'Giolitti looks as if it should be the scene of a thé dansant. Grandmothers and their small charges are there, and young Romans about whose beauty can never cease exclaiming, and foreign cruisers and hustlers, and families... You can eat inside - dismiss all notions of an American ice cream parlour: chandeliers descend from pistachio-coloured ceilings; walls are painted blueberry-blue, raspberry, and cream; tables are marble-topped and hold floral bouquets. You can eat outside, where you will become part of the passegiata... the streets are narrow, Porsches and Alfa Romeo's shriek; the Pantheon rises dark and everlastingly beautiful behind you.'
from Italian Days - Barbara Grizzuti Harrison
