Ten Days in Rome and Naples 2017

I'm going to start with a few generalities, before I get into the dining.
On previous trips, we've tried to seek out at least one high-level dining experience, but it's left us flat: behind-the-trend foams with little imagination and tiny plates that won't refurbish the body after a daily 6-10 miles of hiking around cities and ruins. We used advice from here, Lonely Planet and Rick Steves (although he claims he has little interest in food, his books have steered us to a couple nice places in the past).

Pasta: now I think I finally know what al dente is. The chew is what makes it great. I think I roll my fresh fettucine etc. too thin, I'll have to work on that. But even the cheapest, most insipid meal we had (just outside the train station in Naples before heading back to Rome) got its pasta perfect. On the other hand, the Mario Batali oft-quoted "lightly dressed" was not always in evidence (see the Matriciana below), but it's possible the restaurants were tailoring to tourist audiences.

Secondi: this is a menu area fraught with peril. Sometimes we got a huge plate of braised meat and vegetables, sometimes we got a tiny portion of fried seafood. There seemed to be no way to judge what the portion sizes were going to be, especially because we were often the first in a restaurant. This was often the determining factor whether we had desert.

Pizza: Most of what we had was Napoli-style, very thin with some parts crisp, some soft. I loved it all (see the Saturday post later for a gripe on strategic eating, though).

Starters: Gotta love having a whole menu category dedicated to fried foods, the fritti. It became clear that antipasto usually meant charcuterie and cheeses. We saw very little of what's typical here of roasted peppers, marinated veg and olives. Items such as salads, artichokes, etc. were often listed as contorni served after or alongside the entrees, but sometimes as starters.

Wine: Prices vary widely, and I found I generally liked it more the cheaper it was, but then again, I like less wood and tannin in my wine. Order a carafe of the house wine and you'll enjoy your meal without fretting about the Visa bill.

Prices: We avoided the very cheap and the very expensive and generally had a real good time. We spent between 40 and 90 Euros on dinners for the two of us (except for that cheapo train station meal which was around 25). With the exchange rate at about $1.08, it's really cheaper than US because taxes are included, and tipping is not expected (occasionally we were charged a service charge, and usually the coperta for the basket of bread.

Breakfast: Italians don't seem to take breakfast as seriously as, say the British. It's coffee, a croissant, and probably in a nod to German tourists, some cheese, yogurt and ham. Our hotel used a storefront restaurant for breakfast (I think co-op-ing with other nearby small hotels), but we had very similar at the hotel in Naples. Restaurants that were open for breakfast advertised American or English breakfast, never anything "native" that I saw.

Pastries: I didn't see the prevalence of bread bakeries I've seen elsewhere in Europe. We were able to get bread, but it's usually on the back wall behind the counter, not displayed proudly -- that's for cookies and crostata. And the cookies are good. There was a 24-hour deli/pasticceria across from our hotel where we would get snacks for the day, and the chocolate-filled sandwich cookies were our go-to. Crisp, lots of butter, better than most of what I've had in Italian bakeries here. A very sticky pistacchio-topped crostata was tasty, but priced higher per kg than reggiano or prosciutto.

Oh and photos: my phone is really good at low light, but lousy at image stability, and between that and the ease of shmutz on a cell phone lens, a fair number of these photos are regrettably blurry.

Joel, it's amazing how they--almost always--get the 'stiffness' of the pasta right, similarly amazing that here in the US they have so much trouble with it. The translation 'to the tooth' is right on, but never in a gummy way. We didn't have pasta every night out of the 11 we were in Rome and Sorrento, but the doneness was pretty much that way each time.

OK, time I make a little progress on this epic.
First night, we did our usual: arrive at hotel, take a nap, then hike around the city trying to get our bearings and actually spend enough energy that we'll sleep through the night. We started at the Spanish Steps following a Rick Steves walking tour backward (we almost always start at the wrong end of his walking tours), and ended up feeling like we were going to starve around the time we got to Parliament (it was only around 7PM).

A couple blocks away was Enoteca Corsi, on one of the lists Sue had compiled. When we arrived, we thought we were going to have to start our search over, but they have two adjacent storefronts, one which is primarily wine shop and serves lunch at a couple tables, the other dinner only. Very casual place, good food.

Of course we ordered wine in an Enoteca. Not outrageous prices, a full-bodied red, that was a little tannic to my tastes, but pretty darn good.


