36 Hours around Campo de' Fiori

This is the second of two posts that evolved from a friend's request for suggestions of what to do around Piazza Navona and Campo de' Fiori. As we noted in the first post on Piazza Navona, she was clear that she and her companion would be in Rome only 3 days, had seen the big sights and did not want to go back to those this time, and they did not want to do much walking. 

We put our heads together, created a list and a map for her, and enjoyed the exercise enough that we made it into 2 blog posts. Here's the second, on the Campo - expanding into the ghetto proper (the numbering starts with 19 - since the other numbers were used on Piazza Navona).

Note, Campo de’ Fiori and environs (the market – much more than flowers) is open only in the morning, Monday through Saturday).  

Campo de' Fiori, in clean-up phase (2015) 

19.      A statue of Giordano Bruno, the revolutionary monk burned at the stake in 1600, looms over the market in the middle of Campo de’ Fiori. We wrote about him here: https://romethesecondtime.blogspot.com/2009/08/mixing-religion-and-politics-in-lively.html. Bruno's story is the door to many facets of Italian history, politics, and religion, which may be one reason our post has a lengthy and interesting comment by a reader (with the handle "Believer"). Just after we published the post in 2009, Ingrid Rowland's fascinating book on Bruno came out. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/G/bo8167222.html

20.      Wine bar L’Angolo Divino enoteca vineria, just a few steps off the Campo, has some food, and is considered one of the better wine bars (all our Roman friends like it). Web site in Italian: https://www.angolodivino.it/

21.      Caffè Peru is a nice (not so fancy) wine bar, known for its great 10 euro aperitivo  (lots to eat):  https://romethesecondtime.blogspot.com/2015/07/caffe-peru-time-for-aperitivo.html  - via di Monserrato. The photo is from 2016.

22.      Palazzo Farnese was designed – or re-designed - by Michelangelo. You can’t go in; it's the well-guarded French Embassy, unless you can find a tour - which we did once. Still, it's definitely worth looking at. This is a lovely piazza (if there aren't too many security vehicles parked all around), with classic use of ancient Roman bathtubs as fountains, and the dramatic, enormous Michelangelo overhanging eaves on the palazzo. Have a drink in the bar that takes in the whole piazza, and enjoy the Renaissance cityscape. (And ask someone about the connection to the Farnesina across the Tevere.)

23.      Hungarian Academy on via Giulia – https://culture.hu/it/roma  -  is usually open 9-5 every weekday. It's one of the best of the foreign cultural academies, often with free, excellent art exhibits. Plus the academy occupies a Francesco Borromini structure built for the Falconieri family.

24.      Galleria Spada is a wonderful gallery that has another piece of Borrominiana - his “perspective” corridor. Open for tours (in English and French) daily except Tuesdays. https://galleriaspada.cultura.gov.it/en/tickets-and-info-2/

25.      Il Goccetto (trans. "the little drop") is our favorite wine bar – via dei Banchi Vecchi.

Il Goccetto. The clientele, as usual, spilling onto the sidewalk and street. Inside, a chalkboard lists all the wines available by the glass. 

26.      Turtle fountain - https://romethesecondtime.blogspot.com/2010/02/on-location-improving-on-turtle.html - Piazza Mattei. The turtles are by Gian Lorenzo Bernini - so you can get your fix of the Borromini/Bernini feud by hanging around this area. And, here's a romantic fable to add to the atmosphere (as if it needed anything). 

27.     Ghetto: The heart of it is this street, via di Portico d’Ottavia – look to Katie Parla for eating ideas – we’ve often gone to Giggetto at the end – because of ties to a friend of ours who lived upstairs. It bills itself as the server of the true Jewish artichoke (perhaps Dianne's favorite food of all time) since 1923. Incredible (and disturbing) free show in a tower right across from Giggetto - on concentration camps with Italian connections. This is the Museum of the Shoah, open Sunday through Friday, with shorter hours on Friday. The Synagogue is across the street and has tours – we’ve never been on one, but have been in the basement museum (hours change quite frequently with the seasons; basically open Sunday through Friday, with shorter hours on Friday) which is quite informative (we went for the first time last year). 

Below, one of the documents on display in the Synagogue museum, commemorating the establishment by the United Nations of the state of Israel. 

Good ruins at the end of the street – you’re almost at Campidoglio and you are at Teatro Marcello.

27A.     Pasticceria Boccione is open only in mornings – get there to get a piece of “Jewish pizza” – kind of like fruitcake - https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/passticeria-boccione

Pasticceria Boccione 

28.      Al Pompiere restaurant. We haven’t been there in years, but we always liked it – totally interior - https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187791-d866514-Reviews-Al_Pompiere_Ristorante_Roma-Rome_Lazio.html

Great Jewish artichokes- there and elsewhere in the ghetto – they won’t be in season, but the restaurants get them now from Africa and sell them in all seasons. If you're not a purist, try them! Carciofi alla giudia (not alla romana, though those are good too) [photo right].

29.     Largo di Torre Argentina – supposedly where Julius Caesar was killed. It has informative panels, and now you can walk in it. It has a cat sanctuary that is fun to visit, and you can "foster" a cat if you are going to be in Rome for more than a few days.

