MKDx4

Hi all,
Anyone know where we can get our first delicious cappuccino con crema and cornetta breakfast in the morning by the Colosseum before we go tour?
Thanks!!

rbciao47

Probably in every cafe you would pass that is open.

Buon viaggio,

annhig

where are you staying, MKD?

beware that some of the cafes on the Via Cavour which leads down to the Forum are tourist traps [one tried to charge us €5 each for a pot of tea rather than their standard €3 because of the shape of the pot!] so you will do better off the main drag.

also, I'm not sure what you'll get if you ask for a cappuccino con crema - a cappuccino is typically an expresso with frothed up milk, and a caffe con crema is apparently an old fashioned name for an expresso, the crema referring to the creamy deposits that you can see on the top of a good expresso.

I have also seen a "cafe creme" in France which is usually a single shot of coffee with hot cream in it.

and it's a "cornetto" plural "cornetti" - which generally refers to all the pastries that you will see displayed in a typical bar or cafe that opens for breakfast. to save money, go up to the bar, order your coffee and your cornetto [which in some places you are expected to pick out of the cabinet yourself - watch what other people do] and then drink and eat standing up at the bar. sitting down, particularly if you do so outside, will cost you more.

greg

I don't know why this is your "first" cappuccino and a cornetto. In Italy? If you are staying in at least a modest accommodation, they serve this kind of common items as breakfast items and they do pretty good job starting around 7am. Colloseum does not open until 8:30am around this time. Bars around town, away from Colosseum, on busy commuter routes serve these common items, targeted mainly to locals and not tourists, starting early in the morning.

I was at Colosseum last week. Since I was early, I walked around to see just what were available at early hours. As the previous post noted places on Via Cavour were grotesquely touristy with dreaded multi-language menus. There were some uninteresting cafes just across Via dei Fori Imperiali on the hill. However, signs in Chinese and Japanese did not enhance my desire to visit. Little further, but on the east looked at least more ordinary cafes.

MKDx4

@rbciao47 Thank you but I was hoping for cafe name suggestions from people as some may be better than others.

MKDx4

@annhig We are staying by the Spanish Steps. I just thought it would be more convenient to have something closer to the Colosseum. Thank you for the spelling correction and for the words of wisdom. Maybe that was just my in-laws pulling my leg with terminology LOL. I'll make sure to say it correctly as you stated above. I did hear about not doing the tables and to stand up at the counter. No problem with that. Thanks again!!!

southeuropetravel1

Try L'Antica Cornetteria, Via Labicana, 78… 5 minute walk from the Colosseo

Best

Laura

annhig

MKD - if you look at google maps, and put in your hotel address and the Colosseum, then the little man, they will give you a suggested route - it's about 30 mins. then you can search for bars/cafes, and see what comes up. I would look for places off the main "drag" down a little side street or in a small square.

one of the routes they suggest takes you down the Via dei Serpenti - we rented an apartment the first time we were in Rome and I'm sure that if not actually down that road you will find what you are looking for in one of the little streets between Via Nazionale and Via Cavour.

annhig

if your tour of the Colosseum is not on your first day in Rome, you might already have found somewhere you like; even if it will be your first day, you could also have a look the night before. That's how we found the bar that we had breakfast in a few times on our last trip - we were looking for somewhere to buy some milk, and someone recommended a bar in the corner of a square near our apartment. this seemed a bit odd to me [you don't often buy litres of milk to take home in bars in the UK] but nothing ventured, and we got our milk. Not only that, we saw that the bar did breakfast and went back in the morning.

IME more than half the fun of being in Rome is exploring and finding your own favourite cafe or bar - just look for somewhere that looks as if it caters for locals not tourists if you want value for money.

MKDx4

@Greg Believe it or not, I've never had an espresso or cappuccino before. I'm not really a coffee or even a hot tea person (I make an exception in Ireland when it comes to the morning tea though). I've never had a cornetto before either. So I (we) would like to experience local foods not necessarily at touristy places.

As for the hotel, we arranged early check in but we want to start out immediately after we lock our bags in our room to see things since our flight arrives early in the morning. So by 10:00am, we're out and our first stop is the Colosseum/Forum/Palatine Hill. Thank you for your observations of what is close and just a little distance away from the Colosseum. That is a big help. Yeah, we know there are a lot of touristy places. That's a given. ;-) Oh, and I can't wait to try some cacio e pepe too.

MKDx4

@southeuropetravel1 Thank you Laura!!! I'm looking that up right now!

