Fresh pasta counter, cheap, quick · €
Three minutes from the door on Via Baccina, a small room turning out fresh pasta in the Roman canon: tonnarelli alla carbonara at 12 euros, mezze maniche all'amatriciana at 13 and a spaghetto al pomodoro at 10 on its own menu, in portions its menu states at a minimum of 250 grams. Its own site gives 12:30 to 15:30 and 19:00 to 21:30, closed Tuesday. Lunch after the Forum, not a long dinner.
Walk inVia Baccina 42
Family-run Roman trattoria, four generations · €€
A family trattoria run for more than twenty years, four generations deep in the trade by its own account, three minutes down the hill on Via della Madonna dei Monti. The four Roman classics, amatriciana, carbonara, gricia and cacio e pepe, are 14 euros on its own menu, with gluten-free versions at 2 euros more, and the fritto misto is the starter to share. Its listings give Tuesday as the closing day. Book for dinner.
Reserve aheadVia della Madonna dei Monti 9
Wood-fired Roman pizzeria with fritti · €
The pizzeria a few doors from La Taverna on the same street, four minutes from the door. It has no website of its own; its listings give thin Roman pizza from a wood-fired oven with supplì and fried courgette flowers before it, a lunch and an evening service and a courtyard at the back. Go early or expect to wait, and do not expect to book.
Walk inVia della Madonna dei Monti 95
Historic enoteca with Italian-French menus · €€€
A wine shop with a kitchen on Via Cavour, four minutes from the door, with an Italian and French menu. Its own site prices the tasting menu at 35 euros for three courses at lunch and 75 for five at dinner, with starters at 18 to 20, pastas at 20 to 22 and mains at 22 to 30, and makes the tasting menu compulsory for six or more. Tuesday to Saturday, 12 to 15 and 18 to 23. The table here for a proper evening.
Reserve aheadVia Cavour 313
Wine bar open since 1895 · €€
The vineria on Via Panisperna that its own site dates to at least 1895, with the American vine across the front and painted wooden panels from the early 1900s inside, seven minutes up the hill. It pours by the glass with plates to match and takes no reservations at all, its site says so in terms, so turn up before eight. Open every day from noon to midnight. The stop between the Forum and dinner.
Walk inVia Panisperna 251
Seasonal Roman bistro since 2008 · €€
On Via Urbana, the shopping street of Monti, eight minutes from the door: a bistro open since 2008 that its own site builds around small producers, seasonality and Lazio ingredients, from an aged stracchino with chilli jam to a cheeseburger of local beef on a house-made milk bun with pecorino and guanciale. Its site gives Tuesday as the weekly closing day and a breakfast service from ten in the morning. Book for dinner.
Reserve aheadVia Urbana 47
Natural gelato, the Monti branch · €
The Monti branch of a Roman gelateria that its own site builds on natural ingredients, on Piazza degli Zingari seven minutes uphill. It is the pudding after any of the tables above and the reason to walk up rather than down after dinner. Its site lists the shop and its phone but no hours; its listings give an afternoon and evening opening.
Walk inPiazza degli Zingari 5
Breakfast is a buffet, served in the top-floor lounge or out on the terrace over the roofs towards the Forums, and recent guests raise it more often than they raise the ruins; the lounge opens at a quarter to seven and pours an aperitivo from five to eight. Check whether your rate includes it. For a second coffee at a counter, the bars on Piazza della Madonna dei Monti are four minutes down the hill.
The restaurants with terraces and photographed menus along Via dei Fori Imperiali and around Largo Corrado Ricci, facing the Forums. They sell the view you already have from the hotel's roof, and everything above is three to eight minutes in the other direction.
