The Scottish Mail on Sunday - You
Food lovers’ Rome
OUTLINE To the Italian capital, for a foodie and cultural weekend: a perfect pairing. EMPIRE LINE All roads led here during the era of Imperial Rome, from 27BC to its fall in AD476. Yet back then, most Italians lived on bread, beans and olive oil. It wasn’t until the 16th and 17th centuries that the Medicis and the popes of the Renaissance upped their country’s foodie game. Greed was no longer a sin – sugar and spices were in.
STARTING LINE
Embrace a good breakfast, which true Italians do standing up, in a bar, with a small cappuccino and a cornetto (Italian croissant), often filled with Nutella or marmalade. Too sweet? We stayed off Via del Corso at the newly opened Six Senses Rome (sixsenses.com, doubles from £860, B&B), where a frittata romana (cheesy chicory omelette), a fuoco shot (apple, pear and ginger) and an espresso chaser set us up for some serious sightseeing.
GUIDELINE
You’re unlikely to fillet Rome’s culinary nuggets from Tripadvisor alone. Get a good guide – ours was Janaina, from katieparla.com/walking-tours (three hours for up to six people €300, food extra). She led us through backstreets to Rome’s secret eateries. Pizza – big squares of earthy-red tomato sauce on a perfectly thin base – from Roscioli Caffè Pasticceria, a bakery that’s been in the same family for four generations; west to the tiny cheese haven of Beppe e I Suoi Formaggi for slugs of white wine and some of Italy’s finest cheeses; on to La Norcineria di Iocozzilli, dispensing porchetta (slow-roasted pork) on slabs of focaccia, oozing fat and salsa verde.
SLIMLINE
Forget it – this is carb city. The best are supplì: deep-fried rice croquettes,
red from the ragù sauce, hiding a heart of molten mozzarella; just €2 a pop from Supplì Roma in Trastevere. Next up: a mascarpone gelato (€2.50) from nearby Gelateria Fior di Luna – a place on everyone’s shortlist.
WATERLINE
On your foodie meanders, check out the bridges across the Tiber river. Our favourite was Ponte Fabricio, which connects the Jewish Ghetto to Tiber Island, with its 16th-century maternity hospital.
OUT OF LINE
Abundant fellow tourists. It’s best to avoid hotspots like the Vatican and the Colosseum, or go exceedingly early – not possible with a teen in tow. So…
BEELINE
We made for the Capitoline Museums, stuffed with antiquities, then the viewing points overlooking Rome’s ancient ruins. A walk west from our hotel took in the Pantheon (Armando al Pantheon, a family restaurant, is highly recommended) and piazzas each with a church shinier than the last – the most outlandish was in Piazza Navona. For art lovers, the Leonardo da Vinci Museum on Piazza della Cancelleria is a gem: the man was a serious multitasker. RECLINE Back at Six Senses we had an aperitivo at Notos rooftop bar (reopening next month, with 360-degree views) before visiting its restaurant, Bivium, for the Eternal City’s iconic cacio e pepe: cheese and pepper pasta; we then watched Roman Holiday ina carb coma, in our bougie wood-clad room. CLOTHES LINE To Trastevere again, on Sunday, for the flea market of Porta Portese with its Max Mara coats and jackets, many sadly too small. It’s an anomaly that Italian women are so tiny, with all this glorious food. FINISH LINE A late lunch at Antica Trattoria Angelino, on Piazza Margana, two minutes from the madness of Piazza Venezia. Here we discovered carciofi alla giudia – deep-fried artichokes, pictured left – likely introduced by Sephardic Jewish arrivals who had been expelled from Spain in 1492. I have yet to consume a better vegetable dish: crisp and salty on the outside, lush on the inside. And they looked like sunflowers.
BOTTOM LINE
Nothing is cheap but you can find scrumptious, affordable food in this most historic of cities. And the views are free. AIRLINE The main airport is Fiumicino; budget flights tend to serve Ciampino. Both are about 40 minutes’ drive beyond Rome. Buses average €6 one way, cabs €50.
NEXT WEEK TOPLINE WELLNESS: THE RITUAL EFFECT