Rome

“Due to an incident at Fiumicino which has resulted in that airport’s closure, we are being directed to land in Milan in 50 minutes time.  We apologise for any inconvenience caused and will keep you updated with further information”. It turns out that there is nothing more annoying in the world than hearing this 10 minutes before you’re supposed to land in Rome, flushed with vodka tonics and success, and meet your friends who are having a late supper near the hotel and waiting for you to get the party started.  Also, don’t try making that announcement on a plane full of Italians. Half the passengers immediately stood up, shouting and gesticulating wildly as they registered their disgust.As much due to fears of mutiny as anything else, in due course we did manage to land in Rome and I appeared in a restaurant off Viale Trastevere to a chorus of cheers. Not really. There were some half-hearted hellos and a pat on the back.  The English abroad.

The last time we went to Rome we discovered the Trastevere district by accident on the last day, following a recommendation for a pizzeria after our trip to the Vatican and before our flight back home. It is incredibly pretty in a faded ochre, narrow cobbled streets kind of way, and totally different from the grand marble imperialism of central Rome.  I wished we had spent more time there but, as my grandmother used to say, if wishes were horses then beggars would ride, so in fact what we did is waited 18 months, got another trip organized, and booked a hotel in the area.  Less magical, more realistic.

The next two and a half days were an exhausting mixture of pasta, wine, late nights, great friends, an incredibly disappointing rugby match, and a Roman taxi driver who was in love with ‘Papa’ Berlusconi and who had a signature trick of making the 20euro note you’d just given him turn into a 5 euro note, and demanding more money. Magical indeed.

Some recommendations:

Baylon Café

Via di San Francesco a Ripa, 151

00153 Rome

During the day this is an arty café with a brunch menu, fresh juices and live music.  In the evenings it’s a bar with a great atmosphere and strong drinks.  If your friend jumps on the counter and sings, for example, the Italian national anthem in an incredibly bad accent, everyone will join in and the barmen will applaud.   This makes a change from the normal end to that story which is ‘and then he got thrown out’. They also sell their wine to take away, which is handy when the hotel room is looking a bit dry.

Ristorante Da Candido

Viale Angelico, 275/277

00195 Rome

It was only about an hour into our ambitious plan to walk to the Stadio Olimpico (an approximately 300km roundtrip) that we became peckish.  Unfortunately the neighbourhood through which we were passing, somewhere to the north of the Vatican along a vast, empty road leading straight out of the city, didn’t look particularly promising.  Every couple of hundred metres there was a flyblown snack bar with a desultory square of pizza in a display case, but that was about it and even most of those were shut.  So stumbling upon Da Candido, full of Italian families having lunch, with the Stadium almost in sight and a casual hour and a half to go before kick-off, was pretty fantastic.  I can’t guarantee they felt the same about us turning up, but they were charming.  It was bowls of pasta all round - I had rigatoni with four cheeses and truffle which is probably the best thing I’ve ever spent 10 euros on my life.  It even managed to keep me going through France’s inglorious defeat, which I was forced to witness a few hours later.  I wouldn’t have thought you’d find yourself in this part of Rome deliberately, but it’s a representative example of the thing that is so lovely about this city: most nice looking restaurants will give you a decent bowl of fresh, interesting pasta and a glass or two of wine for about 15 euros.

Baccanale

Via della Lungaretta, 81

00153 Rome

Via della Lungaretta is right in the middle of the nightlife of Trastevere, and full of small restaurants and bars. This was just a particularly fun one that served lethal cocktails (including my personal favourite choice – Singapore Slings),but you won’t go too wrong pretty much anywhere nearby.

Salumeria Roscioli

Via dei Giubbonari 21

00186 Rome

Saving the best until last.  Our final day in Rome was also one of our friend’s birthdays. This restaurant at the back of a famous delicatessen had been well reviewed online and I’d booked with feverish excitement but, by the time it came to midday on Monday, a lot of us were feeling liverish. The complementary fresh cheese (some sort of tomme?) really sorted the men from the boys. As in the boys didn’t eat it, and 2 girls and one man did.  Not being in a position to make sensible decisions, we took their advice on an antipasti board and some more cheese to start.  Everything was perfect; including some really interesting cured meats that I would look out for again if I could remember their names beyond ‘something ending in ‘-ia’or –‘mi’’.  Soon enough, it was time for pasta. Apparently this place has the best carbonara in Rome, and I wasn’t about to pass that up, despite being borderline terminally full.  It really, really, really was the best carbonara I’ve ever eaten. You know what a carbonara is, I don’t need to explain, but it was a superlative example. The wine we drank, (check out how organised, actually wrote this down)- Allegrini Palazzo Della Torre 2009, was so delicious that I’ve ordered a case of it.  Puddings were the final frontier, so we didn’t go there, but it was an absolutely great lunch and I actually would say that you should look it out if in Rome.

ps. Despite looking for a great Rome based pun for the title of this post, I stuck to the fairly boring 'Rome'.  This is because I was thwarted in the creative process by my mother, who suggested the following:

- 'Romancing the Foam' ('if you'd had one of those foam parties darling, that would be brilliant')

-'It takes more than a day to build Rome' ('I think I mean 'Rome wasn't built in a day' -got there in the end Ma)

- 'Roman Holiday ('great film, and the fashion's back now, with those full skirts')