Restaurant Guide: Rome

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Restaurant Guide to Rome: Piazza Navona & Nearby


		Pasticceria Bella Napoli Corso Vittorio Emanuele, 246 Tel. 06.687.7048 Being partial to Napoli, I love stopping in at this caffé just blocks from the Campo de’ Fiori on the way to the Piazza Navona, an area I seem to be in all the time. They serve real (and good) sfogliatelle, and other Neapolitan pastries, as well as excellent coffee.


		Enoteca Cul de Sac Piazza Pasquino, 73 Tel. 06/68801094 This is a wine bar with what seems like an exhaustive list of Italian bottles at all quality and price levels, as well as a long list of excellent antipasti and a nice selection of pasta dishes. Of particular note is the pizzocheri, a wide buckwheat pasta ribbon. The long, narrow room is usually cramped, filled with a young crowd. In good weather, the tables on the street are usually all taken. There is often a wait – out on the street – for a vacancy. But it is cheap, very good, and provides, too, some wonderful people-watching of young Rome – I mean the under 40 crowd. From here, you can see how Rome’s population has become ethnically diverse in the last decades. Inexpensive.


		Santa Maria della Pace, a charming, hidden church just down the street from Trattoria Da Francesco Da Francesco Piazza Del Fico Via della Fossa, 29 A friend of a friend sent me here, an old guy, a tailor, a real Roman, and if you want to see where the working class goes in the center of the city you probably can’t do much better. The antipasto table is laden with enough wonderful food to easily make a meal out of its offerings. Don’t think, however, that it’s an all-you-can-eat deal. Your waiter will definitely keep track of what you take and charge you accordingly. It won’t be expensive, but it adds up. The pastas are okay, but no more, so you may decide to skip that course and go directly to one of the daily special second courses. I never have enough salt cod, and it is very good here, no matter how they are preparing it. Inexpensive.


		Da Baffetto Via del Governo Vecchio, 114 Tel. 06.686.1617 My dear friend Iris Carulli, who now lives in Rome, loves this pizzeria and its pizza. I am not impressed with the product, although I do find the scene amusing. But then I think all pizza that is not Neapolitan or New York style is pizza of a lesser order. (On the other hand, when I am not near the pizza I love, I love the pizza I’m near.) According to Iris, this is great Roman pizza, and judging from the always jammed rooms, I suppose many Romans agree. A word of caution -- a Roman friend recently reported rude service to single diners.


		Caffe Tre Scalini Piazza Navona, 30 Tel. 06.687.9148


		Filletti di Baccala Largo dei Librari A tiny restaurant on a tiny piazza off the Via dei Giubbonari, it specialize in fried baccala. Do not eat anything else, except perhaps some fried zucchini and/or cold bean salad to go with the salt cod. It is most appealing in warm weather, when tables are set up in the Largo outside the cramped restaurant. Inexpensive.


Rome Guide: Some General Notes - Campo De' Fiori & Vicinity - Piazza Farnese Piazza Navona & Nearby - Testaccio - Piazza Del Popolo Vicinity - Vatican Fontana Di Trevi - Pantheon - Parioli - Trastevere - Via Condotti