Fun in Rome and other Rome, Italy Nightlife Tips

Nightlife Spot: Centro Sociale

I have put off writing this tip because I don't want everyone and her mother knowing about them.
I was looking for fun in Rome. And I could not find fun. I found Tourist Traps aplenty but where were the cool people having their fun?
Then an amico of an amico took me to a Centro Sociale in Monti.
No way would I have ever found it. A few lights around a dim doorway. Then up four flights of stairs and across a echoing foyer (this place had been a school) and there - in the courtyard -all the cool people having fun.
Cheap bar and eats run by students. Plays in the chapel, art exhibitions, bands. Nights of homage to the book - when students came to your table and quoted chunks of Moby Dick in Italian (like Fahrenheit 451 - I quoted back my favourite Shakespearian sonnet) and lectures by disaffected members of the Red Brigade. Alas in Italian. Could understand not a word.
However - most of the people who go to Centros will have some English and will probably be chatty.
Alas, I think this place closed down just before I left Rome - but they would have regrouped somewhere else.
They are like squats. Semi official I believe. The buildings don't get trashed because they are occupied.
Do be a little careful. Apparently some Centros are hotbeds of Skinheads or worse.

But you know they are really cool places. Cheap as chips. Never know what is going down. But you will probably need a local to tell you where they are.

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Theme: Other
Dress Code: Ask a local where they are. Make sure the local is not a Skinhead. Or worse.

Nightlife Spot: The Rialto

There is also an excellent Centro in the Jewish Quarter called The Rialto.
I went to listen to a band called Liu (it means nothing in the Romanaccio dialect.) The singer is an Aussie from Wollongong and I was desperate for a dance so I suggested he think of the Palm Court in good old 'Gong and get me up in the floor.
I was being cynical because dancing - as I know it - does not seem to happen in Roma.
Anyway he did the trick and I had to dance and I danced my little butt off.
(Was it my fault the only space to dance was right next to the stage?)
Great - the audience are staring at me. Think I am part of the floorshow.
Great - the band is with me and urging me on.
And now someone is videoing me.
Only 57 she's the dancing queen.
Well - I did feel a bit foolish. When one surrenders to the urge to dance and one is the only one who has - one can.
But darling M - introduced me to the audience as (something like) "Mia amica, Jennifer. Ballentando Extraordinaire." (Italian is probably crap but that is what he meant.)
Then he indicated if I would dance again the band would do an encore.
So away we went again!
Then I staggered out to the bar area to dive into a large gin and tonic - waving the video camera away and assuring the young chappie on the sharp end of the camera I was so ordinary that in Howl At The Moon in Narre Warren I just jigged on the edge of the dance floor and let the young 'uns do it
M said that I had inspired a generation. But I don't think so.
First off you have to really really want to dance.

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Theme: Other
Dress Code: Come as you are. Be cool.
Phone: 06 68133640
Address: Via Sant'Ambrogio 4
Directions: Not too! far from the Bernini tortoise statue. Has a small sign above the door. Then up several flights of stairs and along a long corridor.
Website: http://www.timeout.com/travel/rome/guidevenue/1070/Rialtosantambrogio.html

Nightlife Spot: Big Momma in Trastevere

Words almost fail me. I would have put this tip in Tourist Traps - but (1) Quite a few locals were here and (2) I got to talking to a guy on the travel forum who thought this might be an authentic blues spot - and if someone like him was looking for great nightlife he might not look in the Tourist Trap tips - because that is not what he is looking for.
I was told Santana were playing here.
I said - "What! Santana?"
Cover band.
Oh well - I thought. No harm in that. So I let myself get talked into it.
I had to pay a 13 euro yearly membership fee. Oh well. The drinks were pricey. Oh well. But they were playing a cd of Santana as we waited for the band to appear. That was nice.
And then the band came on stage and the cd of the real stuff was turned off.
Oh what horror.
Words fail me.
If the band arrived at the end of a piece they were playing at the same time - that was rather surprising.
They obviously hadn't rehearsed very much at all. They obviously had very little skill and talent.
I began to suspect the same band had to cover a different group each week.
Santana this week. Rolling Stones next week.
I never wanted to go back. Once was enough.
When my bag was stolen and I lost my yearly membership card I did not care one little bit. I never want to go back to that place.

I did feel sorry for the keen, young Santana fans who were waiting so eagerly. They tried to keep liking it and enjoy themselves, but that was not possible.

And who on earth thought it was a good idea to play a cd of the real stuff before the cover band went on????!!!!!

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Theme: Live Music
Website: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=it&u=http://www.bigmama.it/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=3&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dbig%2Bmomma%2Brome%

Nightlife Spot: Circo Massimo

I was lucky to be in Rome in 2006 for the World Cup Final.
And Australia did so well.
(Until we were robbed! By Totti who is a local guy from Testaccio. Okay so in the market the next day they were all asking me where I was from and when I replied - Australia - they laughed and laughed. But we were robbed!)

Anyway - my sister was visiting and we reckoned we would like to go and see a public screening. Apparently there were several but Circo Massimo was the nearest.
We were a little afraid of soccer thugs - but my sister assured her kids in Australia if we saw anything we didn't like we would come straight back home.
I was very impressed. The crowd was amenable and not a bit violent or drunk. My sister was amazed at the lack of eskies filled with cans. Security was great. Crowd control was great. There were officials handing out bottles of water.
We had a top night.
Then of course the streets went mad so we had to watch our step with the traffic on the way home. But all good clean fun. High spirits. The bars all stayed opened of course - but again no violence or drunkeness that we saw.
They have all sorts of free events - like a free concert by Genesis is happening soon - but don't be afraid to go out and have fun. You'd have to be really unlucky to get in trouble.

Our mother was visiting too but she stayed home and was in bed by the time we had walked back - stopping off at a bar or two.
She wasn't asleep and we asked her to guess who had won.
She replied - Italy!
The streets were going mad. No mistake about who had won.

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Theme: Other

Nightlife Spot: On The Rox

I came here a lot once I had been introduced to it by a local. It has a great ambience, with nice outside tables and sofas. I liked the sofas.
It has a bouncer. When I went there it had a German bouncer who was really on the ball and was also great to chat to. I had had my bag snatched at an Irish pub - which had no bouncer -so I appreciated the security. I have been told American students come here because of the bouncer.
Happy hour is late. Rome is a city that wakes up late. It was something like 8pm-9pm. Locals start to arrive about 10pm.
They often had no food, but once they were experimenting with aperativo nibbles.
There is a disco downstairs on Friday nights but that also starts late. I seem to remember it starts at midnight.
It is in a quiet side street off the main drag in Testaccio - and if you are there about 10pm you will see the Roman cab horses heading eagerly to their stables just around the corner.
They have a great range of cocktails - I was slowly working my way through their menu - but I didn't make it so will have to go back.
I liked all the staff that I met. I asked one girl for an ashtray - a portecenere - and she made an extravagant gesture to the whole world and said - "Tutti portecenere!" Most amusing.
A very pleasant, laid back sort of place.

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Theme: Other
Dress Code: Seemed cool about the dress code.
Address: Via Galvani - Testaccio
Directions: It is about number 50 - but Via Galvani is a short street.
MACRO - Museo D'Arte Contemporanea Roma is at the end of the street, close by. This building used to be an abbatoir.