Zora couldn't help but think this was all a big mistake somehow. Elon kept leading her through the bar to the far end and opened an old door that creaked hard with protest. He gestured down the dark corridor that was dimly revealed before her by old incandescent light bulbs.
The lights gave off more darkness than usable light and the ceiling was strewn with cobwebs. She gave Elon a look that told him to go fly a kite.
He laughed and grabbed a hold of her hand and tugged her into the dim corridor after him. The corridor ended at another door, which Elon kicked open and then they stepped out onto a deserted alleyway.
The odor of backed up sewage wafted up to permeate the air. This night was going from bad to worse in a hurry.
They came to a sturdy looking wooden door and Elon rang an old bell that was there. An old woman stuck her head out of a window up above in the building next to the door. She called out a greeting upon apparently recognizing Elon and he responded in kind. The old woman pulled on a cable and the door unlocked and swung wide.
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I stood for a moment enjoying Zora's shocked face before I gently pushed her on through the open doorway.
"What is this place?" She exclaimed.
"No one quite knows why, but this street was blocked off from the city grid many years ago. Few know of it other than the local residents and they keep it a secret for fear of the place being mobbed by tourists. It truly is an excellent example of late Roman architecture at its finest."
The street was like a time capsule of the past and its residents helped to keep it that way. It was a cultural treasure to them and I could tell as we walked by massive stone pillars with artfully crafted stone chapters and bases that I'd surprised Zora all over again.
She was looking all around in amazement. I pulled her around a corner of an old marketplace and gestured to something ahead of us, "Now this is perhaps one of the worlds hardest to find hole in the wall restaurants." I said smugly reveling in my second success of the day of completely overwhelming my woman with surprise and delight. This dating thing really was fun.
I watched as her eyes took in what I had gestured to. Before us lay a pillared grape arbor from which lanterns hung down casting their warm light into the richly entrenched mood of antiquity all around us. Little wooden tables dotted the veranda beneath the arbor, each table bearing its own candle and checkered tablecloth.