We spent the last few days of the two weeks of travel in one of my favorite cities, Rome. Both Christina and I hadn’t been there in years, so we mixed some touristy things with a dedicated effort to eat really, really well. We armed ourselves with the food book Food, Wine, Rome, by David Downie (published by Terrior Guides):
Downie’s book covers everything food related: restaurants, wine bars, caffes, specialty food stores, butchers, pasta makers, bakeries, salumareias, markets, and so on. The book is organized by neighborhood and has surprisingly accurate descriptions of the places and the people who run and own them–this person is shy at first, but warms up quickly, that person has a passion for food on top of the wines he sells, etc. It was fun for us to read the descriptions and then see them for real upon our visits.
We started our eating in Rome at Da Armando al Pantheon, an old-school place recommended to me by my Roman friend, Francesca. The service was friendly and warm, and the food was exactly what we wanted: classic antipasti made from seasonal, local vegetables and pasta ala gricia, in this case spaghetti with guancale, pecorino and black pepper.
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Ok, so I wrote the first part of this post (above the line) back in August. It’s now October, and much of that trip was a distant memory, so I’m going to cover a few highlights and finally get this posted up.
After Armando, we went to Trattoria Monti, a family-run place with two handsome brothers working the front of the house, and mama in the kitchen. This was probably the first place I’ve ever been, anywhere in the world, where the recommended dishes (by one of the brothers) were really the best dishes, and those that weren’t recommended were just not as good (typically, the recommended dishes are the ones the kitchen wants to move). We arrived at 9pm, just at the point when the tourists were finishing up and the locals were arriving, but it was busy with both, a good sign. While I’d definitely eat here again, it was not my favorite. Here’s a photo of a lovely raviolo filled with ricotta and egg yolk and topped with black truffles:
On another day, a very good one, we stopped by the Campo de Fiori and picked up a picnic, then stopped by a couple of food shops for some cheese and cured meats and had a picnic lunch. Then later in the day we visited the wonderful wine bar L’Angelo Divino owned by the retiring but very knowledgeable Massimo. He served us some proscuitto from Friulli (not Parma!), which he deemed to have a more delicate flavor, along with our wines. This place was a highlight of Rome, with its walls lined with wine bottles and “Maxi” working both the front and the back of the house. If I lived in Rome, this would be my home away from home. Sadly, our visit there was cut short, as we had a dinner reservation at the neighborhood restaurant Renato e Luisa. Once again, we had a solid meal of antipasti and pastas, including this great looking dish:
Some other quick highlights:
Hosteria Romana, a super old school place where you can see a picture of the owner at his wedding being blessed by the Pope (John Paul II), and the waiters are all older gentlemen who aren’t quite as cranky as they look. The bucatini al’amatriciana was some of the best we had (note the messy bowl — they toss the pasta in the sauce, right in the bowl and then serve it to you — so good):
Le Sorelle where we had a very lovely meal, finished off with this truly excellent tiramisu:
We also had some great coffees at La Tazo d’Oro and Sant’Eustacio, and fantastic shopping experiences with the food purveyors at Volpetti, Antica Norcineria and the Forno off the Campo de Fiori. Disan Crispino Gelato had an excellent lemon sorbet.
I was sad to leave Puglia and the beach for the city, but as soon as we arrived in Rome, I felt right at home. I’m a city girl at heart, I guess, and, except for that one really mediocre place that we went to for lunch that our hotel recommended, the food lived up to all expectations.
