Are you inspired by movie and the book Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia to go to Rome? Don’t wait. The food is as good as depicted in the film. That scene showing Julia Roberts diving into a plate of spaghetti is real. The film shots of carciofi alla giudia and spaghetti alle vongole aren’t doctored; that’s how they are served in Rome. Although Rome is certainly the place to visit if you want to eat well, there’s much more to the city than food. Here are my suggestions of where to stay, where to eat and what to do in Rome.

Where to stay in Rome

When I went to Rome last year, I stayed most of the time in an apartment just a few steps from the Piazza Mattei, known for the Turtle Fountain. I spent a couple of days in a lovely little B&B called Kame Hall, just around the corner.

Kame Hall: modern boutique hotel in the heart of Rome

Other suggested accommodations in Rome:

Intown Luxury House: six elegant suites near Rome’s Spanish Steps

Mapplr’s favorite hotels in Rome

Where to eat in Rome

Every Roman has his or her own list of favorites. You really have to eat out a lot in Rome and come up with your own. So here are mine.

Hostaria Romana: excellent lunch near the Piazza Barberini in Rome

Ristorante Nino in Rome: the ideal lunch shopping break

Il Bacaro: delicious food in a tiny restaurant hidden in a corner of Rome

Dal Bolognese: chic crowd, delicious food in Rome

Al Granasso: lunch with the locals near the Piazza del Popolo

Il Buco: excellent Tuscan food near the Pantheon in Rome

Al Pompiere: traditional Roman cuisine in an old palazzo

Mapplr’s favorite restaurants and cafes in Rome

What about gelato? Well, there are so many gelaterias in Rome that it would be tedious to list the good ones as they are all quite good. Here’s what I say (based on my experience): The best gelateria is the one closest to your hotel.

What to do in Rome

Rome is where the sacred and the profane blend seamlessly, along streets lined with butcher shops, designer stores, and solemn churches. On a narrow street leading away from the Pantheon, you’ll find a large shop selling bishops’ mitres, priests and cardinals’ robes, and just a few doors down, a boutique hawking the tighest, sexiest jeans this side of the Tiber.

Churches

The Church of Santa Maria in Trastevere

Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore

The Pantheon

Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva

NOTE: I have not listed St. Peter’s Basilica above because I visited it once, together with the Sistine Chapel, and I won’t go again unless it’s in the dead of winter. There are simply too many people inside. As you walk around Rome, you will see that there are so many lovely little churches, some no larger than a chapel. Here and there, you spot a Caravaggio painting in one of these tiny, unknown churches, and surprisingly, there won’t be anyone else around.

Historical Monuments

The Forum

Palatine Hill

Colosseum

Shopping

The main shopping street is the via dei Condotti, home to well-known designer brands such as Gucci and Prada. The service in each of these boutiques is excellent. I discovered that the prices are one third of what you would pay in the US for the same item. Moreover, they have a much better selection of clothes, shoes, and accessories in Rome.

Max Mara, via dei Condotti 17: carries all the other Max Mara brands including Sportmax, ‘S Max Mara and Weekend.

Prada, via dei Condotti 92: awesome selection of shoes, bags and clothes.

Giorgio Armani, via dei Condotti 77: one stop shop for the man who refuses to waste time trying to find clothes and accessories that fit and look good.

Max & Co: via dei Condotti, 61: this is the “young sister” of Max Mara and the clothes are stylish and affordable.

On the side streets around via dei Condotti, you’ll find other designer boutiques such as:

Mada Shoes, via della Croce 57: tiny boutique that sells shoes and bags, more affordable than the designer brands but still very stylish and beautiful leather goods are sold here.

Boutiques in other areas:

Officina Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella, Corso del Rinascimento 47: heavenly perfumes, soaps, colognes, potpourri and essences from Santa Maria Novella in Florence.

Online articles about eating in Rome

Tasting Rome: gelato, pasta and the market – this is food writer David Lebovitz’s exhaustive article about food in Rome, his favorite markets and gelaterias

Time Out Rome: find out the latest restaurant and bar openings, as well as concerts and other events in Rome.

