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Three Real Roman Trattorias: Eat As the Real Romans Do

When people tell me about the bad meals they've had in Rome I sigh and wish they'd sought some expert advice before traveling to the Eternal City, which has about 1,001 lousy restaurants, trattorias, osterias and the like. Luckily Rome also has about 1,001 really wonderful places to eat. You've just got to know where and how to find them.

Here are three of my favorites, shared with you by my latest assignment for Travora.com. Be warned, I do not go in for creative cooking, nuova cucina, or the muddled fusion stuff so many budding chefs are trying out in Rome. If you like play-with-your-food meals you won't like my book, my blog, or me. And that's fine. There's plenty of room for trendy people and vapid, silly, trendy food that has lots of entertainment value (I'm told).

Here's the lede and a link in case you'd like to read about the great Gino and others…

 

 

Are you sitting down? My claim: Rome may well be Italy’s greatest eating city. Yes, Rome. Florence, Genoa, Milan and Naples will deny my claim with knives and forks drawn. But there’s no other place in Italy that offers the range of eating experiences you get in the Eternal City—from the sublime to the ridiculous. Few cities have fresher, better produce, meat, fish, and specialty foods than Rome. Rome is rich, is Italy’s capital, and is also populated by its most demanding eaters.

Given the bounty it may surprise cosmopolitan outsiders that most Romans eschew the temples of contemporary, creative cooking and head to beloved traditional trattorias, among the simplest and most authentic category of Roman eatery. Why? Because lunch or dinner at a family-run trattoria is the closest you can get to a Roman grandmother’s food.

 

KEEP READING

And if you want to break that piggy bank and actually buy the book (it only took me 15 years to put together), here's a clickable image. Buon appetito!

 

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