Where to eat at and around Hotel San Anselmo

You are at the top of the Aventine, on a square with a Benedictine church and monastery walls, where almost nothing is open within five minutes of the door. The villa has a small bar and room service until midnight, and the group's dining room is a few metres away, unnamed on its own pages and with hours it does not publish. Real eating is down the hill in Testaccio, which begins at Via Marmorata, six minutes below the door.

The bar

The tables at this hotel that are a reason to come, and how hard they are to get.

Small panelled bar off the hall; drinks carried to the lounge, terrace or garden

A dark little room off the entrance hall with boiserie panelling, a metal counter and, by most accounts, two or three stools, which is the honest measure of it. It is a service rather than a destination, and the point is that you are not expected to drink there: order at the counter and take the glass into the lounge by the metal-faced fireplace, out to the tiled front terrace, or down the steps into the garden, which is where it is worth having on a warm evening. It opens at seven in the morning and closes at midnight, and room service runs on the same hours. There is no restaurant in the building; the group keeps a dining room a few metres away at the sister hotel, with hours it does not publish, and otherwise dinner is a walk down the hill.

Walk in

On our shortlists

Within ten minutes on foot

Trattoria Perilli
7 min walk
Family-run Roman trattoria since 1911 · €€
The first door at the bottom of the hill and the oldest here: the Perilli family has run it on Via Marmorata since 1911, four generations on, and its own site says so and takes bookings by telephone. The cooking is the Roman tradition its site promises, and nothing else. Its own site gives lunch 12:15 to 15:00 and dinner 19:15 to 22:30, closed on Sunday evening and all day Monday.
Reserve aheadVia Marmorata 39
Apuleius
6 min walk
Aventine restaurant, fish and truffles · €€€
The only serious dinner on the hill itself. Its own site dates it to 1955 in one place and the early 1960s in another, with a few tables and a kitchen that cooks to order under an owner who took it on in 2005. Fish leads, there is a seasonal truffle list, the wine is local labels only in its own words, and on the 2026 menu carbonara is 16 euros and mains 20 to 30. Tuesday to Saturday, Sunday lunch only.
Reserve aheadVia del Tempio di Diana 15
Volpetti
7 min walk
Delicatessen for lunch to carry · €
The salumeria at the foot of the hill, on Via Marmorata since 1973: cured meats, cheeses, bread and a wide choice of wine, sold to take away. It is the answer to lunch on the hill, where almost nothing is open: carry it up to the Giardino degli Aranci and eat it above the river. Its own site gives Monday to Saturday 09:00 to 20:30, Sunday closed.
Walk inVia Marmorata 47
Felice a Testaccio
9 min walk
Roman trattoria since 1936, booked · €€
The trattoria the quarter is known for, on Via Mastro Giorgio since 1936, and the one to book before you fly. The dish is the cacio e pepe, tossed at the table, which its own site is candid about being famous for; the rest is the Roman list. Open every day, lunch 12:30 to 15:30 and dinner 19:00 to 23:30, with an online booking page.
Book well ahead: tables go weeks outVia Mastro Giorgio 29
Taverna Volpetti
9 min walk
Wine bar and kitchen, Testaccio · €€
The taverna that shares the deli's name, a street behind the shop: cheeses and cured meats from the salumeria on boards, Roman plates from the kitchen. Its own site says 1973 and gives Tuesday to Saturday 12:30 to 15:30 and 19:00 to 23:00, Sunday lunch only, Monday closed. A glass and a plate rather than three courses.
Reserve aheadVia Alessandro Volta 8

Breakfast

Breakfast is included in every category: a buffet that its listings describe as cheeses, cured meats, eggs, pastries and fruit, taken in a gilded dining room or, in warm weather, laid in the garden the hotel's own photographs show, and the facilities page says it will bring it to your room at no extra charge. For a second coffee at a counter, Pasticceria Barberini at Via Marmorata 41, seven minutes down, opens at six every day by its own site, until 21:00 Monday to Saturday and 20:00 on Sunday.

What to skip

Do not build an evening around the group's restaurant a few metres away. The hotel's page says it exists; nothing on the group's site names it, says when it opens or what it serves, and the sister hotel's facilities page does not list it. Ask at reception on the day, and have Testaccio as the plan.

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Questions people ask

Good questions about Hotel San Anselmo

Where can I eat near Hotel San Anselmo?

Where should I eat at Hotel San Anselmo?

The bar. A dark little room off the entrance hall with boiserie panelling, a metal counter and, by most accounts, two or three stools, which is the honest measure of it. It is a service rather than a destination, and the point is that you are not expected to drink there: order at the counter and take the glass into the lounge by the metal-faced fireplace, out to the tiled front terrace, or down the steps into the garden, which is where it is worth having on a warm evening. It opens at seven in the morning and closes at midnight, and room service runs on the same hours. There is no restaurant in the building; the group keeps a dining room a few metres away at the sister hotel, with hours it does not publish, and otherwise dinner is a walk down the hill.

Our verdict

Book it for the Aventine and the villa, not for facilities it does not have. A themed Double with a balcony, breakfast in the garden and dinner walked down to Testaccio, at a rate that leaves the money for the city. Check the square metres and the room number first.

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Last checked: September 2026

Hotel San Anselmo · From about

€95 a night

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