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Rome Eating And Drinking, Italy

Simple, with strong flavors, overflowing with dressings and anything but low-calorie. Perhaps a little unrefined but this contributes to its authentic, genuine style. Traditional Roman cooking is made up of simple, meager ingredients, that follow the seasons and which are therefore extremely fresh.

A typical Roman menu begins with the essential bruschetta “ammazzavampiri” (a canapé so full of garlic it would kill vampires), and maybe also a wonderful mozzarella in carrozza. The large pasta course that follows could be: spaghetti alla carbonara, bucatini all'amatriciana, bucatini cacio e pepe (cheese and pepper sauce) or gnocchi alla romana. If you want to try rigatoni pasta with the famous "pajata" sauce, we recommend that first you eat it and then ask what the ingredients are: you might be so shocked that you no longer want to try the dish otherwise and lose your chance to try out new types of food.

Onto the second course. You can choose between: coda alla vaccinara (beef tail stew), saltimbocca alla romana, costolette d'abbacchio (lamb ribs). For side dishes, don’t miss the chance to try artichokes “alla giudia”, a typical way of cooking artichokes from Jewish-Roman traditional cooking.

Wash the whole meal down with a white wine from Frascati or Cerveteri.

If you still have room in your stomach, to finish why not try a couple of maritozzi, or freshen up with a lovely "grattachecca", the typical Roman crushed-ice drink

Let’s take a look at food and wine you can buy.

Every morning in the picturesque market in Campo de' Fiori, fruit and vegetable stalls show off their seasonal wares: the effect you get is an explosion of color and aromas that makes your mouth water. The bakers’ shops and food shops surrounding the square are also culprits in stirring up this desire for food.

Among the best gourmet stores in Rome, we can name La Tradizione (via Cipro 8) and Franchi (via Cola di Rienzo 203).

The historical coffee shops in the city are our last stop in this section, where it is possible to try typical Roman food in unique surroundings that combine culture, history and tradition. Meeting places and places to swap ideas for artists and writers in the 19th and 20th centuries such as Caffè Greco, Babington’s Tearooms, Caffè Rosati and Caffè Canova. For espresso coffee-lovers, we recommend Caffè Sant'Eustachio located in the square with the same name, a fine coffee shop founded in the 1930s where the coffee is roasted by hand over wood fires.