Rome, the eternal city

We have just returned from four days in Rome, what an amazing place. I went many years ago on a school trip and remember being water bombed around the Trevi fountain on a hot summer evening. I went again around 20 years ago and was entranced by the Forum. This time we found a small hotel just by the Campo de Fiori called Hotel Lunetta.

What a perfect setting, location and hotel. The area is probably the best in Rome for eating, it’s a 30-minute walk to the Forum or the Vatican or the Trevi fountain and best of all it has a spa in the basement to ease all those aching legs after a hard day’s walk. 

We had just watched “Rome Unpacked” on BBC2 and made plenty of notes. In particular was the Roman way to do spaghetti carbonarra, made with pig cheek, not pancetta. We saved the ultimate carbonarra at the same restaurant visited in the program for the last day, very nice indeed. Roscioli is rather well known, their “La Carbonarra” uses fat spaghetti, guanciale (the aforementioned pig cheek), eggs, pecorino romano and Malaysian pepper and here it is. 

In Piazza Campo de Fiori is Viola, a Norcineria, being a shop dedicated to the pig. Here we bought a whole guanciale to take home. Viola is full of the most amazing pork products you could imagine, it’s a family business which is almost 120 years old. in a fabulous cheese shop, we purchased some 36-month parmesan from red cows. Sadly, there was no room in my suitcase for any more goodies so our carbonarra will be authentic Bournemouth rather than Roman.

Just around the corner is Verso Sera, a charming restaurant tucked into the corner of a tiny square serving excellent food and wine. Their Langhe Nebbiolo by Dante Rivetti is undoubtedly the best Langhe I have tasted, vastly superior to most lower end Barolo but at a fraction of the price.

Around yet another corner we found Osteria da Fortunata, specialising in homemade pasta. What a great place. We had pasta with an Oxtail sauce (very Roman), with guanciale and pecorino and delicious puddings.

Lunches were generally less successful. Wandering the Jewish Ghetto we were trying to decide on where to eat when a passer by recommend the restaurant opposite us, called Ba’Ghetto as the best. Don’t bother!

Back to the hotel, the hotel spa comprises a small pool with jets, steam room, sauna, relaxation area and treatments and is located in the basement and sub-basement. The hotel and much of the surrounding area has been built over the Theatre of Pompei which itself was built in around 55BC. The spa area has exposed walls from the theatre, amazing! This theatre was huge with a capacity of around 20,000 so it is not surprising that so many properties in the area have lower levels exposing the Roman remains.

So, if you ever plan a trip to Rome I can highly recommend the area as a fantastic and central base, try Hotel Lunetta, I am sure you won’t be disappointed.