Rome Restaurant Recognizance
 

When I found roundtrip airfare on Delta from Savannah, Georgia to Rome for under $800 per ticket, how could mom and I not have the immediate desire to return to Rome for a second visit this year? It took about a nanno-second to click the purchase button and our dates were set. Mom and I would spend Thanksgiving in Bella Roma.

Just like our March 2012 trip to Rome, this trip in November was a very food-focused week, with a few visits to churches and an archeological site brought to life with 21st century technology.

We departed Savannah on Wednesday, November 21st, which was the day before the (USA) Thanksgiving holiday. When I booked the flights I didn’t even think about it being the day before the holiday, heck at less than $800 per ticket I would have booked any date Delta wanted me to fly! It was only about a week before departure that it dawned on me we would be traveling on one of the most (if not the most) busy travel days of the year, but have I got a story about that!

I typically am the traveler who gets to the airport waaaaaay in advance of the stated departure time; I’m talking minimum 2 hours. With my “over-abundance of caution” philosophy and thinking there may be a lot of traffic on the way too the airport (I-95 highway) we left for the airport at 8am for our 11:30am departure. Well, I could have taxi-ed a plane down I-95 with the lack of other cars on the road and we pulled into the parking lot at the Savannah airport at 8:35am.

We decided prior to the trip, since we would only be away for 1 week and the airports would probably be crowded, we would do carry-on bags only. This has worked for us on other trips, so it’s not a stretch for us to not check our bags.

We were shocked when we entered the ticket counter area of the airport to find no lines at all, unbelievable to us. We had already checked in on-line, but because we were on an international ticket, I knew an agent had to look at our passports and stamp “Docs OK” on our boarding passes. Since we had plenty of time and there was no line at the front counters we got our passports checked there instead of at the gate.

The security line had slightly more people than the check-in counter, but we were through security in about 15 minutes and heading to our gate to “camp-out” for a few hours.

I left mom sitting at the gate while I went to get coffee. I couldn’t have been gone more than 15 minutes when I come back and she is chatting it up with Stephen the Delta gate agent. It turns out there is space on the 9:30am flight to Atlanta (where we will connect to a 4pm flight to Rome) and he was offering us 2 seats on that plane. Here’s the glitch, I’m standing there now with 2 cups of coffee, 2 rolling bags, 2 shoulder bags, a mom who doesn’t like to walk and drink/hold coffee at the same time and a line of people boarding the 9:30am flight that stretches half the concourse. Stephen then tells us, the 9:30am flight doesn’t have business class, and since we had been upgraded on the 11:30am flight we wouldn’t get the “nice” seats on the 9:30am flight. Honestly this didn’t bother me. What did concern me was that if mom and I were at the end of the boarding line with our 2 roll-aboard carry-on bags, would there be any space left for our bags? I profusely thanked Stephen but tell him we’ll wait for the 11:30am flight. Mom and I go back to our seats and sit back slurping our coffee.

Not 10 minutes go by and Stephen is back standing next to us, leaning down and quietly asking us if we’d like a “private plane” to Atlanta? WHAT??? Mom and I look at each other, then look at Stephen and he says, “Follow me”, so we do. Over to the next gate we go with Stephen.

It turns out there was a 5:30am flight schedule to go to Atlanta that was “delayed” due to maintenance; there was a minor problem with the ignition. While that was being fixed, the passengers from the 5:30am flight were placed on other flights to Atlanta that morning. Now at 10am the 5:30am plane was empty, but the crew and the plane had to get to Atlanta, it was after all, the busiest travel day of the year! Since we didn’t have checked bags, Stephen put us on this plane, we left Savannah about an hour earlier than expected at 10:30am, with only me and mom and the crew of 5 on the plane! Yes, I could have roller-skated down the aisle because there was no one else on the plane.

The crew asked us first if we had a tight connection in Atlanta and was that why we were on this plane, our reply, “No, our Rome flight doesn’t leave until 4pm”, then they asked, “Do you work for the airline?” our reply again was, “No”. We were just at the right place at the right time and only had carry-on bags. I had to take pictures of the completely empty plane because we knew no one would believe us!

We can happily say, we arrived in Atlanta with plenty of time to spare and settled into the newly renovated and very comfortable sky lounge in Terminal E to wait for our 4pm flight to Rome.

