Price lists

There has to be a price list clearly visible, preferably on the door of the restaurant.

Cover and service charge

There is a so-called coperta or cover charge, which should not be more than 2 or 3 Euros per person. With this you pay for the use of the cutlery, the napkins and table-cloths (no kidding). Often the cover charge and the bread are under one heading: pane e coperta.

Restaurants in Rome often ask for a service charge (servizio) as well. This is also legal, but it is forbidden to charge both for the coperta and the servizio. If your restaurant does charge you for both, just refrain from tipping them.

Standing or sitting in a café

In an Italian bar (which is not the equivalent of a pub, but of a café) you usually pay extra when you sit down: the servizio again. Again, take a good look at the price list: banco means that you will have your sandwich standing up at the bar, tavolo that you will enjoy it sitting down.

A full meal in a café? Maybe better not

Many bars, apart from offering their usually delicious panini and other assorted sandwiches, also offer pasta dishes. Keep in mind that these are usually micro-waved, so we recommend that you go to the trattoria across the road if you want an authentic Italian meal.

Rome restaurants and their opening hours

Foreign visitors to Italy will have to get used to the opening hours of Roman eateries. Restaurants, though they may open at 7pm, don’t really start serving food until 7.30 and even then the atmosphere will be kind of dull. Since restaurants usually start filling up at around 8.30 pm, we recommend that you go around 8, when it is not too difficult to find a table, and you still get to enjoy the unique atmosphere that characterizes Italian restaurants.

Eating on a Sunday in Rome

Remember that on Sundays many restaurants, and especially the more traditional trattoria’s in Rome are closed.

In a tourist capital like Rome there is of course an extensive choice of restaurants, pizzerias and other eateries and for a traveler making a short city trip to the Eternal City where to eat can be a difficult choice to make.

Best restaurant areas in Rome

Prices differ from quarter to quarter, though it is obvious that in the center of Rome you pay more than in areas that are slightly off the beaten track. The most popular areas, for Romans and tourists alike, are Trastevere and the area around Campo de’ Fiori, the Pantheon and Piazza Navona. Naturally these areas are also the more expensive ones. The Testaccio (take metro line B to the Piramide stop) and San Lorenzo (a short walking distance from both the B&B Chaplin Rome and Bed and Breakfast Little Italy) are also very popular, so much so that in San Lorenzo on Friday and Saturday nights traffic is not allowed into the area anymore.

Rome Restaurants recommended by guidebooks

As a tourist in Rome you can of course blindly follow the recommendations listed in your Lonely Planet or Rick Steves’ Rome travel guides, but doing that you will be more than likely to end up in a restaurant where everybody else is American, English or Australian too. Moreover, the people who write these guide books are not likely to have spent more than a couple of weeks in Rome (whatever they claim on the cover) and their restaurant experience will therefore have to be limited to a restricted number of eateries.

Look At Price Lists

Always study the price list before entering a restaurant. Some restaurants have started putting touts outside their doors. These are obviously best to be avoided, since they are likely to be tourist traps.

Eat where Romans eat

A good way to judge whether or not a restaurant is likely to be worth a visit is to try and see whether or not there are many Italians inside. Of course these might also be tourists, especially when you are in the center of Rome, but this still could be a good indication of the quality of the restaurant.

Eat in side streets

Avoid the main streets and squares if you want to save money. Eating on Piazza Navona itself is very romantic, but you are likely to eat a better meal at a cheaper price in a trattoria just off the square itself.

Get good advice

Ask the staff at the hotel or bed and breakfast in Rome you are staying at: At the Hostel Chaplin Bed and Breakfast Rome and at the Little Italy B&B Rome we have some excellent recommendations for you.

Rome tourist menu

Almost every restaurant in Rome, whether centrally located or in quarters that are slightly more off the beaten track, will have a special tourist menu, usually in both Italian and English (the translations tend to be very funny sometimes), sometimes also in other languages.