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More Eat Pray Love Travel Guides:

Read the Eat Pray Love Bali Travel Guide.

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About the author

Esme Vos is the founder and editor-in-chief of Mapplr.com, a travel site devoted to ideal holidays, adventure travel, and distinctive accommodations around the world. Since 2007, Mapplr has been providing discerning travelers with advice on which airlines to use, where to stay, where to eat and what to do. Mapplr’s sister site, Shopplr, publishes shopping recommendations around the world.

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Photo credits: Glen Bolosan

If you find yourself wondering where to have lunch near the Piazza Barberini – home to the Fontana del Tritone of Bernini – make an effort to walk to a small side street that is off the busy Via delle Quattro Fontane to find this little gem of a restaurant called Hostaria Romana.

Because it is off the main road, tucked away in a small street, it is not a tourist trap like the other places around the Piazza Barberini. The food — mostly Roman dishes — is very delicious. We had bucatini alla ‘matriciana (guanciale, piquant tomato sauce), a soup of pasta and beans, artichokes and spinach, and of course, a carafe of red wine. It was crowded at lunch with people from neighboring offices. The antipasti selection is amazing: fresh sardines, grilled artichokes, salumi and more. We found this restaurant by accident. We were very hungry but wanted to eat where the locals go, so we followed our rule which is to veer off to the smaller streets and search for menus that are only in Italian. That’s how we found Hostaria Romana.

Hostaria Romana
Vial Del Boccacio, 1
Rome, Italy
+39 06 47 45 284

** Check out: my favorite restaurants and cafes, and favorite hotels in Rome. See all of my Rome favorites on a Google Map.

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If you find yourself famished after a marathon shopping round in the Via Condotti-Spanish Steps area of Rome, you have to go to Ristorante Nino on the Via Borgognona. The restaurant seems to have been around forever and although it does attract a lot of tourists and celebrities, there are enough local regulars who make the place such an ideal lunch stop. Eating out in Rome is so wonderful because the food is fabulous and watching Romans — what they’re wearing, how they greet one another, what they’re drinking and talking about — is utterly fascinating.

At Ristorante Nino, we watched an elderly couple who must have been in their late 70s, perhaps 80s, perform what seems to be their Saturday afternoon ritual which consists of discussing the menu of the day with the chef, then with the maitre d’, then with several waiters. Finally, they settled at their favorite table (riservato, of course, lest some unknown, never-to-return-again noisy tourist family occupy the sacred spot), but not before the man assisted his wife with her fur-trimmed coat. He took off his felt hat and his impeccable wool jacket, handed all of them to the waiter, then ordered a carafe of wine. In other cities, these people might be considered strange birds of a dying species, but in Rome, one sees elegant couples like them eating out in places like Dal Bolognese and Al Pompiere.

It’s difficult to get a table at Nino unless you reserve in advance or you arrive before the 2pm Saturday lunch rush. We had no reservations, but we were patient and waited for 15 minutes. It was very much worth it. For antipasti, we had thin slices of finocchiona toscana which melted in our mouths. Then we had the bean soup. “You must try the beans at Nino,” one of my friends advised us, and we are glad we did. Of course they have pasta dishes and secondi (meat and fish), if you are very hungry. You can also go there for dinner but again, you must reserve in advance. The prices are reasonable. The house wine in a carafe was very inexpensive for a place that’s just a block away from the luxury boutiques.

Ristorante Nino
Via Borgognona, 11
00187 Rome
Italy
+39 06 6795 676

** Check out: my favorite restaurants and cafes, and favorite hotels in Rome. See all of my Rome favorites on a Google Map.

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On our first night in Rome, we dined with friends at Il Bacaro, a restaurant that they recommended. Since our friends are locals, we trust their choices. But when it came time to head to the restaurant, we could not find it on our (paper) map. Thank heavens for Google Maps! We found Il Bacaro on a tiny alley not far from a piazza that is fairly popular with tourists (and filled with tourist pizza joints).