Setting the pattern for the week, we ordered a starter, a pasta and a secondi. The starter was the classic carciofi alla giudia, Jewish style artichoke. I was expecting something a little more battered, and always wondered how they dealt with the overall fibrousness of the 'choke. Turns out it's cut into a disc with only the good stuff left, fried until the outer leaves are crisp. This was the better of the two we had on the trip. In what also turned out to be a pattern, the starter arrived after the other food (I guess that makes it a contorno), and we forgot to photograph it before digging in. Here's a good-sized chunk of it, at least. Sorry about the blur.


The pasta was labeled a carbonara ravioli. This was an interesting novelty: egg and bacon on the inside of the pasta. Very tasty, but not sure I'd order it again (Sue loved it). Yes, that's truffle, it was one of the things that was everywhere this week.


As a secondi we ordered a baked lamb: tender and succulent (although not a very big serving - lots of bone in there). The potatoes were stellar. Those are kidneys on the plate, not my favorite of the fifth quarter.


I know we ordered a dessert (it's on the receipt), I think it was a ricotta and pear tart.
Overall we got out of there for €72 with coffee.

Enoteca Corsi
Via del Gesu' 88
00186 Rome, Italy
+39 06 679 0821
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_ ... Lazio.html
(linking to Trip Advisor because their website has a font scam malware on it)

Just realized I had been to Antica Pizzeria da Michele and never posted about it, here's DH's thread: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=7995 yes it was well worth it to go.

For us, one of the most memorable food experiences in Naples was walking along the Spaccanapoli and the side streets, awesome markets, we took a bottle of wine & some food items home to our room most every night. I do not speak any Italian yet gesturing to try/sample items led to deliciousness and laughs.

Your post makes me want to return sooner than later, so many places in this world!!

You wouldn't think it would take me weeks to write this up, but part of the point of this trip was a break between employers, so the new job has kept me busy.

The proprietor of our little eight-room hotel told us that Saturday was the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome and that most museums and a lot of streets would be closed, so we got out of town and went to Ostia Antica, a city on the Tiber river near its mouth that was abandoned after the river shifted. It has a pretty mediocre cafeteria -- pastas flavorless (but al dente), go for the panini. That evening we wandered over to the Testaccio neighborhood, famous for being the eighth hill of rome, basically a landfill for ancient amphora, and for its markets (closed when we got there, but we went back on another day). We dined at Velavevodetto, which means something like "that's what he told me." I'd say this was the second best meal of the trip. When we got there at opening time (7:30), the host said they were full... but could fit us in. This was another part of the pattern. We eat pretty quickly -- don't linger for hours over coffee -- so they probably did all right. When we left, they were just starting to hop.

Started with a ball of mozzarella (photo too blurry to show): a little dense, but very creamy tasting.

Primi: my first real cacio e pepe. Every place we saw serves this with fresh tonarelli, basically a thick spaghetti, and not with a dried pasta, and this was outstanding, good sharp pecorino and bite of pepper. Sometimes simplest is best.


Sue's suggestion for secondi was the roast baby pig (Maialino al forno con patate) and it was awesome: a crispy joint as good or better than what we'd had in Bavaria.

(really blurry, but needed to be posted)

There was a green salad in there somewhere... but it didn't get photographed. Just greens, oil and vinegar on the table.
I think we skipped dessert this meal, having had gelato near Ostia.

Whereas Enoteca Corsi was just OK, this was a great meal. Highly recommended.

Flavio al Velavevodetto
Via di Monte Testaccio, 97, 00153 Roma, Italy
Phone: +39 06 574 4194
http://www.ristorantevelavevodetto.it/

I'll try to start stacking these posts closer together.

Sunday we decided to do the classics: Colosseum, Forum, Palatine Hill. Fortified from the deli across the street, we got a lot of steps, photos and Ingress portals.

One of the recommendations from a thread here was Emma. As usual, they're full but can accommodate us.

We ordered off a different selection of courses tonight: A fritti, a contorno, an antipasto and a pizza.

First up, Suppli al Telefono, sort of a croquette-shaped rice ball, with a fair amount of tomato sauce and mozzarella.


Next, mozzarella and prosciutto. For about what we paid for mozz the night before we got a very full platter of ham'n'cheese. Better cheese, and good prosciutto... although we were drooling over the leg of iberico we saw sitting on the counter, we weren't up for the nearly double upcharge.


Next, puntarelle: my first experience of this was very good: bitter greens with rich olive oil and anchovy-based dressing. Sue, who's not normally a bitter green or anchovy person, thought it was pretty good too.


Last, quattro staggione pizza. Who cuts four stages into six? These guys do. I wasn't expecting hard-boiled egg, but it worked, with mushroom, olive, artichoke and more prosciutto (that's five?). Crisp edges, soft center, very nice.


