a piece of bread.

The two ate in silence, the only sound being the sound of their spoons, and murmuring from the television they had turned on, and the faint talking of the people walking outside.

It didn't take long for them to finish their meal for the night, for the next half hour they spent watching the television while they let their meal settle in before going to sleep.

When they had decided on their plans of what to do and where to go, they had both decided that they would eat breakfast at a restaurant, but that never came to be for the first day.  Because they had both fallen into a deep sleep that night and woken up late until past noon.

"We missed breakfast." Jaimee said groggily as she looked over at the clock on the table between their beds, "You want to go out to eat lunch?" She asked an equally groggy Julietta.

Julietta let out a yawn and nodded, "Yeah.  Do you have a place in mind?"

"Yeah.  I wanted to go to this place someday, so let's go there."

Pulling off the bedsheet covers, Julietta sat up in bed, "What place is it?"

"Ristorante Alfredo alla Scaletta." Jaimee said as she emphasized 'ristorante'.

With a nod Julietta grabbed her clothes for the day and headed to the bathroom to prepare for the day.

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Sitting in one of the various small tables outside of the restaurant surrounded by small bushes, Julietta and Jaimee both looked through the menu.  Even though she didn't understand Italian, she knew the names of the food on the menu.  That would be a given considering all the times they names have been said or heard.

"I want the ricotta and spinach ravioli.  Ravioli ripieni di ricotta e spinaci a la ragu." Julietta pointed at food she had been looking at as she tried to pronounce the name of it.

"I'm going to get the white and green fettuccine, paglia fieno all'afredo." Jaimee tapped on the item she wanted.

"If that's the name, then what's all that next to it?" Julietta asked as she looked at a whole sentence worth of words after the item name.

"That's just saying that it's white and green fettuccine with mushrooms and a bechamel sauce." Jaimee replied, "Basically just the ingredients in the list, even down below you can see those same ingredients in English." She mentioned the fine printed English underneath the item name, "Now, what do you want as a dessert?"

Without taking a second to think, Julietta answered immediately, "Creme Brulée!"

Jaimee smiled, "That's what I thought you'd say.  I want the same thing."

It didn't take long for their waiter to come and take their order.  Jaimee listed off all the items they wanted, and wanting only water to drink considering that Julietta was very lightweight with alcohol, and they didn't want anything that could cause any change to the taste of the food.

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It felt as if the food were melting in her mouth at each bite, the sauce was smooth and perfectly seasoned and balanced everything well.

'If this is heaven, I never want to go back home.' Julietta thought as she ate her food and savoring each and every bite.

"Good isn't it." Jaimee said as she raised her glass of water to her lips.

Julietta nodded, "I never would have thought I would eat such a delicious meal."