Open continuously for more than 500 years, this restaurant just a stone’s throw from the Pantheon will delight you with authentic Roman cuisine, solid and home-style.
This statement of mine may seem strange to some, but although I am not Roman by birth but only recently adopted, I have Roman cuisine in my blood. I literally adore it. Whether because of its rustic strength, or because of its historicity, or because of the widespread use of poor raw materials (the very famous quinto quarto), it has made me hopelessly in love.
And so, when they suggest that I try serious places that offer it, I go there as soon as possible. Here, La Campana is just the latest of these. Last for me, but you should know that it is the oldest in Rome, open continuously for more than 500 years, in 1518, when Giovanni de’Medici was Pope Leo X (the one who excommunicated Martin Luther), less than thirty years after Christopher Columbus discovered The Americas. Suffice it to say that the Troncassini family has “only” been running it for more than a hundred years.
Finding it is easy: a stone’s throw from the Pantheon and Piazza Navona, through a small lighted glass door, you will be cordially greeted by the waitstaff who will seat you in one of the interior rooms, furnished as they once were, with white tablecloths and old-fashioned glasses.
The menu is very classic with all the most typical Roman dishes. We sampled the fried cod fillets, artichoke alla romana and alla giudea, fried brains and artichokes, sweetbreads, broccoli and arzilla soup, rigatoni with oxtail sauce and roast suckling pig with potatoes. To finish sour cherry jam tart and a warm apple pie with vanilla ice cream. A very good, home-style dinner with some dishes of off-the-charts goodness.
The wine list, all offered at very low mark-ups, also gives good satisfaction. Of course, it lacks the super tops that some people crave, but I assure you that you can still drink very very well.
The service is very warm, down-to-earth, carried out by very experienced waiters who will always smile at you and never let you lack anything.
Finally, a word about the prices: very moderate, as I like to say, from solemn praise. And if I compare them to the many tourist plucking traps, one would cry out for revenge!
