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What:
Mercato Centrale Roma
Where:
Termini Station
Why we love it:
Half a year ago we would have said lingering around Rome’s Termini station was only advisable if you wanted to have your Prada purse pickpocketed. But now, lovers of pizza, pastas and Piedmonte cheeses, have a tempting reason to linger between metro lines: the recently opened Mercato Centrale Roma (AKA the Roman rendition of Florence’s food hall of the same name).
Less of a market, more massive meet n’ eat hanger, the two-storey, cavernous epicurean vault sits beneath the looming brick and marble arches of what was once Termini’s railway workers’ cafeteria. Now, however, it is lunching locals who are pouring in for the tasty spread of street eats.
The 15+ counters read like a roll call of Rome’s gourmand greats: there’s craft charcuterie Roberto Liberati of Bottega Liberati carving cured meats and cooked-to-order steaks; Alessandro Conti of Da Maria in Campo de’ Fiori frying up fresh artichokes; and pizza maestro Gabriele Bonci firing perfecto pies. You’ll also find branches of cult pizza pocket purveyors Trapizzino and mini outlet of famed formaggi Beppe e i Suoi, plus a slew of coffee and gelato stalls, naturally.
After something more substantial? On the upper level is Oliver Glowig’s smarter sit down trattoria La Tavola, il Vino e la Dispensa, dishing up wallet-kind haute cuisine paired with select Italian wines. So go on, chug on over and chow down!
Termini Station, Via Giovanni Giolitti, 36, Termini. mercatocentrale.it
– Published 16 January 2017.
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