Vagarious Wanderer contains affiliate links, meaning if you make a purchase through these links, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Most of you know by now that Mark and I were supposed to be spending our first wedding anniversary on an epic three week trip to Italy, that was ultimately cancelled due to COVID-19.
It was devastating being in quarantine for our first anniversary when we were supposed to be crossing off the number one place on both our bucket lists, but I was determined to make it as special as I possibly could. We would have been in Rome on our actual anniversary, so I wanted to bring Rome to us. Unfortunately, my family is from the region of Campania, so I’m not at all familiar with the traditional dishes of Rome.
After some extensive research, I found some dishes that seemed to be pretty traditional to Rome. While food is always exciting, I was most excited for the overall set up. I went all out for this date night, and it is easily my favorite one to date.
I completely transformed our kitchen into a romantic evening in front of the Colosseum thanks to a backdrop I found on Amazon and a few stereotypical extra touches. (I will link everything I can below in case you want to recreate your own Italian date night at home.)
I made Mark walk in with his eyes closed, after banning him from the kitchen for about an hour as I set up, and I had Andrea Bocelli’s Ave Maria (the song I walked down the aisle to) playing when I allowed him to finally open his eyes. And surprise to no one…I got him to cry. I win 🙂
You’ll notice that there are no activities for this date night. I wanted it to be as true to what we originally had planned for Rome as it could be.
In a pre-pandemic world, we would have gotten dressed up to go to a romantic dinner at a hole-in-the wall restaurant. After dinner, we would have wandered the streets of Rome reminiscing on our first year of marriage, probably stopping for gelato at some point along the way. No crazy activities, no games…just enjoying being in each other’s company marveling at the Eternal City.
However, the pasta we had was made from scratch. We’ve made homemade pasta quite a few times now and I think it is a great activity to do together.
Safe to say that this first year of marriage has not been what we expected it to be, but I’m grateful to have such a sturdy partner to navigate these murky waters with, a partner that keeps being stuck home together pretty fun.
Menu
Beverages
- Aperol Spritz
- Limoncello Margarita
- Peroni
- Chianti
Appetizer
- Carciofi alla Romana
- There are about a million ways to prepare stuffed artichokes, but I found that in Rome the two most popular ways are a Jewish-style and a Roman-style. From what I read, it seems like the Jewish-style ones are the most common, but I decided to go with the Roman style just for the name.
Main Course
- Bucatini all’Amatriciana
- Okay…this dish is a highly controversial dish apparently. I went through about a dozen different recipes before finally deciding on this one, and I read through the comments on every recipe I looked at. People go a little nuts in the comments of recipes that claim to be “traditional”!
This recipe is not the original style of this dish, it is the Roman version of this dish. This recipe calls for onions and a couple other things that are not used in traditional recipes from Amatrice. But, because I was trying to replicate a night in Rome and not in Amatrice, this version was perfect.
The recipe also calls for guanciale (smoked pork jowl), which I ordered from my local butcher two weeks in advance…yet somehow it wasn’t ready when I went to pick it up and I was told it wouldn’t be ready for another few days…Safe to say I was not a happy camper.
But that’s okay! It can be pretty hard to find guanciale in the States, so you can always substitute pancetta instead. I bought imported pancetta from my local Italian market and the dish still came out great.
If you need a recipe for homemade bucatini, you can find the one I used here.
- Okay…this dish is a highly controversial dish apparently. I went through about a dozen different recipes before finally deciding on this one, and I read through the comments on every recipe I looked at. People go a little nuts in the comments of recipes that claim to be “traditional”!
Dessert
- Nutella Gelato (made from scratch)
- To make the gelato, we bought the ice cream attachment for our Kithcenaid, but you should be able to use any ice cream maker, like this one which also makes popsicles!
- Wedding Cake
Setting the Scene
- Backdrop Stand (you could probably just make this out of PVC pipe, but I was lazy and figured it would also be good for my business)
- Backdrop of the Colosseum at night (I also considered this one, but I really wanted a night time image)
- Checkered tablecloth
- Candlesticks
- I had an image of having a red candlestick burning in one of those bottles of wine that have a basket around the bottom, and I thought it would be easy to find one pre-made…but apparently it’s not.
Instead I just burned a red candlestick and was able to find the wine bottle I envisioned at my local liquor store. Thankfully we both like red wine! I now also have this bottle to use as a candle holder the next time we decide to do an Italian date night at home.
- I had an image of having a red candlestick burning in one of those bottles of wine that have a basket around the bottom, and I thought it would be easy to find one pre-made…but apparently it’s not.
Looking for more date night at home ideas? Check out my complete list here!
Vagarious Wanderer is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, amazon.ca. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.