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

RST Top 40, #15: The View from the Hotel Raphael's Rooftop Bar







Sitting on a rooftop bar is one of our favorite ways to be in Rome – above the noise and detritus of the city, often with a fascinating angle on the city’s architecture and history.

The rooftop bar of the Hotel Raphael stands in here in our Rome the Second Time Top 40 for all good rooftop bars – like Il Goccetto stands in for all authentic wine bars at # 36 in our RST Top 40. In other words, it’s not the only one, but it’s the type of Top 40 experience we value.





St. Peter's in the background



Hotel Raphael’s many attributes start with its gorgeous exterior – especially when the bougainvillea are spilling down the whole building’s front--continues with its small but intriguing lobby that includes original artwork – one of our favorites being a WWII painting with a German soldier in view, and of course the rooftop itself. Hotel Raphael’s rooftop is large enough and has close-in views of lovely buildings like the church of Santa Maria della Pace, housing Bramante’s famous cloister, and the back of Borromini’s Sant’Angese in Agonia that faces Piazza Navona. And it has views that stretch across the flat lands of the city of Rome, the Campo Marzio, across the Tiber to the dome of St. Peter’s.



picture Romans throwing coins at corrupt politician Craxi here





The hotel has a good scandal in its history too, from the times in the 1990s when Socialist politician Bettino Craxi stayed there. He was so on the take that Roman citizens stood outside the hotel and when he came out threw coins at him, yelling “do you want these too!”  Craxi lived out his life in exile in Tunisia.



Hotel Raphael’s rooftop bar comes in at #15 in RST’s Top 40. But, as we said, there are other rooftops to try, including Hotel Gladiatori (looking down on the Coliseum), Hotel Forty-Seven (looking over the Tiber), Grand Hotel de la Minerve (on top of the Pantheon), Radisson Blu ( a trifle Euro chic for us, but expansive in size and view), Albergo Mediterraneo (looking over… well, not much, but still fun – the last two are close to the train station), Hotel Bernini Bristol (looking over Piazza Barberini, but in the second rank for us, because you have to eat dinner to get a table with that view). All these are in Rome the Second Time’s final chapter or in blogposts here.

Getting to a rooftop bar sometimes takes a little guts. Many aren’t advertised; you just find the elevator and go up. And the drinks often are pricey (Euro 15 per glass at Gladiatori tops our list to date). But, enjoy the ride, and the view – which you’re paying for.

Dianne

RST Top 40. #36: Il Goccetto

#36 is really an authentic wine bar... and we've picked Il Goccetto as a stand in for the few wine bars we think rate as having some sense of authenticity. Because we've blogged about Il Goccetto before (early in October plus it's in Rome the Second Time), what follows is a repeat of the earlier blog (and a few suggestions for other wine bars at the end). And we'll give the address this time (in case you're chalking up your Top 40 list): via dei Banchi Vecchi, 14; open lunch time and after 7:30 p.m. - not on Sundays (or lunch Mondays) - not far from Campo de' Fiori.

There are wine bars and there are wine bars. As noted in Rome the Second Time, we've been entranced by Il Goccetto ("the little drop") since we first discovered it for ourselves,--no mean feat, since it had no sign (it now has a tiny one above the door), no outdoor space (unless you count the steps and sidewalk), and a small, dark interior not easily visible from the street. (And, we're sorry our friends who call it "smokey bar" haven't been back since the Rome smoking ban.)



But it turns out we aren't the only ones in thrall to this unassuming wine bar not far from the overrun Campo de' Fiori. Princeton professor Leonard Barkin spent a year in the late 1980s in Rome, virtually alone at first, then gradually adding groups of friends, almost all centered around the appreciation of fine wine. And, he turns out to be the most expert of them all (at least according to his retelling of that year in his book: Satyr Square: A Year, a Life in Rome [2006]). Yet he also ends his year at, of all places, the unassuming Il Goccetto.


We couldn't be more different from Barkin. The last thing we are is oenophiles (wine experts - I had to look it up to spell it), and, we're never alone looking for friends in the wine and food business. Nor do we live to cook and eat, the way Barkin seems to. Through most of his book, I couldn't imagine Barkin and us sharing anything in Rome (except maybe his fling with Charles Bukowski's books and his taking different walking routes from Piazza dei Satiri to the Vatican library--those I liked).


But at the very end of Satyr Square, he seems to set his high-falutin' oenophile friends aside and discovers Rome, and himself, at Il Goccetto. Here is his description:

• None of my now vast circle of wine acquaintances in Rome has ever mentioned Il Goccetto. I came upon it by mere chance....These are not the posh surroundings of Jeffrey's tastings or the slightly faded grandeur that surrounds Sandro's, but something a little more raffish, in a neighborhood where captains of industry and leatherworkers are shoulder to shoulder. In place of Clara, in place of Jeffrey, in place of Sandro, there is Sergetto--gentle, frisky, direct, occasionally fantastical. No formal tastings here, no professorial master of the revels who has come from across the sea to instruct us, just an ongoing seminar about Sangiovese and Nebbiolo, pecorino and mozzarella, as well as the dreadful inhumanity of those who support the Lazio soccer team against Roma.

You had me, Leonard, at (or finally at) "Il Goccetto." Dianne
Other wine bars of note: Al vino al vino (via dei Serpenti, 19 - up from the Coliseum), Taberna Recina (via Elvia Recina, 26 - a few blocks from San Giovanni in Laterano), and Trimani Il Wine Bar (via Cernaia, 37b - not too far from Termini), and uve e forme (via Padova, 6/8 - in the Piazza Bologna area).