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ROME - WHERE TO EAT AND DRINK

After a day visiting remains and museums, it's time to chill out. The male-group, pub-drinking culture of north-west Europe is largely unknown here, and public drunkenness is very rare. The Rotunda-Navona area is the principal centre of street cafes and restaurants.

PIAZZA DELLA ROTONDA

Rotonda 6 is a very friendly cafe with young staff. Advertised on the Web as a "disco-pub", it caters for teenagers in the evenings and gets a bit noisy. But if you are a teenager this may be the place to head. The menu is not very extensive and the pizza is rather Anglo-American. Genuine Italian pizzas of the sort made in Rome are very different to the Anglo-American versions of this dish. The bread is as thin as a pancake and topped sparingly. At first, this seemed a little disappointing but I soon appreciated the lack of a thick chewy crust which afflicts the foreign imitations.

La Sagrestia's shrine to condiments

There are plenty of eating places to choose from, but I preferred those outside the main squares and more likely to be frequented by locals. Just off the Piazza della Rotonda to the east I can recommend Il Barroccio, Via dei Pastini, 13. This is an attractive ristorante but is reasonably priced and serves a generous portion of Saltimbocca alla Romana, the local dish consisting of veal topped with Parma ham and sage. Also to east of the Rotonda is La Sagrestia, Via del Seminario, 89, a ristorante/pizzeria with a friendly atmosphere and some excellent puddings.

As in other regions of Italy, Rome has a distinctive cuisine of its own. Besides Saltimbocca, look out for deep-fried antipasta such as Fiori di Zucca (courgette flowers and anchovies) Carciofi Fritti (artichokes) and Suppli (rice croquettes stuffed with mozzarella).

PIAZZA NAVONA

In the Piazza Navona, the Tre Scalini is a good venue for coffee or ice cream, though my favourite source of ice cream was a shop just to the north of the Rotonda, the Gelateria della Palma, Via della Maddalena. Don Chisciotte in Piazza Navona is a friendly café with good food but the bars/restaurants towards the north end are pretentious and pricey. Generally speaking, I try to avoid uniforms and tablecloths.

To the west of Piazza Navona I can heartily recommend Da Francesco in Piazza del Fico, a ristorante/pizzeria for fast, efficient service and serious eating in a family-tolerant environment. If you want a break from pizza and pasta, you could try the excellent nearby Spanish restaurant, Tapa Loca, Via di Tor Millina, which specialises in paella and serves some good Spanish wines as well as sangria.

TRASTEVERE

Trastevere is where the locals come to escape the tourists and have a good time, and represents the more authentic side of Roman nightlife. Rome is heavily overrun with tourists, but in other respects remains far more Italian than, say, London is English. Reaching Trastevere requires a little more effort but is well worth it. The most interesting point to cross the river is via the Isola Tiberina (Tiber Island). In ancient times this island in the middle of the Tiber was built up to resemble a warship.

The Rugantino, Largo Sgiovonni de Matha, has a great atmosphere if you eat outside, but serves rather modest portions. Cave Canem is popular with Italian students but the staff are a little over-keen to clear the tables. The most attractive restaurant I found here was the Hostaria La Botticella, Vicolo del Leopardo. It's in a residential back street with washing fluttering overhead. My meal was excellent but my wife's pasta was unfortunately a little too al dente, so I am obliged to return an open verdict. Trastevere is also home to a goth bar - Medioevo in Viccolo della Scala. We came by this about 10 pm one evening but they hadn't yet opened. Facing a fair walk home on already blistered feet, we reluctantly gave it a miss.

Street musicians are part of the culture and will serenade you outside and inside cafes. Disappointingly, I saw little evidence of Italy's reputation for singing. Most Italians seemed to put money in the collections and we followed suit at 1000 Lire (33p) a time. Somewhat more annoying are the small but persistent groups of itinerant street vendors who need constant shooing away until they get to recognise you.

SNACKS, FRESH FRUIT AND WATER

Cheap pizza slices are also available from takeaway pizza shops ("pizza a taglia"). These tend to be thicker than the restaurant variety.

Fresh fruit can be obtained from street-market stalls in the Via del Lavatore (near the Trevi) or from small fruit shops scattered here and there such as the one in the Via di Tor Millina.

Drinking water is readily available from numerous public drinking fountains so it is easy to refill a plastic bottle. Public toilets, however, are notoriously scarce. The best are in museums, and the best of all are in the Vatican. If you don't mind queuing and have a strong stomach you can take advantage of the toilets in the McDonalds restaurants whose gaudy golden double-arches now crop up all over Rome like a plague of poisonous mushrooms.

Rik - 8 June 2001

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