Arrival Day in Rome – Thursday, November 22nd

The flight to Rome was uneventful. We paid the extra fee to be in the comfort economy seats, which are only a slight improvement over the regular economy seats. We landed on time, and whizzed through passport control (they didn’t even stamp our passports). Since we didn’t check bags, a stop at baggage claim was unnecessary and we were meeting our Rome Cabs ( http://www.romecabs.com/ ) driver less than 30 minutes after de-planing. Rush hour traffic into the historic center of Rome was fairly heavy on this Thursday morning, but it only took about 1 hour to get from the airport to our hotel, the Albergo del Senato at Piazza della Rotonda ( http://www.albergodelsenato.it/ )

We arrived at the Albergo del Senato at about 9:15am and as we had assumed, our room was not quite ready. We left our bags and headed straight to Café Camilloni for a proper cappuccino and cornetti. I found this café, through Elizabeth Minchilli’s Eat Rome App ( http://www.elizabethminchilliinrome.com/ ), which was a huge resource for me this trip, along with Katie Parla’s Rome for Foodies App ( http://www.parlafood.com/ ). Café Camilloni is in Piazza St. Eustachio, yes, it is a neighbor to the more famous Café St. Eustachio, which I used to flock to on prior visits, but I’ve got to say, Café Camilloni made an outstanding cappuccino and the apple and cream filled cornetti was deliciously fresh. It was the perfect way to refuel ourselves. The café is definitely worth a visit, it’s a bit “old school” and kind of like stepping back in time a bit, but in a good way. If you’re in the area, do give it a try.

After our caffeine “fix” we made a couple stops, to access cash, buy a few postcard stamps and a couple books my Italian teacher asked me to pick up for her. We also made a visit to the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minera. It’s a favorite of ours and since it’s just “down the street” from our hotel it was an easy stop.

On our way to the church we could hear a lot of music. As we got closer we could see an American college (or maybe it was high school) marching band in full regalia lined up in front of the church playing a variety of snappy tunes. They were really good. Our first thought was…”Guess they didn’t make the cut for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade so came to Rome instead”, not a bad trade-off! We don’t really know why they were there, but it was a pleasant diversion.

By noon we were really dragging and fortunately by this time our room was ready so we checked in and settled into our room and promptly took a nap for a few hours. I know a lot of people don’t think this is the best way to tackle the arrival day in Europe, but we find if we can get a few hours of shut-eye in the afternoon then get up, got to aperitivo and dinner then to bed we function pretty well.

Next up will be our fantastic food finds!

Are you seriously starting this trip report the day after I told my husband that it was time to start finalizing our restaurant plans? Fantastic! Since I'm already plagiarizing so many aspects of your other Rome/Bologna trips, I'm in! You had me at food...

Your report comes at a good time for us, too! We will be staying in the same neighbourhood in September 2013. So, I will be following along closely with pen in hand!

I too am reading and taking notes.

me too! I'm making notes for my trip to a Rome language school in February with my italian class, so i'm really after tips for cheap eats!

That sounds like fun, Ann. I assume you are in charge of travel arrangements?

I know it's very popular and busy, but Da Baffetto on Via Governo Vecchio has absolutely wonderful pizza and is cheap. Maybe in Feb it wouldn't be too crowded, at off hours anyway. I wouldn't eat in the Campo dei Fiori area anymore after several disappointing experiences. Perilli on Via Marmorata is good for Roman specialities and not expensive at all.

I forgot the most important thing, this is a great trip report.

I can't wait to read more!

That sounds like fun, Ann. I assume you are in charge of travel arrangements?>>

no I get to take a back seat as it's all been organised through the local further education college where I go to evening classes. our teacher, who is italian but not from Rome, will be making all the arrangements except, I suspect, evening meals, which is where you all come in!

Da Buffetto is a good suggestion - and I know where the Via Governo Vecchio is, having stayed nearby last time we went to Rome. We will actually be staying near the Vatican somewhere [a new area for me] and the language school is near Piazza Bologna [to the east of the centre of Rome] so i think that we will be using the metro quite a lot.

[for anyone who's interested, here's a link to the school:http://www.clidante.it/]

Thanks everyone for the trip report encouragement. We really did well in finding a few restaurant gems this trip. All our dinners were under 100 euro for the two of us and this included bottled water and wine. There was one exception when we had lunch at a Michelin starred restaurant, but it was really worth the splurge! We did get off the tourist track with several restaurants this time. We traversed Rome from the Monteverde and Parioli neighborhoods, which are more residential areas of Rome, to the Monti and Centro Storico areas.

We purchased two 7 day transit tickets for 24 euro each and we really did get more than our money's worth out of them. The ATAC (Rome's transit system) website ( http://www.atac.roma.it/ ) has a helpful route planner option where if you know your starting address and ending address you can enter the information and get which bus/tram/metro options to use to get where you want to go.

This was our 7th visit to Rome and now I'm really getting to know the bus routes. We rarely take the metro because it doesn't service the centro storico area very well and we find the buses are a good alternative to get us within easy walking distance of where we need to go.

I will mention, that I also look at Google maps before going to get an idea or feel for locations of restaurants in comparison to bus routes, so I'm pretty good with knowing my direction in Rome, which came in handy one day when there were demonstrations and buses, trams and metros were closed or re-routed (more about that experience later!)

