ROME — US secretary of state Hillary Clinton wound down after a packed day of international diplomacy in Rome by enjoying an outdoor dinner on a balmy evening at one of the Eternal City’s famed eateries, ANSA news agency reported Friday.
Clinton was joined by David Thorne, the US ambassador to Italy and brother-in-law of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), at the unnamed restaurant near the Campo de’ Fiori in the center of the Italian capital Thursday evening after walking along the Via Condotti, a major shopping street, the report said.
Police provided extra security for Clinton, and the road was blocked to cars, while curious onlookers gathered.
The menu was rich, starting with hors d’oeuvres that included artichokes, Catalan salad and shrimp. The first and second courses were also fish-based — gnocchi with seafood and amberjack steaks — and the guests decided to skip dessert to go straight to coffee. The meal was served with an Italian Sauvignon.
At the embassy on Friday morning, Thorne joked that details of the dinner had appeared in the Italian media. Clinton replied, “I don’t care if what I ate was there, as long as it didn’t say how much I ate,” FOX News Channel reported.
Clinton was in Rome on Thursday for a meeting of the international contact group on Libya, which agreed to set up a fund for the Benghazi-based rebels and ramp up the pressure on Moamar Ghadafi’s regime.
Clinton was also attending a meeting of the UN’s Rome-based food agency.
Clinton said food security was “a foreign policy priority” for the US, warning “global food crises are once again on the rise,” AFP reported.
Clinton referred to rioting in dozens of countries that accompanied previous price spikes in 2007 and 2008.