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When the dinner bells rings--around 8:30--consider traveling west across the Tiber on the Argentina tram to Trastevere. Trastevere
is Rome's Brooklyn combining the older neighborhood folk with a generous salting of international artists. The mix makes for
lively restaurants plus late evening shopping, pastry nibbling and general milling around. In the Piazza Trilussa (named for
a local poet-shows you the priorities of the neighborhood!), look for Ferrara, an up-scale, chic enoteca/restaurant with exceptional
food.
An a few more recommendations:
One restaurant in Trastevere offers a unique dining experience: Spirito di Vino (Vicolo dell'Atleta, 13). Run by a retired
executive & his family, this restaurant is housed in an ancient building on what may have been the site of one of the
first Etruscan settlements in Italy. In the 1850's, the Apoxymenos (a Greek athelete), one of the most famous sculptures of
antiquity was re-discovered in the basement of this building. (The street was named for this discovery.) The sculpture--a
Roman copy of the Hellenistic Greek original by Lysippus--is now in the Vatican Museum. Customers get to tour this extraordinary
building--also the home of the first synagogue in Rome--between superb food courses ranging from prunes wrapped in grilled
prosciutto to cacio e pepe (a typical Roman peppery pasta) to beef in fennel sauce to truffle-laced cheese. The prices are
moderate and the experience is delightful.
http://www.spiritodivino.com/
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