Gastronomy
Restaurants
 The
best areas to look for good "Trattorie"
are Trastevere and between Piazza
Navona and the Tevere.
Generally, the restaurants near Stazione Termini are to be avoided
if you want to pay reasonable prices for good-quality food.
The side streets around Piazza Navona and Campo
de' fiori harbour many good-quality, low-priced trattorie and
pizzerie, and the areas of San Lorenzo
(to the east of Termini, near the university) and Testaccio
(south of the city centre near the Piramide di Cestio mausoleum) are
popular eating districts
with the locals.
Trastevere offers an excellent selection of rustic style eating places
hidden in tiny piazzas, and pizzerie where it doesn't cost the earth
to sit at table on the street.
Meal hours are rather confining in Italy. If you don't take continental
breakfast at your hotel, you can have coffee and a pastry at any bar
(really a cafe, although there will be liquor bottles behind the counter)
or a tavola calda (hot table). These are stand-up snack bar-type arrangements,
open all day long and found all over the city. Restaurants generally
serve lunch between 1 and 3pm and dinner between about 8 and 10:30pm.
At all other times, restaurants are closed. Dinner, by the way, is
taken late in Rome, so although the restaurant may open at 7:30, even
if you get there at 8pm, you'll often be the only one in the place.
Romans think in terms of "dinner" in the afternoon (pranzo)
and "supper" in the evening (cena). In Rome, as in much
of the rest of Europe, a heavier meal is typically eaten at midday
and a lighter one in the evening.
Cuisine
 Rome
is not only capital of Italy but also of the region of Lazio which
is renowned for its food. Robust flavors and rich sauces abound in
many typical dishes of the area, and pasta
and gnocchi, in all their many forms,
are served in restaurants across the city.
 Lazio
is notable for dishes featuring lamb,
veal (saltimbocca being most famous) and
offal, all of which are served with delicious
herbs and seasonings. Rome is rich in markets and this is often reflected
in the wonderful variety of superb vegetables
served in the city's restaurants.
 Beans
are used a good deal in the cuisine and appear in many dishes, hot
and cold. On a cool winter's day the visitor seeking a warming lunch
could do no better than to choose a flavorsome minestrone
soup, which is another of the area's specialties.
Dishes to try: Risotto alla milanese,
Ravioli al burro, Tagliatelle al Ragu, Caciucco alla Viareggina (fishes).
 Roman
meals customarily include at least three separate courses: pasta,
a main course (usually a meat dish with vegetables or salad), and
dessert. Meats, though tasty, are definitely secondary to the pasta
dishes, which are much more generous and filling. The wine is so excellent
(especially the white Frascati wine from the nearby Castelli Romani)
and moderate in price that you may want to do as the Romans do and
have it with both lunch and dinner. |
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