Hanging in the Neighborhood
Since we were staying for a week in London, we opted for a small, shabby-chic flat in Kensington rather than a hotel. It's a few blocks off Kensington High Street--great location--and has a living room with two sofa beds for the kids, a separate bedroom for us, a huge bathroom, and a little kitchen. Perfect! Given our lack of sleep--and the fact that it was lunch, all we wanted to do was eat!!! We wandered toward Kensington High Street and found a hole in the wall Italian place with a reasonable lunch special: Romano's Ristorante Italiano . The day turned out to be quite sunny but also quite chilly, so a lunch of steaming Minestrone and plates of perfectly sauced pastas hit the spot. It was amazingly delicious and brought us back to life. Then, a couple blocks up, just past Starbucks, we found its British competitor: Costa. It has one-upped Starbucks on the number of hot chocolates and vanilla cremes rolled out for the holiday ... plus,...