Rome apartment review and some Rome travel tips
Apr 10th, 2013, 03:09 AM
#23
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Looking forward to more of your very interesting report. Would love to read about restaurants that you love. I leave next week for 11 days in Rome.
This will be the start of my mostly solo 7 week trip to Itly and France..
This will be the start of my mostly solo 7 week trip to Itly and France..
Apr 10th, 2013, 03:11 AM
#24
I'm just seeing this now that I've finally finished my own Paris trip report. Interesting apartment, but I don't think it's going on my list. I'd love to get back to Rome some time, looking forward to the rest.
Apr 15th, 2013, 06:28 AM
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Sorry for the gap in posting. I will wrap this up shortly
tdk:
Restaurants were not a big focus for us on this trip. We prefer a vegetarian diet and that is hard to accommodate in Rome.
One evening we made a sentimental pilgrimage to the Osteria del Pegno, in the Vicolo Montevecchio near P.za Navona. The cooking is solid and reliable - not especially showy or inventive. I just like the atmosphere. It is great value for the price, too.
http://www.osteriadelpegno.it/
We had lunch one day in the Ghetto area. I love eating on the via del Portico di Ottavia, a pedestrian street - always thronging with young people for some reason. The most famous restaurants are Da Giggetto and Piperno but we like to sit outside at Il Portico. The turnover is rapid and there are always interesting fellow diners (and passersby) to watch.
We had fried artichokes Alla Giudea and a fritto misto of vegetables to start. We followed that, respectively, with a wonderful, sizzling Gorgonzola and radicchio pizza and a saffron-sprinkled shrimp risotto. It was a huge amount of food. With a litre of wine and a tip, the bill was still laughably small - $60.
We also went out one evening to the Taverna dei Fori Imperiali, a very characteristic Roman trattoria.
http://www.latavernadeiforiimperiali.com/
This place is popular with tourists yet did not seem unduly touristy to us. The food is solid (read: heavy) traditional Roman fare. It is perfectly nice. But I was not amazed, as some people have claimed to be.
Overall, the experience was clouded by a VERY strange and uncharacteristic brush with a loutish employee. We dropped around the restaurant around 5 PM one day to get a table for the next evening (we had no phone). I knocked once at the door, which was answered by a young man whom we had obviously roused from sleep - I guess he was napping at a table inside the doorway. He was extremely brusque, insisted on speaking English when I addressed him in Italian and barked back at me "8 PM, Wednesay, 2 people, Gale" before closing the door.
The next evening, we arrived at the restaurant much earlier than 8 PM: We had planned to explore the area but it started to rain. We appeared at the door around 7:30. Naturally, the restaurant was almost empty. But the same young man told us - in English, of course - "Your reservation is for 8 PM. Come back then."
If we had had anywhere else to go on a rainy Wednesday, we would not have returned. But we didn't so we did. On our arrival at 8 PM, we swept past the young man without a word - despite his unctuous bow and greeting. He was playing a game and we were having none of it. Petty and dumb.
Fortunately, he was not our waiter. The service from our waiter was perfectly courteous. And the owner, who was closely supervising the proceedings, looks like he runs a very tight ship indeed.
Here are some other restaurants you might consider for dinner, based in part on friends' research and recommendations:
Cesare al Casaletto - far away in Trastevere at the end of the #8 tram
Trattoria di Monteverde - also in Trastevere and tricky to find, I believe
Trattoria Monti in the up-and-coming Monti neighbourhood around the via Cavour
Friends have also tried both lunch and dinner at the very imaginative Metamorfosi, a temple of modern gastronomy in upscale Parioli.
tdk:
Restaurants were not a big focus for us on this trip. We prefer a vegetarian diet and that is hard to accommodate in Rome.
One evening we made a sentimental pilgrimage to the Osteria del Pegno, in the Vicolo Montevecchio near P.za Navona. The cooking is solid and reliable - not especially showy or inventive. I just like the atmosphere. It is great value for the price, too.
http://www.osteriadelpegno.it/
We had lunch one day in the Ghetto area. I love eating on the via del Portico di Ottavia, a pedestrian street - always thronging with young people for some reason. The most famous restaurants are Da Giggetto and Piperno but we like to sit outside at Il Portico. The turnover is rapid and there are always interesting fellow diners (and passersby) to watch.