Annhig...if you are going to be staying near the Vatican, have I got a pizza place for your...Pizzarium. We didn't get there on this trip, but did back in March. The pizza is fantastic. I wrote about it in my March Rome trip report. It's not really a "sit down" type of place, better to get a slice and go, but there area a few benches outside and a small area inside where you can stand and eat. Gabriele Bonci is the pizza "maestro" here and he has revolutionized pizza by the slice in Rome...his ingredients are exceptional, the pizza toppings change daily and the dough is the best I've ever had. Check out my March report for more on Pizzarium.

You know there is always one big problem with any trip to Rome ...no matter how many days one stays....not enough time to try all the restaurants and eat enough gelato.

Anxious to read more as you always have great trips and are kind enough to share them with us.

I am staying nearing the Vatican and I will definitely mark the Pizzarium! I love looking forward to having something to read about Rome when I get home from work.:):) Planning is half of the fun!

thanks, LC, that's two excellent suggestions already.

looking forward to more!

Young lady, I was just about to email you and chastise you for making me wait on your T/R! I just happened to be watching a little travel thing on TV about Rome that I DVRd last night.....and thinking where it that report? and, it is here....I need a fix since I am going nowhere anytime soon.

Can't wait to hear all about it. If you go again at Christmas, well, I won't hate you but it will be hard not to! :-)

lowcountrycarol...boy are you ever right...I could spend months in Rome and still not have enough time for all the restaurants I'd like to try! :-) It's always a tough decision for me whether to go back to an old favorite or try a new place. This trip we did have a couple repeats, but I tried to squeeze in as many new spots as humanly possible to do in one week!

Denise...I must be a mind reader ;-) I wish I could say I was going back at Christmas, instead mom and I are off to NYC for Christmas...not a bad alternative, IMHO! :-D

LCI: another great report. Love the Albergo del Senato, and want to go back, but i think for now my return trip will be with you.

taconictraveler...happy to have you along for the ride! ;-)

And now for the rest of Thursday, November 22nd:


After a few hours of “shut-eye” mom and I were ready to hit the town for aperitivo. Instead of venturing into a café, we decided to go to a cheese shop, yes, a cheese shop, but believe me this was an extraordinary cheese shop. To be fair, it really is more than a typical cheese shop, it’s also an enotecca that serves light lunches, light dinners and aperitivo.

At about 6pm we walked into Beppe e i suoi Formaggi, this translates to Beppe and His Cheeses, at Via Santa Maria del Pianto 9A/11, which was about a 10-15 minute walk from our hotel. When we walked in, the display cases presented a sea of cheeses, which are all lovingly cared for.

After ogling the vast variety of cheeses, we walked into the adjacent room and sat down at a table, we ordered a couple glasses of wine and a mixed plate of cheeses. We were presented with a beautiful plate of 5 different cheeses, some cow’s milk, some sheep’s milk, but all were delicious. Our plan to have a glass of wine each, turned into 2 glasses each and before we knew it, it was close to 7:30pm and we needed to get moving for our 8pm dinner reservation. Our aperitivo came to €33 for 4 glasses of wine and a cheese plate with 5 exceptionally delicious cheeses. As we were leaving mom commented, “I’d like to eat my way through Beppe’s cheese counter”, well, mom we better plan on moving to Rome then, because it would probably take close to a year of daily visits to try them all!

Fortunately Beppe’s cheese shop is not far from one of the stops for the #8 tram and within minutes we were boarding the tram heading in the Casaletto direction. The trattoria, Cesare al Casaletto (Via del Casaletto, 45) in the Monteverde neighborhood, although not in the centro storico, is incredibly easy to get to. If you take the #8 tram from Largo Argentina (which is the first stop [or last depending on the direction] on that tram line) and go all the way to the very last stop (Casaletto) get off the tram, walk across the tram tracks, cross the street and walk a few feet you will be at the front door of Cesare al Casaletto, it couldn’t be easier!

I read about this trattoria on both the Eat Rome and Rome for Foodies Apps, where it was highly recommended. The specialty here are the tasty fried tid-bits on the starter menu. I had heard/read so many good things about all the fritti on the menu, I wanted to try them all, but mom was the voice of reason, because she also wanted to try the highly regarded buccatini alla amatriciana, which got more praise on the Tavole Romane website (http://tavoleromane.wordpress.com/ ).

I will admit when we got off the tram, I “zigged” when I should have “zagged” and walked in the wrong direction for about 3 minutes when I realized we should have turned right when we got off the tram not left, but it was not a big blunder and a few minutes after 8pm we were walking through the door of Cesare al Casaletto.

We were greeted warmly and in my fractured Italian I managed to communicate that we had a reservation. We were seated in the bright, warm, friendly dining room and in one quick glance around the room we knew we were the only non-Italian speaking diners, we loved this place already! The restaurant was not at maximum capacity, but it seemed to us it was definitely a neighborhood place, with tables full of what appeared to be happy Italian families or friends having a good time.

