Places to sit down in Rome for a couple of hours?
March 1, 2018 12:08 PM Subscribe
Help me park my butt! Where can I kill time in Central Rome for a couple of hours in the afternoon while waiting for a ride?
MetaFilter, give me your kitschy piazza cafes, roof bars, or picturesque cloisters! My husband and I are taking a Mediterranean cruise in a few months and will spend one day in Rome (I know, it isn't enough, etc). Because it's just the day, rather than join a big bus tour and sprint from one sight to the next, we've arranged to get driven from the port to the city and dropped off, then picked up and taken back from the location of our choice.
Said husband isn't a walker. I could gladly wander from one thing to the next all day, but my husband is going to get sore feet and almost certainly going to lose patience and interest and physical ability in walking before it's time for the ride back to port to arrive. What are some pleasant places that we could sit at for a couple of hours if need be and get picked up from? I am happy to throw money at the problem and order a series of drinks and snacks to get us through the afternoon, since we'll probably be hungry and thirsty anyway, although I am going to basically make this day a string of drinks/meals connected by walks past tourist sights. I'd love it if it was NEAR interesting things, in case I park the husband and collect him closer to drive-time. Or a place from which we can see lovely scenery and read. I just don't want to get trapped in a McDonald's. I spent way too much time in a Starbucks in Tulum once waiting for a ride, and for the amount of money I am paying to be in Rome, I'd rather not repeat the experience.
MetaFilter, give me your kitschy piazza cafes, roof bars, or picturesque cloisters! My husband and I are taking a Mediterranean cruise in a few months and will spend one day in Rome (I know, it isn't enough, etc). Because it's just the day, rather than join a big bus tour and sprint from one sight to the next, we've arranged to get driven from the port to the city and dropped off, then picked up and taken back from the location of our choice.
Said husband isn't a walker. I could gladly wander from one thing to the next all day, but my husband is going to get sore feet and almost certainly going to lose patience and interest and physical ability in walking before it's time for the ride back to port to arrive. What are some pleasant places that we could sit at for a couple of hours if need be and get picked up from? I am happy to throw money at the problem and order a series of drinks and snacks to get us through the afternoon, since we'll probably be hungry and thirsty anyway, although I am going to basically make this day a string of drinks/meals connected by walks past tourist sights. I'd love it if it was NEAR interesting things, in case I park the husband and collect him closer to drive-time. Or a place from which we can see lovely scenery and read. I just don't want to get trapped in a McDonald's. I spent way too much time in a Starbucks in Tulum once waiting for a ride, and for the amount of money I am paying to be in Rome, I'd rather not repeat the experience.
I thought that Capitoline Hill, right in front of the Roman Forum which leads to the Colosseum, to be a lovely place to be for a while. The Roman Forum (formerly the center of the Roman empire, complete with Caesar's grave!) is a lovely bit of green space.
posted by jillithd at 12:29 PM on March 1, 2018
posted by jillithd at 12:29 PM on March 1, 2018
anywhere in the center, when your husband gets tired, there will be a piazza with outdoor restaurants nearby. No reason to think it will be kitschy: this - public spaces for people to congregate - is what piazzas are actually for.
There is a corridor that the one-day tourists tend to stream along, running from the Spanish steps to the Trevi Fountain, forking either south towards the Colosseum or west towards Piazza Navona. This corridor is going to be unpleasantly crowded, so consider taking smaller streets, even if you do want to get to these spots. Just one small block off that corridor and you'll be in much more pleasant areas.
Table service costs more than standing at the bar, just FYI when you're reading the menu.
posted by fingersandtoes at 12:29 PM on March 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
There is a corridor that the one-day tourists tend to stream along, running from the Spanish steps to the Trevi Fountain, forking either south towards the Colosseum or west towards Piazza Navona. This corridor is going to be unpleasantly crowded, so consider taking smaller streets, even if you do want to get to these spots. Just one small block off that corridor and you'll be in much more pleasant areas.
