Rome visit--easy side trips?

Old Nov 6th, 2006, 06:38 AM
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Ek, Now that I've reread the article, I remember having seen and read it when it came out.

If memory serves, grinisa once posted that she and her family managed to eat at Felice.
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Old Nov 6th, 2006, 06:40 AM
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The odd thing is that Felice is listed in the Sandra Gustafson Great Eats book.
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Old Nov 6th, 2006, 06:54 AM
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Yes, that is odd.

If you want to search SlowTrav for Maureen B. Fant's opinions on Roman restaurants, click on Find, choose Advanced Search, choose Italy forum, enter >Rome restaurant< in "all words",
>Maureen B. Fant< in exact name of poster, and as dates October 1, 2005 to the present. There are, I think, about a dozen threads, but some are fairly long.
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Old Nov 7th, 2006, 03:59 AM
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Thanks, Eloise, I will give it a try.

Still wondering about whether or not to take the train to Orvieto for a day. I read a few reviews of some restaurants/trattorie that sounded very tempting! Especially with it being truffle season!
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Old Nov 7th, 2006, 06:38 AM
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Since you mention Orvieto again, it springs to my mind that we didn't talk about Vissani, did we? No - almost nobody on Fodor's ever did, which is strange enough. Just a thought, since you said "price is not an issue"...
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Old Nov 7th, 2006, 08:56 AM
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Franco I had been wondering about Vissani but read some rather bad reports about the place on other web sites. Not about the food but about the atmpshere of the place. I think I need a car to get here. Perhaps I should think about doing an overnight in Oriveto...
but then if I do an overnight from Rome, perhaps I should visit Naples... you see my dilemma here.

One of many bright spots is that I am very excited about Checchino dal 1887..how could I have neglected this palce on prior visits? I will tell you why..because we llike to walk to dinner and it is a bit far from places we have stayed. This time, no excuses!

Here is a basic query: Our flight arrives on a Sunday about 11:30. Get bags, taxi to hotel, check in..I figure 2:30. Is this too late to walk in for lunch? Easier finding a good lunch place than a dinner place in Sunday in Rome, I think. From what I can see, two options for dinner on a Sunday are Ditirambo which I liked a lot last time, and La Campana, which I do not know.

So..what about Vissani..have you been, Franco? Have other posters tried this restaurant near Baschi lauded as among the country's top 5, according to one source? It seems to get almost no mention here on this site....I Setti Consoli gets all the chatter while Vissani has the reputation.....curious..
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Old Nov 7th, 2006, 09:10 AM
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I'm a big supporter of Trattoria Monti. I love the wonderful food and the graceful service. I've been eating there on visits to Rome for more than 10 years and have never been disappointed. Definitely get reservations for any dinner or Sunday lunch. Other lunches you may be fine to just show up.
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Old Nov 7th, 2006, 09:14 AM
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Ellenem: Monti is definitely on my list; I am looking forward very much to eating there! I hope it is not too overrun with tourists like myself because it seems to be getting massive amounts of press lately.... Thanks so much for your input.

This is so much fun!
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Old Nov 7th, 2006, 09:26 AM
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First of all, if I were in your place, I wouldn't any overnights - one week is pretty short for Rome, even if you already know it very well.
Vissani is about 15 kilometres from Orvieto, which doesn't seem too far to go by taxi - if you feel like spending enough to afford a Vissani lunch, the taxi price is negligible in comparison.
No, I've never been at Vissani, since I never could or wanted to spend that much. But a close friend of mine has been this summer, and he is one of the very few persons in whom I trust in gastronomic matters as if I had been there myself.
In Italy, Vissani has a reputation, and for many, many years already, as being the country's best cook. His cuisine is of course far from traditional, it's a ingenious cook's phantasy. The big restriction used to be the atmosphere, as you've put it. It must have been so incredible, so unworthy of a place serving delicious food like this, that Gambero Rosso, Italy's most important restaurant guidebook, refused to rate it for a period of quite many years - they used to rate only the kitchen, but not the overall performance, thus preventing the place from getting a total score and from entering into their all-Italian restaurant ranking...
But this is obviously history. Vissani's son is in the process of taking over the restaurant (a slow process of many years, obviously), and they have learned from the bad reviews. My friend reports that he has never experienced a better, or a nearly-as-good, restaurant service anywhere in the world so far. And he says the food was absolutely delicious, which means it WAS delicious (he is a VERY demanding eater). BUT he also thought that the prices are simply so crazy that it's hard NOT to calculate for every single mouthful how much it cost you. And that, too, is significant, cause this friend has normally not the slightest problem to spend a fortune for a meal... expect about 150 Euros per person WITHOUT wine.
To sum it up, if I happen to win in the lottery one day (which is extremely improbable, since I do even gamble...), I'd absolutely want to try Vissani.
As far as your arrival lunch, you could walk to Alfredo all'Augusteo, a glamorous restaurant of the 1950s still (justly) famous for their fettucine, pasta (home-made, of course) with nothing than cheese and butter - amazing how good you can prepare such a simple dish, if you know how to do it, of course. They are so famous that I imagine they should serve meals at 2.30, too - strangely enough, their website doesn't give any opening times. Maybe it's worth calling them?
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Old Nov 7th, 2006, 09:30 AM
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Make this "I don't even gamble", please. I'll never learn to use the preview function, which would be a good idea, I know...
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Old Nov 7th, 2006, 09:39 AM
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Folks,

I just wanted to comment about the airfare to Rome. Alatalia is
having a sale, until Nov. 14th, I just
booked flights to Rome from JFK for next March at $399.00 round trip (plus taxes) The sale is for travel from January 15 - March 29 2007. With taxes I am paying approximately $10l7.00 for two round trip coach tickets.

