00:00Rome is filled with greatest hits.
00:02The Colosseum, the Vatican, Trevi Fountain, the list goes on.
00:05But it's also a city layered with masterpieces of everyday Roman life.
00:12Vespas whipping through the squares.
00:15Bars where you can sip your morning coffee.
00:17I'm certainly not saying don't see the big sights.
00:20Do see them.
00:21Rome is not a city where you have to pick a lane.
00:23So definitely don't skip on the monuments.
00:26Just seek out those pockets of local Roman life that happen in between them.
00:31And I'm going to show you how to do it.
00:42So we're at Campo di Fiori, which is the very famous market in the middle of Rome.
00:46I came here for one really specific reason.
00:48It's this Forno, which is a bakery.
00:50You're going to find Fornos all over Rome.
00:52I really love this one.
00:54And I've been coming here for years.
00:55And it's for one really specific reason.
00:57I think they have the best zucchini pizza in the entire city.
01:00And it's perfect to get for just a really quick bite.
01:03They will cut you the amount that you want to eat.
01:08I got a little bit just as a snack.
01:10It's going to be perfect.
01:15It's so good.
01:16Okay.
01:17I'm going to eat this while I go explore the market.
01:26What I love about the Roman markets is that the produce here changes all the time because it's hyper-seasonal.
01:31And I'm really excited that we are here during one of my favorite seasons, which is the season for Pontarelle,
01:36which is so delicious.
01:37It's sort of the slightly bitter green that Romans love to cook.
01:41It's delicious, served hot.
01:42And also, really importantly, artichoke season.
01:45Very famous Roman carciofi, which you can see right here.
01:48I'm sure we're going to see a lot of these ingredients pop up on the plate.
02:06We're in the Trastevere neighborhood at Bar San Calisto, which is actually more of like a coffee shop.
02:13In Italy, when you say bar, you really mean like a cafe, like a place you're going to get coffee.
02:17However, this place doesn't just do coffee.
02:19Of course, you come here for coffee. It's in the morning. I'm having a coffee right now.
02:22But people come here all times of day to get Negronis, to have beers, just to like catch up.
02:28It's a nice cross-section of all the different types of people you come to find in Rome.
02:54Where to stay?
02:55On this trip, I'm staying at one of my favorite new hotels, which is part of our hot list this
03:00year.
03:00The Orient Express La Minerva.
03:04No one knows a city like the concierge.
03:06So let's go get some recommendations.
03:08Ciao, ciao!
03:10Buongiorno!
03:11To get really the feeling of Rome, you have to walk the little streets, go around, and that's the best
03:16thing to do.
03:17Apart from the biggest things like the Colosseum and the Vatican that you can do afterwards,
03:22the first thing to do is to go around and explore the neighborhood and explore the market, explore the little
03:30places around,
03:31which is more, you know, less touristic.
03:34It's so nice to do this little tour of Rome and you go and you try to find these things,
03:38but if you get lost, it almost doesn't matter.
03:42Doesn't matter because you're going to find something else.
03:43Because you'll find something else.
03:44The whole city is a treasure hunt.
03:46Yeah, nice.
03:46Yes.
03:47What I really need is a local recommendation for lunch.
03:49So where do you go?
03:50When you get to Ponte Sisto, you go to the right, towards the Trastevere area on the right side,
03:57and there is a little restaurant called Ziumberto, which means Uncle Umberto.
04:02And it's like typical Roman, paper on the table, but the food is amazing.
04:17Yes.
04:20Thank you very much.
04:21Thank you very much.
04:22Thank you very much.
04:22Thank you very much.
04:23So this is Ponte Sisto.
04:25We started the farmer's market earlier, and here they've prepared it with olive oil and some anchovy,
04:32and they put it on top of some toasted bread, kind of like a crostini.
04:35Totally delicious.
04:36I love it.
04:37It's a really great light lunch.
04:38I'm going to dig in.
04:42It is absolutely delicious.
