Prati is the XXII Rione of Rome, one of the districts in the city center. To get our bearings, using reference points that any minimally informed tourist would know: on the other side of the Tiber, in relation to the heart of the historic center; on the same side as Trastevere, but between Monte Mario and Saint Peter’s. It is also known as the neighborhood of notaries and lawyers. Most of the times I have had to spend time there, it has been precisely to visit one or the other. I suppose that is why I find Prati quite unpleasant. Even so, I must admit that it is stately, pleasant, and very orderly in terms of urban design, especially in comparison to the rest of the center of Rome. It is worth a little stroll, even if it doesn’t stand out for its number of Roman tourist points of interest per square meter. (Don’t be fooled by the district’s emblem.
Castel Sant’ Angelo is right there, but outside the limits of Prati). For all those who are not happy if they go on a trip to a capital city and don’t dedicate an entire afternoon to shopping, I recommend taking a walk along Via Cola di Rienzo, the most commercial avenue in the district, where, by the way, Castroni opened its first store. If you are interested in food, take a look, because it is the most famous chain in Rome for quality Italian delicacies, also stocked with a basic selection of products from all over the world.
Our last visit to Prati had no other motive than to return to Velavevodetto ai Quiriti, in Piazza dei Quiriti. I didn’t know it was the Prati branch of Flavio al Velavevodetto in Testaccio, a restaurant I have never been to, but which seems to enjoy a certain prestige among the Osterie of Rome. The place is very pleasant and the clientele is not very noisy. I don’t know if it’s because, as the waiter told us, it is very frequented by lawyers, and, I would add, I suppose that by dinner time their verbosity has already run out. The staff, unlike so many restaurants in other busier areas with the same prices, neither overwhelms you with caricatured representations of the friendly Roman waiter, nor treats you like cattle. Pleasantly correct, something that I personally appreciate quite a lot.
The dishes they offer are from an authentic Roman osteria, but, following the same line, without those kitsch elements that some tourists need for their photo-certificate of Rome. The list of antipasti is short and typical, but whatever you pick, you’re sure to get it right. Unfortunately, they had run out of anchovies and I couldn’t have the burrata bruschetta with anchovy. I have very good memories of it, but I was as happy as a clam with the fried artichoke slices and the buffalo mozzarella that I shared. What can I say. When you use good quality products, you don’t need to complicate your life much to make the clientele happy.
First courses = Delicious typical Roman pasta. My tagliatelle were so well tossed with the artichoke and guanciale, without the slightest excess of oil, but all the flavor of the guanciale, that I didn’t go into the kitchen to kiss the cook, because I didn’t want to get kicked out, but I don’t want to lie, the star of the night was: I RIGATONI CON LA PAGLIATA, or pajata, as they call it in Romanesco. Warning: The pasta with pagliata contains an ingredient that could hurt the sensibilities of slightly impressionable people, to whom I allow to skip the rest of the paragraph. At the risk of being labeled an apprentice of Andrew Zimmern, I present to you a pasta dish with ragu of pieces of small intestine of veal or suckling lamb and its contents: the chyme, the milk that the little animal has digested. Let Alberto Sordi tell you about it, maybe it will be clearer to you. The meat dishes of traditional Roman cuisine are almost always based on the least attractive parts of the animals, since we are talking about a cuisine of very humble origins, made with what the working class had at their disposal.
I tried it out of pride, so that no one could tell me that I didn’t make the necessary sacrifices to fully know Roman cuisine, because the truth is that knowing what was in there gave me, as someone I knew used to say, “intense disgust.” Opinion: Delicious. I thought it would be like chewing a viscous rubber tube, full of sour cheese. Not at all, it is quite tender and its flavor is quite delicate. I barely noticed the filling, only as if in the middle of the sauce’s flavor you could feel some touches of something similar to ricotta. If you manage to forget what it is, you must try it and, according to the opinion of my companion, a Roman through and through, at Velavevodetto they cook it very well.
For the second course, they also let you choose between Roman classics, but I can’t recommend any of them, because we haven’t tried them. With antipasti and a first course, we have always been quite full. What I can tell you is that the little spoonfuls of homemade tiramisu that I stole from my companion were excellent. As contradictory as it may seem, talking about the dessert we are talking about, it wasn’t cloying and no flavor predominated stridently, without letting you appreciate the others.
The only painful part comes with the bill.
It is not cheap, and even less so in a city where you can eat very well without spending as much as in most Spanish capitals. The antipasti are around 10 euros and the pasta, an average of 13 euros. It is difficult to leave there paying less than 30 euros per person, but I consider them a very good investment.
