A Taste of Italy (at Busch Gardens, Williamsburg)

With my daughter in town and a week off, we were determined to do some fun and tourist-y things while she was here. Since we have season's passes to Busch Gardens Williamsburg,we decided to go there as a family and hit the roller coasters

Amusement parks no matter how good they are are not exactly known for great food (or reasonable prices!), and we ate lunch before we left so no one would be hungry, and we figured we would leave before dinner. But everyone was having a great time and the weather was awesome (warm but low humidity, nice breeze), so we decided to find something to eat for dinner and close the park down. As a park that is centered on countries of Europe, there are great opportunities for some fantastic food, however, when you are serving thousands of people of varying tastes, that can be challenging. We have tasted food at the Festhaus (Bratwurst, German potato salad, and mile-high sandwiches), at the Smokehouse where they have incredible ribs, but our favorite place to eat at Busch Gardens is in Italy, where they have homemade pasta (they really make it themselves-see picture of their chefs working, right). We always order one of the platters because there is plenty of food for two and a variety of things to try.

We ordered the Mamma Stella platter that had eggplant parmagiana, chicken parmesan, and spinach cannelloni,with more than enough food for two hungry people and at $10.49, one of the best food deals in the park. So we had our Italian Olympic meal away from home and then headed for the Roman Rapids - a fitting end, wouldn't you say?! So my recipe for good eating on a budget at Busch Gardens? Head to Italy... and mangia!