I’m slowly sharing all of the amazing experiences I had visiting Rome last week with my man and son!
Necci
We stayed with our friends in a non-central area of Rome called Pignetto (I’ve written about it here), and if you want to do as the Roman’s do when in Pignetto, you go to Necci’s! Necci is a historic osteria turned bar, café and restaurant serving breakfast, lunch, dinner and everything in between.
During the week you’ll find the creative types from all the studios around lunching here and on the weekend the place is filled with couples, groups of friends and families seeking a freshly squeezed blood orange juice and “American Style” muffins!
We managed to be out of the apartment before 10 am (practically a miracle for both of our families) so before we made our way to the zoo we stopped in for breakfast (almost lunch) at Necci’s.
This place is famous amongst the locals and non-locals and was where Pasolini filmed his first film. It also burnt to the ground a few years ago and has since been completely renovated and has a very cool retro diner atmosphere.
One of the special things about Necci is that they are open 7 DAYS A WEEK! Very rare in Italy, where often on Sunday’s you can find yourself without any lunch options, especially outside of the major tourist areas. I’ve written a bit here about the importance of Saturdays and why you should plan your weekend around Saturdays and not Sundays!
Italian Liberalism
So I wouldn’t quite say that Italians are SO LIBERAL that they’d let their children drink espresso……however, it isn’t unusual to see a toddler drinking from an espresso or cappuccino mug from a “bar” (meaning Cafe) at any time of the day.
While parents enjoy their breakfast cappuccino their children enjoy dipping a piece of a brioche (croissant) in their own foamy, warm drink.
At any bar you can order “un po’ di schiuma” (a bit of milk froth) for your toddler or child to start practicing the fine art of having a cappuccino for breakfast!