Table service costs more than standing at the bar, just FYI when you're reading the menu.
posted by fingersandtoes at 12:29 PM on March 1, 2018 [2 favorites]
Right near the Spanish Steps, Alla Rampa is so lovely for this. When I traveled there it was in on the tail end of a long trip and we went there for lunch, ate, ordered bottle after bottle of wine, and ended up staying all the way through dinner also. Great people watching, great service (though it was 12 years ago I was last there, but the restaurant is still there!), nice outdoor seating with an awning for shade.
posted by greta simone at 12:33 PM on March 1, 2018
posted by greta simone at 12:33 PM on March 1, 2018
I'd definitely choose the Piazza at the Pantheon as my starting point in your situation. You can stay at a café in the piazza all afternoon, or you can move from there to the Piazza Navona, the Campo di Fiori, the Café St. Eustacio (Rome's best coffee) and perhaps the St. Ignazio during your time, all depending on your mood. All of these places have cafés and/or restaurants. And they all have amazing monuments or interesting places to visit right next by.
The Pantheon is obvious, but just a few steps away is Rome's only Gothic church, Sta. Maria Sopra Minerva. If you're having lunch, have it at Pietro al Pantheon, just down a side street, or have it at da Sabatino al sant' Ignazio just five minutes away, they have a big terrasse, and the church on that piazza is quite amazing, as is the piazza itself. Near the Piazza Navona is a little church: Sta Maria della Pace. The church in itself is nothing special for Rome, but the Piazza in front of it, and the little cloister in the back of it are both world-class attractions. The monastery is now a modern art gallery with a fine café.
The Piazza di Sant' Eustachio, with the famous coffee, is right next to the Sapienza, Rome's first university, and you can enter the courtyard from the Piazza and see the facade and spiral tower of the university church, Sant' Ivo. The pizza place on that piazza is very good too.
The longest walk to anything on this list is to the Campo di Fiori — ten minutes from Pantheon. It's the oldest market in town, but in the afternoon most of the stalls will be gone. Still it's worth visiting for the folksy contrast to all the monuments and expensive shops and eateries of the other places. Some of the side streets have all kinds of little shops, not only with food and drink, but also clothes, shoes and jewelry.
All of these places have plenty of tourists, because Rome, but they also have lots of locals, there is a lovely atmosphere throughout. For several years we went to Rome with my gran in a wheelchair, and this was the area we preferred to stay in because it has lots of attractions, is accessible and not as crowded as the parts near the Spanish Steps and the Trevi.
posted by mumimor at 4:11 PM on March 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
The Pantheon is obvious, but just a few steps away is Rome's only Gothic church, Sta. Maria Sopra Minerva. If you're having lunch, have it at Pietro al Pantheon, just down a side street, or have it at da Sabatino al sant' Ignazio just five minutes away, they have a big terrasse, and the church on that piazza is quite amazing, as is the piazza itself. Near the Piazza Navona is a little church: Sta Maria della Pace. The church in itself is nothing special for Rome, but the Piazza in front of it, and the little cloister in the back of it are both world-class attractions. The monastery is now a modern art gallery with a fine café.
The Piazza di Sant' Eustachio, with the famous coffee, is right next to the Sapienza, Rome's first university, and you can enter the courtyard from the Piazza and see the facade and spiral tower of the university church, Sant' Ivo. The pizza place on that piazza is very good too.
The longest walk to anything on this list is to the Campo di Fiori — ten minutes from Pantheon. It's the oldest market in town, but in the afternoon most of the stalls will be gone. Still it's worth visiting for the folksy contrast to all the monuments and expensive shops and eateries of the other places. Some of the side streets have all kinds of little shops, not only with food and drink, but also clothes, shoes and jewelry.
All of these places have plenty of tourists, because Rome, but they also have lots of locals, there is a lovely atmosphere throughout. For several years we went to Rome with my gran in a wheelchair, and this was the area we preferred to stay in because it has lots of attractions, is accessible and not as crowded as the parts near the Spanish Steps and the Trevi.
posted by mumimor at 4:11 PM on March 1, 2018 [3 favorites]
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posted by Rock Steady at 12:27 PM on March 1, 2018 [2 favorites]