If you are visiting Rome and you don’t want to eat in a touristic place my suggestion is Fresia.

Fresia is the Italian word for the flower Freesia.
Fresia is a bar, a restaurant and a wine-bar where Romans go daily for a cappuccino at breakfast,  for a brunch during the lunchbreak, for a drink in the late afternoon (during the happy hour), for  dinner or  after…

There you can taste traditional Roman cooking and Italian wines while listening to live music.
So, for a sandwich or a drink, with your family or for a romantic dinner, try out Fresia.

Italian version.

I found a place in Rome that can suit your needs: it’s a restaurant that also organizes cocktail parties and aperitifs, it’s a wine bar, a club and a sport café, a pizzeria and a location for parties and events…

This place is named Sport café.

With friends you should go there watching a soccer match and eat a pizza, with your girlfriend you should have a drink on the romantic terrace: they always got an answer!

Try it out…

Italian version

Elegant gentlemen with sophisticated tastes smoking cigars in a stylish cafè… those were the days!
In the heart of Rome, near the Colosseum, you can experience this ancient high society personally.

There’s an historic cafè, called Caffè Martini, that keeps this world alive.
Caffè Martini, besides the famous restaurant and coffee bar, also offers a Cigar bar, where to taste wines and spirits, while smoking a quality cigar.

Feel like a nineteenth-century intellectual!

Italian version.

Rome is a large city, with many different places and styles inside.

The most tourist areas are the Vatican Dome (San Peter’s Cathedral) and the Colosseum zone.
There’s another historic district that is worth visiting: EUR.
EUR was idealized by Benito Mussolini in 1935 and was supposed to be the expansion of Rome towards the South-West.

As wikipedia says, EUR offers a large-scale image of how urban Italy might have looked, if the Fascist regime had not fallen; wide axially planned streets and austere buildings of either stile Littorio, inspired by ancient Roman architecture, or Rationalism, modern architecture but built using traditional limestone, tuff and marble.
An example is the Civilization Palace, called the Square Colosseum (in the picture).

If you want to go visiting EUR, my advice is to have dinner (or lunch) in Birreria Spaten Restaurant.
An old family run restaurant that offers wonderful typical dishes.
Besides the restaurant pizzeria and the pizza by the slice, Birreria Spaten also takes care of Catering service, parties and receptions.

Italian version.

Belcore is one of the main characters of the melodramma giocoso “L’elisir d’amore” by Gaetano Donizzetti. “L’elisir d’amore” contains the popular aria “Una furtiva lagrima” (also used by Woody Allen) and is one of the 20 most performed operas in North America.

Ristorante Belcore’s history could be told as that of the character from whom the restaurant takes its name. Belcore is similar to a Don Juan, suave and persuasive. He is a seducer.

Abdel is the host of this hidden island in the heart of Florence. This restaurant offers a culinary adventure through the flavors of creative cuisine, also offering themed dinners and exotic flavors.

Belcore Restaurant is decorated with paintings and mosaics by young artists, and after dinner is the perfect place to drink something at the wine bar.

Italian version.

Business lunches in Florence | Restaurants in Florence | Restaurants in the center of Florence | vegetarian cuisine

There’s another Florence.

Not the one of the Dome Square, full of tourists, cameras and coloured guide’s umbrellas.
Nor the one of the glamour night discos, with its lights and music.
It’s the old traditions’ Florence, the one which have been lightly touched by the mass tourism and have preserved the charm of an antique place, with its voices and perfumes and so on…

The “Tripperia il magazzino” is “that” type of place: everything is the real Florence.
It’s a little tavern-restaurant-wine bar that have tripe as its specialty, and you can find it everywhere in the menu, together with lampredotto (tripe cooked with vegetables, oil and pepper) and game like rabbit or wild boar cooked with pappardelle.
Very wide is also the choice of desserts, including typical cantuccini (almond cookies) with vinsanto.
Luca is the chef and his mother Rosita helps him in the kitchen, while Alessandro is the sommelier: a nice family contest!
The restaurant is placed in Piazza della Passera: a nice little square in the very centre of Oltrarno Florence, where, during the summer, there are concerts and theatre shows.