04:46Oh, grazie, che buono.
04:48Grazie mille.
04:49So I ordered a very typical Roman pasta.
04:51I'm a Cicciana.
04:53It's really simple, like pretty much all the Roman pastas.
04:55It's just tomato, it's guanciale, and a little bit of pecorino cheese.
04:59In Rome, you always get pecorino, you don't get parmesan.
05:02It's really simple.
05:02It's really, really delicious, and this place does it very, very well.
05:05The thing is with Rome is it's sort of like trying to find the perfect Osteria, Trattoria.
05:10It's kind of like trying to find the perfect pub in London.
05:15It's not about that, right?
05:16There's so many places that are good to eat.
05:18So it's not about finding the best.
05:19It's about finding that place that feels like the right place to be in.
05:23It's relaxed.
05:24The food is good.
05:25It creates the atmosphere where you just want to keep coming back.
05:33So we're on Via di Monserrato, and this is one of my favorite streets in all of Rome.
05:37I've been coming here for years.
05:38I love it because it's filled with these wonderful independent boutiques and artisans.
05:43So I'm outside of the atelier of Gilbert Alabe.
05:47Let's go inside.
05:50Hello.
05:51Good morning.
05:52Good morning.
05:53Good morning.
05:53A lot of the experience of Via di Monserrato can inform some of your work, right?
05:58I mean, I feel like this body of work, inspired by Via di Monserrato, but I know there's like a
06:03special story behind it.
06:04Can you just talk a little bit about that?
06:06Absolutely.
06:07These three are the last three of a larger body of work.
06:11It's an exhibition entitled Un Comédie Romaine, a Roman Comédie.
06:15A comedy because for me, Rome is a stage.
06:18It's a piece of theatre.
06:20I sit outside and read, and I see all of them, the nuns and the priests and the framer and
06:26the clocheurs passing by.
06:28So I started noticing one after the other, the nuns and the priests and everything, and I started painting them.
06:33And it was a success, actually.
06:35We opened in Via di Monserrato at my arte contemporanea in the gallery, and we had the priests and nuns.
06:41We invited them to come to the opening, and they were joyous.
06:44I love it.
06:45They loved it.
06:46Rome is not an empty soul.
06:48Like other big capitals.
06:51No, it still has its anima, the story, and we, here in Vietnam, we feel it every day.
07:02You're always welcome.
07:03Ci vediamo.
07:03Ci vediamo. Ciao.
07:10We're in L'Archivio di Monserrato, which is like a treasure trove of the most gorgeous individual pieces.
07:16It's from the brilliant and creative mind of the fashion and interior designer, Soledad Twombly.
07:23And really what she does here is she takes pieces and fabrics and textiles from all over the world, and
07:28she turns them into her own creations.
07:30And every time I come in here, it's just such a joy to see.
07:33This, for example, was from my last trip to Japan.
07:36And then this is some silk, raw silk from India.
07:40And then on the other side, it's completely reversible.
07:42And on the other side...
07:43Oh my gosh, I love that.
07:44There's...
07:45Yeah, this is ikat from...
07:46Cape.
07:47Yeah, this is ikat from Korea.
07:49We make everything in Rome.
07:50I supervise all the cutting.
07:52I do most of the handmade work.
07:55Hopefully, Italy will keep on making, you know, wonderful, one-of-a-kind things.
07:59So you're trying to preserve that sense of craftsmanship, and that sort of means taking...
08:03It's the core of Italy.
08:05Yeah.
08:05This is so beautiful.
08:11Amazing.
08:12You look beautiful.
08:13Such a pleasure.
08:15See you soon, I hope.
08:17So we're at Chez de Dey on Vélie Montserrat.
08:20This is the shop that kind of started it all on this street.
08:23And what they're trying to do with Chez de Dey is they're bringing something to Rome
08:26that they thought was lacking in the city.
08:28And that is the sort of idea of like a modern design concept store.
08:32I am obsessed with foulard.