Once we were settled in, one of the servers, who I believe was the owner, came over to tell us the daily specials. We established that mom and I had a limited Italian vocabulary and he was kind enough to speak very sloooooowly to us. We decided to have fried meatballs with pesto, also known as polpette di bollito con pesto di basilico, which is their signature dish and the eggplant croquettes with a spicy marinara sauce. All we could say was WOW! The meatballs were delicious, the best part was the pesto, but our favorite of the two were the eggplant croquettes. The croquettes not only had great flavor, but they were creamy smooth on the inside and perfectly crispy on the outside and the sauce had just the perfect kick to it.

We asked the owner to help us select a wine and he picked a great red for us. For main dishes, mom had the buccatini alla amatriciana which she proclaimed was excellent, which was right in line with the readers of the Tavole Romane website read poll. I had the coda alla vacinara, also known as braised ox tails and they were tender, tender, tender and the sauce was full of flavor.

Based on a perfectly timed blog article about this restaurant, by Katie Parla, the day before we arrived in Rome, I knew the panna cotta was a “not to be missed” dessert here, so I ordered one with frutti di bosco (mixed fruits/berries), it was silky smooth. As usual, mom and I finished the meal with espresso.

Mom and I really enjoyed this place and it was a perfect way to start our week in Rome. The service was friendly and they were interested in knowing how we found out about them. When the bill arrived at our table we were in for a happy surprise, the total cost of the meal was €60.

We left the trattoria two very happy ladies, boarded the awaiting tram and took it to the last stop, Largo Argentina and walked back to the hotel. Of course our first night in Rome wouldn’t be complete without a stop at the bar next to the hotel for a limoncello. All seemed right on this Thanksgiving night, even though a turkey wasn’t in our sights!

OK, well now you are just hurting me! Beppe in the Ghetto? Green with envy! Cesare al Casaletto sounds wonderful and you had panna cotta? how could you? :-) :-)

I have to say that I feel better to hear you zigged when you should have zagged, since we zigged all over Rome....it's not just me!

I love reading all about what you and your mom eat but it is a form of torture.

You are to Rome what I have been Paris for many years--totally devoted, drop everything for a cheap fare and go any time, explore every nook and cranny, ride the buses to be able to see even more and eat,eat,eat! In short totally hooked. Nothing better than a trip report from someone totally in love with a city. Thanks so much for this. A wonderful read.

And your Mom. What a charmer to make friends with the gate agent and snag you such a special, all on your own, deal. That has to be one of the most unique flights I've ever heard of. Congrats. And keep it coming.

Denise...I always seem to "zig" when I should "zag" on all of my trips! Fortunately I was blessed with a pretty good sense of direction, I might not get to where I need to be on the first try, but I will eventually get there! :-D

LowCountryCarol...it's a good type of torture, yes? ;-)

Julie...great to "see" you here. You have me (and mom) pegged on Rome, I hardly even use my trusty Knopf Rome map book anymore. But the GPS on the Eat Rome App was a huge help several times on this trip! Yes, I don't know when we will ever experience a "private" commercial flight again, it was just too fun not tell in a trip report! :-)

I shouldn't read this before I eat! Your food descriptions are tantalizing to the tastebuds & to the imagination! The eggplant croquettes ... yum!

While in Rome, we did not use transit. We walked (yes, and got lost!) almost everywhere & took the occasional cab. But it sounds worthwhile to have a 7-day transit pass especially if there's a handy route-planner on the ATAC website. Thanks for this bit of information!

2010...glad to be helpful about the 7 day transit pass, we really like having it, especially if the weather turns bad, and we want to get out of the rain and just hop on a bus. I can usually figure out which bus will take us close to a familiar place by reading the bus stop signs posted with route information, but that's taken me several trips to be able to figure things out "on the fly" like that! :-)


Friday, November 23rd

This day was dedicated to the Monti neighborhood, an area we started to get more familiar with on our last trip to Rome and we found that we really like it.

After a quick, but satisfying breakfast at the hotel mom and I set off to the bus stop on Via del Corso, which was around the corner and down the street from the hotel. We hopped on the #117 electric bus and headed straight for Via dei Serpenti because we had olive oil on our minds.

Back in March after doing an olive oil workshop with Elizabeth Minchilli we were told about a terrific shop in the Monti neighborhood called Podere Vecciano (Via dei Serpenti, 33). This is their website: www.poderevecciano.com . It’s a lovely shop filled with Tuscan specialties, including terrific olive oils and beautiful olive wood pieces (cutting boards, bowls, spoons, etc). They also have a nice variety of olive oil holders/containers in what looked to be stainless steel at very good prices.

My main reason for stopping here was to buy some more of their olive oil, this time I was smart and bought a 1 liter tin, so I won’t be longing for more after I go through a half liter bottle . But I also wanted to “drool” over their gorgeous olive wood cutting boards. This time I succumbed and purchased a rather large and exquisite cutting board, which I am still refraining from using in my kitchen just yet, it’s seems too pretty to cut on, but I’m sure I’ll get over that feeling soon!

