La Perla is a huge and beautiful restaurant. It clearly is designed to specialize in large, formal dinner receptions. The dance floor and bandstand surely could make for a memorable evening! We just happened to be hungry after leaving the Papal residence so we stopped in. Since the hour was late in the afternoon there were few diners, so the enormous room was rather imposing. The food was actually quite tasty. I must say, it was the largest portion of pasta I have ever been served in Italy. Neither of us could finish Thank Goodness we had not ordered a secondo! The waitress serving us was inexcusably and unusually poor. She was not busy yet she kept us waiting and waiting. She was actually quite rude, purposefully avoiding looking our way.... very strange, we were well-dressed and happy in appearance. I had the feeling that this waitress was not Italian. Even the young man serving the plates and water etc. was annoyed by her behavior. Too bad. read more