Centro Storico
Orientation in the Centro Storico is rather simple. The Via del Corso is the eponymous example of a Roman road which extends in a milelong straight line from Piazza del Popolo in the north, to Piazza Venezia and the kitsch ‘typewriter’ Vittorio Emanuele monument (take one look and you’ll understand the moniker). On one side are the Spanish Steps, Trevi fountain and Villa Borghese, while the other is a glorious labyrinth of streets towards the Pantheon and Piazza Navona and down towards the banks of the river and Castel Sant’Angelo.
Around the ruins of the Roman forum (behind the Vittorio Emanuele monument) is where the whole thing started, a piece of marshland which grew into a social and commercial centre and within the space of a few centuries ruled an empire which reached from Spain to Asia Minor.
Apart from sightseeing, shopping is the preferred pastime along the Via dei Condotti, Rome’s answer to Bond Street. Connecting the Spanish Steps to Piazza del Popolo is the Via del Babuino, another designer shopping mecca and where you’ll find cool concept store TAD, while Via del Governo Vecchio on the Centro Storico side is an essential bijou break from the crowds.
There are two places to buy icecream in the Centro Storico, San Crispino and Giolitti (see Snack). You won’t eat bad icecream elsewhere, but stray from this advice to your palette’s own loss.
For hassle-free high-speed cultural injections duck in and out of churches. They are often free galleries filled with masterpieces without the queues, crowds or tacky gift shops. Santa Maria del Popolo and San Luigi dei Francesi are easy vehicles to catch a few Caravaggio ‘chiaroscuro’ showstoppers.
The ebb and flow of tourist traffic and large, meandering groups from the Pantheon to the Spanish steps, along via del Corso to Piazza Navona, and the Trevi Fountain can be insanely infuriating, but unfortunately this is modern day Rome.
But for every rose-peddler that gets your goat there’s an equal measure of things to make your heart melt, just as long as you make sure you duck into glamorous establishments for a restorative prosecco (perfectly acceptable anytime after midday), or a cool café (just remember the no cappuccino after 11am rule.)
Look for the refuges such as Via Margutta behind the Spanish Steps, or stop off under the fig tree at Bar del Fico and watch the weather-beaten veterans battle it out over an afternoon game of chess.
When it all gets too much with crowds, heat and Stendhal’s syndrome (culture fatigue) it’s normally time for aperitivo. The Romans would do exactly the same.
Monti, Esquiline and San Lorenzo
Stepping back from the Centro Storico are the layers of Rome that most visitors rarely experience. The Esquiline hill rises from beside the remains of the Roman Forum up to Termini station with Monti on one side and the sleazy chic of San Lorenzo towards the north-east.
Behind Trajanís Market is the delightful neighbourhood of Monti, fast becoming one of the hottest addresses in Rome. So-called because of its undulating landscape of steep cobbled hills, it was once the ëSuburraí in ancient times, a seething, sweaty, noisy pit, home to the urban poor. Now it’s an affluent residential neighbourhood; while the Via dei Serpenti and Via del Boschetto quietly pulsate with trendy cafés, bars and boutiques, Monti still retains a calm and distinctively local flavour.
The Colosseum can just be glimpsed at the end of Via dei Serpenti, especially dramatic when illuminated at night. This is a quiet area and home to one of Rome’s best new boutique hotels, the Hotel Capo d’Africa.
Up the Esquiline hill and along the flank of Termini station was once filled with ancient ruins and palatial Renaissance villas, but the reunification of Italy in 1870 brought urban planners from Piedmont who swept away the carpet of historical grandeur to make way for a grid like city plan resembling Turin.
Despite various cultural initiatives insisting that the area is undergoing something of a regeneration, it still feels rather slummy, and has something of the immigrant ghetto about it, with wholesale Chinese shops and budget one-star accommodation. The arrival of the monolithic ES hotel (now the Radisson SAS) with its glamorous rooftop pool has kick started these pretensions of rehab, but the immediate locality is less than picturesque and frequented by questionable nocturnal characters. South of the station is distinctively more salubrious, with the ultra luxuriant Hotel Exedra in Piazza della Repubblica.
Just beyond the shabby patch of land north of the station to the east of the city is lively, artsy San Lorenzo. Until recently a no-go area of shady low-life and drug dealers and still badly scarred from consistent bombings in World War II, San Lorenzo is one of the most interesting neighbourhoods in Rome. Ferociously proletariat and left wing in the ’50s and ’60s, the area has always been home to artists and socialist intelligentsia, most famously cinematographer and writer Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Little has changed today, and a bohemian brigade of graphic designers, artists and writers have occupied the area’s desirable loft accommodation and frequent the neighbourhood’s clutch of superb restaurants. Eateries Uno e Bino, Vinarium and Arancia Blu are highly recommended as is the more rustic working-class fodder at Pommidoro and perennial favourite Tram Tram along the tram tracks. Most places are open well into the night, accommodating the bohemian night owls with their irregular timetables.
