Finding good places to eat when you travel can be a bit
tricky. Do you just stick around the main tourist areas? Do you just try a
place based on how it looks from the outside and the menu? Or do you listen
to others recommendations? Well, we did a bit of everything when we went to
Rome. So of the places we went to came from the guidebook, some were
recommended by connections on the internet etc. This is a summary of meals
we enjoyed in Rome :-)
On
the first night we went to eat at a place called
Ristorante il Primoli. The restaurant is located just north of Piazza
Navona (the location is shown on
my Rome Google map). I got a recommendation to this place someone I got in touch
with on the net (an American fellow living in Rome…with the nick name
‘Romanus Yankeus’ :-). When we found the street we were not sure that we had
found the right place because it was in a dark alley. And when we did find
the entrance we thought is was closed because the door was locked. After
some window peering,
we
were buzzed in and they had a table for us. It is not a large place and it
was not crowded, I guess since it is located a bit away from the main
tourist area of Piazza Navona. I started out with the “Primoli” risotto
which was excellent but different (rich and creamy) compared to other
risotto dishes that I have had, and made, in the past - it seemed to have a
lot of cheese (parmesan?) in it. Nikki on the other hand started with
linguine with shells in a spicy tomato sauce. And as the main meal we had
veal and lamb (excellent vegetables) and it was all enjoyed with a bottle of
red wine (La luna e I Faló).
The
next day we met up with a job acquaintance of Nikki’s and he took us out for
a drink at Piazza Navona. When in Rome do as the Romans right? So we sat
down and had an “aperetivo” together with Olaf. Olaf is actually a Norwegian
guy but he lives in Italy so it was nice to get some inside information
about Italian life from a Norwegian point of view. The “aperetivo” was
Campari with soda mixed with a bit of gin so it was quite a starter :-)
While we were enjoying the drink at Piazza Navona Nikki was looking at this
guy behind me. She finally came to the conclusion that it was Steve Zahn
(you know…the actor from movies like Sahara, National security, Happy Texas,
Out of sight etc).
We asked Olaf for a recommendation when it came to dinner and he took us to
a place called L’orso 80
located at Via dell'Orso 33 just north of Piazza Navona (see
my Rome Google map) (quite close
to where we had been the day before). Olaf left us but Nikki and I sat down
and the waiter brought in a plate of proscuitto, roasted red peppers, fried
rice croquettes (supplì?), roasted eggplant etc. We started eating but then
all of a sudden the waiter came back with more! We also had bread, beans in
tomato sauce, balls of fresh mozzarella, cauliflower, marinated mushrooms,
and slices of melon. We had lots on our table and it was time to taste all
the different dishes. But hey, the waiter came back a third time as well and
it was now starting to become a bit embarrassing because we had so many
plates that the waiter had to stack stuff on top of each other :-) But it
was an excellent meal with so many different flavors. This place was very
relaxed and cosy. But even if it seemed a bit informal it had seen some
famous guests…there was a picture of fellow South African and ex-president
Frederik Willem de Klerk eating in the restaurant.
After
a long day in the Vatican we decided to try and eat a bit closer to the
hotel one day. We had gotten a recommendation from a friend of a friend
located in the San Lorenzo area near the Termini. So we decided to
just walk there as it didn’t seem too far away. We passed by the front of
the Termini and started walking down the left hand side of the huge station.
As we got further and further away from the front of the building there were
fewer people and in the end we had a sinking feeling that we were the only
ones walking in the area. We had a couple of options but we had problems
finding the first restaurant so we ended up at a fish place called
Osteria Il ditto e la luna located on Via dei Sabelli. The menu was all
in Italian…and we don’t speak much Italian :-) In the end I just pointed at
something and said “We will share this as a starter” and we also decided to
have sea food gnocchi and seafood spaghetti as the main dish. When the
starter came we were a bit surprised and at first I told the waiter that it
was not what I had ordered (kinda silly when I had no idea what I had
pointed at :-).
But
it turned out that I had pointed at raw shrimp, crawfish and oyster. I’m not
a great fan of raw fish so it was not the best dish I have had but Nikki
enjoyed the intense fresh seafood taste of the oysters. After we were done
with the starter it took forever to get the main dish and the glass of red
wine that we had bought was not very good either so we were getting a bit
annoyed as it had been a long day. So after 1 hour we got the main meal but
it was already like 11 pm so we just finished the meal and got out of there.
