Jet-lagged, I woke up early on Saturday morning and was already out sightseeing at the church of Santa Maria del Popolo by seven, getting in a bonus viewing of Caravaggio altarpiece paintings before my nine o'clock reservation to the Vatican Museums. On my way from the church to the Vatican I stopped for breakfast at Castroni, a charming food shop and coffee bar not too far from the Vatican Museum entrance, though far enough away to be outside the tourist district.
The front of the shop was decorated with giant chocolate eggs and packed with Easter candy, while the aisles further in held the more commonplace stock of dried pasta, olive oil, biscotti, and even foreign foods like Asian sauces and English jams. In the narrow section between front and back was the little cafe, where a crowd of locals and tourists had already lined up at the bar. Feeling like I was finally getting a feel for Italian customs, I went and paid for a cappuccino and a pastry at the cash register before approaching the bar and ordering my breakfast.
The cappuccino was good, with plenty of foam to eat with the spoon, and the pastry was thankfully easy on the powdered sugar so I was able to stay neat and tidy. But it was the shop itself, rather than the meal, that was really memorable. I loved having breakfast surrounded by jars of jelly and bags of chocolate, as if I'd stumbled into a gingerbread cottage, minus the witch!
Jet-lagged, I woke up early on Saturday morning and was already out sightseeing at the church of Santa Maria del Popolo by seven, getting in a bonus viewing of Caravaggio altarpiece paintings before my nine o'clock reservation to the Vatican Museums. On my way from the church to the Vatican I stopped for breakfast at Castroni, a charming food shop and coffee bar not too far from the Vatican Museum entrance, though far enough away to be outside the tourist district.
The front of the shop was decorated with giant chocolate eggs and packed with Easter candy, while the aisles further in held the more commonplace stock of dried pasta, olive oil, biscotti, and even foreign foods like Asian sauces and English jams. In the narrow section between front and back was the little cafe, where a crowd of locals and tourists had already lined up at the bar. Feeling like I was finally getting a feel for Italian customs, I went and paid for a cappuccino and a pastry at the cash register before approaching the bar and ordering my breakfast.
The cappuccino was good, with plenty of foam to eat with the spoon, and the pastry was thankfully easy on the powdered sugar so I was able to stay neat and tidy. But it was the shop itself, rather than the meal, that was really memorable. I loved having breakfast surrounded by jars of jelly and bags of chocolate, as if I'd stumbled into a gingerbread cottage, minus the witch!
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