San Lorenzo is certainly worth a visit for dinner, but don’t be appalled by its down-at-heel appearance. It’s an area that oscillates violently between grungy on one corner and sophisticated and refined on the next. This is what gives it a cultural edge and makes for a refreshing antidote to the chequered table cloths and cloying tourism in the Centro Storico.
Testaccio and Trastevere
South of the river and away from the baroque razzmatazz are Rome’s most authentic neighbourhoods.
Postcard-pretty cobbled Trastevere has suffered somewhat from the influx of mass tourism, but it still has unadulterated pockets, especially on the quieter, less inhabited side by Piazza Santa Cecilia where bookshops double up as brunch stops and the air is thick with the mouth-watering scent of mamma’s ragu. The Trasteverini claim to be the real Romans, descended from 1st-century ad sailors, and you can witness this weather-worn tribe daily in full effect at the rambunctious Bar San Calisto.
In the days of Imperial Rome this area was mostly agricultural, with villas, gardens and vineyards for the delectation of the caesars. The majestic leftovers remain in the verdant pastures of the Villa Pamphili park, high up beyond the Janiculum hill, and the Orto Botanico by the river bank.
The main point of entry to Trastevere is via the Ponte Sisto footbridge, built for Pope Sixtus IV but now occupied by a ‘no-global’ gang of harmless, cider-quaffing hippies complete with dogs on strings and other begging accessories. If you prefer a more mechanical form of transport then you’ll need to cross the Ponte Garibaldi instead.
Along from Trastevere and under the Aventine hill is the salt-of-the-earth working-class neighbourhood of Testaccio. Once home to a huge slaughterhouse and its workers, this neighbourhood has become a nocturnal hub of clubs and bars. The daily market offers a rare glimpse into authentic everyday Roman life, complete with riotous colours and even more riotously colourful characters.
Opposite the old slaughterhouse, which is now given over to raves, art exhibitions and social activism, is the Monte di Testaccio, a 35m-high hill made from the shards of clay pots, which once upon a time carried provisions into Ancient Rome. Oil and wine were decanted here, and then the amphorae were crushed and slung on the pile, building a hill over time. By the 17th century, wine cellars and osterie were burrowing their way into the cool, clay hill and since then have been transformed into bars and nightclubs along Rome’s buzziest strip.
Just behind the vast and rather incongruous pyramid of Caio Cestio is the up-and-coming neighbourhood of Ostiense, earmarked for intense renovation. Rem Koolhaus and his architecture clan will be sprucing up the old Mercati Generali to create a retail, culture and leisure development to resemble something like London’s Covent Garden. It’s now home to the wonderfully forward-thinking Centrale Montemartini, a collection of classical sculpture displayed on and around an old electricity plant. Property prices are now doubling, so enjoy the urban bohemian edge while you still can, and check out the cool clubs around Via Libetta.
Vatican and Prati
The Vatican is the smallest country in the world, occupying less than half a square kilometre and with only around 800 residents. It is, however, home to some of the greatest cultural treasures in the world, as well as being the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. It has its own diplomatic service, army (Swiss Guard), heliport, radio and TV stations and currency (Vatican euros have a minimal circulation). Many Romans will post their letters from the Vatican since its own postal service is infinitely more reliable than the national snail mail. Reportedly, it has better-stocked pharmacies too, and tax-free electrical goods.
When he’s in Rome the Pope makes appearances at noon on Sundays from the window of his study, and addresses the crowd of pilgrims who gather in St Peter’s Square. On Wednesdays he holds a general audience in the square, weather permitting.
Prati, the neighbourhood surrounding the Vatican, is civilized, residential and painfully bourgeois. For this reason nothing very exciting happens here. It’s filled with eerily calm tree-lined boulevards and grandes dames in linen suits with coiffed hair riding bicycles, while the patter of pampered pooches is never far away. Cafés and bars house hordes of Pariolini (the term used to describe elegant Romans from the Parioli district) nibbling on pastries and imbibing prosecco dressed in fur coats, with shiny cars parked outside.
The area started life as the meadows around the Renaissance ramparts to the Vatican, which were shorn up to make way for housing for the employees of the new ministries and parliament after Rome became the capital of unified Italy in 1871. It has been tenaciously ‘white collar’ ever since.
Although lacking the youthful vibrancy and colour you’ll find in other parts of Rome, Prati has some very pleasant dining choices, including one of the city’s most acclaimed restaurants, L’Arcangelo. The palm-lined Piazza Cavour is home to the Costantini enoteca, a decadent, old-fashioned wine bar and restaurant with heavy velvet drapes and dusty bottles on Art Deco shelves. The lunch spots Pupina and Del Frate are perfect for post-sightseeing sustenance at the Vatican.
The relaxed shopping promenade of Via Cola di Rienzo offers visitors the chance to indulge in a little retail therapy. In keeping with the style of the residents there’s nothing wildly exciting here, but it’s good for quality essentials and gifts (especially of the gourmet variety, at delicatessens Castroni and Franchi).