As the noon hour approached we made our way to a wine tasting lunch with VinoRoma ( www.vinoroma.com ), which was also in the Monti neighborhood a short walk from Via dei Serpenti. This was our third tasting with VinoRoma. Some may think why keep going back, well, there are 3 different types of tastings VinoRoma conducts and since we had been to the other two, doing the lunch tasting made perfect sense to us. Also, Hande, the sommelier who is VinoRoma, is an absolutely terrific person. I happen to follow her on Twitter and from the wine education I have received at her VinoRoma tastings and by following her on Twitter I have really expanded my knowledge about wines, don’t get me wrong, I still have a lot to learn about wines, but Hande makes it so much fun.

There were 4 wines in the tasting. We started with one of my favorite types of Italian wine, a Franciacorta, this is a sparkling white Italian wine, but it is not prosecco, IMHO, it outshines prosecco by miles and this particular one, Barone Pizzini Franciacorte Nature was extraordinary (a real winner in my book). It was crisp and effervescent and it makes a perfect wine for aperitivo and if you can accompany it with a good fritti starter you will certainly have a happy palate.

We continued the tasting with a white wine from the Campania region, it was a Greco di Tufo DOP, and this was another winner, but then again, I’m partial to white wines. The third wine was a red from Lazio, the region Rome is located in, and although it was good, I rated the whites we tasted higher. Our last wine was a sweet wine, it was Recioto dell Valpolicella, and even though I’m not a huge sweet wine drinker, this wine had something to it, and believe it or not, it went remarkably well when paired with blue cheese and also chocolate (although not the cheese and chocolate together!). The taste of this sweet wine when sampled on its own was that of raisins. So you can see, there was a nice variety of a wine to taste from different regions of Italy.

Here is what I had to say about VinoRoma in my Trip Advisor review:

<<I recently attended my third VinoRoma wine tasting and as much as I loved the first two, this third one was my favorite! Maybe it was because it was the wine tasting lunch so there was salumi and cheese involved!

The greatest thing (in my opinion) about VinoRoma is that no matter how much or how little you know about wines you will come out of the experience learning something new and it is always fun. VinoRoma is so approachable in her wine education techniques; she will draw out things you don't even realize at first. I've taken the knowledge I've acquired from VinoRoma and really started to use it at home when I'm either out to dinner ordering wines, or shopping in my local wine shop.

This particular wine tasting with lunch was especially interesting because it really showed how pairing certain wines with certain foods can "make or break" the taste of both the wine and the food. A VinoRoma expreience has really opened my eyes to the big-wide-world of wines and I have to give a huge Thank You to Hande for that!

If you are hesitant about booking a tasting because you are a wine beginner, just do it. I had been drinking wines for about 3 years when I did my first VinoRoma tasting in 2010 and now I can say with some pride that I have a nice little base of wine knowledge thanks to VinoRoma!>>

After the wine tasting we did a little more shopping. As I’ve confused in other trip reports I have, what some may call an obsession with handbags, so a visit to a shop selling Gabs Bags (http://www.gabs.it/en/ ) was definitely on my itinerary. Once our “retail therapy session” was over, we decided since we were now near Piazza del Popollo and the weather was lovely we would grab a seat at an outdoor café and wile away an hour sipping a cappuccino freddo, it was the perfect afternoon.

We made our way back to our hotel in the late afternoon, rested for a while and by 6pm we were ready to try a new place for aperitivo. This time we would give Enoteca Cavour 313 on Via Cavour a try since it was just around the corner from where we had dinner reservations.

After leaving the hotel we hopped on a bus and skirted around Piazza Venezia (a place mom refers to as “the piazza from hell”, due to the difficulty trying to navigate our way by foot around, or through this traffic clogged piazza). It really was just about a 10 minute bus ride, but once we stepped off the bus, it was an easy walk to Cavour 313, located at (you guessed it, Via Cavour 313). Their website is: www.cavour313.it

As we walked in, we were greeted with a pleasant “Buona Sera” and I asked if we could sit down for aperitivo. We were pointed towards the back of the enoteca and as we walked towards the tables we definitely got a rustic vibe. There were shelves of wine bottles everywhere and the tables were of the “chunky wood” type. The staff was friendly and again, indulged me with my attempts at ordering in Italian. We had a nice white wine from the same winery as one of the wines we tasted with VinoRoma. We ordered a plate of cheese to go with the wine, but not being “up” on all the Italian cheeses there are, we just pointed at one on the menu. We were served a plate with a very creamy (spreadable) cheese and an accompanying herby/creamy spread. We had no idea what it was, but it tasted pretty good…ordering can sometimes be an adventure with us! The cost for 4 glasses of wine and the cheese was &euro;27.

