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Prosit!

by Annamaria Torroncelli
Taverns and wine in Rome between the late 19th and early 20th centuries
October, harvest time. We offer our readers a tour of some wine places, the taverns of the city of Rome, which in the past centuries were widespread throughout the city and on the consular roads, especially on the Appian Way, which leads to the Castelli Romani, the land of production of the famous white wine. Mythical places of Roman gastronomic tradition, (which over time change name to “trattoria” and much more) gradually disappear or transform into pretentious restaurants that no longer retain anything of the freshness and sincerity of the foods and characters of the past.

We take Hans Barth and the “Romans of the Cisterna” as our guides on this walk through the Rome of the past.

A German journalist living in Rome at the end of the 19th century, Hans Barth conducted a census of all the taverns, dives and wine bars scattered between Verona and Capri. His guide, Osteria Kulturgeschichtlicher Führer durch italiens schenken von Verona bis Capri, published in Constance in 1908, was published in Italy two years later, with a resounding preface by Gabriele D’Annunzio. Reading it introduced contemporaries to an unsuspected universe of signs, innkeepers, barrels and wines, with a particular density among the ruins and buildings of the Capital. The second Italian edition (owned by Casanatense) came out in Florence in 1922. The creation of the group “I Romani della Cisterna” (from the name of the place where they met) was promoted by Ceccarius, born Giuseppe Ceccarelli (Rome, 1889-1972). Jandolo, Munoz, Mastrigli, Petrolini, Trilussa and all those who, starting from the 1930s, with a single word called themselves “romanisti” joined it, to indicate a common and passionate love for Rome above cultural and political differences. But why drink wine, one might ask? Let’s leave the answer to Barth who in 1922, in Proemio to the second Italian edition of his Guide, notes with sadness that the ranks of water drinkers are constantly growing: “A generation of morally impotent people has grown up, of homunculi, who no longer have the slightest concept of poetry and Bacchic happiness: a generation of inferior men… fanatics of a joyless health, who with the ravings of the ascetics bark against the delicious cult and would like with the ignorance of the iconoclasts to shatter the beautiful ancient statues, to erect on the ruins of the altars of Bacchus and Venus a tent-hospital for the benefit of the normal man, of that man without songs and without sounds, without women and without wine, who should live about ten years longer than us. Live? Drag for ten more years the boredom of an existence similar to that of the frog friend of the water, bring into the world other aquatic beings of the same species and look around with dazed eyes …” (p. XXI-XXII). Barth advises, paraphrasing Pantagruel: one should therefore drink “as a sure remedy against thirst, against the terror of death, against melancholy; one must drink eternally and sip theologically; let us drink like a Templar, like a sponge, like the earth when it is dry, and early; drink always and you will never die because wine gives divinity”. (p. XXVII)

[Bibliographical notes and texts by Anna Alloro, librarian in Casanatense, extracted from the catalogue of the exhibition “Le cucine della memoria” set up in Casanatense in 1993 on the occasion of World Food Day promoted by FAO.]

B. Pinelli, The wine merchant’s cart

Hans BARTH
Osteria. Spiritual guide to Italian taverns from Verona to Capri. Translated by Giovanni Bistolfi with a preface by Gabriele D’Annunzio. Florence, Le Monnier, [1922]
M5. V. 21

At the beginning of the century, with a preface by Gabriele D’Annunzio, the “lepidissima e disertissima” Spiritual Guide to the Inns… by Hans Barth was published, of which the second edition, revised and expanded, was published in 1922. The “multibibens doctor” Barth, a German “Romanized” to the point of wanting to be buried in the Protestant cemetery of Testaccio, lived for a long time in Rome where he was very well known in artistic and literary circles. Often, after having partied all night, he awaited dawn in some good tavern and always, after several liters of that good stuff, the divine Saufeia looked down on him from the back or, at a corner table, Goethe’s sweet companion, Faustina, appeared to him. In this little work, almost with initiatory pleasure, he guided the inexperienced thirsty man to the best taverns in the city, then invited him to libations outside the city gates and finally concluded the tour in a dinette or in a frasca in the Castelli. For each restaurant he describes the atmosphere, the customers and the host with his entire family, never forgetting to mention typical dishes and wines, of course.

B. Pinelli The Column Inn

Even before starting the tour, he offers the thirsty visitor, just arrived in Rome, a vademecum of practical advice: of the wines celebrated in ancient Rome, only that of Albano survives, moreover baptized with the water of the Tiber or cut with the forti di Ripa; discovering the good taverns on your own is impossible, some help can be given by the coachmen who, not by chance, drive barrels. Generally speaking, the best are the simple ones; the numbers on the door indicate the price of half a liter, which is around eight cents. The sign Vini scelte di Frascati is a downright lie; where instead it says Oggi si scarica or, better, where you notice a cart in front of the door, you can hope that the wine is good, even though the road between Frascati and Rome “doesn’t run that far from the Tiber and in every tavern a fountain gurgles”.

Once inside, you find yourself surrounded by the stench of Tuscan cigars, by the sight of customers spitting noisily on the floor, and by a small group of blond artists sitting secluded in a corner: the corpulent hostess dominates the counter, the pot-bellied innkeeper with a hat on his head sits at a table, and the waiter, often a destitute nobleman, serves the tables with a napkin over his shoulder and his fingers in the glasses and necks of half-liter bottles.
The recommended wine is the dry one, on which to occasionally deposit something solid; another piece of advice is to never hug the landlady or caress her daughter’s chin: even if in Rome the stranger is as sacred as the cat, the landlady could get nervous; last two practical tips: against Roman fevers “put your stomach under a thick layer of red wine every night”, and against a headache a spoonful of bicarbonate of soda followed, after ten minutes, by two cups of boiling tea and always remember the Latin maxim: Qui bibit bene dormit, qui dormit non peccat, qui non peccat venit in coelum: ergo, qui bibit venit in coelum.

