Wine and food tours among bars and fraschette in Castelli Romani

Rome is one of the most appreciated destinations, not only by Italian people but also from the majority of strangers visiting the Bel Paese.

Some people prefer to escape from the chaos of the eternal city, and to visit some outskirts, more than discovering art, culture, mystery and religion.

One of the steps of the Roman suburbs is Castelli Romani. This area is appreciated for its unique beauty but especially for the genuine flavours and perfumes of food and wine from the Roman tradition.

Nemi is famous for its strawberries; Lariano for its bread, as the bread festival takes place there every year and many other celebrations for the typical products of the area, attracting many tourists to this extremely Roman area. There are so many typical simple but famous and tasty products, you can go along food and wine tours among bars and the typical fraschette in Castelli Romani.

The fraschette

The fraschette come from the medieval period and they can be compared to the Roman osterie, the typical restaurant of the ancient Rome. They are very genuine and represent the symbol of Ariccia.

The name comes from frasca, the branch full of leaves they usually exposed at the entrance to tell the people the wine was ready to be drunk.

The first fraschette came from the wet wine cellars, furnished in a very poor way: there were tables, benches and just barrels and instruments used to produce wine.

For anybody doesn’t know it, fraschette originally didn’t have any kitchen and so there were just fagottari, the people who used to bring their food bag with them and eat it in those places. By the time, fraschette started to serve some cheese, homemade bread and salami with wine; nowadays, they are furnished with the kitchen too, so they can serve a real meal.

Some streets and squares in the centre of Ariccia, in the south of the Albano lake, are full of fraschette.

They cook traditional first courses, but also pasta alla carbonara, amatriciana, cacio e pepe and the most requested second course is porchetta, followed by boar sausages. There is more offer now than in the past, but you can also just buy some typical products, such as fresh and aged cheese, salami, and marinated food, served with the famous wine.

The porchetta

The porchetta from Ariccia is a PGI product and many people go there just to taste it.

Its production has a millenary tradition, from pre-romantic ages, developed thanks to the wide nobility near Chigi park, where the oak woods were inhabited by pig and the priests had to work their soft and tasty meat. You can also taste the coppiette, little stripes of dried pork meat.

These products have a very peculiar taste, enriched by spices such as black pepper, cinnamon, rosemary, cloves, marjoram, etc; the guanciale is the result of the aging process with black pepper, eaten as an entrée or to make pasta alla carbonara. Well, you just have to go for a walk along the city to discover the nature and its flavours.

Wine cellars

Economy and tourism are founded on the wine cellars and wine varieties, typical of this wonderful volcanic area, rich in history.

The wine tradition comes from the XVII century, when Frascati wine became famous. Frascati and Marino wines are the best and most popular wines in Lazio. Both OCD wines, famous also as Frascati Novello, Frascati Superior, Marino Superior and Marino Spumante.

Frascati

Frascati wine is a white one, expressing the features of Trebbiani and Malvasia varieties, used to produce it. As it is dry, sweet or Spumante, it’s ok for many dishes.

You can drink it during the aperitif or the entree, it is perfect for Roman food, as it is excellent served with pasta with legumes, soups, spaghetti cacio e pepe, carbonara, fettuccine alla ciociara, abbacchio (the lamb), white meat and many fish dishes. You can drink it with half-aged cheese and typical salami from Lazio.

The Passito and the one from late harvest have a smell of almonds, so it’s better to serve them with desserts.

Marino

Marino is the second most important OCD wine of Castelli Romani. As the other one, there is the novello, spumante, superior and the sweetversion too. It is made by white Malvasia and Trebbiano grapes, however, you can also find some taste of Moscato. Its peculiarity is that its trees are oriented to the sea.

It can be drunk with typical Roman food, often served with Roman artichokes, Roman fried food, omelettes with Roman artichokes or zucchini, fried zucchini flowers pancakes, fried or grilled bluefish, white meat and spezzatino.

According to the dish, you can choose the best variety of for it.