Image by Sabrina Favoriti

Coyote, this is a club located in the Testaccio area, the ambiance is very detailed and informal at the same time and the atmosphere gives an idea of being on an eternal vacation, as the enormous balcony faces the Monte dei Cocci and you can enjoy the view of Rome by night. You will find a wide range of people from their 20′s to their 40′s.

The club has an open space during the summer months and it is closed during the winter months but you can still go in the area as it has something to cover the roof. It has two internal rooms and a patio that goes all around the club. Once you go in, you can enjoy a drink or two in their patio. They have a vast menu of drinks, and during summer your drinks will be served with a bowl of fresh fruit such as pieces of melon, watermelon and chunks of pineapple. Yummy!

I like to go a little early and sit on the patio and sip a Bellini, before they move all the tables to create a dance floor, as this is one of favorite drinks but sometimes especially during those warmer months I switch to a refreshing mojito. Then I like to hit the dance floor inside, and dance till dawn. Coyote plays a mix of music mainly pop, hip-hop and disco music and on Sundays they play only house music.

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Coyote | Bars, Music | Bellini € 8.00
Via di Monte Testaccio 48B | Testaccio & Ostiense | +393394639667
23:00 – 05:00 daily

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Image by Annalaura D'Errico

Are you Protestant, Jewish, or Christian Orthodox? If so, and if you happened to die while visiting Rome in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries, perhaps of ‘mal-aria’ in the summer months, chances are that you would be buried in the Cimitero Acattolico near Piramide, aka as the Protestant Cemetery.

Catholic law in fact used to prohibit any non-Catholic from being buried in Catholic churches or cemeteries. Given that there were growing numbers Danes, Germans, English, Americans, Russians and Swedes who came to visit, study or live in Rome during in the 1800′s, the Cimitero Acattolico became the designated area to bury these ‘stranieri’.

Now, it is the place where you can get away from it all while contemplating the graves of the Great. In what seems like a peaceful garden just meters away from the bustle of the Piramide area, you will find the tombs of Shelley, Keats, and Gramsci, to name the most famous of the many poets, historians, archaeologists, painters, sculptors, diplomats and intellectuals buried here. For a complete listing please visit the Cemetery’s website or the Cemetery’s Information Center.

In addition to Keats’ gravestone where you will be able to read the famous ‘here lies one whose name was writ in water’, a lovely gravestone is that of sculptor William Wetmore Story and his wife with the statue of the grieving angel.

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Cimitero Acattolico | Art & culture, Relaxing | Donation € 2.00
Via Caio Cestio 6 | Testaccio & Ostiense | +39065741900
Mon – Sat 09:00 – 17:00, Sun 09:00 – 13:00 (last entrance 16:30 & 12:30)

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Image by Fabio Fontanella

When I first moved to Garbatella, my curiosity was piqued by the restaurant named Le Bistro close to my house.

All any passer-by can see from the street is a green door, which doesn’t reveal anything about the interior. There is no menu posted outside and rarely does one see people come and go from this place. It was becoming one of those enigmas, those queries one has about some places, until one day, I decide to go there with a friend.

Unlike other restaurants where you simply have to push the door to go in, here you have to ring a bell. After seconds, a smiling face opens the door to an interesting underworld -the restaurant is below street level- composed of a only a few tables, seating about 30 people. The décor is a mixture of a 50′s style and baroque. The ambiance is soft.

The menu is composed of a long list of highly enticing, unusual, mostly vegetarian dishes: balls of spiced chickpeas, avocado in vinaigrette, polenta slices with nut sauce, balls of ricotta and sage, onion soup, chestnut crepes with fresh cheese, grilled pecorino with honey, lettuce rolls with potato cream and blue cheese.

The dishes we select are kindly served by Daniela or Barbara, two sisters who, we find out, are the owners, waitresses, and sommeliers of the place. Their mom and dad are the cooks in the kitchen and concoct dishes according to what the season has to offer. Great evening, great experience.

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Le Bistro | Restaurants (Vegetarian) | Meal € 35.00
Via delle Sette Chiese 170 | Testaccio & Ostiense | +39065128991
Mon – Sat 12:20 – 14:30,& 20:00 – 23:30

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Image by Annalaura D'Errico

The sound of my Mac’s keyboard. The sound of a Harley engine. Some sounds are just clearly distinctive and should be protected by copyright laws. This could apply to the sound of the tossing of tonnarelli Cacio & Pepe at Felice’s. Indeed, when the waiter brings you your Cacio & Pepe pasta, he will toss it with the cheese over and over until everything is melted together.