A full dinner in Rome

If , when in Rome, you want to do as the Romans do, however, you need to follow this order: start with an antipasto, then have a primo (usually a plate of pasta) followed by a secondo (meat or fish) with one or more contorno’s (side dishes, usually potatoes, salad or vegetables). After this you can have the dolce (dessert) or a piece of frutta (fruit) and then the caffè (an espresso, and definitely not a cappuccino, since to drink milk after a meal is blasphemy for Italians) and an after dinner drink (which is an amaro or a limoncello, and supposed to be free, yet another tradition that is sadly disappearing).

Maurizio Anastasi, of the Rome Superintendency for Archeology, at an international art meeting in Ferrara, has announced plans to restore the Trajan Column, one of Rome’s most famous monuments, to its original splendor by using the innovative technique of “painting” the column with light beams.

The Trajan Column is one of Rome’s most famous and most visible artworks, standing almost 100 feet tall. Its spiral relief sculpture winds 23 times around the column and depicts the story of the emperor Trajan’s triumphs in Dacia (in what is now Romania).

It was erected in 113 A.D. and is made completely of marble, which used to be painted, like many Roman statues of antiquity, in many bright colors.

One of the best preserved of all Roman artworks, the monument has however lost what might have been it most distinctive feature — color. The city of Rome will now try to recreate these original colors, without causing damage to the monument.

We are the Bolivians that were in the Chaplin last July. We want to thank you because we felt really good at the Chaplin, you were also very kind to our two year old child and you even took the time to help us fix his push-chair. If we ever have the chance to visit Rome again, we hope to stay at the Chaplin.

Best Regards,

Gabriela and Boris

History of the Baths of Caracalla

The Terme di Caracalla costitute one of the biggest and most impressive monuments in Rome. They were built between 212 and 217 by Caracalla, the son of the Emperor Settimo Severio.

The word Terme comes from the Greek thèrmai, “warm springs”. In Roman times the Terme were public baths where the citizens of Rome used to come together in order to relax and to discuss things. The baths of Caracalla were among the most important and imposing ones: even today the height of its walls still impresses.

In the times of the Roman Empire 16 hundred people could visit the Terme di Caracalla, the ruins of which can be found on the slopes of the Aventine Hill.

Description of the Terme di Caracalla

The gigantic complex was structured with a big building in it center, surrounded by green spaces, with 4 gates of admission.

Inside the Terme the building is almost perfectly symmetrical, with a central basilica covered by three vaults (the frigidarium, the tepidarium and the calidarium). The gyms (palestre) and the dressing rooms can be found on the sides.

The order was to visit first the gym and the Turkish bath and to end in the frigidarium, which, unlike the tepidarium and calidarium was not heated.

The Terme di Caracalla were restored several times until Vitige, king of the Ostrogoti, cut off the water supply through the acquaducts.

In the 16^th century the two granite tubs that nowadays decorate the Piazza Farnese were found during excavations at the Terme di Caracalla. Other works of art that were found there can now be seen in Rome’s Vatican Museums and in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Napels.

Adress:

The address of the Baths of Caracalla is Viale delle Terme di Caracalla 52. (From Chaplin B&B Rome you walk to Termini station where you take metro line B to the Circo Massimo stop.

Opening hours of the Terme di Caracalla:

The Terme di Caracalla are open every day from 9am until one hour before sunset (the ticket counters close one hour before colsing time):

• From Januari 2nd until February 15th: 9am-5pm;
• from February 16th until March 15th: 9am-5.30pm;
• from March 16th till 24th: 9am–7.15pm;
• from March 25th till August 31st: 9am-7pm
• from September 1st till 30th: 9am-6.30pm
• from October 1st till 27th: 9am-5.30pm;
• from October 28th till December 31st: 9am–4.30pmOn Mondays the Terme di Caracalla can only be visited from 9am till 2pm.

The Baths are closed on:

January 1st and December 25th.