I guess it was the unlucky combination of not knowing what we ordered as a
starter, the not so great house wine and the overly relaxed service that
made this into not the best dining experience in Rome. It was not worth the
55 € that we had to pay for the meal. And we still had to make our way back
to the hotel past the Termini area :-)
On
most evening we made sure we had a few dining options - always a good idea
to have plan B. One evening we ended up going to our second option which was
La Campana…one of the oldest restaurants in Rome. It is located on
Vicolo dell Campana which is located just north of Piazza Navona (see
my Rome Google map)…it seems
like we got stuck in the same area quite a lot :-) We got a table without
any problems and we got a handwritten copy of a menu and it was a bit tricky
to read.
I
decided to go for lasagna and Nikki went for a ravioli type in a tomato
based sauce. I’m not sure what to say about the lasagna..it tasted just the
way lasagna is supposed to taste (in my opinion at least) so it wasn’t a big
surprise. As the main course I tried coda alla
vaccinara (ox tail stew). I love meat that has been boiled like this and
this dish was very tasty.
Nikki
had the seafood risotto (Risotto ai frutti di mare) but it seemed a bit on
the dry side. The red wine we had to the meal (Boschetti) was pretty good at
least for my choice of dishes :-) And to round it all off I had crème
caramel - managed to polish it off before Nikki came back from the ladies.
But she doesn’t mind - she’s no fan of the stuff. It seems like more or less
every country has it’s own version of this dessert. I guess it is due to the
fact that it contains the basic ingredients of cream, egg and sugar. But I
still claim that the Norwegian version is one of the best ones…try the
“karamellpudding” if you ever come to Norway because it is great. The meal
at La Campana cost us about 70 € (including the 20 € bottle of red wine).
On
the last night (and my birthday) we went to eat at Tre Scalini which
is located in the Piazza Navona itself. We didn’t have a problem
getting a table and we sat outside and enjoyed the view of the square. It
seems like this restaurant “specialize” in tourist because our waiter spoke
English pretty well and he also spoke German to the couple at the next
table. I started out with a mushroom risotto (yes, I’m hooked on risotto)
and it was pretty weird because it tasted exactly like a risotto that you
can make from a packet by ‘Toro’ here in Norway. Not sure whether that’s a
good thing in that Toro produces an excellent risotto or … :-)
But
the risotto was not bad at all. Nikki had the penne arabiata. As the main
dish I had the gnocchi with gorgonzola sauce and that was pretty good to.
Nikki had Osso bocco and even though it looked different from the osso bocco
that we have made here at home it tasted good - didn’t need salting either.
And since it was my birthday we topped it off with desserts. I had to try
the tiramisu but that was a bit of a disappointment I’m afraid as I have had
much better tiramisus before…it was way too dry. But Nikki had a chocolate
bomb with whipped cream on top that was pretty good - pity she didn’t go to
the ladies then :-)
So
the food was not that bad and the location is good…but there are a few other
things that have to be mentioned. When we sat down we got a basket of bread
and we didn’t ask for it. On the bill this was a separate fee and I don’t
think this was the case at the other places we ate at. We always had a
bottle of water with our meals. At Tre Scalini the water was 4 € while it
had been about 2 € the other places. And I also think the portions were a
bit too big. It might seem strange to complain about that but if you are
going for starter and main dish (primi and secondi piatti) the portions
shouldn’t be too big. The question is of course if it was worth the 115 €.
And then there is the location. Yes, it is nice to
have a view of the Piazza Navona but it also leads to a bit of distraction
:-) People would come over many times to try to sell us roses, little flying
saucers with blinking lights and so on. We had a view to all the people that
were trying to make a living out of selling fake bags, sunglasses, making
caricatures etc. The police patrolled the area frequently and some of the
people had to pack their fake stuff and art gear together like 20 times.
Italian ice cream
Before
I went to Milan and
Venice a couple of years back
I was not really aware of the fact that Italians are also into ice cream.
