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Eating and Drinking in Rome
Eating in Rome
Romans are still very much in touch with the land, the people have small farms of their own in the countryside nearby, or they return to their home villages regularly. So the city's denizens know a good deal about freshness and authenticity, and can be very demanding when it comes to the quality of the dishes they are served.
Rome, pasta, wine and pizza. Here, it is not necessary to search for restaurants. Everywhere you will find small and cheap but nice trattorie, osterie and ristoranti. Prices, even in the centre, are reasonable and the quality remains of a fair standard. Many nice places are to be found in the Centro Storico, along Via Cavour and around Stazione Termini. Similarly, you can eat cheaply in the Borgo district around the Vatican.
In consequence, eating out is a major, often hours-long, activity in Rome, and the meals you'll enjoy generally range from good to truly remarkable. You'll find that most city-centre restaurants offer standard Italian dishes, although a few more adventurous restaurants have been popping up of late. Rome is also blessed with an abundance of good, honest pizzerias, churning out thin, crispy-baked pizza from wood-fired ovens. House wine is usually drinkable, but rarely memorable, but there are also any numbers of enoteche - wine bars - who really know their business. We've also listed a range of places serving snacks, though most bars serve panini and tramezzini and, at the end of the chapter, the best of the city's gelaterie and pasticcerie.
Vegetarians will find plenty of options in virtually all Italian eateries. Many pastas and pizzas, of course, are made entirely without meat; lentils and other beans and pulses are a part of traditional cookery; and wonderful fresh vegetables and cheeses are always available. Even so, there are a number of restaurants that specialize in vegetarian cuisine, and some of them are among the most appealing places in Rome.
One final caveat: generally speaking it's hard to find truly bad food and rip-off prices in Rome. However, it may be wise to avoid places that are adjacent to some major monuments, such as the Pantheon, Piazza Navona, or the Vatican. The food in these places can be poor, and the prices truly outlandish, sometimes as much as three times the going rate.
Drinking in Rome
For the people who wish to enjoy of wine, many wine cellars in the city organise wine tasting courses and information-giving meetings about vineyards, harvesting, fermentation and all the processes related to the production of this nectar of the gods. Among some of the places in the city that organize such events, we can name "La Tradizione" and "Franchi".
Drinking is not something Romans do a lot of, at least not in public. Despite that, you'll find plenty of bars in Rome, and, although, as with the rest of Italy, most are functional daytime haunts and not at all the kinds of places you'd want to spend an evening, due to the considerable presence of Anglo-Americans, there are plenty of more conducive bars and pubs - there's now an Irish pub practically on every corner in central Rome. Many drinking spots are slick and expensive excuses for people to sit and pose, but most have the advantage of having late opening hours - sometimes until 4am in summer, and almost always until around 1am.
A recent phenomenon is the rise of wine bars (enoteche or vinerie). The old ones have gained new cachet and newer ones, with wine lists the size of unabridged dictionaries, are weighing in too, often with gourmet menus to go with the superb wines they offer. There's also been a recent proliferation of wine-tastings ( degustazioni), a chance to sample some interesting vintages, often at no cost. Those that still concentrate on the fruit of the vine, however, are many in number and we've listed the best here.
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