A Week's Nightlife in Rome by Lucy Hopkins
Featured Hotel in Rome
Westin Excelsior Rome
See all hotels in Rome >
The Romans revel in their nightlife. Sleepy, hot days studded with siestas combine with the emphasis that Italian culture places on sociability, appearance and on celebrating life, to make ‘going out’, ‘going out late’ and ‘going out in style’ an extremely important industry...A vast topic. One to be explored nightly rather than lightly. The Romans revel in their nightlife. Sleepy, hot days studded with siestas combine with the emphasis that Italian culture places on sociability, appearance and on celebrating life, to make ‘going out’, ‘going out late’ and ‘going out in style’ an extremely important industry. I am not talking about late-night bars, restaurants or cafés, where you can easily hear yourself think, hear others talk, and watch the ‘passeggiate’, or catwalk-style strolls, on the street (the kind of things done pre-club). I am talking serious, indoor, Italian clubbing (generally based around R&B & ‘Chillout’ music and latest dance hits), with its costly cocktails, Asian influence, mafia connotations and shear, carefree, time-free decadence and release.
Geographically speaking, the aortas of modern nightlife include Testaccio, San Lorenzo and Trastevere (which is ironic as rabbit-warren Trastevere is the city’s ‘least changed’ rione or neighbourhood since medieval times) and do not, surprisingly, include The Vatican and Fiumicino. I am yet to see The Pope, or indeed any of his bishops, bopping about in any of the seven locations below.
The ‘clubbing’ scene here is more complex than it seems. Particular venues are particularly popular on particular nights (or rather early mornings, as, for the Romans, these excursions rarely commence before 1am and may go on until about 5am), and it is worth doing a spot of research before hurling yourself onto the scene. Taste some tricks of the trade before applying the eyeliner...
‘Doing it properly’ entails being in the right place, being there at the right time on the right day, arriving with the right people, knowing the right people, drinking the right drink, dancing the right way and wearing the right kit. Ask any young Italian where they plan to go out that night, and they will ask you what day it is before venturing a reply. Unless your flirting skills are top-notch, or you are going out with the barman, clubbing is a costly business and, as well as the entrance fee, you will often have to buy ‘una tessera’ or membership card at the door for about 15 euros, as much as the free drink it allows you. However, ‘buoni’ (free or reduced entrance tickets to a particular venue that night) are frequently dished out in Campo de’ Fiori, where you will probably have been taking your ‘digestivo’, your after-dinner drink before venturing ‘out’ (unless a few hours of self-improvement is required at home beforehand). Most female Romans club ‘from home’, their stilettos clicking together as they stretch into their ordered taxi (having simply tapped ‘063570’ into their ‘telefonini’ and supplied their address).
The most important thing, as far as going to a nightclub in Rome is concerned, is to know someone ‘in the know’. There is absolutely no point in ‘rocking up’ unless you and your friends are on the guest-list (not necessarily all their names, but at least their sex) and this is only done through having the number of the appropriate contact in your telefonino phonebook, through asking said contact what is going to happen where, and through employing the correct register of persuasion to ensure that you will all be expected, welcomed in, cheek-kissed, admired and thoroughly spoilt. Knowing such a contact, and forming a routine through them, will also ensure that you make no mistakes regarding the second most important clubbing rule; choosing the correct night to go where.
It is also important to wear mostly black. Despite the present ‘dayglo’ trend, an odious revisit of the eighties, hopefully soon to be wiped out, Italians go out at night looking like the night, whatever shade of magenta or orange has been contrasting with their tanned skin during the day. Vital too, is to follow up your night with a suitably dizzy visit to a late-night gelateria, to Pizza Buona, or the Doughnut Shop.
Of course, not all clubbers go out every single night, nor do they frequent exactly the same establishments at the same time (unless there is a free concert in Circo Massimo, where a huge valley can accommodate a small country), but, having combined the inside, tried and tested, knowledge of where to go of as many partying Roman friends and ex-pats as I could muster, I have come up with a unique, insiders guide to a week’s-
worth of true, optimum, nocturnal frivolity for your perusal. These locations are not easily found in guides or online (apart from Supperclub and Radio Londra)...
Monday
Supperclub
Via de’ Nari 14
00186 Rome (Pantheon)
Tel: +39 0668807207
http://www.supperclub.com
Inspired and heavily influenced by its older brother in Amsterdam, the Supperclub, affectionately written as Sã, is described as a ‘discobar’ and is undoubtedly one of my favourites. I would call it a ‘Concept Club’. The atmosphere best fits the adjective ‘cool’ and Supperclubbers are extremely relaxed. For once, being on the guest list is not essential, as long as you look the part. A perfect cure for those doppo-domenica (post Sunday) blues. A real ‘week-launcher’.
You can eat in one of the three dining rooms from 7.30, and ‘Late Light Dinner’ is served all night (The Supperclub is more of a ‘club’ from midnight). I would describe the food as ‘Fusion’; nouveau cuisine, based on the Italian side, with a twist of Thai. Think pasta meets coriander... Spaghetti meet Soy... Spirilli meet sushi? Perhaps that is going too far. The clubber should be sure to arrive no later than 11.30 for this one.
The modern Italian and international music mixed here is conducive to both sitting and dancing. There are three floors and two bars, the downstairs bar white, minimalist, matching the white, stark, cushioned décor, the upstairs one bright red and zincky. In front of the bar is a prison-like grid; a gimmick, but it protects you from the ‘forbidden liqueurs’ and fun-loving, fancy-dressed (often winged and made-up) bar-staff.