Just before 8:30pm we settled the bill at Cavour 313 and walked around the corner to Taverna dei Fori Imperiali located at Via della Madonna dei Monti, 9. Their website is: www.latavernadeiforiimperiali.com

This restaurant was a recommendation from the Eat Rome App and it was a very pleasant experience. I’m glad we had a reservation because the place was packed and lively when we arrived and we watched as diners without reservations were advised to come back later in the evening. The staff was friendly and it’s clearly a family run place, with lots of typical Roman dishes. Yes, this is a place with red-checked tablecloths and lots of other tourists, but don’t let that put you off, the food and service was terrific.

The daughter of the owner was our server and her English was excellent. We knew that punterelle was in season and it’s a favorite dish for me and mom, so when we didn’t see it on the menu, we asked about it and I’m glad we did. It was one of the best versions of the dish we’ve ever had, the perfect blend of fresh punterelle, olive oil and anchovy dressing. For our main dishes, mom and I ordered the same thing, the veal saltimbocca, which is a house specialty and it was very good, not “out of this world delicious” but it was a good, solid, Roman dish. Since there was eggplant capponata on the menu and it came highly recommended to us (via the Eat Rome App) and mom and I never met an eggplant dish we didn’t like we had a side order of it. The capponata had a terrific sweet and sour flavor, it was delicious. We asked our server for help selecting a wine and she recommended a local (Lazio) red wine that went perfectly with the meal. We ended with our “signature” espresso followed by limoncello. All this for the grand total of &euro;61.50.

We left the restaurant happy and ready for a good night’s sleep, because the next day we would be on a mission to find a teeny-tiny spice shop in the midst of several demonstrations and re-routed bus lines.

Nice job as usual Marcy! Sigh...it's been over a year since I've been in my favorite city and you are making me very jealous!

Gee. Sounds so good! I think we have to plan trip when yuou and Mom, and me and Kristina are there at the same time...we need to share some food together!

hi Marcy - thanks for reviving nice memories of Monti - we spent a week in an apartment on the via dei serpenti on our first trip to Rome and though it wasn't an ideal place for a first taste of Rome, we still had a great time, especially with the terrific "local" food shops and restaurants in the neighbourhood.

our favourites? the trattoria at the top of the road where we had a great sunday lunch the day we left, the little store next door where nono spent his day shelling peas and trimming artichoke hearts, the calabrian deli opposite with the wonderful mozarella, the gelateria where the local cops called in at night to get their fix of gelati, the.....well, you get the picture.

As always, I'm truly enjoying your report. I love the way you and your mom travel, and I'm coveting that cutting board! Your Italian must be getting really good!

Thanks so much for sharing!

Thanks for your great report. Perfect timing for me as I am booked for my April trip to Rome.

Can't wait to do another tasting a vinoroma... Sounded great!

We wanted to go to LDFI while there and ran out of time. Really sounds great, so I am glad I can enjoy it vicariously through you and your mom! Ready for more!

Kristina & KrisMom...mom and I would love to connect with the two of you again during our travels! There were several restaurants on this trip where mom & I said to each other, "We need to tell Kristina & her mom about this place"! :-)

Annhig...I recall you mentioning Via dei Serpenti on another thread and every time we are in that area I think of you!

jmct714...my Italian isn't as good as it probably should be, but it's fun trying. I have perfected the phrase, "I don't understand Italian, but I am learing to speak Italian in the United States". That usually gets a smile and then they tell me my Italian is excellent, I just smile and say they are much to kind to me.

Thanks everyone for continuing to follow along.

Saturday, November 24th

We were on a mission to find oregano today! Hande from VinoRoma gave us a recommendation for a spice shop in the Testaccio neighborhood and mom and I were up for the challenge of finding this tiny shop. I say challenge because before leaving the VinoRoma wine tasting Hande mentioned there would be some demonstrations on Saturday and bus routes might be altered.

Using the ATAC route planner I found there was a bus we could take, without having to transfer, which would get us within walking distance of Emporio delle Spezie, located at Via Luca della Robbia, 20 ( www.emporiodellespezie.com ).

In the late morning we hopped on the #30 bus, which on a non-demonstration day, would have taken us to Via Mamorata, which is just a short walk to the shop. The bus was not very crowded and I kept an eye on the direction we were heading and the stops the bus was making. When we made what seemed to me to be a diversion I turned my attention to the front of the bus where another passenger was having a conversation with the bus driver. I heard the words “Via Mamorata” and started to pay more attention. When the passenger who was speaking with the driver got off at the next stop, I took that as a cue and mom and I got off too. Now in an area I wasn’t expecting to be in, I pulled out my phone with the handy Eat Rome App, which also listed the spice shop and used the App’s GPS function to guide us to Via Marmorata and ultimately the shop. It was about a 20 minute walk for us, but as soon as we were 3 doors away from Emporio delle Spezie, our noses told us we were in the right spot. The fragrance emanating from the shop was intoxicating.

