Staying in a boutique hotel definitely has its perks, one of which was a peaceful comfortable sleep and the second a deliciously healthy breakfast offering!!  I am a sucker for vegetable anti-pasto so this morning I packed my plate high with roasted zucchini and eggplant and snuck in some delicious cheese and some cured meat.

Zucchini is a very low calorie vegetables that provides only 17 calories per 100g… Now that is a calorie bargain!! Better still zucchini contains zero saturated fats and zero cholesterol with the skin being a good source of dietary fiber!!  Zucchini has anti-oxident properies as well as levels of B-complex group of vitamins such as thiamin, pyridoxine, riboflavin and minerals like iron, manganese, phosphorus, and zinc!!  Just what I needed after a night of celebration!!

Eggplant (aka aubergine) is also very low in calories with 100g providing 24 calories.  The great thing about eggplant is 100g contributes approximately 9% of the recommended daily allowance of fibre… WINNING!!!  As well as anti-oxident properties and good levels of essential B-complex vitamins it also has a low glycemic index (GI).

My tip for minimal weight gain when travelling is to over pack your luggage and ensure you are always running late…. JUST KIDDING!!! This is definitely NOT my recommendation however to date this seems to be my routine when travelling to my next destination which involves me literally running whilst carting my 20.5kg suitcase around. Ironically this has helped to maintain my weight and keep the muscle definition in my arms.

The train to Rome was amazingly fast, at one stage it was clocking 300km an hour!!!  I was feeling nauseous as my designated seat was positioned so I was actually travelling backwards..  At one point I felt like I would surely hurl!!

After almost 2 hours we came to a stop… I couldn’t handle the backwards movement anymore, I swapped seats to face the front movement of the train but when the train departed from the platform it changed directions so that I was travelling backwards again can you believe this quirky mishap!!

After close to 3 hours I thought I heard the train say next stop Roma but it was spoken in Italian, Roma was surely Rome right? I thought this was the case, so I quickly got up and prepared to exit.  The train stopped and The Fiance (Sean) and I got off.  The train station did not look too busy and just as the train left the station Sean asked ‘are you sure this is Rome’, ummm…  Well I wasn’t really 100% sure I just thought I heard Roma.  Oh no I thought!!  Was this going to be our San Sebastian saga all over again!!  We made it down the ramp to where the metro train was located and sure enough we were in Rome, PHEW!!

We arrived at our accommodation and I was SUPER EXCITED to count 145 “calorie burning stairs” to our apartment… Sean was not as excited as I was and opted for the lift.

Rome was stinking hot, Sean and I went on a walking adventure which burnt some quirky calories. On our walk we came across a rather peculiar construction made of bamboo, we further investigated to be told this was actually something we were able to walk up however this was at our own risk.

We signed a waiver thinking it was just a precaution and started walking up, we got up one flight of bamboo and decided to come down, as quirky as this was, it was seriously dangerous..  I am sure I would have been in calorie burning over drive from the adrenaline of it!!

We were meeting friends for dinner, like us our friends are food lovers but it seems I am the only high maintenance eater in the group. I am always striving for the healthiest choice on the menu, not because I am a crazed calorie counter, that is not the case at all. I just get terribly bloated, lethargic and feel un-well if I do not nourish my body with food that is both nutritious and easy on the digestive system.

The food was delicious tonight, I didnt need to eat as much bread as I did but the pure cold pressed extra virgin olive oil gets me every time!! I left dinner in a massive food coma tonight, I almost had to be rolled out of the restaurant!!

BUT… There is always room for dessert right??  Tiramisu and vanilla panna cotta was ordered, to be polite I thought I would sample some but OH MY GOSH, both desserts were so light and DELICIOUS that I ended up eating half of each!!  Lucky I have 145 stairs to walk up when I get back to our apartment!!