Although the restaurant is very small it does have outdoor tables, which come in handy when the weather is lovely. The food at Il Bacaro is wonderful! We shared antipasti of buffalo mozzarella and eggplants. I had a risotto with squid, vegetable ragu and balsamic vinegar. My dining companions had beef tartare; hand-made pasta with pumpkin, sage, guanciale (a type of bacon from Lazio) and parmesan; and risotto with zucchini flowers and taleggio cheese. Check out Il Bacaro’s menu.

What I especially like about Il Bacaro is that it is a perfect place to spend a long evening with friends or, if you are not meeting friends, it’s a cozy corner of Rome where you can relax and have a great meal. It’s very popular with locals so you must call to reserve. The best time to eat is 9:00 pm and after. Otherwise, you’ll be eating all alone and you won’t be able to indulge in that favorite Roman pasttime: people-watching.

Il Bacaro
via degli Spagnoli 27
Rome, Italy
+39 06 687 2554
www.ilbacaro.com

** Check out: my favorite restaurants and cafes, and favorite hotels in Rome. See all of my Rome favorites on a Google Map.

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Located right on the Piazza del Popolo, it is extremely popular with politicians, actors, designers and everyone else who thinks they should be seen in public wearing the latest Max Mara fur jackets and Prada boots. Needless to say, reservations are necessary. Don’t expect to get the best seats in the house, notably, the tables outside, as they are “reserved” for the regulars.

We went to Dal Bolognese at 9:30 in the evening, which is the perfect time to have dinner in Rome. The restaurant was packed with men in elegant suits and women in gorgeous silk and cashmere ensembles.

Dal Bolognese serves food from Emilia-Romagna, which is best known for Parma ham, parmigiano reggiano cheese, and balsamic vinegar (from Modena). So, of course, for the antipasti, we ordered Parma ham. There were other antipasti that looked tempting: culatello di parma, bresaola di chianina, coppa di testa (wild boar salami), to name but a few.

For my main course, I had to try the tagliatelle alla bolognese which was piquant and not at all heavy as I had imagined. My dining companion had the nodino di vitalla con carciofi (veal chops with artichokes) and it was exceptionally delicious — tender slices of veal, artichokes filled with delicate herbs, in a rich sauce.

Prices are on the high side: €13 to €20 for antipasti; €16 to €18 for pasta dishes; €19 to €26 for meat dishes; €17 to €30 for fish courses.

For wine we tried the Barbera d’Alba Paiagal 2006 (Antichi Poderi dei Marchesi di Barolo). This Barbera was quite rich in flavor (it tasted of currants) and the price was reasonable (34 EUR). This is another reason I love eating out in Italy: the price of good wine is not astronomical and restaurants don’t make this pretentious song-and-dance about wine.

What I also noticed was this: people sitting at the tables next to us had been there for quite a while before we arrived and they lingered on, having dessert and grappa, engaged long discussions and lively debates. The restaurant staff did not try to rush them out and they were in no hurry to leave. They simply sat there enjoying each other’s company, and I thought, how sad it is that in many cities around the world, very few people truly socialize in this manner, conversing with one another, oblivious to time, over good food and a bottle of wine.

We had our dessert and our grappa, like the others, and when it came time for us to leave, we decided to walk home and enjoy the crisp autumn air. On the way, we stopped to take one more look at the Pantheon, which is lit up at night and looks eerie amidst the lively crowds of the Piazza della Rotonda.

Dal Bolognese
Piazza del Popolo, 1
Rome, Italy
+39 06 361 1426

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You won’t find Al Granasso in online or paper travel guides. I discovered it after a shopping round in the area around Via Condotti, not far from the Piazza del Popolo (above). What led me to Al Granasso were two very simple rules I follow to avoid being stuck in restaurants filled with tourists (and bad, expensive food):

(1) Go to the side streets or the streets off the main tourist drag. In this case, I was walking away from Via Condotti — Rome’s most famous shopping street — towards the Piazza del Popolo. Instead of taking the most direct route, the Via del Babuino (more designer boutiques and tourist pizza places), I decided to take a small detour and walk down the Via Ripetta which is quieter, more local. I also knew that eating on any of the main squares would be somewhat disastrous (with the notable exception of Dal Bolognese on the Piazza del Popolo).

