Annalaura D'Errico (1972)

Lotto 12 is a nice cozy little place in the heart of Garbatella, where you can go for drinks or for a nice yet overall inexpensive dinner.

It is right around the corner from the famous Palladium theater, one of the venues for the Roma Europa Festival and also the auditorium for Roma Tre, the third university in Rome.

The name of the place has nothing to do with the lotto game or lotteries in general. Rather, ‘lotto’ is the term to refer to a blocks (of buildings) within the Garbatella neighborhood. So, the hypothesis that Lotto 12 is situated in the 12th block of the neighborhood could be quite plausible! 

From 18:00 – 18:30ish in the afternoon, Lotto 12 serves aperitivi. You can get wine or beer and some munchies to go with it. The default will probably be chips and olives but I typically ask for the sotto-oli and sotto-aceti: sundried tomatoes, pickled onions, cured artichokes, olives and loaves of Italian bread. You can also ask for the tagliere (cutting board) with salamis and cheese. 

If you linger on, at around 20:00ish you will be able to have dinner. They offer a variety of pasta dishes (I am told that they make a mean Carbonara), several second courses and great desserts. To get a better idea of the food they offer and prices, you can check out their menu online.

Once you’ve gotten your fill, take a digestive stroll in the streets of this quite quaint and interesting neighborhood.

Tom Harrell, Dave Douglas, Uri Caine, Mark Turner, Joe Locke, Eddie Gomez. If you are a jazz lover, Rome’s Casa del Jazz is the place for you.

Inaugurated in 2005, by then mayor of Rome Walter Veltroni, this is now one of the best venues in Rome to get a chance to listen to world-renowned jazz musicians.

In the winter months, you can attend concerts in the indoors auditorium, cozy yet large enough to seat about 150 people. Great acoustics, great experience. In the summertime, concerts take place outdoors, al fresco, in the villa’s beautiful park close to the Aurelian Walls.

Many events are free while others cost only €10-15. Casa del Jazz also houses a restaurant and a bookstore. To get to it with public transportation you can either take bus 714 from Termini or get off at subway station Piramide on line B and walk a little.

In Rome, there are tons of cheap kebab-pizza shops serving only take-way kebab and pizza by the piece (‘pizza al taglio’). There are now also quite a few sit-down Middle-Eastern restaurants serving the different meze at quite pricey levels. Shawarma Station is different. It is a sit-down venue for quick and fast meals, serving a whole variety of Middle-Eastern dishes, while being one of the best value-for-the-money options in the city.

Kebab, falafel, hummus, couscous, kofta, taboule, babaganoush, and warm pita bread. These are some of the dishes you’ll be able to order at Shawarma Station, a down-to-earth cafeteria-like restaurant on the famous Via Merulana, near Termini station and the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.

People of all sorts -tourists, Italians, “new” Italians- come here to satisfy their cravings in a truly multi-ethnic spirit. The staff is extremely kind and often you’ll be offered a falafel while waiting in line with your tray. To top off your meal, you could get baklava or muhallabia milk pudding and mint tea. All this at incredibly democratic prices.

Good, cheap and with large portions. Go to Shawarma if you’re hungry, on a budget, and love Middle-Eastern fare!

Tucked away below street level, hidden by the flashy light of a kebab store on via Massaia, Il Melograno is Garbatella’s only “enoteca”. ‘Enoteca’ is an odd term in Italian because it means both a wine retail shop and a place where you can sit down and drink some quality wine rightly combined with the appropriate foods. Il Melograno is mainly this second type of enoteca.

It is run by two brothers whose kind manners, together with the excellent wine they serve, will gently ease you into a relaxed mood for the evening. Both brothers have a degree from AIS (Italian Association of Sommelier) which would normally means that you are a stuck-up ?$%&$ who looks down on people who don’t know anything about wine. This is absolutely not the case with them. They will gladly suggest the best wines and explain subtle differences while never being condescending and while communicating their love for the subject matter.

You can opt to have dinner there or simply go after hours for a drink. Every day, there is a €20 special dinner menu. Otherwise, you can choose your dishes à la carte. Last time I went, I had bruschettine with mozzarella and bottarga, crostini ai pesti vegetali, and beef tartare. All this while enjoying an excellent glass of Vieris Sauvignon Vie de Romans. To close off, I had cantuccini with a Muffato Castello della Sala Antinori.

The Tiber is not an impressive river by all means. Any other river in other European capital is much more striking in terms of sheer size or width. Yet, the Tiber is an interesting river. It is not a boring river that simply flows slowly through its city without doing anything! No, the Tiber is an eclectic little river which surprises you with rapids, low points, a small waterfall, vegetation on its sides, an island and lots of different bridges, including a broken one.

Yes, Ponte Rotto (a.k.a. Pons Aemilius), literally Broken Bridge, is one of the small peculiarities which make the Tiber such an interesting little river. What other city river has a fragment of a bridge standing in its course? I am told that the river in Genova does but that’s besides the point. Ponte Rotto is a small gem, often disregarded in Rome’s treasure trunk with more important jewels. Romans go by their busy day and rarely look at it, tourists have more important sites to visit in their two-day tour of the city.

Yet, Ponte Rotto is well worth a small pause. It is there, useless, yet beautiful in its decadence. Stones at its feet, weeds springing from its cracks, it sits proud and glorious, even if younger, stronger, more efficient bridges have taken over the job. It is powerless, injured, yet alive and willing to speak to anyone bothering to take a moment to admire it.