This is a more casual place than Velovevodetto, although prices were similar. Service was a little more attentive. Only downside was the continued inability to get decent green tea for Sue (it's all got mint in it).

Emma Pizzeria con Cucina
Via Monte della Farina, 28/29 00186 ROMA
Tel 06 64760475 P.IVA: 12515371008
http://www.emmapizzeria.com/

I'm really enjoying youre reports so far, Joel, and saving them for future reference for my own someday trip to Italy.

Nice stuff, Joel.

I had that puntarelle at Emma twice. Just phenomenal. Even though it is purported to be served only in that part of Rome, and I did see chicory being being washed and scored while on the Campo de' Fiori market, one of our Roman friends remarked, "...when I was growing up (in north Rome) I never heard of puntarelle. Now it's everywhere!"

Monday got us out into a couple more neighborhoods: the Jewish ghetto, and up to St. Peter's for the Vatican museum, for which, yes, we already have tickets, you annoying people every three steps trying to sell me upcharged admission.

I don't remember what aimed us at Elle Effe ("L F") for dinner, but I'm pretty sure it was a previous thread here. Overall, not an especially memorable meal, but it's possible we didn't aim at the right dishes.

Back to the starter/primi/secondi pattern. We started with a bruschetta of artichokes and prosciutto, which was one of the better bites of the night.



The shrimp risotto was pretty, and I know traditional risotto is flavored, not garnished with 'stuff', but a single shrimp atop, and maybe a few tiny bits scattered throughout, didn't really make it a shrimp risotto -- it was much more tomato-y.



The real disappointment, though, was the fritti misti. I don't remember the price, but it was one of the more expensive secondi we'd ordered, and it was a tiny platter of calamari, anchovy and two small shrimp.



Still hungry, we ordered a panna cotta (not my favorite dessert, but the rest of the items on the menu were fruity things -- not Sue's favorites), topped with chocolate sauce.

Tuesday was another run-all-over-the-city kind of day. We had tickets to the Galleria Borghese, a villa that stole a lot of Greek and Roman sculptures and mosaics, and had a lot of Bernini sculpture comissioned. The guy was nephew of the pope, and as much as the pope was demure, this Borghese was a hedonist. Be sure to hit this museum. Not one of the cheaper ones, but gorgeous stuff. After that, we climbed the famous Michelangelo steps for the Capitoline museum, but before that we hit up the Testaccio market which was closed when we were there in the evening on a previous day.

A lot of Maxwell-street-like vendors of tube socks and leather goods of questionable origin, but some beautiful produce and butchers. We bought a sealed package of prosciutto ends, and a good cheese from one vendor, and of course cookies.

I don't know that I'd rank this up with the Boqueria in Barcelona or even De Haagse in Den Haag, but some very nice stuff. Most places had loose pre-mixed salads, which I thought was a little weird. Definitely better-looking tomatoes than we see in stores here, and yes, that's trevisano radicchio in the front (didn't see that on any menus, though, a shame, since it was something I ate everywhere in Milan a dozen or so years ago).


I'm pretty sure L'Asino D'Oro (The Golden Ass) was recommended in Rick Steve's book, and labled as Umbrian. Probably the best meal of the whole trip -- and only a couple blocks from our hotel (there was strong temptation to go back there on subsequent nights).

A crostini with liver pate was served as an amuse (and Sue continued to fume throughout the meal about the fact that all the ones served after ours had olives on them). Creamy, tasty, about my sweet spot for the quinto quarto (sorry about the bite).


Feeling hungry, and having been burned a couple times on undersized secondi -- not to mention a really interesting menu -- we ordered two starters, two pastas, and one secondi... and had more food than we should have eaten, but wow, good.

One of the starters was agradolce of young rooster -- essentially a chicken salad, but one that really tasted of the bird, with a balsamic drizzle.. and I'm having trouble remembering what else was on there. Raisins, maybe?


The other was a blue pecorino, served with pear and fig and honey. One of the best cheeses I've ever eaten, its sharpness complemented perfectly by the fruit and honey. Portions on both of these were pretty generous.


Gnocchi with lamb was the first pasta. Deep flavor to the meat sauce, pillowy gnocchi.


The pappardelle with duck was the only dish that wasn't thrilling. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing stood out: the duck wasn't very distinctive. Pasta was perfect, of course. Overall the starch of the pasta and the poultry together reminded me of my family's matzoh ball soup at its best, but perhaps it was missing some "Italian-ness" to my mind.


