Italian restaurants have a totally different ambience to any other restaurant.

I have eaten in many Italian restaurants over the years and one of my favourite Italian restaurant which springs to mind is one where the walls and pillars are painted a terracotta colour.

This earthly colour creates warmth and seems to symbolise the earthliness of this gorgeous country.

Little tables covered in red and white checked tablecloths, chalked menus written on the terracotta pillars,vines tumbling and cascading on walls, with little lanterns seem to create a soft romantic atmosphere.

The din of Italian voices cooking in the background, whilst Italian opera is sung by Luciano Pavarotti resonating like velvet on the listener's ears.

Italian gorgeous demi-gods with chiselled Roman features, lazily in repose against the bustling activity which goes along with any Italian restaurant constitutes any good Italian restaurant. What would any good Italian trattoria or pizzeria be if this male species were not part of the entire picture?

A good restaurant caters for all gastronomic delights and one can spend two or three hours working one's way through the menu as nothing is rushed- every moment is an enjoyable experience.

A good Italian restaurant will serve the best wines on the menu and service will be efficient and not leave the customer unsatisfied.A shiny water jug filled with mineral water is placed on the table with wine glasses.

Italian foods in good restaurants have a flavour which is never forgotten. I recall eating a simple spaghetti in Sorrento, yet the sauce was out of this world.

One will feel as if one's every need has been catered for and eating in a good restaurant will feel like a festival, a hedonistic feast for the Gods.

I have never left a good restaurant in Italy feeling dissatisfied, usually I leave reluctantly, feeling as if the parting is a lyrical reunion to return again and again.

Families talk in unison, a comraderie of nations comes together in a few hours under the stars.Each region will have their own musical intonations of their mother tongue, so, for example, speakers in Tuscany speak the 'pure' form of Italian, whereas other areas have their own beautiful variations of dialect and articulation.

A good Italian restaurant will offer an array of dishes from pasta to lasagne, canneloni, fresh baked breads,gelata ice creams, cassata, and many other wonderful gourmet dishes specially prepared under the watchful

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