With its Roman ruins, Renaissance villas, fresco-filled churches, shopping, and aperitivi, here are the best things to see, eat and do in Rome
Introducing a series of alternative city guides, specially curated for the cultivated traveller.
It’s hard to beat Rome for a sense of history’s layers. As George Eliot muses in Middlemarch, it’s “the city of visible history, where the past of a whole hemisphere seems moving in funeral procession with strange ancestral images and trophies gathered from afar.” Whether you are alone in Rome like Dorothea – or myself – or moving in a pack, the Italian capital offers any visitor a lifestyle that feels frankly devastating to leave behind: Roman ruins, Renaissance villas, fresco-filled churches, art galleries, shopping, and, at a certain hour, always an opportunity for aperitivo.
With heavenly details around nearly every corner, part of the pleasure of the city is that you don’t need to glue your eyes to Google Maps in the search for beautiful things. But a few target destinations – from where to stay, to what to eat – is always helpful.
Villa Medici
The ornate Villa Medici is situated in the Pincian Hill, above the famous Spanish steps, and was once the Rome dwelling of the powerful Cardinal Ferdinando de’ Medici. Accessible through booking a guided tour, highlights of any visit to the house and gardens – which, since 1803, has housed the French Academy in Rome – include the artist Balthus’ Niobe sculptures nestled among wildflowers on the lawns, and the Chamber of Jupiter’s Loves, with its apparently-licentious lost Zucchi frescoes ingeniously threaded with a ghostly butterfly motif by artist Claudio Parmiggiani.
Bar San Calisto
Located in a buzzy square in Trastevere, Bar San Calisto is an excellent starting point for a quick and cheap spritz from which to explore the city. If you can’t get a seat – which is probably likely given its popularity – standing in and amongst the spillover is just as likely to result in a conversation with someone among the crowd.
Schostal
I have to thank my friend, the chic writer and sometime-American in Rome Colleen Kelsey, for this tip, outfitting Romans in pyjama sets, scarves, neckties, socks and shirting since 1870. Inside, shelves are stacked with plastic-wrapped cotton shirts and colour-coded cardboard boxes: you can even have your items monogrammed.
The Rome Edition
Having opened last summer, the Rome Edition is tucked away in a quiet side street a stone’s throw from the madness of the city centre: on arrival, vine-covered walls disguise a lush sunken garden, providing a counterpoint to the former 1940s bank building’s imposing marble interior. Inside, features include a coveted rooftop pool with views over the city, and a 12-seat cocktail bar with a glowing green interior. At Anima restaurant, executive chef Antonio Gentile serves cuisine influenced by the different regional cuisines of Italy. And, as with all the Editions, you’ll find those signature furry throws dotted throughout (inspired by the way hotelier Ian Shrager’s grandmother would throw down her fur coat when she entered the house).
Villa Farnesina
A quieter spot than many of the other famed Roman Renaissance villas, the Villa Farnesina was built for rich banker Agostino Chigi in the early 16th century. Highlights inside include a ceiling fresco by Raphael, The Triumph Of Galatea, at the original entrance – Chigi had the artist paint his courtesan Imperia as the central model for the work – and a strange corridor of “grotesques”, with hyper-detailed creatures at every cornice. (For a very nearby lunch or dinner on the same, try Miraggio Trastevere, with its checked tablecloths and enormous plates of rigatoni).
Castroni
Located on Via Cola di Rienzo, the flagship Castroni’s classic exterior signage (“We Ship All Over the World”) signals an abundant candy store for traditional Italian goods on the inside. This includes literal, by-the-kilo traditional candy, but also pasta, cookies, and any other dry food that will fit into your suitcase imaginable. There’s the Caffe Castroni, too, for a quick standing espresso.
Museum of the Holy Souls in Purgatory
In a small room at the back of the Chiesa del Sacro Cuore del Suffragio, on the banks of the Tiber river, is a secret, tiny, museum: as the sign above the door reads, the “Piccolo Museo” of Purgatory. Dedicated to artefacts that appear to show ghostly traces of dead loved ones who are stuck in purgatory – nightcaps with burn marks, mysterious bank notes found in monasteries – the museum is a fantastically spooky place to spend 20 minutes.
La Zanzara
Options for aperitivo in Rome are abundant, and it is this writer’s opinion that the combination of the atmosphere provided by the crowd, as well as the kinds of snacks on offer, are what clinches a certain location a superior spot. At La Zanzara, very close to the Vatican in the neighbourhood of Prati, both crowd and snacks are in abundance, and especially elegant.
The Non-Catholic Cemetery
With an unassuming entrance – a small stone sign reads, The Non-Catholic Ceremony For Foreigners Rome, above a buzzer – this verdant private cemetery is the final resting place of Romantic poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats, Marxist Antonio Gramsci, and many others. The experience of trudging around this magical place is made all the more heightened by the surreal monument that overlooks it: the enormous Pyramid of Cestius, the ancient site built in 18–12 BC as a tomb for Gaius Cestius.
Il Goccetto
On warm evenings, an enviably chic crowd gathers for a glass of wine or a sharing plate at Il Goccetto, tucked away on Via dei Banchi Vecchi, the historic, cobbled shopping street running parallel to the Tiber. And if the people gathered outside don’t give it away, you’ll spot the discreet bar by the simple sign reading ‘Vino Olio’ above its doors.
Galleria Borghese
Pre-booking is essential for the Galleria Borghese, the palace and art museum located in the wider Borghese gardens. And if the Rossi frescoes, Bernini sculptures and Caravaggio paintings located here were not impressive enough, until September 15 visitors will be witness to a parallel artistic universe as they move through the gallery’s hallowed rooms: Unconscious Memories, a retrospective exhibition of 20 sculptural works of Louise Bourgeois, is on display in dialogue with the Borghese’s architecture as well as many of its own artefacts.
The Hoxton Rome
Located a stone’s throw from the Borghese gardens, the Hoxton Rome overlooks the flowering-tree-lined boulevards of the Parioli neighbourhood. This outpost shares traits with its international counterparts while also being reflective of a certain Roman charm: drawing from mid-century Italian design, the interiors boast eclectic furnishings, parquet floors and bathrooms inspired by classic Italian cinema. Top tip: for a second Italian getaway, a Florentine outpost is up next …
Bialetti
Worth visiting if, like me, browsing exclusive shades and styles of the iconic Moka pots is a deeply thrilling experience.