The secondi was cinghiale (wild boar) with cocoa, orange, rosemary and pine nuts. This dish was just about perfect: rich, deeply flavored, balanced. Nothing like a mole at all (my memories of the old Molto Mario show had me thinking that the ingredients probably make it a dish of Venetian origin).


All that food, a half liter of wine, two bottles of water, for €90. Definitely not to be missed. Menus I see listed on line are completely different, so they probably change at least seasonally if not daily.

L'Asino d'Oro
Via del Boschetto 73
Rome, Italy
+39 06 4891 3832
https://www.facebook.com/asinodoro/

Geez a whole month has gone by since I left for Rome and I haven't even gotten to Naples? Time to pick up the slack. We took a high-speed train to Naples Wednesday morning in order to get to Pompeii and get a full day out of it, as it closes down at 5:30. As much as Ostia was amazing, Pompeii just floored me. If you care at all about archaeology, don't miss it. Some of the mosaics and sculptures that are left there are replicas, as a lot of the good stuff is at the museum in Naples, but it's still pretty amazing to see 2000-year-old artwork.

Oh, and the train served better snacks than the airlines do for domestic flights: a pretty good bag of chips, and a decent selection of soft drinks.

After marching around an ancient, dusty town, we decided to use the better part of valor and take the train across Naples to Umberto (one of the slowest subways I've ever seen). We chose them partly because they're supposed to be a good example of Naples-style pizza.

For starters we had a chickpea and shrimp fritter with provola (not provolone) sauce. Sort of a seafood falafel, but less coarse than a falafel.


Sue wanted the pure essence of the local pizza, so just red and cheese. Great texture to the crust. Foldable, like NY style, but a better chew.


For secondi/contorno, we had their meatballs which came highly recommended but didn't impress me much, and a slab of eggplant parmesan. I was hoping for something with crisp discs, but this was more of a casserole style. Good, but so few places anywhere hit that sweet spot of crisp breading just softening in the tomato sauce -- something that seems to be easier to do with a chicken parm.




A gelato "tartuffo" finished things off. Very chocolatey, what I needed (yes I know, the real thing is in Rome).


Thursday, after the museum, we wandered through the old quarter and the Spacca Napoli. In a small shop we bought two small cheeses that looked like miniature "tied" provolones, one smoked, the other not. What we didn't realize is that they were stuffed with ham (probably a cotto prosciutto, possibly just a cheap ham). Made for a good salty lunch with some of the other things we've been carrying around, along with some fritti from a place that only sold out of the front window. I think the place was Pizzeria Decumani, at least it fits my memory of location, near a closed church.

Naples is also famous for two kinds of pastry: Sfogliatelli, sort of a croissant filled with a ricotta custard, and baba a rhum, a soaked sponge. We bought one of each, only have a photo of the sfogliatelle. Remind Sue she's supposed to try to duplicate them for a Dessert Exchange. All that powdered sugar made me think that New Orleans beignets need a ricotta filling/sauce. Like the custard tarts of Belem in Portugal, these are best right out of the oven. One of the best is supposed to be Pintauro, so that's where we went.


Before hopping the train back to Rome (couldn't get a fast one back, but it was proportionately priced), we stopped at a little restaurant called Iris on the square by the station (close to our hotel too -- that way we could eat, get our bags, and get to the station). We both ordered pastas, neither of which was remarkable except for nailing that al dente. Service was nice, though, and quite cheap.

Umberto
Via Alabardieri, 30, 80121 Napoli, Italy
http://umberto.it
+39 081 418555

Pasticceria Pintauro
Via Toledo 275
80134 Naples Italy
Plebiscito/Centro
Phone number +39 081 417339

Pizzaria Decumani
Via dei Tribunali, 58, 80138 Napoli, Italy
+39 081 557 1309

Iris
Piazza Giuseppe Garibaldi, 121, 80142 Napoli, Italy
+39 081 269988

Friday was fill-in-the-gaps day: St Peter's Basilica (the day we did the Vatican Museum, they'd stopped letting people in by the time we got out), mamertine prison, catacombs on the Appian Way, a neighborhood spot for dinner, and sunset photos by the Colloseum.

I've completely forgotten how we found La Taverna dei Quaranta. It might have just been browsing Google Maps for a relatively close-by place that wasn't too touristy, and looking at ratings and menus. But it was a good choice. As usual, first ones in the door, and only a couple people showed while we were there... but there was also a few carry-out orders including one accompanied by an enormous mastiff.

