Sunday
Looking for a late lunch, we quizzed our hotel guy for options nearby. One of his recommendations was Lo Zozzone, hidden in an alleyway off a tourist restaurant street. There were many sandwich & pizza choices, all a slight variation of meat / cheese / toppings – and everything was delicious! I ordered #24 – salami, smoked mozzarella, olive tapenade and rocket greens while Eric had #17 – speck (ham), smoked mozzerella and tomato. The sandwiches were enormous (and a reasonable €7,50 each) and we enjoyed the people watching that sitting outside afforded us.
before we walked all over the city and wore ourselves out!
Eric had marked gelato places all across the city on our map, so when we discovered a popular place was nearby we got in line. Worth it! Eric had mint and the namesake flavor (a caramel cookie concoction) while I tried the nutella and chocolate.
It was definitely worth the 10 minute wait in line, and good enough that we returned the next day too!
By Sunday evening Mom was pretty tired, so the rest of us headed up the street to Fermento, near our hotel, for dinner. It is a swanky little place with mood lighting and a hipster vibe. I had the beef tartare that was chunky and tasty with a glass of prosecco and Eric enjoyed the paccheri (large tube pasta) with bacon. The service was efficient and polite and we would return on a future trip.
Monday
After spending the morning and most of the afternoon exploring ancient Rome, we needed some nourishment. Eric suggested a sandwich and beer at a tiny brewpub, My Ale, near the Campo de’ Fiori area. Thankfully, we found a place to sit (taking up half the seats in the process!) and decided to split a “red” sandwich with ham, mozzarella cheese, tomatoes and basil. We each ordered an Italian beer, Eric the Lariano Falesia (bock) which was really good and me the Bruton Momus (scotch ale) which was okay. It grew on me but I wouldn’t order it again. Regardless, I would return to this place for the sandwich bread alone – it was the best of the trip!
While exploring the Trastevere neighborhood, we gave our feet a break for a quick glass of wine at Essenza Wine Bar. The food menu looked good as well, but I stuck with bubbles and Eric had his second pecorino of the trip.
Our least pleasant (and overall strangest) meal of the trip was at Al Palazzaccio. I have no idea if it was just an off night but our waitress seemed to want to be anywhere but there: communication was difficult (wines listed by the glass were not actually available by the glass, the bread basket kept reappearing after we had said we didn’t want any) and the food took forever to come out despite the restaurant being nearly empty. Add a drunk old man banging on the window, being overcharged a few euros for Mom’s dish, and the fact that the food was just okay and well, we wouldn’t come back here.
Tuesday
With one more chance for a panini sandwich before heading home we stopped into Duecento Gradi on the way to the Vatican Museums. Eric had the Irnerio (Tirolese smoked ham, buffalo mozzarella, and pachino tomato) with a Ritual Lab Lemon Ale that was really an APA. I had the Pigneto (bacon, pecorino and porchini mushrooms) with a malty ale, the Be Four Paradise Red. I should have stuck with “ham” vs. “bacon” as the texture was a bit too raw for me in this sandwich. Everyone else loved their choices.
We left the museums too late to get into St Peter’s so our consolation prize was gelato at the Old Bridge Gelateria. Darn.
Eric’s parents were resting before our dinner reservations, so we picked up a few snacks for the plane trip tomorrow at a local grocery, then stopped into Lumiere for a pre-dinner drink. For future reference, the free potato chips that came with our wine were nice but $10 would have gotten us a nice plate of appetizers – good to know for next time! Eric got to try another pecorino and I had yet another lovely prosecco. Curious about the reds on the glass list, we split the Malandrino (Multipulciano d’Abruzzo) – it had nice fruit with a touch of green pepper on the finish.
Our final dinner of the trip at Su e Giù was great! I ordered a Chianti Classico for the table that went with all of our delicious pasta dishes. Eric had the traditional tonnarelli cacio e pepe and I had the gnocchi bolognese (with a much redder sauce than the ones up north). For our main, we split a plate of hot sliced beef with rosemary, vinegar, garlic and olive oil. Now I know where my much-loved (Chicago-style) Italian beef sandwiches come from! A lovely lemon sorbetto with cookies for dessert rounded out the meal.