(2) Look for menus in Italian only. Restaurants frequented by locals don’t bother to translate the menus or daily specials they post on their windows.

Using these two rules, I found Al Granasso on via Ripetta 32, next to a football (soccer) nostalgia boutique that sells vintage jerseys and Adidas sneakers. It is tiny and easy to miss. However, it caught my eye because posted at the door was a dark green chalkboard with handwritten specials of the day, all in Italian. I peeked inside, saw well-dressed Italian men and I immediately decided this was the place to have lunch.

Only seconds after the waiter handed me a menu, people began streaming in. Because the front room is tiny (8 tables), many had to go downstairs to the cellar where they have (a few) more tables. So, if you come to Al Granasso, don’t come too late. Shortly before 13:00 is fine, but if you arrive any time after that, you’re going to be banished to the underworld. Note: it’s not THAT bad since this is Rome after all, and people are lively and interesting to watch.

Lunch was divine. The antipasti of fried carciofi (artichoke) was different from how it is served in other restaurants. Most places stuff the artichoke with herbs, then fry it. But at Al Granasso, they slice it thinly lengthwise, then fry the pieces. The result: crispy, crunchy delicate strips of artichoke (not greasy).

The small salad of greens, rucola and anchovies, with just a bit of olive oil and a hint of lemon, was simply wonderful. I love eating anchovies in Italy because they do not serve the horrible salty little things that come in tiny glass jars (as sold in supermarkets outside Italy), rather  the anchovies are whole, packed in salt and taste fresh.

For the main dish I opted for orecchiette with fresh small tomatoes and rucola. No secondi for me, although the men at the next table seemed to be relishing their big meat dishes. Then they had grappa and went back to the office. I don’t know how they do it. I would have had trouble stumbling out of the restaurant had my lips come in contact with even one drop of grappa. Dessert of tiramisu followed by a shot of espresso, as usual, perfectly made (I have never had bad espresso in Rome), and I was ready to climb the hill above the Piazza del Popolo to the Villa Borghese.

Al Granasso
Via Ripetta 32
Rome, Italy

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So you’ve just finished wandering inside the Pantheon, gazing with wonder at the perfect symmetry of the dome and the massive columns that, to this day, stand for the glory of ancient Rome. You’ve been walking for hours, darting in and out of churches, marveling at the Caravaggios and Berninis sprinkled across the city.

It’s lunch time and you’re ravenous, but you’d rather starve than eat in one of the hyper-touristy restaurants around the Pantheon with their five-language menus. You want a cozy restaurant that is patronized by the locals and serves very delicious, reasonably priced food.

I found such a delightful little gem tucked away on a side street, close to the Pantheon and the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva (a church built on a shrine to the goddess Minerva). It is called Il Buco and it serves wonderful Tuscan food.

Since it’s October, Il Buco is serving dishes with tartufo nero (black truffles). I had the tagliolini ai tartufo and all I can say is that it transported me to the heavens. I can’t remember having a pasta dish as delicious as this one in recent memory. It is devastatingly simple: fresh tagliolini with butter, shavings of black truffle, salt, pepper, a dash of nutmeg, and topped with parmigiano reggiano. My lunch companion had ravioli filled with ricotta and spinach with a bit of a nutty cream sauce (just a tiny bit, not drowning in thick gobs of cream as this dish is often served in other countries). We shared a carafe of red wine, and finished up with tiramisu and two espressos.

One of the delights of eating out in Rome is the price of wine. I have paid between €3.50 and €5 for a carafe of good red wine, which encourages a rather decadent daily habit of having wine with lunch and dinner. Wines at Il Buco are inexpensive, so go ahead and order a Barbera d’Alba to go with your meal. If you are really hungry and want to try out Il Buco’s secondi (meat and fish courses that come after the primi and antipasti), be aware that it is a Tuscan restaurant so they serve large meaty dishes.