MKDx4

@annhig Thanks again! The Colosseum/PH/F as well as a walking tour is on our first day. We arrive early in the morning and basically have that day only to see some highlights. The rest of our trip in a nutshell: Day 2 is Pompeii highlights and Mt. V with a stop in Naples for Da Michele pizza. Day 3 is Vatican highlights and Scavi tour and then fly out to Paris and overnight there. Day 4 is Paris highlights and that evening fly to London and overnight. Day 5 is London highlights and overnight. Day 6 is fly home.

I've been planning this since February/March so I got some excellent deals for booking early and also for the days we're traveling.

annhig

gosh, MKD, that is a very busy itinerary. please try to give yourselves some time to stop and stare as well - Rome is a wonderful city with much to see that isn't just the main highlights you see in books.

the same goes for Paris and London as well.

MKDx4

@annhig I hear ya. We went through a list of everywhere in the cities we actually wanted to see and go in. Then there is a list of places that we would rather just take a photo in front of and if we come back, see/go in next time. Then I put the itinerary plan together allowing for alternatives in case places were closed, too much traffic or weather etc. Just like going into museums, there are certain pieces we want to see and map them out ahead of time. We'll be at the Colosseum/PH/F for 3 hours. Pompeii Scavi 2 hours, Mt. V with drive 3 hours, Vatican from 8 hours for example. Sure, people want to go and and spend all day or even a couple of days at one place but we don't. We're not shopping or going to vineyards either. I've done tons of research and now I'm just getting little things together like my topic question.

annhig

We'll be at the Colosseum/PH/F for 3 hours. Pompeii Scavi 2 hours, Mt. V with drive 3 hours, Vatican from 8 hours for example.>>

of those, I think that you are underestimating the time that you will want at Pompeii a tad [it's a huge site, even the bit that you are allowed into] and over estimating the Vatican. The Scavi tour is about 90 mins tops, then a couple if hours in the Vatican museums, and an hour or so in St Peter's. You'll be tired after all that so I wouldn't reckon on scheduling anything too strenuous but you might like to think of a nice long lunch somewhere, or a stroll in the Borghese Gardens.

greg

For coffee, you seem to have some time between your arrival and Colosseum (which I hope you are using of the many strategies to enter without waiting in LONG queue.)

If this is the case, it even makes less sense to find a place to have BF near Colosseum. One place you can try is Sant'Eustachio Il Caffè, near Pantheon. You would have to walk to there from the Spanish Steps, but after BF you can take a bus from Via del Corso or Corso Vottoriao Emanuele II to Colosseum. I presume you have thought out transit pass of some kind while in Rome.

There are of course numerous bars serving this type of things near Spanish steps perhaps including your hotel. If you can "check-in" and have access to your room, are you paying for the nights stay already? Then isn't the cost of BF already included if it is at least a modest accommodation? If you are using the term "check-in" to mean dropping off your luggage, if they serve BF, they would probably let you eat at the hotel at a nominal cost. You might have find an alternative arrangement, but in my experience, hotels might give this type of early access to the room, at no additional cost?, only if it SO HAPPENED at the time of arrive that they could not sell the room the previous night. They have never guaranteed they could do this unless I paid to have the room set aside for me early in the morning.

annhig

greg - they have a tour of the Colosseum/Forum/Palatine Hill already booked, as I understand it. if not, I agree that prebooking is the way to go. no point in standing in that queue for hours when you've only got a couple of days.

Christina

I guess it's just a choice, if I didn't want to use my room, I would never pay for early check-in as a hotel will always keep your bag for you if you are a guest there until check-in time. Maybe you didn't know that. Otherwise, I imagine you are paying a lot for that? Once in a great while a hotel might have a room ready around 10 am or even 9 am if they aren't full, but that's chance and if it is a hotel that gets booked up, you pay an extra day for the ability to checkin early.

annhig

you might not do this, Christina, but I can understand why the OP has done so with a rather aggressive itinerary. We did something similar in Venice once where we paid for an extra night in our apartment in order to be able to use it all day before we had to leave Venice at about 6pm. with kids in tow this was a godsend and well worth what it cost us.

MKDx4

@annhig I know Pompeii is huge and if it were just me, I'd spend the day there. But I have to take into consideration who I'm traveling with who really isn't into archaeology etc. So doing the 2 hours there will be fine. I don't need to see every nook and cranny. Our Vatican Scavi tour is the very first thing in the morning. We lucked out since we requested it back in March. When we are done with that we are going to St. Pete's Basilica and climbing the dome. We're also taking the official Vatican organized tour (2 hours) and covers the Pio Clementino Museum, the Gallery of the Candelabras, the Gallery of the Geographical Maps, the Gallery of the Tapestries, the Raphael Rooms and the Sistine Chapel. After that, we are heading back to the hotel and going a few doors down to the restaurant for dinner. Pick up our bags and Leo Express it to FCO.