When in Rome......
Our home for the weekend was the exquisite Pantheon Iconic Hotel, just a gladiator sword’s throw from The Pantheon - an incredible view of which we had from our room on the 4th floor. The upside to a late flight arrival was that our room was ready upon check-in and it was perfect aperitivo time. On the 6th floor you’ll find the Divinity Terrace Lounge Bar, which has panoramic views of neighbouring rooftops, domes and the cupola of the Pantheon. We toasted our arrival with a stiff gin & tonic (‘hello European free-pouring!’) and pizza patate, guanciale e semi di finoccchio (otherwise - not so glamorously - known as a potato & bacon pizza!) Safe to say one of the best pizzas I have ever demolished!
On our first morning it was difficult not to wile away the entire breakfast service on the very same terrace! We ventured out and had a loose itinerary taking in the Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain and ending up at the Borghese Gardens, where neither of us had been to before - the main motivation being a shaded walk as the early autumn sunshine was proving pretty fierce! On our meander back we managed to tick off one of the many gelato shops on our wish list, Giolitti. Pay for your ticket at the counter and then join the melee around the 40 or so different ice cream flavours. In my panic to order before anyone else jumped the “queue” I went for an interesting mix of caramelised fig & pink grapefruit, which in all honestly was just delicious and thirst-quenching on a hot day.
I take great enjoyment from researching restaurants for our trips - finding the best local food and travel bloggers in good time, scouring review sites and comparing sample menus. Retrobottega - a 26 cover restaurant (in fact considered more a food lab) was a change from the traditional, chequered table cloth trattorias and the sharing-tables and show kitchen won us over. The 5-course tasting menu is a reasonable €55 but instead we opted for a la carte, savouring herring tagliatelle, lamb & liquorice anolini pasta and turbot with pumpkin and capers. Given the gelato discovery tour we were on (!) we bravely decided against dessert! The restaurant got a big ‘thumbs up’ from us - although they do offer private tables I would definitely recommend the large ‘social’ tables seating up to 10 people with a view of the chefs at work - it certainly adds to the theatrics of the experience.
It was a fairly safe bet that travelling to Rome in early September would still mean mild, summery temperatures and since the season change was in full swing back home I thought it may be one of the last opportunities to eat ‘al fresco’. Sunday brunch at Le Jardin de Russie (Hotel De Russie) had always been on my wish list since I last visited Rome back in December 2013. Step off the bustling Via del Babuino and in to a tranquil, tiered garden. I have always been a sucker for a good buffet so we decided to go for the set buffet at €65 (€45 midweek), which included everything you could possibly desire from sashimi, oysters and seared tuna to roasted meats, pastas, a freshly cooked saffron & mushroom risotto prepared in front of you, to gelato, home baked biscotti, delicate fruit tarts & rum baba! Making an advance booking is essential and by 2pm all the tables were full - a really authentic experience as many of the other diners appeared to be local.
The silver lining of the British Airways strike, which meant our original flight home was cancelled, was that we now had 5 hours more than we had banked on, on our last day. After a restrained breakfast and knowing we had consumed an unhealthy amount of carbohydrates over the past 48 hours (!) we put on our comfortable shoes and decided on a 40-minute walk to the Mercato Testaccio along the Tiber River - a part of Rome I had not previously visited. The market is a mix of clothing, homewares and food/drink - the latter being our main motivation for the visit. A courgette & ricotta pizza measured out and weighed depending on how hungry you are with a side of carbonara! Heaven. We also found a lovely store selling locally produced olive wood products for some authentic souvenirs to take home. Our walk back to the hotel took us through the comparatively sedate and ever so pretty district of Travestere - somewhere I definitely intend to return to given more time. Buildings coloured in deep oranges and reds with shuttered windows & umbrella pines dotted here and there. The Ponte Sisto took us back across the river in to the buzzy neighbourhood of our hotel - where we just had about enough time to absorb a little A/C and collect our bags before heading to the airport. Time to give my feet (and Fitbit!) a little bit of a rest and get home to the pup. However, four visits down and I still feel I have yet to scratch the surface of this wonderful city! A comforting thought that I doubt very little will have changed by the time I return.