Tickets:

The ticket for the Terme di Caracalla is a ticket that is valid for 7 days for the following 3 tourist attractions in Rome: the Terme themselves, Villa dei Quintili and the Mausoleo di Cecilia Metella. The ticket price is 6 Euro, tourists between 18 and 24 years old from Europese member states only pay 3 Euros 3 Euro. European visitors to the Terme di Caracalla that are younger than 18 or older than 65 have free admittance.

Information and reservations:

Tel: +39 0639967700 (Monday-Saturday 9-13.30 and 14.30-17); Online booking: www.pierreci.it

Extra services:

There are audioguides as well as guided tours available. The Terme di Caracalla also have a museum store.

The Villa Torlonia is a public garden in Rome, designed by the neo-classical architect Giuseppe Valadier. From the Bed and Breakfast Chaplin Hostel and Rome Termini it can be reached by taking either bus 90 or bus 36.

From the 17^th until the mid-18^th century the Villa Torlonia was owned by the Pamphilj family. They, as did others in the area around the Via Nomentana, used it for agricultural purposes. The Colonna family, who bought the property in 1760, continued this use.

The banker Giovanni Torlonia, who had bought the Villa from the Colonna’s in 1797, began construction in 1806 and his son Alessandro finished it.

Valadier transformed two already existing buildings into a Palazzo and into what is now the Casino dei Principi. He also built the Scuderie (Stables) and an entrance which was destroyed when the Via Nomentana was widened. He redesigned the park itself, creating symmetrical, perpendicular lanes intersecting at the palace. He also had classical sculptures placed in the villa.

In 1832, after Giovanni Torlonia’s death, his son Alessandro took over and hired Giovan Battista Caretti to add the Tempio di Saturno, the Capella di Sant’Alessandro, the Tribuna con Fontana, plus a number of buildings that don’t exist anymore.

Giuseppe Jappelli designed the southern part and Quintiliano Raimondi did the Teatro and the Aranciera (now the Limonaia). Unlike the neo-classical northern part, the southern part is characterized by the creation of lakes, winding lanes and a number of new buildings. In 1842 Alessandro has two obelisks erected, in memory of his parents.

Alessandro Giovanni then transformed the Capanna Svizzera into the Casina delle Civette and had theVillino Medievale and the Villino Rosso built.

In 1919 3^rd and 4^th century Jewish catacombs were found underneath the Villa. During the 1920’s, when the Villa Torlonia became his official residence (for the exorbitant sum of 1 Lira a year), Benito Mussolini and Prince Torlonia had an air-raid shelter built inside these Catacombs.

After the war the villa was abandoned, decay set in, and it was not until 1978 that it was bought by the City of Rome, restored, and turned into a public park.

The most important buildings in the Villa Torlonia are the Casina delle Civette, the Casino dei Principi and the Casino Nobile. The landscaped park also houses 13 garden pavilions representing exotic parts of the world.

The Villa Torlonia is entered from the Via Nomentana. Its official address is Via Nomentana 70 – 00161 Roma. For more information and for bookings the Cooperativa IL SOGNO (Viale Regina Margerita, 192 – 00198 Roma, Tel: +39(0)685301758, Fax: +39(0)685301756, mail: service@romeguide.it) can be contacted.
There is WiFi access in the park.

Over 50 thousand athletes are expected to participate in the Rome marathon, which will be run Sunday March 16th and starts at the Imperial Forum.

The 14th edition of the Marathon of the City of Rome, as the event is officially called, will have 15 thousand athletes running competitively and another 35 thousand participants, amongst whom the “fitwalkers” and the “retrorunners” who will be there for so-called “Fun Run”.

Until Saturday evening it will be possible to enter the “Fun Run” by going to the “Marathon Village” in the Palazzo dei Congressi in the EUR area. For more information it is possible to call +39 (0)64065064.

The field consists of runners from 76 different nationalities, who will run one of the most beautiful marathons in the world, starting at the Imperial Forum and continuing along 42 kilometers and a bit of some of the most famous tourist attractions Rome has to offer, like the Colosseum, the Circus Maximus, the Baths of Caracalla, Piazza Navona and the Spanish Steps.