You’re Doing Rome Wrong If You Miss These 7 Things

[Erin Florio] Rome is filled with greatest hits.

The Colosseum, the Vatican, Trevi Fountain.

The list goes on.

But it's also a city layered with masterpieces

of everyday Roman life. [lively music]

[locals speaking Italian]

Vespas whipping through the squares,

bars where you can sip your morning coffee.

I'm certainly not saying don't see the big sights.

Do see them.

Rome is not a city where you have to pick a lane.

So definitely don't skip on the monuments.

Just seek out those pockets of local Roman life

that happen in between them

and I'm gonna show you how to do it.

[lively Italian traditional music]

[dog barks]

So we're at Campo de' Fiori,

which is the very famous market in the middle of Rome.

I came here for one really specific reason.

It's this forno, which is a bakery.

You're gonna find fornos all over Rome.

I really love this one.

I've been coming here for years

and it's for one really specific reason.

I think they have the best zucchini pizza in the entire city

and it's perfect to get for just a really quick bite.

They will cut you the amount that you want to eat.

[they converse in Italian]

[Erin] I got a little bit just as a snack.

It's gonna be perfect.

Grazie. Grazie.

Mm, it's so good.

Okay, I'm gonna eat this while I go explore the market.

[mellow upbeat music]

[Erin laughing]

What I love about the Roman markets is

that the produce here changes all the time

because it's hyper seasonal.

And I'm really excited that we are here

during one of my favorite seasons,

which is the season for puntarelle,

which is so delicious.

It's sort of the slightly bitter green

that Romans love to cook.

It's delicious served hot.

And also, really importantly, artichoke season.

Very famous Roman carciofi, which you can see right here.

I'm sure we're gonna see a lot

of these ingredients pop up on the plate.

[idyllic Italian music]

[bustling ambiance]

We're the Trastevere neighborhood at Bar San Calisto,

which is actually more of like a coffee shop.

In Italy, when you say bar, you really mean like a cafe,

like a place you're gonna get coffee.

However, this place doesn't just do coffee.

Of course you come here for coffee, it's in the morning.

I'm having a coffee right now.

But people come here all times of day to get Negronis,

to have beer, just to like catch up.

It's a nice cross section of all the different types

of people you come to find in Rome.

[buzz of locals chatting] [mellow music]

Where to stay?

On this trip, I'm staying at one of my favorite new hotels,

which is part of our Hot List this year:

the Orient Express la Minerva.

No one knows this city like the concierge,

so let's go get some recommendations.

Ciao, ciao.

Buongiorno.

To get really the feeling of Rome,

you have to walk the little streets, go around

and that's the best thing to do.

Apart from the biggest things like the Colosseum

and the Vatican that you can do afterwards,

the first thing to do is to go around

and explore the neighborhood and explore the market,

explore the little places around,

which is more, you know, less touristic.

It's so nice to do this little tour of Rome

and you go and you try to find these things.

Si. But if you get lost,

it almost doesn't matter- Doesn't matter.

'Cause you're gonna find something else. [laughs]

Because you find something else.

The whole city is a treasure hunt.

Yeah. Nice, yes. Yeah.

What I really need is a local recommendation for lunch.

So where do you go?

When you get to Ponte Sisto, you go to the right,

towards the Trastevre area on the right side

and there is a little restaurant called Zi Umberto, which-

Zi Umberto. which means Uncle Umberto.

And it's like typical Roman, paper on the table.

But the food is amazing.

[vibrant music]

[Erin speaking in Italian]

Belissimo.

Grazie mille. There you go.

Buono.

So this is puntarelle

and we saw it the farmer's market earlier.

And here they've prepared it with olive oil and some anchovy

and they put it on top of some toasted bread,

kind of like a crostini.

Totally delicious. I love it.

It's a really great light lunch.

I'm gonna dig in.

It is absolutely delicious.

[waiter and Erin speaking in Italian]

There you go. Grazie mille.

So I ordered a very typical Roman pasta, amatriciana.

It's really simple, like pretty much all the Roman pastas,

it's just tomato, it's guanciale,

and a little bit of Pecorino cheese.

In Rome you always get Pecorino, you don't get Parmesan.

It's really simple. It's really, really delicious.

And this place does it very, very well.

The thing is with Rome, is it's sort of like

trying to find like the perfect osteria, trattoria

it's kind of like trying to find like,

the perfect pub in London.

Like there's sort of, there's no,

it's not about that, right?

There's so many places that are good to eat.

So it's not about finding the best,

it's about finding that place

that feels like the right place to be in.

It's relaxed, the food is good,

it creates the atmosphere

where you just wanna keep coming back.

[mellow upbeat music]

So we're on Via di Monserrato

and this is one of my favorite streets in all of Rome.

I've been coming here for years.

I love it because it's filled

with these wonderful independent boutiques and artisans.

So I'm outside of the atelier of Gilbert Halaby.

Let's go inside.

Hello. Buongiorno. Buongiorno.

A lot of the experience of Via di Monserrato

can inform some of your work, right?

Yes. I mean I feel like

this body of work inspired by Via di Monserrato,

but I know there's like a special story behind it.

Can you just talk a little bit about that?

Absolutely.

These three are the last three of a larger body of work.

It's an exhibition entitled Une Comédie Romaine

a Roman Comedy.

A comedy because, for me, Rome is a stage,

it's a piece of theater.