Best of luck,
Maureen S.

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Old Nov 7th, 2006, 11:38 AM
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Thanks Maureen, for the reminder about Atalia's sale.
I think many of us who "lurk" here are both very tempted by the wonderful fares, and very hesitant due to Alitalia's precarious financial situation. If I were flying in the next two months, I'd buy their tickets, but we're going in March and I'm so afraid I'll be out all that money (4 tickets!) if they indeed go under after Jan. 31. Believe me, I've been agonizing over making a decision, and need to do it soon, as I'm seeing fares on the rise!
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Old Nov 7th, 2006, 11:40 AM
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Maureen, good for you! And shamr on me for not booking sooner. Our tickets JFK-Rome are about $800 inclusive!

Franco, I think I will have to give Vissani a miss. I really prefer top-quality regional food rather than experimental cuisine when visiting Italy. And 150E pp person before wine is a bit rich, especially for a lunch when we would have to hop on a train afterwards.
Now, if you don't mind, would you mind enlightening me about the Gambero Rosso question I posted separately? I am asking this in response to a posting on another site where I read a detailed review of Vissani and where a poster delineated the difference between the Gamero Rosso and Tre Gamberi...would this be like Miichelin starts and Michelin bibs in the GR guide? (see related post for details..) And thank you, once again.
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Old Nov 7th, 2006, 01:05 PM
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Well, first of all, I've NEVER heard of Tre Gamberi, I must admit. But making a quick web research, I understand from Gambero Rosso's website (only in the Italian version) that tre gamberi are the equivalent of tre forchette (the highest award category they have for restaurants), only for trattorie. You know they're including some trattorie of particular quality into their book? Must be quite what you're looking for, btw - trattorie are usually serving traditional food only, and I fully agree, in Italy, it's normally wise to strictly avoid creative cuisine (though I'm still curious about Vissani, I admit it).
Well - in former years (I don't read Gambero Rosso every year, especially since many of their recommendations don't absolutely meet my taste), they didn't rank the trattorie; including them into the guide had already to be prize enough. But now, obviously and as far as I understand it, they're having this tre gamberi award for a handful of really excellent trattorie. Though the site is in Italian, you can easily check which ones, since the names and addresses are the same in all languages: http://www.gamberorosso.it/portale/g...2.0&textForum=
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Old Nov 7th, 2006, 05:49 PM
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Thanks, Franco! It is always enjoyable to communicate with you. Your time taken from your work is our gain!
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Old Nov 8th, 2006, 07:24 AM
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Hi ekscrunchy - I am in the same position, arriving on a sunday, and trying to find a great restaurant open on a Sunday - and not too touristy! Also, unsure if we should have a nice lunch when we arrive, or wait for a fabulous dinner on that day...
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Old Nov 8th, 2006, 07:29 AM
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From my own somewhat limited knowledge bank, I would go for the big lunch as you will have a better choice of places. I would also reserve in advance through your hotel for this meal. Ditirambo was very good last time but it does gets many tourists, I think. Let's hope we get more good advice here. I think I need to do dinner Sunday since I do not know if I will arrive in time for lunch. There seem to be a fair amount of options for Sunday lunch, however.
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Old Nov 8th, 2006, 08:02 AM
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I daytripped to Assisi from Rome last September and it was one of the highlights of my trip.

Assisi is gorgeous and small, so I consider it to be an easy daytrip. The view from the Rocca Maggiore are superb and the Basilica di San Francesco is one of the most beautiful churches I have ever visited.

I had lunch in one of the restaurants on Piazza del Comune and I think that was the best meal I had on my entire trip. I had "strangozzi al tartufo", which is a long kind of pasta with a simple truffle sauce. Both the pasta and the truffle are typical from Umbria.
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Old Nov 8th, 2006, 08:20 AM
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Thanks, Castellanese. I have been there once. I think I will save a return visit for an Umbrian trip. I wanted to find a plces or places that were less of a train ride. I am thinking now of Orvieto but still waiting for some guidance on where to eat there...options other than I Setti Consoli which seems too "international" for my tastes, just judging from some web responses. Thinking down-home Umbrian food, showers of truffles, lots of local people. Tablecloths or not does not matter. One place I read about in Orvieto is L'Asino d"Oro; another is La Palomba. I suspect there is no one right answer here..all of these are probably great.
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Old Nov 10th, 2006, 11:37 AM
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Just wonderred if Eloise and other food lovers have seen this Rome food blog by Maureen Fant:

http://web.mac.com/mbfant/iWeb/Site/...1C5B52C27.html
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