Via Veneto and Villa Borghese
The Via Veneto in its ’50s and ’60s glory days was once lined with cocktail palaces, Alfa Romeo sports cars and the glamorous traffic of starlets immortalized by Fellini in his film La Dolce Vita. These days it’s the haunt of wide-eyed tourists buying T-shirts from the Hard Rock Café and looking for some bygone glitz over an americano cocktail. The high-octane nightlife may have waned but the ashes are still there in the Jackie O nightclub, an entertaining if a little staid glimpse into the history book of Roman nightclubbing. Whether related or not, most of the city’s options for adult entertainment lurk in these parts, as well as a crop of the most luxuriant hotels such as the Eden, Aleph and the historic Rome Palace.
The strip extends north up to the leafy Villa Borghese, past the Piazza di Siena at the mouth of the park, with its random mix of showjumping arena, hot-air balloon and underground car park cum nightclub complex.
At the beginning of the 17th century it was the dream of the illustrious Cardinal Scipione Borghese to turn the family vineyards and surrounding lands into a baroque pleasure park, or a ‘Theatre of the Universe’, giving birth to the Villa Borghese, which is now a public park. Once intended as an impressive display for diplomats and heads of state, the Borghese, with its art galleries, aviary, exotic plants and curiosities, attracts less regal visitors these days – mostly tourists and families taking advantage of one of the few green lungs in the city centre. Although the grass is a little scrubby (there’s better park life to be had at the Villa Doria Pamphili on the Janiculum hill) bike rides are a popular weekend activity and the views from the Pincio hill over the city’s rooftops are exhilarating.
Ambassadorial villas still lurk behind the trees of the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna and there’s a palpable sense of quiet refinement at the Michelin-starred restaurant Baby in the grounds of the Aldovrandi Palace hotel.
Northern Rome is becoming increasingly more fashionable with the city’s young guns, although the bad transport links make it a little dislocated for visitors to explore with ease.
Trendy restaurants Mezzo, Tiepolo and Duke’s Bar all lie north of the city’s gate behind the Piazza del Popolo, along with the Stadium and the Auditorium. This is also where MAXXI, Rome’s work-in-progress museum of contemporary art, is situated. The Via Salaria was an ancient salt trail which even pre-exists Rome itself, but is now a residential district surrounded by embassies and the leafy public gardens of Villa Ada. More contemporary art can be found around the Via Nomentana at the MACRO art gallery, which occupies the old Peroni beer factory.
Rome
There will never be too few reasons to visit Rome, and rarely a good excuse not to return again and again. The city is looking good these days as the grime of decades of neglect has been wiped off, partly provoked by the 2000 Giubileo. Rome has spruced up and is becoming a viable modern destination, no longer frozen in time and celluloid dreams but with its very own cosmopolitan agenda.
As a city Rome is culturally overwhelming – a palimpsest of nearly 2,800 years of history which can be traced from its foundation by Romulus (according to the historian Livy), and thence the glory days of Republic and Empire, the early Christian and Renaissance periods and the hegemony of papal patronage and power, through to the neoclassical and aggressive Fascist eras, all through its architecture. Each epoch has left its own definition, creating a glorious mix that reflects the story of much of the western world. Yet still Roma transcends any pigeonhole definitions.
The city is no longer defined by its ancient ruins and dusty churches. There’s a thriving contemporary scene comprising art, nightlife, innovative architecture and cuisine, and the contrast between the traditional and new has proved increasingly stimulating. Up-and-coming areas such as Ostiense and San Lorenzo have all the creative dynamism of Berlin, Manhattan’s Lower East side or London’s Hoxton, softened with Mediterranean balminess.
Of course today, as ever, Rome is frustratingly chaotic and seemingly lawless. Surprisingly, however, the Romani are slaves to rules, whether it be what time of day you’re allowed to drink a cappuccino, or what you should be wearing that season (and even more surprisingly, a mindless respect for petty bureaucracy).
Getting around on foot or by taxi is most advisable. Rome’s metro system is limited for obvious reasons of archaeological preservation. Although much of the centre is closed to traffic you’ll be dodging unapologetic motorini (scooters). Spot a true Roman by his ability to cross five lanes of traffic without flinching while on the phone.
There are some unspoken rules you must abide by if you want to keep your cool in Rome. Bear these two in mind: always have a long lunch, and never feel guilty about slackening the pace on the sightseeing. Rome has a funny knack of showing you what it wants when it wants, and rarely disappoints.
More than any other Italian city, Rome has the power to enrapture those who set foot on her soil and is as intoxicating for the first-time visitor as the long-time inhabitant. Despite all the pitfalls, brashness and intolerable chaos, when the sun shines over the Palatine hill and your belly is full of bucatini amatriciana, the sense of something very special and eternal stings the senses. Viva Roma.