I sit outside and read and I see all of them,

the nuns and the priests and and then the framer

and and the grocer passing by.

So, I started noticing one after the other,

the nuns and the priests and everything,

and I started painting them

and it was a success, actually.

We opened in Via di Monserrato,

Maja Arte Contemporanea gallery

and we had the priests and nuns,

we invited them to come to the opening

and they were enjoying themselves-

I love... And they loved it.

Rome is not an empty soul, like other big capitals.

No, it still has its anima, the story,

and we, here in Roma, we feel it every day.

Thank you. You're always welcome.

[they both bid farewell in Italian]

[peaceful music]

[Erin] We are in L'Archivio di Monserrato,

which is like a treasure trove

of the most gorgeous individual pieces.

It's from the brilliant and creative mind of the fashion

and interior designer Soledad Trombly.

And really what she does here is she takes pieces

and fabrics and textiles from all over the world

and she turns them into her own creations.

And every time I come in here, it's just such a joy to see.

This, for example, was from my last trip to Japan.

And then this is some silk, raw silk from India,

and then on the other side is completely reversible.

And on the other side- Gosh, I love that.

There's, yeah, this is IKE from-

Cape. Yeah.

This is IKE from Korea.

We make everything in Rome.

I supervise all the cutting.

I do most of the handmade work.

Hopefully Italy would keep on making, you know,

wonderful, one-of-a-kind things.

So you're trying to preserve that sense

of craftsmanship and that sort of means taking-

It's the core of Italy. Yeah.

This is so beautiful.

[stylish upbeat music]

Amazing. You look beautiful.

Such a pleasure.

See you soon, I hope.

So. We're at Chez Dede on Via di Monserrato

and this is the shop that kinda started it all

on this street.

And what they're trying to do with Chez Dede is

they're bringing something to Rome

that they thought was lacking in the city.

And that is the sort of idea

of like a modern design concept store.

I am obsessed with foulard.

I never go out without a foulard.

[Erin] Oh, yeah, so it's your signature?

For me is like maybe a dream.

I always think that everyone is much,

always more stylish with a foulard than without.

What do you think?

Look at that. How do I look?

Yeah? Yes, it's fantastic.

I mean, it's the perfect souvenir.

Yes, it is. I love it.

Yes, and somehow Chez Dede has a modern rehab

of the old style of souvenir.

You know, souvenir in the past was something very precious

because very few could afford to travel.

You know, it was not like now.

Rome belongs to everyone who loves her.

I say her because for me, Rome is a woman.

A woman that sometimes makes

some bad adjustment on her face, you know,

some fill or something.

But she's still beautiful.

You can see she's beautiful over there,

you know? Oh yes.

But yes, it's definitely a woman.

The Orient Express la Minerva in one word:

exquisite.

I can't think of another recent opening in Rome

that is as effortlessly stylish.

I love the design here.

Suites have these classic nods to the glamour age of travel.

And throughout the lobby and common spaces

are old relics from the Orient Express archives.

But what will keep me coming back here

is definitely the location.

It is so rare to find a hotel of this quality

literally within steps of one

of the world's greatest monuments.

[joyous operatic music]

Grazie.

We're on the seventh floor rooftop bar at La Minerva Hotel.

It is a stunning spot,

not just because the way they've done this terrace

is absolutely exquisite,

but because you see all of Rome

from like, the skyline angle up here.

Basically any famous monument in Rome,

you can see its dome from this spot.

And what I really love is

you still get the slice of Roman life.

We can hear little kids playing soccer

down in the square below,

and I feel like nothing is more perfect than that.

But aperitivo is a really important custom in Italy.

It happens every day.

It's essentially happy hour.

You know, starts in the early evening, ends before dinner.

And this is the time where people get together,

they chat, they have a drink,

and they kind of just let loose, you know,

at the end of the day

and sort of celebrate the end of the day.

With dinner in Italy, it's very important to remember

you're not drinking cocktails or drinking wine.

Maybe beer, if it's a pizza.

This is when you get the Negroni.

I personally always get a Negroni.

I just think it's always appropriate.

And what's important to know about aperitivo is

it's always served with a little bit of food.

In this case, we have great snacks,

so they have these meaty, amazing olives

that are my favorite.

Delicious spiced almonds,

and then just some little potato chips.

So really good food for just snacking when you chat.

Yeah, it's just always something I really look forward to

at the end of every day in Italy.

Ooh. Perfect Negroni.

[idyllic music]

So we're a little bit outside the Centro Storico

and we've come here for this restaurant, Santo Palato,

which is such an exciting restaurant

from a chef named Sarah Cicolini,

who basically takes these amazing Roman techniques

with using the offal, the offcuts of the meat,

and she creates a really wonderful, satisfying,

modern cuisine with it.

It's such a unique way of doing the meat

and it's just delicious.

Like you don't have to chase this anywhere else.

For me, it's important to come to these places,

not just because they're amazing and it shows new faces,

doing fresh things with the food here,

but also to remind all of the visitors to Rome

that Rome doesn't end in the Centro Storico.

There are so many areas, like San Giovanni and elsewhere,

that it's really worth coming to,

where amazing, creative things are happening.

Another trip to Rome in the books.

Thanks for coming along

and I truly hope this has inspired you

to keep your eyes open for the real Rome

on your next trip to the Eternal City.

For more on this year's Hot List winners,

head to cntraveler.com.