A feeling of deja vu reading this thread...
I realized how long ago I first enjoyed Romagnolis' table, back then among the first "new style" Italian restaurants (in Quincy market, IIRC and in its first few years of popularity. In my youth, I had eaten in many of the traditional North End standards (and drunk often at the Black Rose, the cliche's (even then) Irish saloon, but after much Navy time in Italy and a new bride on her first trip to Boston, we opted for the new look in Italo-American cuisine. Sort of like my first visit to Durgin Park (cliche of cliches), 60 years ago, it still brings fond memories.
Just as I did long ago, trips to Boston, Baltimore and St Louis (now all too rare) can be exceptions to Thomas Wolfe's "You Can't Go Home Again", when visits to the North End, Fells point and "The Hill" are included. I'm so old school that I'd still look to Brooklyn for the best Neapolitan food, rather than the obligatory dinners in NYC's Little Italy. Jeez, I remember when Mama Leone's was new and chic, plus a trip to the Midtown West side for a Tuscan place as rewarding as Tuscany...
So many places still to go, and so little opportunity to experience them.... Lacrimas!