Now, that sound, the sound of the spoons tossing over and over the pasta until everything is “organic” – that just simply is sublime! At least for me, since I know what pleasure will ensue when eating the dish. Once familiar with it, there will be no difference between you and Pavlov’s dog. Just the sound will do. So, here’s one reason to visit this great little restaurant.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Da Felice a Testaccio | Restaurants (Italian/Roman) | Dinner from € 30
Via Mastro Giorgio 29 | Testaccio & Ostiense | +39065746800
Mon – Sat 12:30 – 15:00 & 20:00 – 23:30, Sun 12:30 – 15:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Rome

Image by Annalaura D'Errico

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.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Il Melograno | Bars, Restaurants (Italian) | Main Meal € 30.00
Via Guglielmo Massaia 9 | Testaccio & Ostiense | +39065115609
Mon – Fri 10:30 – 15:30 & 19:00 – 00:00, Sat 19:00 – 00:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Rome

Image by Annalaura D'Errico

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.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Casa del Jazz | Art & culture, Music | Concert from € 10
Viale di Porta Ardeatina 55 | Testaccio & Ostiense | +3906704731
Check website for opening times

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Rome

Image by Annalaura D'Errico

Rome is definitely full of good pizzerias. Or rather, it is quite difficult to find a place where one doesn’t manage to eat at least reasonably.

The city is also full of peculiar places, where you can try all sorts of interesting, unusual dishes or dine while enjoying wonderful views. Why then go to eat at Panonto? My answer is simply for its absolute normality, a too often neglected quality lately.

First of all the name. It should be easy for a Roman to figure this out, but I took 6 months to decipher its etymology: “Pan-onto”, or “pane-unto” -oily bread or the classical bruschetta with oil, garlic and salt. One might be led into thinking that this is the place’s specialty, but since this is an absolutely normal place, it is free from the constraining concept of “specialty”.

Second benefit: no reservations. Even if you wanted, they don’t take reservations. It is obvious that a restaurant should democratically feed anyone who shows up, included those who have not made reservations ahead of time.

Third, there is an open-air terrace -not an exotic garden, not an archaeological park, but a simple and pleasant terrace which can contain the numerous people seeking respite from the summer heat. Fourth, the food is good and cheap.

Last, it is located in a pleasant neighbourhood, Garbatella, in which you can take a walk before or after having eaten. So now the question one could ask oneself is: why NOT go eat at Panonto?

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Panonto | Restaurants (Pizza) | Pizza € 15.00
Via Cravero 4 | Testaccio & Ostiense | +39065135022
Thu – Tue 19:30 – 23:30

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Image by Annalaura D'Errico

Freshly made tortellini, ravioli, fettuccine, gnocchi, lasagne, cannelloni, and crepes. This is what you can find at Renzo e Lucia’s, a fresh pasta shop in the San Paolo-Garbatella area.

There are lots of fresh pasta shops around Rome but what makes Renzo e Lucia so special is that their pasta is really, truly damn goood!! Additionally, it is also a rather good value for the money.

Quality foods are not hard to come by in Italy but sometimes they might as well be sold in a jeweler’s store. At Renzo e Lucia, instead, quality meets good value. This is so evident that people from all over Rome come to shop here.

At Christmas time, when everybody needs to buy their cappelletti for the first course of the traditional Christmas meal (cappelletti in brodo), you can see a crowd outside the shop: people religiously holding onto their queue-number and patiently waiting their turn to be served.

A friend I know buys large quantities of tortellini every time she is in my neighborhood. She then stores them in her freezer until she is ready to use them. “Tortellini in brodo make such comfort food and it’s great to have the best kind at hand throughout the winter” she once told me. So, if you also want your comfort food at hand, Renzo & Lucia is a great place to stock up on it.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Renzo e Lucia Pasta all’Uovo | Shopping | 1 kg fresh tortellini € 11.00
Via Giustiniano Imperatore 288 | Testaccio & Ostiense | +39065414572
Tue – Wed & Fri – Sat 08:00 – 13:00 & 16:00 – 19:30, Thu 08:00 – 13:00

Copyrights Spotted by Locals Rome