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Italy
Pizzas are a speciality but the menu is great. Rossopomodoro is a chain (Maybe think Pizza Express?) around Italy. This one is in Largo di Torre Argentina, west of Piazza Venezia and three blocks south of the Pantheon. Go upstairs after entering the Tardis-like front door to a large, frantically busy local gem.
This great little cafe/bookshop is what all cafes in Rome should be like. Not perhaps as achingly scenic as some other cafes in Rome, it's nevertheless a good bet for a coffee, a slice of cake and a browse through the books.
Via dei Fienaroli 28 (across the river in Trastevere)
www.bibli.it/
This restaurant can be a bit hard to find but worth the effort. Tiny little place with the tables close to one another. Our waiter was wonderful. He brought the pasta dishes in the pot they were cooked in and sang while he put it on the plate, giving us each a taste of each other's meal. Very reasonably priced for the Pantheon area. Two courses with wine for two people was 55 euros. Reservations are recommended.
Osteria Del Sostegno
www.ilsostegno.it
Convivio Rome run Italian Cooking Holidays in a little medieval hilltop village called Toffia, which lies, in a magnificent region called Sabina, just north of Rome, in Italy.
I would highly recommend them as my friend and I had a wonderful week and we loved the casual but hugely informative and enjoyable cooking sessions, which were great fun and provided loads of insight into real Italian cooking. We actually got to stay in a little home inside the
ancient walls of Toffia, it was great to feel like one of the locals!
One of the highlights for me was the local olive grove tour as the information provided was interesting and valuable, the tasting delicious, and the whole thing a very welcoming experience.
All in all, they gave us a great balance of cooking, sightseeing, tours and leisure. Thanks go to Guido and Sally who run the holidays, for a great week filled with warmth, personal care, refreshing simplicity and a huge helping of inspiration.
Toffia, region of Sabina, near Rome in Italy.
Phone: ++39 0765 326 144
www.conviviorome.com
A massive and excellent eatery in central Rome (two minutes off via del Corso), incorporating a posh restaurant, more homely osteria, wine and cookshop and - the highlight for this family - a pizzeria, which on weekends serves a magnificent brunch.
You take a large tin plate, heap it with food from the buffet, and pay by weight (returning as many times as stomach and wallet permit). The kids loved it - as did the many Italian families queuing for tables. Brilliant.
Piazza Augusto Imperatore
T: 063226273
www.gusto.it
It was like a burst of sunshine and all that I had hoped for. A relaxed and fun holiday set in the Sabine Hills just north of Rome. Cooking lessons, luxury accomodation, a stroll through an olive grove and a day trip to Rome. Eating the fabulous food and wine tasting really topped it off. Our host, Sally, and the chef, Guido really looked after us.
www.conviviorome.com
Email: info@conviviorome.com
Tel: 00 39 0765 326144
A Cafe-cum-restaurant on the Piazza del Popolo. Very cheap, great tasting authentic food and civilised atmosphere. It has the best beef lasagne I ever tasted for a very reasonable price. Also has great desserts.
Piazza del Popolo. Nearest metro station is Flaminio. It is located on the side of the piazza nearest to the Borghese gardens.
A friend who lives in Rome took us to Alceste, a shudderingly expensive seafood restaurant near the Piazza Navona, recently and the meal was a disaster. In fact it's been ages since we were so thoroughly ripped off.
Though the three of us speak Italian and explained that we wanted to split an assorted antipasto, we were served three full antipasti, which were awful, and charged for all three. The sea bass cooked in salt looked like it had been dropped on the kitchen floor and service was snarly. Best meal of our trip: Trattoria Monti, a superb little place with delicious food, a Roman crowd and charming waiters.
Trattoria Monti, Via San Vito, 13/A, (011 39) 06 446 6573
A good, reasonably priced and atmospheric restaurant with a great location: at the top of the steps (go figure) just off Via Veneto. Get a seat outside, get your order in, sit back and take it all in.
Location: Via San Isidoro 5 (Top of the steps at the end of Via Veneto).
Telephone: (39-6) 4819264.
Don’t buy from the rip-off artists in the stall near the Trevi Fountain. One Euro for a banana? Mama mia!
Near the Trevi Fountain.
I had an image in my mind of the quintessential Roman pizzeria: a narrow side street, tables packed with locals, buzzing with conversation, great pizza and pasta at a reasonable price. And then, walking along Via Corso Vittorio Emmanuelle, I glanced left and there it was. Service was fast and unforgiving – you threw that order at a flying waiter and hoped it stuck – the decor simple and the demand huge, as locals lined up three-deep along the wall, looking enviously on as we lucky ones tucked into wood-oven pizzas and cheap beers. All the while the owner – only slightly less intimidating than Tony Soprano – directed the chaos like a cigar-chewing maestro. Great food, drink, company and entertainment. When in Rome...
Address: Vicolo Savelli 13, Rome.
Tel: (39-6) 6861877
Only in Rome does service barely above curt and drinks for a single-figure amount cause an enthusiastic stir. But Enoteca Antica gives both, and much more besides. Reasonable and tasty food, great Erdinger beers for 5 Euros, and – hang on to your seats – service that is genuinely friendly. And then there’s the location – a stone’s throw from the Spanish Steps, in an old wine cavern so atmospheric you can smell the Chianti in the air.
Address: Via della Croce, 76/b, 00187 Rome
E-mail: enoteca.antica@tiscalinet.it
Telephone: (39-6) 6790896
Fax: (39-6) 6797544
Gelateria della Palma is a gelateria near the Trevi fountain (and other locations). There is an amazing variety of flavours, all gorgeously displayed. The chocolate gelato with candied orange peel is reason enough to return to Rome.
Gelateria della Palma, Via della Maddelena.
If you are facing the fountain, Della Palma is about two doors down Via della Maddelena, which goes off to your right.
This restaurant is a true Roman restaurant. Its pasta is the best you will ever find. It’s a loud hustle and bustle kinda place - great for quick yet delicious dinners. I go to Rome every year and I have to tell you that if we stay for six days, we eat as Da Francesco on at least four of them. It’s truly great – trust me!
Piazza del Fico, No. 29, just off the Piazza Navonna, down the street from Piazza della Pace; tel. 66864009. No credit cards
This fantastic cake shop is a stone's throw from the Vatican, and it has fantastic cakes and a great sweet, tea and coffee selection, plus good sandwiches.
Worth a visit and half the price of nearby restaurants etc.
55 Via Ottaviano (nr Vatican)
A fabulous restaurant situated in the very vibrant and lively Piazza Navona. The food is delicious: 'crazy butterflies' - Farfalle in a rich creamy sauce, and you can't miss out on the taste of the Tartuffo - chocolate heaven. You can sit, eat and soak in the atmosphere and be spoilt by the wonderful waiters, for whom nothing is too much trouble.
Piazza Navona, 30
Bloody good pizza. The service can be a bit unfriendly, and they rush you a bit, but the pizza is worth it. The location, not far from Piazza Navona, is great as well. It's listed in all the guide books.
Via Governo Vecchio 114, behind Piazza Navona.
A restaurant - it is a veritable oasis of calm at the foot of the Spanish steps. A little expensive but very good - try one of their specials.
Piazza di spagna 23
Go to the self-service pizza restaurant rather than the a la carte - better views, and cheaper!
Stating the obvious, perhaps, but their prices go down the further away you get from the tourist traps.
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