We had fried artichokes Alla Giudea and a fritto misto of vegetables to start. We followed that, respectively, with a wonderful, sizzling Gorgonzola and radicchio pizza and a saffron-sprinkled shrimp risotto. It was a huge amount of food. With a litre of wine and a tip, the bill was still laughably small - $60.
We also went out one evening to the Taverna dei Fori Imperiali, a very characteristic Roman trattoria.
http://www.latavernadeiforiimperiali.com/
This place is popular with tourists yet did not seem unduly touristy to us. The food is solid (read: heavy) traditional Roman fare. It is perfectly nice. But I was not amazed, as some people have claimed to be.
Overall, the experience was clouded by a VERY strange and uncharacteristic brush with a loutish employee. We dropped around the restaurant around 5 PM one day to get a table for the next evening (we had no phone). I knocked once at the door, which was answered by a young man whom we had obviously roused from sleep - I guess he was napping at a table inside the doorway. He was extremely brusque, insisted on speaking English when I addressed him in Italian and barked back at me "8 PM, Wednesay, 2 people, Gale" before closing the door.
The next evening, we arrived at the restaurant much earlier than 8 PM: We had planned to explore the area but it started to rain. We appeared at the door around 7:30. Naturally, the restaurant was almost empty. But the same young man told us - in English, of course - "Your reservation is for 8 PM. Come back then."
If we had had anywhere else to go on a rainy Wednesday, we would not have returned. But we didn't so we did. On our arrival at 8 PM, we swept past the young man without a word - despite his unctuous bow and greeting. He was playing a game and we were having none of it. Petty and dumb.
Fortunately, he was not our waiter. The service from our waiter was perfectly courteous. And the owner, who was closely supervising the proceedings, looks like he runs a very tight ship indeed.
Here are some other restaurants you might consider for dinner, based in part on friends' research and recommendations:
Cesare al Casaletto - far away in Trastevere at the end of the #8 tram
Trattoria di Monteverde - also in Trastevere and tricky to find, I believe
Trattoria Monti in the up-and-coming Monti neighbourhood around the via Cavour
Friends have also tried both lunch and dinner at the very imaginative Metamorfosi, a temple of modern gastronomy in upscale Parioli.
Apr 15th, 2013, 08:58 AM
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Apr 15th, 2013, 04:20 PM
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On the menu for our next Toronto GTG???
I just found these (to me) very entertaining and atmospheric photos from a Rome visit in March 2010:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=05e667edd0
I just found these (to me) very entertaining and atmospheric photos from a Rome visit in March 2010:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=05e667edd0
Apr 15th, 2013, 06:01 PM
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Ted- thank you for the details. I am leaving in 4 weeks and will be in Rome for an extended length of time. I will be looking for best meals that I will want to repeat.
My apartment for the first 3 weeks in Rome is in Trastevere, right next to where the Tram #8 is picked up. I'm very excited about that! Happy you included a couple of good Trastevere recs.
My apartment for the first 3 weeks in Rome is in Trastevere, right next to where the Tram #8 is picked up. I'm very excited about that! Happy you included a couple of good Trastevere recs.
Apr 15th, 2013, 07:29 PM
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I knew what you meant, lol
Sarge56: Lucky you. I recommend walking or taking a bus to the top of the Gianicolo, to the Piazzale Garibaldi. Fantastic views of Rome up there. Most direct route on foot is up Viale Garibaldi, I think.
(Also to see up there: the "Tempietto", a little chapel by Bramante)
Sarge56: Lucky you. I recommend walking or taking a bus to the top of the Gianicolo, to the Piazzale Garibaldi. Fantastic views of Rome up there. Most direct route on foot is up Viale Garibaldi, I think.
(Also to see up there: the "Tempietto", a little chapel by Bramante)