Here's the only place we'd seen where the antipasto platter had a wide variety of items, hot and cold. This one included some eggplant parmesan, a stuffed zucchini flower, an arancini, liver pate crostini and tomato bruschetta, salumi, prosciutto and two skewers of (probably) lamb:


We also ordered the stuffed zucchini flowers, not realizing there was one on the platter (but they were very good, no problem having extras)


For a primi, amatriciana is one of the items we'd not yet gotten to, and this was pretty darn good -- more heavily sauced than I'd expected from Rome, though. Nice little bits of porky goodness. (The dish was a lot bigger, this is just what I put on my plate)


For secondo, Tagliata di manzo radicchio anice e aceto balsamico. Sorry for the blur. This was thick slices of radicchio atop slices of beef, with a sauce including anise and balsamic. Just the slightest anise flavor, thankfully, but worked very well with the radicchio. Perhaps a bit too much radicchio for Sue, though.



Great service, some interesting things on the menu, and lower prices than the places closer to the more touristy areas (even though this is only a couple blocks south of the Colloseum).

La Taverna dei Quaranta
Via Claudia, 24, 00184 Roma, Italy
tavernadeiquaranta.com
+39 06 700 0550

Time to say ciao and wrap this epic up. Saturday we filled in more gaps, including the around-the-corner St. Peter in Chains (containing Michaelangelo's Moses), the Sacred Stairs, Trastavere and the Campo di Fiori.

Lured in by samples of balsamic and EVOO, we ended up buying 5-year-old balsamic condimenti... that when I got home I realized isn't from the Modena Consorzio, so I'm sure I was ripped off. Sue bought a nice pair of leather gloves.

pumpkins and salad fixin's
Beautiful dried tomatoes
Formaggio e salumi

Lunch was at Antico Forno Roscioli, based on a recommendation here. Lots of lovely five-foot-long pizzas that absolutely failed to be photographed. When our turn came to order, Sue got a great big piece of the simplest red pizza, wanting the true essence (but ignoring my pleas to get the mushroom, or the burrata and pesto ones).

For dinner, we played our usual gambit and showed up at Matricianella just before 7:30, and they, as usual, said they were full but offered a table outside. Food was very good, but service indifferent. Most of the pictures below were after we had started sharing -- portions were bigger than depicted.

Last fritti - cavalo mozzareline, zucchini flowers, potato croquette


Tagliatelle with truffle. Just wonderful.


Saltimboca. I didn't get much sage off of this, but the textures and flavors were delightful.


A slightly disappointing carciofo alla giudia: the one at the start of the week was better, as this one was a little oily and charred on the edges. I'd wanted puntarelle again, and it was on the menu, but the waiter said that it was out of season (I'd just seen it in Campo di Fiori that morning. April fools?).


We finished with what turned out to be a massive cheese plate. I'm not sure which is what, but the menu lists "GORGONZOLA a fermentazione naturale; TALEGGIO vecchio della Valsassina; FORMAGGIO DI FOSSA; TOMA Alta Formazza; FORMAGGI DELLE LANGHE di latte caprino, ovino,vaccino; PECORINO DI PIENZA semi stagionato; UBRIACO ROSSO al Refosco media stagionatura; CASTELMAGNO TRIFULIN al tartufo nero" -- I don't think the truffled Castelmagno or the Ubriaco Rosso were on the plate, but it was quite a cheesegasm.


All in all, a great week+, I'd rank it one of our better trips for sightseeing, archaeology, and of course food.

Antico Forno Roscioli
Via dei Chiavari, 34, 00186 Roma, Italy
Phone: +39 06 686 4045
http://www.anticofornoroscioli.it/

Matricianella
Via del Leone, 4, 00186 Roma, Italy
Phone: +39 06 683 2100
http://www.matricianella.it/

Many thanks for the effort that went into the report. A pleasure to read.
The last time I was in Italy I was amazed at the quality of a picnic one can put together just by walking around a neighborhood and stopping at a couple of shops or markets.

That Antica Forno Roscioli bakery was a wonder, but if you see something good, grab it because it might not be there the next day. Happened with these beautiful bite-size, ricotta-filled pastries, lighter than cannoli. Had a couple on the spur of the moment, fixated about it all day and decided to get a bunch more the next morning. Gone--a Lenten special.

Same with the square slices of pizza, I think 2,50 Euro per for a 4" square slice. Had one burrata cheese and pesto on a foccaccia-style crust, and then a sausage and rapini on a paper-thin crust that almost tasted grilled. Both phenomenal. More fixation, back the next day--sh*t!!