The shop was tiny, barely 4 women and a stroller could fit inside, but there was quite a selection of spices to choose from, there were shelves from floor to ceiling filled with glass canisters of spice as well as other interesting ingredients. The prices here were terrific, much lower than the spice vendors in the Campo dei Fiori market. The women working was as nice as could be and after getting Sicilian oregano and some curry powder mom and I were off walking in the direction of the new Testaccio market.

The new Testaccio market replaced the old Testaccio market several months ago. We had the good fortune to have visited the older market several years ago. The new market is pretty “spiffy” clean and very bright. We didn’t buy anything at the market, for us; just walking around looking at all the items on offer is half the fun. And besides, we weren’t staying in an apartment, so how realistic would it really be to buy all the beautiful food products we saw!

After a spin around the market, we walked over to Volpetti, one of the most famous food shops in Rome. This was a second visit to this shop for us and we knew there was not a lot of room inside. As we arrived at the front door, a foodie tour group of about 12 people had just walked in. We knew it was going to be tight inside, but we ventured inside anyway and took a quick look around but found nothing we absolutely had to have, so back out we went.

By this point, my bus plan was quickly falling apart because many of the bus lines were re-routed, so the bus lines I wanted weren’t stopping or in some cases, weren’t running due to the demonstrations. We waited for close to an hour for a bus to come and we got on the first one that would take us towards Trastevere where we could then board the #8 Tram.

When we got to the tram stop we found out the tram was not running to the last 6 (or so) stops and we needed to get to the last stop. We got back on another bus, backtracked on Via Marmorata heading in the direction of Termini station. When the bus got into the Monti neighborhood we got off there and got on the #117 electric bus in hopes that it would take us toward our hotel, which it ultimately did, but not before we got off in the area of the Spanish Steps to look for a pasta shop that we found to have gone out of business (Drat! This day was not the poster child for a smooth plan, but that’s half the fun of traveling!)

By this time we needed a cappuccino! So we plopped down at the first café we found, had a coffee and rested our tired legs. By 4pm we were back at the hotel. What should have probably taken a couple hours ended up being a 5 hour excursion. We weren’t laughing about it while it was happening, but we are now!

Our dinner reservation was at 8:30pm at a repeat restaurant for us, Vino e Camino at Piazza dell’Oro, 6. Here is their website: http://www.vinoecamino.it/ . But of course we had to stop for aperitivo before dinner, which was at Café Farnese, not far from Campo dei Fiori, which is an old stand-by for us. We had a couple glasses of wine and a few nibbles here before walking to Vino e Camino.

The driving force for having a repeat dinner here was because of the delicious Sardinian tomato bread starter. We enjoyed this dish on our March trip to Rome and had such good memories we wanted to try it again. One word of advice when dining here, the starter portions are extremely generous, so if there are 2 people dining, one starter to share is plenty. Trust me on this, we learned the “hard way” last time and each ordered a starter plus main dishes, and we were busting at the seams we were so full. So, this time, we were a bit wiser and just split the tomato bread between us.

Mom and I both had the special of the night, a veal “shin” (as the cute as a button server described it to us) with roasted potatoes. The veal was perfectly cooked, it was fall off the bone tender, we didn’t even need a knife to cut it. As on previous nights, we asked the server for help with recommending a wine that would go well with our meal and he selected a terrific pinot noir for us. We refrained from dessert but did have cups of excellent espresso. The total cost of the meal was &euro;81

I think we surprised the owner when at the end of the meal he asked us if we needed him to call us a taxi and we told him, no thank you, we’ll take the autobus, which had a stop right across the street from the restaurant.

When we arrived back at the hotel, we stopped in the hotel bar for a limoncello to end our transit adventure day.

an adventure indeed - but what fun!

the spice shop sounds lovely - I'll have to wait and see if i have time to try and find it on my next trip.

we stayed very near the vinoecamino but I don't think we ate there; next time perhaps!

annhig...do try to stop at the spice shop, it is lovely. Vino e Camino is definitley worth putting on your list of places to try in the future!

and now for...

Sunday, November 25th

It was a terrific weather day, it was sunny and cool and it was the perfect day to explore Eataly Roma (http://www.roma.eataly.it/ ). Eataly is a “shrine” to all things Italian food and it is huge, it makes the NYC Eataly look like a tiny grocery store in comparison. The store is 4 floors, has several restaurants (I’d estimate at least 8), a cooking school, and all kinds of food products from all over Italy. There were sections devoted to cheese, including fresh mozzarella, salumi/prosciutto, fish, coffee, chocolate, baked products, wines and liquors, and that’s just a few of the items on offer.

