Zero Blunders, Zero Mistakes. Yay

I thought that c3 was one of the book moves there... one can find a book move "not to one's taste" but it would be wrong to imply that it is a bad move.

4 c3 is the mainline.

Yes, but I like to get my two pawn center for free.

If I implied that is was a "bad move", I apologize; I just meant that I do not like that choice move...it's just not my choice move in that situation; I like 4) b4 more than c3 (Evan`s Gambit). I have never played the Italian Game myself so I cannot say anything bad about it (I would not know); it's more of a preference for me to not play c3, that's all.

4) c3 is the book move for the Italian Game; that's what I was curious about...if it was chosen ahead of time (theme) or if it was chosen by the opponent.

 Well said...

haha.

I'm pretty wary of making equal trades without some purpose...obviously in this case the choice was made by my opponent.  It appears to be agreed by all that he was not gaining any advantage with this trade.

I would think that Rook and pawn come close to being a fair compensation for two minor pieces in the endgame, when the Rook can find open files and the pawn can advance toward queening. Here the endgame wasn't even near, plus the White traded off his only developed pieces and remained with a huge lag in development.

In some cases, this 'trade' might be justified in middlegame if you are in the position to attack their king (removing the defenders). It should probably be thought about as a sacrifice then.

I have seen some very impressive wins by white in the Italian Game, although the stats seem to favor black (at least in this particular line...and nobody said white has to play 9) d5).

Italian Game: Classical Variation, Greco Gambit Moeller-Therkatz Attack (C54)