Eating in Rome

Our experience in Venice was that you could walk in to any restaurant and get great food, and the house wine was great as well (the region produces cabernet and merlot, of all things). In Rome? Well, not so much...

The Tourist Menu: The closer you are to a major site, the more likely you are to see the infamous Tourist Menu. It's fairly cheap - 10 euro for pizza, spaghetti or lasagna, plus a drink and dessert. And it's not awful, it's certainly filling, but it's also not very good. Even without the Tourist Menu you will see menu after menu with the same choices on it, so it gets a little tiresome.

The Wine: Our experience so far has been that the "house" wine (red anyway) is not always the best choice. Two evenings of that and we decided to order bottles even if we couldn't drink it all. Definitely the smart choice - had a nice dolcetto Friday and a superb near d'avolo last night.