OSTERIE romane. Preface by Giuseppe Bottai.
Milan, Ceschina publishing house, 1937
C6. V. 16
Perhaps the decision by the “Romans of the Cisterna” to collect in a volume some writings on Roman taverns was taken right in front of a good liter, sitting around a table in the company of the “master”:
Osterie romane in fact, published in 1937, although written by several hands, reveals a common humus that is expressed in the desire to bear witness to how a certain Rome survives in the simplest and most immediate manifestations of its people, and how certain types of men, places, foods and customs remain unchanged over time. Already in the 1930s some taverns no longer exist.
Zeffirino was in the little square of the Otto Cantoni; it was always full of students from the Institute of Fine Arts who devoured the roasted mushrooms with the clove of garlic “lurking”, but they couldn’t pay and so they painted frescoes on the walls of the place. At Tre Scalini, in Parione, a regular customer was Hans Barth who alternated the wines of Frascati and Grottaferrata with Sora Lella’s Roman-style tripe. In Piazza Montanara instead, where the Via del Mare runs straight, there were the taverns frequented by country people who had breakfast with spaghetti. The wine is good even if it is not always the one from Frascati. Giggi at the Prefetti is originally from Albano, he sells wine from Grottaferrata and says it comes from Frascati; even Sor Antonio, near the Caffè Greco, washes down his spaghetti with chicken giblets or his beans with codiche with Frascati wine that comes from Olevano Romano.
Zi’ Pippo, in Vicolo del Soldato, is frequented by the press and there they eat exquisite loaves of provatura and anchovies. In Via Mario dei Fiori, at Bevitoria di Felicetto, his wife Esterina cooks good tripe with sauce, veal rolls, stew with celery; and the wine, Felicetto always repeats, is not wine, it’s cognac!; penniless artists go to Basilio, in Via Laurina: they eat fettuccine and pan-fried chicken washed down with real Frascati and, above all, they “score”: and then, it has already happened once, they give Basilio a nice, well-sharpened pencil for his birthday.
In Piazza della Rotonda there is the Temple of Agrippa, the old Cantina Scrocca of Checco and Giulia; now it has been taken over by Menicuccio, the waiter, who prepares certain pans of artichoke wedges, sweetbreads, mushrooms and little birds that are finger-licking good; while at Chiesa Nuova, at Sora Elvira’s, under the sign of the Fontaniera, between pan-fried chicken Roman style with chilli pepper and fresh tomato, chicken alla diavola, spaghetti alla matriciana and fish of the day you are spoiled for choice; the wine is from Grottaferrata.
At Madonna Bona, in Piazza Capizucchi, for a few cents they serve roast lamb, tripe or cod in a stew; at Samuele in Piazza Costaguti everything is good: wines, meats, vegetables, fish and fruit; house specialties: bean soup, giblets with artichokes, crostini alla provatura and artichokes alla giudia. In Trastevere, at Pastarellaro, the pasta is all homemade, both the fettuccine for the ragù with giblets and the fedelini for the chicken broth; and at Pippo Burone, with Sora Vittoria in the kitchen, there is a triumph of gnocchi alla romana, soups with chopped meat, oxtail alla vaccinara, tripe in sauce, stew with artichokes in a pan, macaroni pie and, to finish, visciolata.
And if, by mistake, you end up in jail, there is no need to worry too much; in fact, at Lungara, right on the left side of “Regina Coeli”, there is a nice row of “osteriucce” that have specialized in preparing meals for prisoners: you can order lamb cutlets or sausages, perhaps right at the Osteria degli Uccelli in gabbia.
The images are taken from Ms. 1417

[Italian designer, 17th-18th century]
Glass models
brown ink, watercolor, sheet 410x280mm

1746 / February 8 / Purchased the present Codex / of Glasses number MDLXXIV, / in addition to another XV at the end / not marked with the number: / and paid Paoli forty-seven including the four / spent on the binding; / for which even neglecting the XV mentioned / the other 1574 were not even paid a penny seven and a half each / as for whoever conceived and designed them without / doubt brought study and effort / worthy of much greater / value / But for the Library serving as an ornament to pure / curiosity / it was not appropriate to pay more for them.
The handwritten note that can be read on the frontispiece of the paper codex, by the hand of Father Gian Domenico Agnani, prefect of Casanatense from 1733 to 1746, indicates exactly the content of the volume consisting of 367 cards, now mechanically numbered, on the front of which are executed one or more drawings of glasses, cups and vials in the most imaginative shapes. In total there are 1574 numbered models and 15 unnumbered ones made in shaded brown ink, sometimes partially water-coloured in pink, blue, lilac, red, all belonging to the same hand. On f. 362 a pencil drawing for a fountain model by a different hand. A curious and interesting work this “bicchierografia” finds an illustrious parallel in the similar collection of Giovanni Maggi, in four codices preserved the first and fourth in the Magliabechiano collection of the National Library of Florence, (XVIII, 10); the second and third in the Cabinet of Drawings of the Uffizi, (nn. 97339-97746) (see facs. ed. Barocchi, 1977).

[Bibliographical information and text by Annamaria Torroncelli extracted from the catalogue of the exhibition: “Wine between sacred and profane” set up in Casanatense in 1999 on the occasion of World Food Day promoted by FAO.]