I think that experience Florence life means also eating in such a place and transported by the way of being of real Florentines.

Italian version.

As the saying goes life is too short to drink bad wine, and when you taste a quality wine you can’t deny it!

The Enoteca Galleria del Chianti is the perfect place for who loves wine or wants to better know different kinds of this nectar.

This wine shop is situated in the centre of Florence, but also sells on line its selection of quality wines.
Maybe for a gift or a romantic dinner…

Italian version.

Winter: time for planning your summer wedding in Rome! Imagine the faces of you relatives and friends when you’ll tell that you want to pronounce “yes” in the Eternal city… they’ll be happy for your wedding and for the wonderful – and free – holiday they’ll spend there.

The biggest problem is, however, that there’s a lot to organize, from the dress (that has to be fabulous) to the accommodation in Rome for your guests, from the church to the location for the party.

If you love Rome but you don’t have idea of the place where to hold the wedding reception, ask for an advice to Eur Cafè: they’ll be glad to recommend you the best solution for your party.

Eur Cafè is a cafè, restaurant and cocktail bar in Rome specialized in food catering for parties and events. They can suggest the best menu for the wedding, and organize everything with a faultless service in the location you’ve chosen or even in their own place.

Eur Cafè has a big terrace with 250 seats, so you can also choose to have there your party with music ‘til late in the night: the restaurant is placed in Eur area, close to the centre of Rome and not far from the main monuments, so it can be easy to reach for the guests.

In the website you can see some photos of a food catering, just to have a little taste of the service’s quality.
Eur Cafè is also a nice place where to spend an evening with friends for an appetizer, a pizza or an after dinner cocktail: is also restaurant, pizzeria and wine bar!

Italian version.

Sometimes happens: you visit a place, you taste local specialties, and the flavour remains in your heart, like Proust’s “madeleines”.
It’s not easy to replicate these sensations with the low quality imitations of Italian products you find around the world: if you want your friends and relatives to taste the same food you tried in Italy in summer holidays, buying them a fly ticket for Rome or Florence seems to be the only way.

But it’s not always true, and maybe this wine shop I found in the net can solve the problem to find an unusual Christmas gift for a hard to please friend: Enoteca Ducale is a family run wine shop in the very centre of Modena, with a large selection of Emilia Romagna typical products like the famous Modena’s vinegar, ham or Parmigiano cheese.

The balsamic Modena’s vinegar is made by grape must cooked with direct flame and preserved in wood barrels, and you can use it on cheese, salads, meat or fish and even on cakes: it has an unforgettable taste, soft and sweet.

Enoteca Ducale can select a range of typical products from Modena and prepare you a gift pack (and send it wherever you want) with vinegar and cheese, but also with wines like Lambrusco, Brunello di Montalcino, Barolo, liquors, jams and hand made chocolate.

Everything is so tasty that you’ll book a holiday in Modena the next time you’ll come in Italy!

Italian version.

The last summer I went to see a lyric concert with my friends in Verona, I’d never been there before.
A marvellous concert in the Arena of Verona… the sky and the stars…

What a marvellous city! It’s a little town in the heart but it has facilities and services of a metropol.
Moreover, it is the birth place of Romeo & Juliet, that’s why Verona is called the lovers’ city.

We stayed in a small B&B in the very center of the town and we had a really good time!!

It’s Ad Centrum Bed and Breakfast, its name means exactly its own position in the city! The accommodation is in the historical centre of Verona, few steps from the train station and about 400 metres from Juliet’s house.

The owners were very friendly and gave us advices about places to go and see. They have many rooms all with the classic facilities and a kitchen you can use for cooking by yourself.

It’s very pretty and quite cheap! I recommend you to visit the site for further info…

Italian version.

Booking info.