We spent two fabulous days in Rome, where we tried to find the best places to eat and dine following a mixture of friends tips and advice given in forums like Trip Advisor and the like, so I’ve thought I’d write it all down to make the research useful for everyone.
Rome is a lovely city where you can indulge into amazing food, but like everywhere you need to be careful not to land onto the usual tourist, fast food low quality restaurants. Hopefully this guide will go some way to help you live and eat like a Roman for two days or more. I have broken down my list of recommendations into quarters:
‘PIAZZA NAVONA’ AREA
Piazza Navona is one of the most beautiful places in Rome; there are many pizzerie. I suggest you avoid the rathar expensive restaurants in the square and try one of these two:
BAFFETTO, Via del Governo Vecchio, 114. It is a very simple and cheap place but Romans say they make the best pizza and bruschetta in Rome; it is often very crowded so you may have to line up a bit but it is worthwhile to wait and also very funny because usually they fill up the tables, so you may have dinner at the same table with people you don’t know.
LA MONTECARLO, Via dei Savelli 12, same style as Baffetto and it is around the corner. When Baffeto is too crowded, locals tend to head for this one. Both are nice.
If you are more the restaurant type, then PIERLUIGI is a nice one with tables outside, in the same area but in a less crowded corner.
When you are walking around those beautiful little vicoli you may feel like a coffee or aperitivo, so I’d recommend to stop at BAR DELLA PACE, it a very nice place.
Lastly if you happen to be round the same area after dinner, you may want to consider a drink at BAR DEL FICO or JONATHAN ANGELS, and visit the bathroom. It’s quite weird!!
PANTHEON Area
Looking at the Pantheon church on the left there is a bar where they sell grounded coffee but they also make the best “granita di caffe’ con panna” in town… it’s a must to try that!!
However if you prefer ice cream, Giolitti (Via della Maddalena) is the right address…all wonderful flavors.
PIAZZA DEL POPOLO Area
If you look for a classy and romantic aperitivo in the early evening head for Hotel de Russie, a stunning hotel down from Villa Borghese, with a secret garden where you can relax and have dinner or a drink at the bar… in the heart of Rome.
All tables have candles and nicely set up so in the evening the atpmosphere is very romantic. A glass of red wine though goes for €12, which is fine if you consider that they bring you nibbles together with your drink.
GHETTO, PORTICO D’OTTAVIA
This is the Jewish neighbourhood, still very fascinating with people sitting and chatting in the streets, behind the ruins of the ancient Rome.
If you go there, have lunch or dinner at GIGGETTO AL PORTICO D’OTTAVIA, is a good restaurant where there are visitors but also roman families. After that, walk (10 metres) to the Portico d’Ottavia and get inside (there should be works going on); there is a small passage where you get in and you can walk though to the CAMPIDOGLIO and PIAZZA VENEZIA. It is very charming…
LA TERRAZZA DEI MUSEI CAPITOLINI is the bar of the museum, very nice view!
PIAZZA DI SPAGNA
-If you are around here for drinks before dinner or for tapas dinner, don’t miss Antica Enoteca at 76 Via della Croce. I love this place as it is like a very friendly tavorna with a social and unique atmosphere, almost as if you were teletransported to the 70’s . It’s very small and well known so you may wait but it is very nice. You can eat at the bar with other people while you try great italian wine or beer.
After tapas and drinks at Antica Enoteca you will not be hungry, so I’d recommend you leave some room for the free dessert you get when you order a cocktqil drink at hotel €&@ù@& you get free dessert like the one on the photo. Ocktails go for €18, a bit pricey abut you get to go to their rooftop area and get some nice glimpses of the streets below.
CAMPO DEI FIORI – PIAZZA FARNESE – VIA GIULIA
During the day, if there is the market in Campo dei Fiori, is a very charming place but at night as many youngsters go round to drink it looks different…and Palazzo Farnese, where the French Ambassade is, is a very beautiful Roman Palazzo.
LA CARBONARA in Piazza Campo dei Fiori (maybe touristic but nice) or for a something thing you can get some wonderful “pizza bianca” which is a plain pizza at the oven close to the restaurant and eating while walking…
If you want to have a different experience try DAR PALLARO (largo del Pallaro, 15): it’s a small restaurant behind campo dei fiori hold by a ugly but nice lady. She looks like a witch but she cooks what she finds at the market on that day, so you go there and don’t choose on a menu. She usually comes and asks “do you know how it works here?” and you say “yes”, so she starts bringing you food as if you where at her home.
The price is fixed (I think like 30 euros but you can call to ask 06.68.80.14.88).
From Via Giulia, a beautiful street you can walk to PONTE SISTO and through there enter the TRASTEVERE.
TRASTEVERE
The best here is to walk around but I give you a couple of tips, just in case…a very nice pizzeria is AI MARMI (viale Trastevere), which means “at the marbles” because the tables look like the marble on the tombs. It may have a real name, but Roman people call it like this.
And IVO, in Via San Francesco a Ripa 153, another nice place.
Close to Trastevere there is Testaccio, another typical roman “quartiere” where you can’t miss the “Monte dei Cocci” and you will find out it is a small hill made by fragments of earthenware, from years and years because the ships arriving with food and oil on the Tevere river, broke the containers after having sold the merchandises.
There you could have a very nice dinner in a typical roman food restaurant AUGUSTARELLO, Via Giovanni Branca 100 and then go to have a drink and maybe dance at Radio Londra or Caffe’ Caruso.
If you visit the GALLERIA D’ARTE MODERNA at Villa Borghese you can go for a nice lunch or coffee at Caffe’ delle Arti where they have a nice terrace.
But don’t miss the other very unique museum in Rome, the GALLERIA BORGHESE, full of statues by Canova that seem so real…I think you need to book your tickets online because it’s a very small museum.
After this visit, out of the museum, take the little train (tickets on the train) that leaves every 20 minutes from there and brings you around Villa Borhese, from the upper part to the lower (Piazza del Popolo). It’s very charming and you will visit this Villa sitting on a little train…I loved it!
If you are looking to visit Rome soon I wish you a wonderful trip! Feel free to leave any tips that you may think are helpful to other visitors in the comments.
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