A bottle of vodka would set you back 100 euro, and the average drink costs 10. Although this place sounds as though it recruits food-loving mammas who regularly get together in their pinnies to eat bruschette and pasta, this is certainly not the case.
Tuesday
Bloom
Via del Teatro Pace 30
Tel: +39 0668802029
Blooming spectacular, blooming glamorous and blooming gorgeous, Bloom can be pretty blooming (I shall stop that now) hard to get into, so make sure your ‘people in the know’ really are in it. Near bustling Piazza Navona, the place is riddled in chic; the steel bar is made by the cutting-edge, Milanese studio ‘Wunderkammer’, walls are gold leaf and the lighting is created by Philippe Starck. Food is Italian-Asian, which I have just noticed is along the same lines as all these ‘inside knowledge’ clubs; the sushi wave is tidal and currently, the Romans are happily riding it as they flow into summer.
Not to be outdone by the beauty and trend of the establishment, ‘Bloomers’ do not arrive in their bloomers, they wear their most impressive, eye-catching garments. It is no wonder people go out so late to clubs such as this - they take so long getting ready, they must do. The decision on whether one can mix a black Galliano skirt with a pair of black Gucci fishnets as well as the black Gianfranco Ferre halter-neck is a serious one. Colour (or rather tone) is not the issue. The big issue here is the form, the style, the charisma, the individually coated eyelashes, the eye-shadow, the scent, the pout/the smile, the handbag etc... in short, ‘la bella figura’ (good form), a fabulous term which encompasses almost every positive attribute from manners to make-up. Any lapse results in the abhorred ‘brutta figura’.
Wednesday
La Suite Club
Via degli Orti de Trastevere 1
Tel: +39 065861123
Open Wednesday-Sunday from midnight-4am
"Per un dopocena diverso" (for an after-dinner experience with a difference).
Linked with the 4 star Ripa Hotel, this music-based extravaganza is on the apex of spatial, innovative design. Contemporary flare is the sushi of the day and the one adjective to describe your Wednesday night itinerary is ‘white’. I would forgive you for thinking that you have just walked into an asylum, and an extremely funky, trendy one at that. A raised area elevates the VIPs from the mere mortals and the only down-side I can think of is that La Suite has a tendency to attract tourists. The general décor is bubble-shaped and curvy, matching the bubbly, well-rounded atmosphere, and it is clear that a great deal of thought has gone into making La Suite sweet.
Initially, I thought the club’s name was spelt ‘Sweet’ (as most of my peers also thought), and, as a result, had a couple of problems tracking down the appropriate telephone number for this article... Ask seasoned clubbers where they go on a Wednesday night in the city, how they soothe those mid-week pressures, and they will simply inform you that they ‘Go to Suite’, even though Trastevere has everything to offer elsewhere.
Thursday
Ketumbar
Via Galvani 24
Testaccio
Tel: +39 0657305338
"Cooler than them all...THE place to be in Rome", as described by www.journeywoman.com, along with many of my peers, is dark Ketumbar. A particularly modern (hence the Japanese sushi cuisine which has only just started to make its debut in the city), funky, candlelit, restaurant-bar, which used to be a ‘papal wine cellar’ sits on the ancient archaeological site of Monte dei Cocci, its enormous windows seeming to be almost boarded up by fragments of excavated Roman amphorae. Here, past meets present. I hope to meet you here presently.
Friday
Art Café
Viale del Galoppatoio 33
Tel: +39 0636006578
Closed Sunday & Monday
Open 9pm-3am
Notoriously one of the busiest clubs in Rome, Art Café also boasts a popular restaurant on its large terrace and its stunning ‘back garden’, a cocktail bar, stretches onto Piazza Siena. Full marks to this place for its marketing ploys; Art Café contains a bubbling Jacuzzi full of bikinied girls and if the thought of that does not make all the men want to go there, I do not know what will. However, as with many of the clubs here, all-male groups are not often welcomed
Saturday
Radio Londra
Via di Monte Testaccio 67
Testaccio
Bus to Via Marmorata
Tel: +39 065750044
Open 9pm-3am, closed Tuesday
No payment by card
Admission 10 euros
The Testaccio - Ostiense area of Rome is bursting with bars and clubs, with new ones popping up every week, so if Radio Londra does not topple your wine glass, there will be a place round the corner that will. This place has a bit of a ‘war bunker’ thing going on, and is, at the moment, terribly trendy with frequent live acts. ‘Radio Roma’ is a little like Capital FM in Rome, so the club’s name is probably a nod to good music, with an international edge.
Sunday
Barbar
Via Crescenzio 18
Tel +39 0668308435
Open 7pm-3am
Closed Monday
I would arrive just before 11pm for this one, and, considering the fact that Romans do very little at all on Sundays, Barbar buzzes. Although a ‘New York’ style club, it has a definite ethnic feel to it and the relaxed music follows suit, although it occasionally revs up to what the Italians would call ‘la musica deep-house e happy’. Minimalist, and of course heavily bodied with the latest fashions, Barbar has little fountains and even a ‘cigar room’ selling cigars and rum. I have never bought a cigar here (it has a bit of an ‘exclusively gentlemen’ feel to it) but perhaps some day, some Sunday.