Historic wine shop, lunch tables · €€
Thirty-five metres from the hotel door, a wine shop in what its own site says was the coach-house of the Cavalcabò marquesses, pouring since 1969 and, by its own account, the first in Rome to pour fine wines, with its early-1900s counters intact. Since 1997 it has run a lunchtime restaurant among the shelves, every day by its own account, with dinner on Fridays and Saturdays; it publishes no hours, so ring.
Walk inVia di Ripetta 19
Roman Abruzzese trattoria since 1965 · €
Two doors down, the neighbourhood's trattoria: small, cheap by this street's standards, and Roman with an Abruzzese accent, so tonnarelli and fettuccine made in house, carbonara and cacio e pepe, and arrosticini beside the saltimbocca. In season the regulars come for porcini. Its own site gives noon to 3pm and 7pm to 11pm, with Wednesday closed.
Walk inVia di Ripetta 32
Roman trattoria, open every day · €€
The other trattoria on the block, and the one to book for dinner. Classic Roman cooking with carefully chosen ingredients by its own account, and prices its own site prints: carbonara 13 euros, tonnarelli cacio e pepe 14, tiramisù 10. Open every day, lunch from noon to 3.30pm and dinner from 7pm to 11pm, late enough for a table after the roof.
Reserve aheadVia di Ripetta 36
Emilian classic on the piazza · €€€
The grand table of the square, three generations of the Tomaselli family, who came to Piazza del Popolo by way of Casablanca and kept it Emilian: tagliatelle al ragù, tortellini in brodo and the bolliti trolley its own site calls rare and much loved. Tables outside on the piazza and a dress code the site asks you to respect. The site publishes no hours, so book.
Book well ahead: tables go weeks outPiazza del Popolo 1
Hotel bar with secret garden · €€
The answer to the roof being shut. Hotel Locarno opened in 1925 and its bar, open daily from 7am to 1am, publishes no guests-only line: a dark room, a courtyard garden its site calls a secret and keeps open all year, cocktails by Nicholas Pinna, and a kitchen under Domenico Smargiassi that its site says serves all day.
Walk inVia della Penna 22
Vegetarian restaurant and gallery, 1979 · €€
Italy's first vegetarian restaurant by its own account, opened in 1979 on the artists' street behind the hotel, with a gallery on the walls and an organic kitchen. The numbers are the reason to know it: a weekday buffet at 18 euros, a menu of the day at 16, and a Green Brunch on Saturdays and Sundays from 12.30pm to 4pm. Its site gives 10.30am to 11.30pm daily.
Walk inVia Margutta 118
Roman osteria and amaro bar · €€€
Nine minutes down the same street, on the ground floor of an eighteenth-century palazzo with tables outside towards the Ara Pacis: a Roman osteria under chef Daniele Roppo with a bar built on amaro, over 600 Italian labels by its own count, which is the reason to walk this far. Open every day from 12.30pm to 2am, kitchen until 11.30pm, aperitivo 6.30pm to 9pm; where the evening goes when the hotel's bars close at midnight.
Reserve aheadVia di Ripetta 162
Breakfast is included on every rate, and it is Alain Ducasse's: an à la carte menu of viennoiseries, eggs cooked to order and sweet and savoury plates, from 7am to 10.30am and until 11am on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, guests only; guests report it as the high point of the stay. For a counter coffee, Bar Locarno opens at 7am, three minutes away.
The cafés with terraces on Piazza del Popolo itself and the restaurants with photographed menus along the Corso. You pay for the square twice, once at the hotel and once at the table, and the second time the plate is not worth it.
