I just had the pleasure of spending an amazing five days in Rome for my client the Balzan Foundation. The experience was exciting, uplifting and moving to be honest.

We had a long seminar at the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the world’s oldest scientific academy founded in 1603, followed the next day by an elegant prize awarding ceremony at the Quirinale Palace with the Italian President Giorgio Napolitano.

It was very exciting and I had never had the pleasure of being in the Quirinale Palace in the Salone dei Corazzieri, a striking hall with incredible frescos from the 1600s.

As if all of this weren’t enough, I also had dinner at a fabulous restaurant in the heart of Trastevere called La Trattoria de “Gli Amici” run by the Community of Sant’Egidio. Sant’Egidio had won the Balzan Prize for Peace in 2004 so it was a perfect choice for the press office and journalists to have a dinner there.

The food is delicious and the staff creates a fabulous ambience where people with disabilities work beside their friends “amici” who volunteer to help them.

The wines on their list are all supporters of WINE FOR LIFE, a project created by DREAM, a program that Sant’Egidio started in 2002 to fight AIDS in Africa. As you can imagine, the wine and food were not the only attraction of this restaurant and not the only reason to support it but that said, I would go back there even if it were just for the food. My Cacio and Pepe were perfect, a great Roman “Work” Holiday.