A few weeks ago we stayed in the Trastevere neighborhood of Rome for two nights, and had two lunches and two dinners worth mentioning. In Trastevere, we had a late, snacky lunch at the outdoor tables at Giselda (Viale di Trastevere, 52) that was not so much a standout culinarily as just a very enjoyable experience of people-watching, nice food (tomato pie by the inch, etc.), and our first taste of what we’d later drink a lot more of, Ichnusa beer from Sardinia. Dinner that night was a very delightful meal at Cecilia Santa Cucina (Via dei Vascellari, 48) where we had some excellent pasta carbonara and a fishy risotto. This place is around the corner from a fairly nondescript-looking place that apparently appears in all the guidebooks and had a line a mile long—we were quite happy to pass all those folks by and go to a really great meal elsewhere!
In the central part of Rome the next day, we ate a very simple but very welcome lunch at ER Caffettiere (Via Urbana 72), where we got some nicely prepared cooked vegetables like Swiss chard and pan-fried eggplant, plus drinks and fresh OJ. This place is never going to appear in a guidebook and we just stumbled into it, but the food was delicious and it was one of the few casual places we encountered on our entire Italian vacation that had a lot of vegetables on offer, vs. an endless array of carbohydrates! Our dinner that night, charcuterie and cheeses at La Salumeria (Via del Banco di Santo Spirito 24) was chosen by the operator of the bike tour we went on. We probably wouldn’t have had just charcuterie and cheeses if it had been up to us, but in the event, the food was very good, so if you find yourself nearby and peckish, it’s a fine place to go into.
