Cilento expats tweet meet & an English tea room

I always love a good meet up with other expats so i was very excited to have a meet up on friday evening after we got back to Rome from our Tuscany holiday. (which i will be blogging about over the next few weeks)

It was even more exciting that it was with Alison and John who are english expats who live in Cilento near Naples! We met through twitter while i was pregnant and since then talked almost everyday. They were coming down for a concert on the saturday evening but had decided to come for a long weekend from thursday afternoon until sunday morning when they would head home again.

We had made plans for them to get the metro to my zone of Rome where i would meet them at the metro station and then we would go for a pizza at our local place. There was a little mix up over timing as i had thought they were staying near the Vatican but it actually turned out they were staying near Termini so for a while i was baffled how it had taken them 15 minutes to our meeting point instead of 45 minutes!

It was such a pleasure to finally meet them and we got along straight away as they were exactly how they were when talking over twitter and facebook 🙂 So i knew it was going to be a good evening.

Peanut was very curious at our new visitors when i bought them home and she even had fun sitting on Ali’s lap for a while as we chatted about life, italy and being an expat.

Eventually we did get around to getting out to the pizza place and chatted and joked some more which was alot of fun! Even Alex enjoyed the evening and happy he was finally able to meet the expats i had been talking about for months on end! 

Peanut did manage to fall asleep although she kept opening her eyes every so often when we laughed to loudly to give us a grumpy look before she fell asleep again.

The evening seemed to go so quick but i was happy that we made plans to meet up the next day at Termini in the morning so i could show them the spanish steps and the shops there.

Saturday morning it was a little manic as the metro took forever to get me to the right station and then we had a mix up as to which metro exit to meet at.

Eventually i did manage to find them and Ali ran over to give me a big hug which was really nice 🙂

After buying metro tickets we headed back onto the metro and stopped at the Spagna metro stop to get off and have a wander about. It was raining but luckily we had bought our umbrella’s so it didnt both us much.

We did the tourist taking photo’s bit before deciding to window shop on the most expensive streets in Rome and stare in at the Gucci and Prada windows.

Ali was busy taking photos of anything which caught her eye as we walked up one side of the Street and then the other as shes a fellow blogger so it was nice it wasn’t just me for a change.

 

After a while we decided to have lunch at the Babington’s Tea room which is located right next to the spanish steps. I have been wanting to try this place for a long time and as Ali suggested it we all agreed.

It was quite a nice little place a little expensive but nice as a treat and as John treated me to lunch it was quite special.

Apart from a menu you also were given a tea menu where you could choose from hot and cold teas with many different choices. Alison went for a mango tea, John a cold mint tea and i decided on a hot peach tea.

As we waited for our food and drinks to arrive we did what expat/boggers usually do and posted photos of where we were on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook as we checked for internet connection which kept coming and going. But eventually we did manage to post some photos and tag ourselves and post where we were 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When the tea’s arrived the smell was amazing and i had to be careful as the tea pot was very hot but i was eager to try my mango tea which was lovely. But i did have to sip it slowly as it was very hot and i did add milk which sounds a little strange but was actually really nice.

You could buy boxes of the tea’s you liked from the counters and they also did an afternoon tea menu where you could have a tea and an assortment of little cakes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For lunch i ordered the ham and cheese muffin which did not disappoint and was divine to munch on as i sipped my tea as John ate his chicken and bacon muffin (which looked really nice)and Ali her salmon and egg sandwich.

There was more chatting about the concert they were seeing that evening and how they had enjoyed their trip to Rome so far 🙂

I was a little sad when it came time for me to head home and leave them to their sight seeing as i knew they would be going home the next day and i probably wouldn’t get to see them again for quite a while.

But of course there would be plenty of chatting over facebook and twitter like usual which made me smile 🙂 (which started as soon as i got home lol)

It was also nice to see all there photos being posted of the concert and also some videos the same evening so i knew they were having fun.

Im so happy i finally got to meet my Cilento Expat friends and its made the friendship even more special now we have finally got a chance to meet face to face. And perhaps in the future there could be a trip to visit Cilento on the cards for us so we can see the beautfiul place they have chosen to live in for ourselves.

 

Alison’s blog if your interested in following her Cilento adventures is: http://cilentofairytales.blogspot.it/