Perche

Sorry if my reply was off-base, and that it was long. I was stuck on a plane with nothing else to do. I've never seen food in Italy that looks like the food in your picture, and I've never seen a a person eating in a restaurant that looks like that. Perhaps you have a tendency to generalize about europeans?

All that I'm saying is that there are great restaurants with small portions, bad restaurants with small portions, and bad restaurants with large portions. There is no fourth category, good restaurants that serve large portions. For example, if you want good food and insist on using the internet such as TripAdvisor for opinions you should eliminate any place in Italy where the reviewer makes the comment, "great food, and the portions are huge!"

Again, I'm sorry if it sounded unreasonable, but small portions do not mean that you are eating in some hoity-toity place. Large portions mean that you are eating at a tourist place. You haven't said what part of Rome you are staying at. It's a big, spread out town.

If you are staying in the historic center and want to celebrate a romantic anniversary, why not start by going to the Hotel Forum a little before sundown. It has a very fancy restaurant, with white coated waiters, but if you take the elevator up to the top floor and go through the restaurant there is a small outside bar on a terrace overlooking the Forum and the Campidoglio and Palatine Hills. In the summer towards sunset the famous swallows of Rome fly right by the terrace. You can start off the anniversary there by looking over the Forum towards twilight, having a nice Italian cocktail at the bar before heading somewhere else for dinner.

Don't be put of by the fact that the bar at Hotel Forum is called American Bar. They serve great Negronis, spritz, etc, and the view is utterly romantic.
http://www.hotelforum.com/eng/ancient-centre-rome-hotel.html#prettyPhoto[gallery6726]/9/

http://www.hotelforum.com/eng/ancient-centre-rome-hotel.html#prettyPhoto[gallery6726]/10/

http://www.hotelforum.com/eng/ancient-centre-rome-hotel.html#prettyPhoto[gallery6726]/13/

http://www.hotelforum.com/eng/ancient-centre-rome-hotel.html#prettyPhoto[gallery6726]/12/

If you don't like that, consider going to another bar that has stunning sunset views of the city, Bar La Terraza in the Hotel Eden. They have romantic piano music every evening. Views are to die for. One warning, the restaurant at the Hotel Eden has a Michelin star. That takes it out of my price range, but the bar is not expensive, and the view over the Roman Gardens at Sunset makes the price of a drink worth it. http://www.dorchestercollection.com/...r-la-terrazza/

Stopping at one of these bars to start off a romantic evening with a Prosecco or a negroni, instead of at a random bar in Trastevere that these days is often a place that serves vodka infused jello cubes to American students spending their third year abroad, would be very romantic. These are casual bars with stunning views, and they have the class fitting for an anniversary, or for someone making a proposal of marriage. The prices for a drink are 10-15 euros, somewhat less than what a drink costs in New York City.

I like to stay near the Pantheon on short trips, and if that's where you're staying you might want to kick off your anniversary at the Minerva Roof Garden Bar. It's right on the square where the Pantheon is. It has one of the best views in the city. Start your anniversary by getting a prosecco there around sunset. http://www.minervaroofgarden.it/mine...arden-rome.htm

Then you can move on to Rome's superb restaurants, depending on where you are staying, your willingness to take a cab or a tram, etc, which you haven't yet mentioned. You would get small portions, but as KLouis said, you start with an antipasto, move onto a pasta, then a main course accompanied by a side dish, then a desert, then a coffee, then a grappa. A good roman restaurant will allow you about 20-30 minutes between each so that you can enjoy conversation, the environment, and digest the food, so it will take 3-4 hours. The tourist will experience that and write a review on the internet saying, "small portions, and terrible service." There is no rush in and rush out at a good restaurant in Italy. The portions will be small, and you will be glad for that.