Thanks! This thread was super helpful. FWIW, in case helpful in the future for others, here’s what we ended up changing:
a few folks wondered whether all the meals would be too much food, but rather than eliminate meals, we substituted in a few seafood places that sounded amazing and offer up lighter fare
La Gensola was one of the seafood places that seemed to be a can’t mass and we subbed it out for Tram Tram which was probably the most divisive restaurant we had on the original list.
We’re gonna do Emma for lunch and Roscioli for dinner, as the kids love Pizza and while it’s a dinner thing for Italians, it felt like a somewhat lighter meal we could do for lunch to carbo load for a long day of walking!
Rather than hit both Mercato Centrale’s, we subbed the MC in Rome out for Testaccio given both MC’s have significant overlap in food vendors
In another attempt to do more seafood - we subbed in Il Tempio Di Iside for Trattoria Monti
Rather than double up on Tamero, although my wife is a pasta fiend, we subbed out the dinner at Tamero for Antico Bottaio which again got rave reviews
I am so excited… cannot wait to see Italy again. Even just clicking on menus and seeing italian words has me salivating, lol.
I don’t think many if any of the vendors at the Testaccio market are anywhere else. They’re small independent shops that are there every day.
Emma is not just a pizzeria, that’s just a small part of the menu. Roscioli is really cramped and uncomfortable. They just squeezed a bunch of patio furniture into a deli to turn it into a restaurant. I don’t understand why anyone eats there with Emma a couple of blocks away.
I had lunch at Rimessa Roscioli on the patio/street, but I guess that’s a Sunday only thing. Isn’t Rimessa a full service restaurant though, and not a converted deli?
From the photos on Yelp, Rimessa has regular tables and chairs, looks way more comfortable than Salumeria Roscioli but less so than Emma. Reportedly it was conceived by a sommelier and is focused on fixed menus with wine pairings.
I think in this context “rimessa” means something like storehouse, hence the walls covered with shelves of wine bottles.
It’s down the road towards the river from the og/salumeria. They present it as their wine concept but it’s full service and has nice outdoor seating like Emma. Menu appears more limited than the salumeria.
That piazza is beautiful. Unfortunately it’s the only positive thing to say about Pierliugi. It’s not horrible just thoroughly average in a city with spectacular food.
We just disagree. Appeal to authority, but I found Katie Parla’s guides pretty useful and her taste hard to impeach. She’s not a fan either. But all good, difference of opinion.
No one who’s eaten at a lot of places in Rome would have called my meal a Pierluigi average. Since it was in 2015 I’d say maybe I’m out of date, but looking at their Yelp reviews it seems like the place has always been really inconsistent. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so many one- and five-star reviews for one place.
Funny coincidence, I mentioned Piccolo Abruzzo here and the next day a friend who ate there with us brought it up out of the blue.