30.     Feltrinelli book store – an international one with paper products and gifts

And in the ghetto there’s lots of “spolia” – re-use of Roman ruins  - if you look up at buildings  - https://romethesecondtime.blogspot.com/2018/01/spolia-in-rome-reading-middle-ages-use.html

Particularly in the area of Campo de’ Fiori and the ghetto, you will see some of these "stumbling blocks" if you look down - https://romethesecondtime.blogspot.com/2013/10/here-lived-commemorating-italian-jews.html. They commemorate the Jews who were deported and died in the Holocaust, with the small brass block outside the doorway of the residence where that person once lived. We stopped to look at one near Largo di Torre Argentina and a young man came out to tell us that  6 of his cousins died at the hands of the Nazis.

 

Campo de' Fiori at dawn, the statue of Giordano Bruno at center/right. Sometimes it's worth getting up early. Daybreak, June, 2015. 

Dianne 

Rome Aperitivo Hour: 4 RST "bar" picks.

The tasty "tagliata" at Panificio Nazzareno in Piazzale di Ponte Milvio.

For this go-round – after our trattorie recommendations previously, we are taking a second look at some quick bite places – no slow food here. Two bars that have food and two bakeries that have bars.  As with the trattorie, these are in 4 very different neighborhoods, one in the centro, 1 north of the centro (Piazza Bologna area), and 2 on the other side of the Tevere.

First, the very sweet place in the photo above right is Vesper Cafè and Enoteca, a few blocks from Piazza Bologna.  We were taken there by friends who know the young woman owner and who frequent the spot for its cocktails (mojitos are popular) and filled sandwiches.  You can see from the photos and postings on Facebook that it's a fan favorite.  Some of the tables are outside and look out over a small piazza.  Trip Advisor has a lot of reviews.  Yelp only ones in Italian.  Piazza Massa Carrara 5, 342 553 5344 (that's cell phone; no 06). 

Second, a take-out/eat-in coffee bar, bakery and buffet-type eatery all in one, this in the heart of Trastevere.  Giselda on viale di Trastevere, # 52/58, right at the corner of via San Francesco a Ripa.  Also, a killer Euro 10 buffet with wine.  Yep, RST's kind of place.  Perfect for before or after movies at the Alcazar or Nuovo Sacher.  [See glowing reviews on TripAdvisor,Yelp and Facebook.  Its own Web site is one page with basic info and the slogan, in English (!), "Your home away from home."  We did not see one tourist there.]  

The attractive outside seating at Panificio Nazzareno

Third, if you are in the Ponte Milvio area (across the Tevere from the north end of Flaminio, near Foro Italico), a true trendy hot spot for Romen's nightlife, try Panificio Nazzareno, a bakery that thinks it's a restaurant that thinks it's a bar, and for us, an outside aperitivo.

Panificio Nazzareno's restaurant before dinner hour.

We enjoyed the Ponte Milvio buzz earlier in the evening (not when it gets crazy, late night) and Panificio Nazzareno’s excellent breads and “tagliate” – slices of cheese and meats, with wine, all reasonably priced.  Some drastically different reviews on  various food Web sites, including Foursquare. http://www.yelp.com/biz/panificio-nazzareno-roma  http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187791-d4756623-Reviews-Panificio_Nazzareno-Rome_Lazio.html.  Piazzale di Ponte Milvio, 35; tel:  06 33220720.

The crazy car traffic, not to mention the people, in Piazzale
di Ponte Milvio.

Last, a straight-forward bar.  Caffè Perù, in the Centro Storico, is an old-time favorite of RST's.  Maybe it's the cheap buffet aperitivo (with wine, of course), or the highly decorated bathroom, or the crowd that tends to grab stools and chairs and sit outside, literally in the street.  Not without ex-pats, but definitely a local locale.  

Caffè Perù does not have the wine list of nearby Il Goccetto, but it's a wonderful pit-stop after a day of seeing sights in the Centro.  (See TripAdvisor and Yelp.  It even rates a review on Slowtravel Italy; not he does not provide the correct address.)  Via Monseratto, 46, 2 steps from Piazza Farnese and around the corner from Camp de' Fiori.  Open every day pretty much all day.  tel: 06 6879548.  

Dianne

Caffè Perù: Time for an Aperitivo

Caffè Perù is one of our favorite spots (Bill's especially) for an early evening aperitivo, and not least because of its location near one of Rome's busiest tourist attractions: the complex that includes Campo de Fiori and Palazzo Farnese.  In that area, it can be hard to find a place that feels Roman.

Don't be put off by the signs in English, Spanish, French, and Chinese on the front of the building; Italians eat and drink here. It's a real bar. The aperitivo--food with a drink--is reasonably priced, and the white wine selection is very good (though some premium wines add a euro or two onto the cost of the aperitivo).

There are two rooms--the main room on the left, with the bar, food, and the cassa, where you order and pay, in advance.

And another, to the right as you go in, quieter and more homey and comfortable, though more divorced from the action. Depending on the weather, both rooms are open to the light, air, and activity of the small piazza.  Much of the drinking--and talking--takes place outside.

Don't miss the bathroom, which is one of the city's funkiest.

Caffè Perù is easy to find.  Facing the Palazzo Farnese, exit the piazza up and to the right.  The café is a half block up the street, on your right.

Bill
PS from Dianne, the accent inserter.  This is an accent-challenging post; hope we got them in correctly.