08:33I never go out without a foulard, you know.
08:35Oh yeah, so it's your signature.
08:36For me, it's like maybe a dream.
08:39I always think that everyone is much, always more stylish with a foulard than without.
08:47What do you think?
08:48Look at that.
08:49Tarouëlle.
08:51Yeah?
08:51Yes, it's fantastic.
08:53I mean, it's the perfect souvenir.
08:54Yes.
08:54I love it.
08:55It is, yes.
08:56And somehow Chez de Dey has a modern rehab of the old style of souvenir, you know.
09:03A souvenir in the past was something very precious because very few could afford to travel.
09:09Yeah.
09:10You know, it was not like now.
09:12Rome belongs to everyone who loves her.
09:15I say her because for me, Rome is a woman.
09:19A woman that sometimes makes some bad adjustment on her face, you know.
09:24Some refill or something.
09:26But she's still beautiful.
09:28You can see she's beautiful over there, you know.
09:30Oh yeah.
09:31But yes, it's definitely a woman.
09:37The Orient Express La Minerva in one word, exquisite.
09:40I can't think of another recent opening in Rome that is as effortlessly stylish.
09:45I love the design here.
09:47Suites have these classic nods to the glamour age of travel.
09:50And throughout the lobby and common spaces are old relics from the Orient Express archives.
09:55But what will keep me coming back here is definitely the location.
09:59It is so rare to find a hotel of this quality literally within steps of one of the world's greatest
10:05monuments.
10:16We're on the seventh floor rooftop bar at La Minerva Hotel.
10:19It is a stunning spot.
10:21Not just because the way they've done this terrace is absolutely exquisite, but because you see all of Rome from
10:27like the skyline angle up here.
10:29Basically any famous monument in Rome, you can see its dome from this spot.
10:33And what I really love is you still get this slice of Rome in life.
10:36We can hear little kids playing soccer down in the square below and I feel like nothing is more perfect
10:40than that.
10:41But aperitif was a really important custom in Italy.
10:43It happens every day.
10:46It's essentially happy hour, you know, starts in the early evening, ends before dinner.
10:51And this is the time where people get together, they chat, they have a drink.
10:53And they kind of just let loose, you know, at the end of the day and sort of celebrate the
10:57end of the day.
10:58With dinner in Italy, it's very important to remember you're not drinking cocktails or drinking wine, maybe beer if it's
11:03a pizza.
11:04This is when you get the Negroni.
11:05I personally always get a Negroni, I just think it's always appropriate.
11:08And what's important to know about aperitivo is it's always served with a little bit of food.
11:12In this case, we have great snacks.
11:15So they have these meaty, amazing olives that are my favorite.
11:19Delicious spiced almonds.
11:21And then just some little potato chips.
11:23So really good food for just snacking, when you chat.
11:26Yeah, it's just always something I really look forward to at the end of every day in Italy.
11:32Ooh, perfect Negroni.
11:42So we're a little bit outside the Cinto Storico and we've come here for this restaurant, Santo Palato, which is
11:49such an exciting restaurant from a chef named Sara Ciccolini,
11:52who basically takes these amazing Roman techniques with using the offal, the off cuts of the meat, and she creates
11:58a really wonderful, satisfying modern cuisine with it.
12:01It's such a unique way of doing the meat and it's just delicious.
12:06You don't chase this anywhere else.
12:08For me, it's important to come to these places, not just because they're amazing and it shows new faces doing
12:14fresh things with the food here,
12:15but also to remind all of the visitors to Rome that Rome doesn't end in the Centro Storico.
12:20There are so many areas like San Giovanni and elsewhere that it's really worth coming to where amazing, creative things
12:26are happening.
12:30Another trip to Rome in the books.
12:32Thanks for coming along and I truly hope this has inspired you to keep your eyes open for the real
12:37Rome on your next trip to the Eternal City.
12:39For more on this year's Hot List winners, head to cntraveler.com.
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