Rome, Italy (Lunch with the locals - Jo's family)

It’s Jo here... I had organised with my family that live an hour outside of Rome to meet us in Rome for lunch. I hadn’t see then for 2 years. We organised to meet Maurizio and Mary and Maurizio was keen to show us around. We met up with them near the Piazza del Popolo. Known in English as the ‘People’s Square’. From here they took us strolling through the streets whilst Maurizio was telling us where Julia Roberts, Dustin Hoffman, George Clooney were currently staying as they were beginning to film a movie the following day. Maurizio is a paparazzi so he is always in the know as to where the stars are. So we were heading toward the Piazza Navona. Along the way he stopped to look at some scooters who he knew belonged to his paparazzi friends and we were hoping to catch a glimpse of Julia Roberts but unfortunately we didn’t. We continued walking and with the sweltering heat is wasn’t all that comforable but Maurizio was being a great local pointing out to Adam the Ferrari store and the Fendi store to me which he couldn’t pull Mary away from. He also told us that above that store was where they produced some of their collections.
Walking through the streets it seemed as though Maurizio knew everyone! Especially in the restaurants. He also told me to tell mum and dad that they must eat at the restaurant Macaroni as all the stars eat there and it is supposedly some of the best food in Rome!
We arrived at a restaurant that was down one of the side streets near Piazza Navona. Here we had a delicious meal. Maurizio went ahead and ordered for us. We had antipasti followed by Florentine Steak. It was brought to us sizzling on a stone plate and was the best steak I had ever tasted! For dessert was an enormous slice of watermelon and an espresso. During our meal Maurizio had been speaking with the owner (who owned 5 of the restaurants in the area) trying to get the owners to tell him in which of his restaurants were being used to film Julia Roberts and co.'s latest movie. Unfortunately for Maurizio the owner wasn’t going to spill the beans.
After our fantastic meal Ads and I were uncomfortable full but were keen for a walk to Maurizio continued to be tour guide. We went to a square near by (I can’t remember what it was called) but it is one of the oldest squares in Rome. Our first look at it we were surprised Dan Brown didn’t make reference to it in ‘Angels and Demons‘ as it had a freaky statue of a monk looking man in the centre. From there we went to the Pantheon. We asked Mauritizo if ‘Angels and Demons‘ was actually filmed there. He wasn’t sure so went straight up to the street sweeper and asked him and they did (we hadn’t seen the film at this point).
From here we started heading back to Piazza del Popolo. We headed via the parliament which had police around everywhere. He was telling us about the Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi when we were told to step aside and saw a convoy of cars with their lights on and it was the president himself that was coming! A rare sight for any tourist to see! From there we had to quickly say our goodbyes so Ads and I could catch the train back to the campsite to finish doing some chores and then cool down in the pool. We had a great day and it’s great to be shown around by the locals!