Best Bars in the World: Where to Have a Drink
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Loading...With the subtitle to her article about best bars in the world (Associated Content, November 2009), K. K. Thornton just about sums up what might go through my head when another guest of mine arrives in Rome, armed with a detailed plan for every hour of the week: “Museums Are Not the Only Place to Absorb a City’s Culture”.
She writes:
(…) It is not until you actually arrive in a city, survive a crowded train journey in Munich or a hair raising taxi ride through the steep streets of Lisbon, only to struggle with your luggage up three flights of narrow stairs to your hotel room, that you truly realize what is most important. Where is the best place to get a drink around here?
Bar With View Of The Pantheon
When I witness hordes of early-morning tourists converging onto the Colosseum, or the Vatican Museums on my way to work, I watch with the interest one would summon for the observation of beautiful exotic animals. I am fascinated by their willpower and endurance, because I know that Rome is by no means an “easy” place to visit.
Instead of neat signs and walkways, you will find that “the unexpected” is rather common in this city and that heat, rain or traffic might make your journey difficult or impossible, depending on the season or the time of day. It is your best bet to try and be laid-back, and not to cram too much sightseeing into any one day.
Rome might have some of the most stunning and important museums in the world, but in my opinion it is what happens off the guide-book tourist circuit – for example when one gets lost in the little ancient alleys of the historic centre – what makes the city most unique. K. K. Thornton seems to have found her favourite place off the beaten track (for more favourite places by different people, please visit our forum):
Visitors And A Worker At Trevi Fountain
The tourists – and quite a few Romans – will be nursing espressos at the cafe tables that fill Piazza Navona, sipping a glass of wine in one of the cafes opposite the Pantheon or hanging out around the Spanish Steps. They are nice places and of course you should join them – after you have visited The Albert.
The Albert is located at Via del Traforo 132, right by the tunnel leading to Via Nazionale and a mere stone’s throw from the Trevi Fountain. Roman owned, The Albert is a pub with traditional British décor, fantastic and friendly owners and staff and a sign on the wall that says “Skip the Trevi, Have a Bevvy.” I wouldn’t go that far, but it is an excellent spot for a drink.
Sip a beer as you watch the Japanese tourists being disgorged from their tour buses, laden down with cameras and video equipment, and trot obediently down the cobbled alley that leads to the Trevi
where they will take as many photos as humanly possible in whatever amount of time their tour guide has allotted. There are always one or two that look back wistfully at one of the best bars in Rome as they run down that alley. You can see the longing in their eyes, and it almost breaks your heart.
One day, however, one of those Japanese gentlemen is going to make a break for it, and succeed. He’ll spend his precious tourism time gleefully slugging down a whisky or three in one of the best places to drink in Rome until the bus comes back. Wouldn’t you hate to miss it?
Whether it is while having a drink, while finding yourself tearing away at the best pizza you have ever eaten in some shabby-looking family establishment, when getting lost and coming upon an ancient church or hardly noticed fresco on a building, or when striking up an unlikely conversation with a vocal Roman: Rome will surprise you in so many ways that succumbing to “the unexpected” may be the one way to truly enjoy it.
Source: associatedcontent.com
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