Christmas in Rome (2019 Hallmark)

Christmas in Rome (2019 Hallmark)

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Synopsis (via Hallmark)

Lacey Chabert plays an independent-minded American tour guide named Angela, who is fired from her job in Rome just before Christmas. She crosses paths with an American executive named Oliver (Page), who wants to buy a high-end Italian ceramics company. Oliver hires Angela to be his tour guide around the Eternal City, as the owner of the ceramics company won’t sell it to him until he learns “the heart and soul of Rome.” But is there another heart and soul that he may win?

Thoughts

Lacey Chabert gives Christmas in Rome tours to MAGA hat tourists. She takes them to a bakery where a gluten-free guest eats bread and dies (Or gets sick and charges back the tour company.) Lacey Chabert is in hot water with her very Italian boss, and he fires her at Christmas.

Oliver lives in New York, and he does business! (He likes to work during Christmas to get things done, and his father ran a fortune 500 company.) He writes numbers in papers and works in a glass office. He gets sent to Italy to land a deal and bumps into Lacey Chabert while texting and walking. (Which is illegal in Italy, according to Lacey.) Since he doesn’t speak Italians, he apologizes for bumping into her and ask her to help him to his meeting. Since she jas no job and loves to give tours, she walks him to his meeting, then sits in on the meeting. Luigi is very Italian. He gets mad because Oliver jumps right into business and thinks Spaghetti is served with meatballs.

Lacey Chabert smooths things over at the meeting and walks Oliver home. They make a deal Lacey Chabert will give him a Christmas tour and help him learn the culture to land the Italian client. He promises NOT to fall in love with her. Well, he offers to help her with a business plan.

On their tour, Lacey Chabert tells Oliver random facts about Rome. (Like Latte means milk, and how to pay coffee forward in Italian.) Then they visit the company and Luigi gives them a tour. The Christmas ornaments are his specialty, but they are handmade and take a long time. (not suitable for business!)

Then Lacey and Oliver pick out the Christmas tree and take it back to her apartment. Lacey lives with an Italian family, and they have an adorable Italian child. They build gingerbread houses while talking business. Lacey decides to call her business TOGA! Just kidding, When in Roma.

The next day, Lacey and Oliver ride in a Vespa to bake Panataoli to bring to Luigi as a gift. Lacey teaches Oliver how to make them and then kneed his dough. Next, they go into a fountain, and Oliver throws three coins in a fountain. Does this mean they will find true love? Yes.

It is the night of the dinner with Luigi. Lacey and Oliver are dressed up real fancy; it is a good thing because the party is very stuffy and in a mansion. The dinner goes well, and Luigi and his family even are considering investing in Lacey’s tour business

Lacey meets with investors while Oliver meets with Luigi and lands the account. To celebrate, Oliver picks Lacey up in a horse-drawn carriage and takes her to an elegant dinner. (with wine.) They exchange Christmas gifts. He gives her a handmade ornament from his new company, and she gives him a key or something. Oliver even ignores a work call; he is contemplating spending Christmas in Rome with Lacey. (The greatest gift of all!) Lacey admits that she doesn’t see how it could work, plus they hardly know each other/just met. He brushes off her concerns with a dance… to Dominic the Donkey. (Just kidding.) It is romantic, and they kiss on the dancefloor. The mood is interrupted by the Olivers boss, who calls and informs him he is promoted to VP and needs to come back ASAP. He takes back everything he said to Lacey, and she is hurt and tells him that they need just to be friends. Then she storms off.

Lacey is considering leaving Rome and moving back to Seattle. Oliver is packing up to leave and drops his phone in a sink full of water. He has to stop by Luigi’s Christmas caroling concert on his way to the airport and is unreachable. Lacey can’t reach him but goes to the hotel and finds a couple who tell her where he is. Lacey tracks him down with a GPS tracing snowflake pin she gave him. She tells him that she feels connected to him and will do a long-distance or whatever. He tells her that he is running Luigi’s company and staying in Rome. Lacey gets the investor money and will run her business too.

They are standing in the same spot that her parents stood in on Christmas 40 years ago. She tells him the city is magical, and he says that she is magical too. They kiss, and that is the end.

Side Note

Minority Report: Oliver’s boss

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Overall rating

🎄🎄🎄🎄 (4 Christmas Trees)

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