“When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, thats AMORE…”

Italians are famous for their pizza, pasta and wine. And lets just say that I had more than my share of all three of them while I was in Rome.

Rome, as I’ve mentioned before, is insanely expensive. The only cheap thing we seemed to be able to find in Rome was the wine. Its really funny to me how wine was basically always cheaper than water ANYWHERE in Rome. So you know, I didn’t complain…because when in Rome….YOU DRINK LOTS OF WINE! :)

I was excited to be in a city and country that had food that I loved….as opposed to being in India like I am now, where I don’t like Indian food - and it is pure torture. In Italy, these people cook for someone like me. Pizza with tons of cheese and pastas with amazing sauces. I was surprised to find though, that with their pizzas that if you order a cheese pizza, it doesn’t come with any sauce. It is usually on very thin bread and not cut into slices (which made eating it interesting). One of the waiters showed me that your supposed to fold it in half like a taco and eat it. By the time we left Rome, I didn’t think I could possibly eat another pizza (if I close my eyes, fold my arms, wiggle my nose and nod my head like genie….maybe I can transport myself back to Rome for another amazing cheesy pizza…and then back to India).

While we were at the airport in Norway we had picked up this guidebook called “Time Out Shortlist, Rome 2008″. This book was really helpful for us to find places to go when we had no clue or direction at all. So the following reviews are mostly places we found in the “Time Out” book with what I really thought about the places. But I also added a few of my own.

So, next time you are in Rome and are looking for somewhere to eat, check out one of these places (or not…just read my reviews) :)

**Restaurants, Cafe’s and Coffeehouse Reviews:***

Bar della Pace
Via della Pace 3-7
phone:06 6861216

After wandering from the Vatican to the Pantheon, we were hungry and were looking for anything in the book close to where we were and we found Bar della Pace. This was by far our favorite restaurant that we visited while in Rome. Although, I think it would be very hard to find (in general), it was well worth the trouble of getting there. They had seating outside, although it was too cold for us to take advantage of it I’m sure it would be beautiful when it is warmer. Sitting inside by a window, we just got coffee but really enjoyed the atmosphere so much we didn’t want to leave. If I ever imagined what sitting in a romantic and picturesque cafe in Rome would be like…this was it. We loved this place so much!

Smeraldo
Via Principle Amedeo, 16-18
Phone: 06 483893

Smeraldo was the first place we ate at while in Rome. Mainly only because it was located directly across the street from our hotel, it was pouring rain, and we were starving. We were treated well and I had my first REAL Italian pizza and wine and it was great. We had our first experience of being charged extra for things you don’t order. I have heard many stories about Americans going to Europe and they put bread on the table and if you eat it you get charged for it. SO, being so smart (I thought), we didn’t eat it. But somehow we were charged for it anyways. We didn’t notice till the second time we were there that it says on the menu something like “Compulsory charge for bread for each table”. It wasn’t much though, so it wasn’t a big deal. But We were confused about if we were supposed to leave a tip or if it was included. We ended up deciding to leave something extra, but we did not leave much. We did like the restaurant though, and liked it enough to go back again another day. I would recommend this place, because of its tasty food and house wine, but a little overpriced, even in Rome.

Hang Zhou
Via San Marttino ai Monti 33C
Phone: 06 4872732

We were looking for Chinese food and found it here. This is a packed, small and hole-in-the-wall type of place. We waited for about an hour to get in but we did not mind once we were served amazing Chinese food. They had great service and cheap prices (a big shock while in Rome!). They had some very intricate carrot garnish-sculptures on our plates that were really amazing. Marius eats everything though, and of course started eating the garnishes when the girl who worked there came over and said “No eat! No eat!”, shaking her finger at him. We were laughing so hard! The food was great, the wine was cheap (as always in Rome) and the service was wonderful. I would highly recommend this place to eat, as long as your willing to wait!

Dagnino
Galleria Esedra, via VE Orlando 75
Phone:
06 4818660
www.pasticceriadagnino

In the “Time Out” book, Dagnino’s was a rave for coffee and sweets. The book says that Dagnino’s is,”…a corner of Sicily in Rome. If its Sicilian and edible, its here: ice cream in buns, crisp cannoli siciliani filled with ricotta cheese, and shiny green iced cassata.” We decided to visit because the book says they have great coffee and the desserts sounded fun. It is located in a ‘mall’-ish type of setting but there is no door to the hallway so it is in a covered area but still kindof outside. We wanted to sit outside (it was packed) and sat for about 20 min as the waiter walked by us, greeted friends, chatted and totally ignored us. So we went inside and sat at a table. After another 30 minutes, I got up to ask for some service. Finally after getting up and asking about four times, we got served. In the whole time that we were there, there was a table across from us that people kept sitting at, and after a period of time with no service, they would leave. I think about five or six groups of people sat there, got no service and left. I would definatelly say to skip this very overpriced place. Its not all its cracked up to be…