Il Buco Ristorante Toscano
Via di Sant’Ignazio, 7
00186 Rome
Italy
+39 06 679 3298

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It’s not easy to find reasonably priced, up-to-standard accommodations in Rome. The city is extremely popular with travelers and space is limited so there are a lot of dodgy, expensive hotels but few upgraded boutique hotels that don’t cost more than 200 EUR per night. That’s why I like Kame Hall, a four-room hotel in what’s possibly the best location in Rome: off the Piazza Mattei, which is famous for the Turtle Fountain. The hotel is only a few minutes from Trastevere, the Campo de Fiori, and the Pantheon. It is 20 minutes’ walking distance from the fabulous shopping area of the Via Condotti.

Kame Hall’s four rooms are located in a recently renovated building from the 1600s. It is on a tiny side street that has very little traffic or noise, a big plus in Rome. I once stayed on the Campo de Fiori in a pensione without air conditioning or fans, in early July, and although the view onto the Campo de Fiori was perfect, it was also extremely noisy and impossible at night.

So when I am in Rome, I make sure to choose an apartment or hotel on a side street, preferably not right next to a restaurant or bar. Kame Hall is, in this respect, ideal.

The rooms in Kame Hall are spacious, filled with light, and they have all the amenities that travelers expect: free Internet access (wired, not wireless, so if you own a Mac, you’ll have to turn on Internet sharing if you are traveling with a companion), air conditioning, mini-bar, a safe and TV. Bathrooms are modern and also very spacious, with strong water pressure. That means fantastic showers after a long day walking around in Rome.

Prices are reasonable. For a double room in October, I paid 160 EUR per night. Many hotels in Rome charge far more money but are run down, noisy, decrepit and unpleasant. So, Kame Hall is a gem in one of the best neighborhoods of Rome.

Kame Hall
Via Paganica, 9
Rome, Italy
+39 06 68 13 55 68
www.kamehall.com

Check out: my favorite restaurants and cafes, and favorite hotels in Rome. See all of my Rome favorites on a Google Map.

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I have been a fan of Al Pompiere for many years and come back to this restaurant whenever I am in Rome. It is difficult to find because the entrance is tucked away in a tiny side street off the via Arenula, close to the Sinagoga. You go up a flight of stairs to the restaurant which has high ceilings and several rooms, simple and classic decor.

The food has been consistently excellent. My favorites are the local dishes such as fried zucchini flowers and fried artichokes (carciofi alla giuda), which you eat as starters. Then you move on to the pasta dishes. I love the bucatini alla’matriciana which is spaghetti-like pasta with a rich tomato sauce that has guanciale (Italian bacon made from pork jowl, and unlike pancetta, it is not smoked, but washed with wine and herbs, rubbed with red or black pepper and is air cured for several weeks). My other favorite at Al Pompiere is the spaghetti carbonara which is made with fresh egg yolks, guanciale, pepper and pecorino. Prices are reasonable (for example, a bottle of the house red wine is 8.50 EUR and it was good).

Al Pompiere
Via Santa Maria dei Calderari 38
Rome, Italy
+39 06 686 8377
www.alpompiereroma.com

Check out: my favorite restaurants and cafes, and favorite hotels in Rome. See all of my Rome favorites on a Google Map.

Rome is one of my favorite cities because it’s a mysterious blend of history, art, architecture, fashion, design and gastronomy. However, compared to cities such as Amsterdam and Paris, there has been a dearth of boutique hotels that offer good contemporary design in intimate surroundings. That’s beginning to change.

Intown Luxury House is a lovely boutique hotel tucked away near the Piazza di Spagna (Spanish Steps) and the luxury shopping street, the Via Condotti. It feels very private, like staying in a friend’s town house.  The decor is a blend of traditional and contemporary. They have free Wi-Fi too. Rates start at 290 EUR.

Intown Luxury House
Via Bocca di Leone, 7
00187 Rome
Italy
+39 0669380200
www.intownroma.it

Read other Mapplr articles on Rome.

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