Lunch with the ladies

This afternoon, a few friends and I headed out to do a bit of shopping and lunch together before we all part ways for the Christmas holiday. We made a pit stop at Starbucks (mmmm, peppermint hot chocolate) and then hit H&M to clean out their sale racks. It should serve no surprise, that this California girl is hurtin' for an appropriate winter wardrobe. Not that H&M really has heavy duty winter clothes, but they do have some nice thick sweaters to wear with leggings and boots. Someday I will give in to the land of thermal underwear and puffer jackets, but I won't go down without a fight.

The boys balancing our H&M bags on their strollers

After H&M we headed through downtown towards an Italian restaraunt that my girlfriend had been raving about. To my knowledge there are two Italian places to eat in Wuxi...and I've eaten at one, and was about as impressed with their pasta sauces as McKayla Maroney was about her olympic silver on vault. When  you've got an Italian husband who makes the bomdiggity aribatta and marinara sauces, it makes it difficult to win me over with restaraunt made sauces. Just sayin'. 

And here's when another, this ain't America realization sets in...

We get to an intersection flanked by shops and a Chinese restaurant. My girlfriend exclaims, "Here it is." and goes on to explain that we will have to carry our strollers up three flights of stairs. I'm thinking to myself, Italian restaurant? All I see is a Chinese one. And then, she opens the doors, and we proceed to walk through the Chinese restaurant, to a flight of stairs. We climb the stairs (thank you to our friends who helped carry the boys up for us), and at the top, we are greeted by a waitress wearing a Santa's helper costume and the colors of the Italian flag are all over the place.

Welcome to Trattoria Ferrara, says the assistant manager (in fantastic English).

Really? An Italian restaurant at the top of Chinese restaraunt stairs?

Weird.

But oh.so.good.

Fantastic service, selection and the best company.

The boys & Barb check out the view from Trattoria Ferrara

I will definitely go back again. Although its odd to not have its own signage and storefront, it is the definition of a hidden gem. These types of finds are one of the things I love about China. You never know what you're going to find!

Best lunch I've had in a while.

Now, its time to go burn those calories off.