When in Rome, do as the Trasteverino’s do

Not since Caligula has Rome had a precinct it could call “COOL”. The first stop on the Pelosi’s Italian Travels (PITs) started in Rome in the uber cool suburb of Trastevere. Trastevere translates into “across the river” and that’s where it is located, on the other side of the Tiber river from the main part of Rome.

waiters — Waiters at Restaurant Tonnerello getting ready for another hectic day

Trastevere is like a Roman Newtown or Fitzroy. Very edgie, very bohemian and lots of fun. Every second business is a great little graffiti covered restaurant or a cute little bar all within a few blocks. Just like a Chinese restaurant full of Chinese, you know it’s good because it is frequented by many Romans as well as many tourists (but not many Chinese- not that that’s a measure of success in these parts). The best thing it is not totally over-run with visitors (yet!!) and the prices are still very very reasonable. We followed Tripadvisor’s reviews for eating options and dined at the 16th, 52nd, 58th and 112th ranked best restaurants in Rome (out of a total of almost 11,000 in Rome) and all were within 200 metres of each other in Trastevere. Mains were as little as 10Euros and a good bottle of wine was 18Euros and fantastic service. No cover charges or service fees or “rich Americano” surcharge. It is almost as if Romans have realised that be great and people will come and more importantly return.

melon — The Prosciutto and Melone from Grazia e Graziella

swafood — Sicilian grilled seafood platter at VII Cootre

We had a couple of wines on the day we arrived at Cajo and Gajo. The hostess was amazing bringing out two free trays of chips and small pizza bites. She then gave us free cookies, free lollipops and a limoncello shot as we paid the bill (we went back twice more….). It became obvious that the four main restaurants are all owned by the same people (Cajo e Gajo, Nonarellas, Tonnerellos, Grazia e Graziella etc). All are excellent but the queue for Tonnerellos is ridiculously long, so long that I took a video one day of how long it was. Go to one of the other ones as they are all great and much of a muchness. We found a bar that had Happy Hour 3Euro Aperol Spritz (only to find out later that they had an offer of 1 litre of Aperol Spritz for 10Euros – heh what a country….

Our hotel in Trastevere (or as we called it the PITs Stop) was the Relais Le Clarisse in Trastevere. A very fine boutique Hotel of only 18 rooms and perfectly located and great service. Relais is a quality hotel chain throughout Italy with which you can’t go wrong.

claudesays – do it

19 thoughts on “When in Rome, do as the Trasteverino’s do”

Comments are closed.