But we got the taste of it on that trip and in Rome you can also find lots
of different ice cream shops. The right word is Gelato by the way and it’s a
lot creamier in consistency compared to what I’m used to from back home. By
recommendation we first of all found our way to
Gelateria della Palma
located just north of Pantheon via della Maddalena 20. This place had a
pretty amazing selection of different flavors. One page mentioned that they
had like 100 flavors and I’m not sure it was that many…but there should be
something to satisfy every taste bud :-) The place was a bit crowded when we
were there…some had trouble making up their minds which flavor to take and
some didn’t realize that they had to go to the counter first and pay and
then come to pick up the ice cream. But when we got the ice cream is was
very good…the only problem is that there is so many flavors to go through
and so few days in Rome :-)
We also went to a place called Oasi which is
also located near Pantheon. Pass the coffee shop Tazza d’oro on your left
hand side and you will find this tiny gelateria on the left hand side - if
you get to the main road you’ve come too far! The selection is not as varied
as Gelateria della Palma but the gelato was good. We also enjoyed had gelato
at many different locations in Rome and generally I have to say that the
gelato is excellent and it is a great way to cool down in the summer heat.
Nikki still prefers the ones in Milan and especially Venice.
Coffee
Italians
are not only known for the gelato…they are also quite addicted to coffee. I
have also gotten a bit hooked on coffee in the last couple of years so I was
looking forward to testing out the Italian selection. There are lots of
coffee shops around Rome and the traditional way is to come in, pay at the
cashier, go to the counter and get your coffee (an espresso) and drink this
standing. Many places also have an option to sit down and order your coffee
but be aware that this brings up the price considerably. There was a place
right next to our hotel near Termini called Nori and we went there
quite a lot of times. They had very good and strong espresso…I followed the
example of some Italians and I drank it with a bit of sugar in it. Nikki
stuck to cappuccino most mornings.
One
of the most famous coffe shops is maybe
Tazza d’Oro. The first time we went in there I wanted to try out an
espresso so I said “caffe”, as you are supposed to. But then he asked
“freddo?”. He caught me off guard and I couldn’t remember what freddo
meant so I said “Sure, why not” :-) Well, for all of you that don’t know
Italian freddo means cold and when I got to the counter that is what I
got…a shot glass of ice cold coffee! We did try the hot espresso later
on and it was good. I also recommend trying the ice coffee (no, not the
caffe freddo). The ice coffee seemed to be crushed ice mixed with
concentrated coffee and then topped with whipped cream..it is called
granita di caffè. Sounds a bit strange but it was very tasty.
We also went to the place called
Sant Eustachio
Il caffè and tried the espresso there. As we sat outside it was a lot
more expensive compared to e.g. Nori and I didn’t really think that it was
much better. But it was nice to sit down and relax after a day of walking
and watch people walk by on Piazza Sant'Eustachio. We paid about 6 € for a
cappuccino and an espresso.
We
did of course have pizza a couple of times in Rome. The best one we had was
when walking around in the Campo di Fiori area. We came to Piazza Campo di
Fiori and we saw a lot of people walking around with something that looked
like a hot sandwich. We followed the trail of people and we found
Forno Campo di
Fiori. “The sandwiches” were pieces of pizza put together and just
wrapped in paper. They kept on bringing out fresh and baking hot pizzas all
the time (really long pizzas by the way) and we just indicated how big our
piece should be and then you paid by the weight of the pizza. It was
basically a pizza margarita (tomato and cheese) but it was very good. We
paid about 3 € for a piece that Nikki and I shared. The strawberries that we
bought on the piazza for dessert was actually more expensive (about 3.5 €)
It
was quite hot when we went to Rome and I guess we had from 30 to 35 degrees
Celsius (85 to 95 Fahrenheit). You can buy water in bottles in small grocery
stores around Rome (like Spar) and you can get it for like 0.5 € for a 2
liter bottle. But another option is of course just to have a bottle with you
that you can fill up as you go along. There are many, many drinking
fountains around Rome and the water didn’t taste all that bad. The water
fountains are also quite ideal for cooling of…it is always nice to splash
some cold water in the face when you have been walking around for a while
:-)
There are thousands of places to eat around Rome and
the trick is of course to find the places that are worth visiting :-) Taste
is a very subjective thing and I guess food that we enjoyed maybe not be to
everybody’s taste. But I hope that this has given some sort of indication to
what Rome has to offer. Feel free to go to the
next page to see more pictures from our
stay in Rome. |