Rome Travel Guide

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Monday, October 4, 2010

Rome's Stand-Alone Bars





We've been intrigued by the phenomenon of the older, small, stand-alone, non-prefab bar. Dianne noticed the first one, on via Ostiense, built in 1936 (top photo), and we came across a second (bottom photo), in front of the ex-mattatoio (the old slaughterhouse that is now the MACRO-Future art gallery). Dianne's theory is that the via Ostiense bar was built, perhaps by the government, when via Ostiense was reconstructed to accomodate growing numbers of automobiles. The other may to have been built at about the same time, probably for the slaughterhouse workers, or, given the gothic styling, it may be much older. We know there are others around. Let us know if you find one.


Bill and Dianne

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Beautiful bar. I'll have to stop off there for an espresso!

Jennifer Wilkin Penick said...

Fascinating!

Mick P said...

Good idea for a post. There's one just up the road from us that I use now and then and where they're always friendly. It's at the head of Largo Delle Sette Chiese, in the fork of Via Delle Sette Chiese and Via A Strozzi. This link should take you to a Google Street view:
http://tinyurl.com/32f94kk

Dianne Bennett and William Graebner said...

I couldn't get the link to work, Mick P, but we do know the Largo. There is a stand-alone bar at the EAST end of the Largo, though it might not be the one you're thinking of. The place I'm thinking of has tables outside and a basement restaurant behind, and inside a metal vat that holds warm white wine, which we enjoyed one day while sitting at one of those tables.