Getting to Eataly was pretty easy. We did have to change buses once to get to the stop closest to Eataly. The bus stop was located just a few steps from the store’s front door. When we walked inside it was like walking into the Italian food version of Disney Land! It was light, bright and buzzing with people. Being a Sunday it was fairly crowded inside, not just with shoppers, but with lots of people and families eating in all the restaurants. This was a food lover’s paradise. We meandered about for close to 2 hours ogling, and salivating over everything on the shelves and we purchased several things that are hard for us to find at home.

After our “grocery store” excursion, we had a fairly low-key afternoon, relaxing at the hotel and taking a spin around the Christmas market set up in Piazza Navona.

Dinner was at another great trattoria in the Monteverde neighborhood, so it was back on the #8 Tram for us. Our reservation was for 8:30pm at L’Osteria di Monteverde at Via Pietro Cartoni, 163/165. Here is the website: http://www.losteriadimonteverde.it/

I read about this trattoria in a blog post from Elizabeth Minchilli and when she posted a photo of the tiramisu that is served here, I knew we had to go and we were beyond pleased with this place. In fact, we rated the meal here in the #2 spot of the whole trip just after the incredible lunch we had at Metamorfosi (but you will have to wait until my account of our Tuesday adventures to here about that lunch!).

We took the tram to the San Camillo stop and walked to the restaurant. It was about a 5 minute walk, but it is in a very residential area, in fact, as we turned down the street that lead us away from the tram stop, mom asked, “Are we going in the right direction?”, although she may have used slightly more “colorful” terminology. I pulled out my phone and accessed the Eat Rome App GPS, and yes, in fact we were going in the right direction. If you venture to this place, don’t be deterred from the apartment buildings lining the streets, it is completely worth the effort to seek this place out! We knew we had the right place when from a few yards away we saw three young men in chef coats standing outside the front doors; they greeted us warmly with a “Buona Sera”.

The interior of the trattoria gives a homey, familiar vibe, kind of like you have just walked into your own favorite neighborhood go-to “joint” back at home. Even at 8:30pm on a Sunday night, we were the first diners in the place, but within 30 minutes it filled up quite nicely, not completely full, but more than half the tables were occupied.

Even before tasting the food we knew we would like it. We were served an amuse bouche of 2 perfectly formed arancini, oh wow, where these rice balls terrific, crunchy on the outside and creamy on the inside. We had the server recommend a red wine for us and she chose an excellent Lazio red, which went perfectly with our meal.

We had heard very good things about the cacio e pepe spaghetti and we both had that as our first course. This was one of the best pasta dishes I have ever had; it was a perfect balance of cheese and pepper. When it came to the second course, mom and I decided to get the same thing, which is not always the norm since we like to try different things so we can each get a taste of another menu item, but the entrecote, steak fillet, just seemed to be calling both our names. This was the most beautiful piece of meat I have ever seen and it was cooked perfectly and with the accompanying caramelized onions and mustard it was absolutely delicious. I know, this was a lot of food, but it was so good, I still dream about this meal.

Now, faced with the dilemma of ordering the tiramisu or not…how could I not, we ordered one to share. The presentation is adorable, served in a mason jar, this was the creamiest, most flavorful version of tiramisu I have ever had. Even mom, who is not typically a dessert lover, had more spoonfuls than she is willing to admit.

As usual, we had 2 espresso and we asked if they had limoncello. I knew this might be a long shot and it was, however the server brought us what she called, “like limoncello, but orange”. Well, mom and I have found a new favorite digestivo; it’s called Mandarino (produced by Varnelli). It definitely has an orange flavor, but it also is herbaceous, which really complimented each other. All of this for the total cost of &euro;75.

After all this food, (honestly, we hadn’t eaten since breakfast) we rolled out of the restaurant to the tram and into the hotel in less than 30 minutes.

This is perfect timing for us - we are in Rome now, and we will certainly be trying some of your recommendations. :)

Thanks so much for posting your report; and for the website links.

Cyn

Re: VinoRoma Tastings. The cost is E50/person for 6 wines (the "My Italians" tasting). Do you know if there is some food served with this? That seems expensive if it's just wine.

Cyn

Cyn....

When I did the My Italians tasting in 2010 there was no food served. On this last trip in November at the wine tasting "lunch" there is food, but I would consider it a light lunch with a variety of meats and cheeses.

I considered the &euro;50 cost a good value. We got 6 wines to taste and the knowledge I acquired was well worth the price, but that's just my opinion.

I have enjoyed reading about your stops for wine + food shopping + meals BUT I have to admit that your foray into Gabs Bags caught my attention! You can imagine how fascinating these convertable bags are to a purse-aholic such as me! Gab Bags is on the top of my Rome retail list! :))

2010...

I found Gabs Bags on my trip to Rome earlier this year and bought one at that time (their spring collection). I love that bag so much I just had to take a look at the winter collection, and I couldn't pass up buying another. Yes, I'm addicted to purses as much as I am to Rome! ;-)

I found them in Florence too - and they do mail order!

I loved your report! I hope to make it to some of your wonderful suggestions.