Antica Osteria Rugantino

Eating outside has always been expensive, and when you want to do that in Rome it's even more expensive. But this is not the only problem: the problem is finding a place that actually serves good food.

Yes, Rome is the Italian capital, but I can ensure you that it doesn't mean anything. As Rome is always full of tourists, sometimes restaurants are pricey and serve low-quality stuff, because whoever comes thinks that it is good food. Nope.

As I was traveling in Rome last year and I'm a teenager, I was trying to find a cheap but good looking place to eat with my American brother and we found Antica Osteria Rugantino, in Trastevere.

This area has always been known for the food, I am not from Rome and I do not know if the situation has changed, but we decided to give this place a try. The menu showed us affordable prices so we sat down. The staff was nice and wore a typical Roman costume and the dishes on the other tables looked tasty. We also ordered wine because we are fancy people (no, we just wanted to celebrate us being together in Rome - and also the good deal we found).

When I saw our pasta coming I was already eating it with my eyes and then we asked a waiter to take a picture of us. All of the sudden, while we were eating, a lady arrived and started playing some songs in Roman dialect. It was kind of weird. She was basically swearing and making fun of the clients. To be honest I think it is nice when the show is breaf. Tourists do not understand, but she should not have been singing for so long. Anyway it is something local and it is good that my American brother experienced it even though he is only able to say "Ciao" in Italian and I'm sure he did not understand a single word she was saying. Me as well I found hard to understand everything.

The bill came and it was surprising to see that we didn't spend a lot. We ate outside other times before, in Verona and Venice, but this one was way cheaper than our previous meals. We were so excited that we came back two or three times during our stay in Rome. It is a good memory of our Vacanze Romane. The location, as I said, is also nice so after our dinners there we went for a walk and we looked the city getting darker and full of lights. Later in the night, close to the restaurant, we took a bus which brought us back to our B&B. And once we got there, our vacation was sadly over.