Prati, Rome (2026): Via Cola di Rienzo, the Trionfale Market and Where to Eat by the Vatican (2026)

Shopping on Via Cola di Rienzo. Prati's main street runs for about a kilometre from Piazza del Risorgimento, by the Vatican walls, to Piazza della Libertà by the river. Turismo Roma calls it one of Rome's main shopping streets, and it's where Romans shop rather than where tourists browse: wide pavements, boutiques, cafés and food shops, less about luxury labels than Via Condotti by the Spanish Steps. It's named after Cola di Rienzo, the 14th-century leader who tried to restore a Roman republic.

Time: an hour or two. Cost: free to walk. Getting there: Ottaviano for the Vatican end, Lepanto for the middle, both on Metro Line A. The catch: it's a busy road with traffic and buses, not a pedestrian street.

Castroni, at Via Cola di Rienzo 196, is the shop where it started: Umberto Castroni opened it in 1932 and ran it with his seven sons, and his descendants still run the business. It roasts its own coffee and stocks more than 1,000 products, from Italian pasta, oil, wine and sweets to foods from more than 100 countries.

Buy: a bag of its own coffee to take home (its blends sell online from €3.60 a pack), or Italian food gifts. Hours: it doesn't publish them online; phone 06 6874383. Time: 20 to 30 minutes. The catch: it's a shop, so don't plan on a sit-down coffee.

Mercato Trionfale, on Via Andrea Doria, just west of Prati in the Trionfale district, calls itself Rome's biggest market: 275 businesses under one roof selling meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, cheese, spices and wine, plus food stalls where you can eat. It's the everyday market for the neighbourhood, so it's carded here as well as in our best markets in Rome and Vatican Museums guides.

Open: market stalls Monday to Thursday and Saturday 7am to 2pm, Friday until 7pm; the food and restaurant stalls stay open until 11pm Tuesday to Saturday (2pm on Monday). Closed Sunday. Getting there: about five minutes' walk north of the Vatican Museums entrance, or from Ottaviano or Cipro Metro (Line A). The catch: most stalls close at 2pm, so come in the morning, before or after an early museum slot.

The Palace of Justice and Piazza Cavour. At the river end of Prati, the huge Palazzo di Giustizia fills one side of Piazza Cavour. It's home to Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation, and Romans call it the Palazzaccio, roughly 'the big ugly palace', for its bulk. The Court describes it as an imposing building in the Umbertine style, built between the end of the 1800s and the first decades of the 1900s. When its foundations were dug, the river silt gave up a Roman sarcophagus of a young woman, Crepereia Tryphaena, buried with a jointed ivory doll; both are now in the Centrale Montemartini museum.

Can you go in? Not normally. It's a working court, and it opens to the public only on special days: in 2026 it opened on 21 and 22 March for the FAI Spring Days (the open weekend run by FAI, Italy's national heritage trust), with free narrated visits from Piazza Cavour, including the Aula Magna. For a visit at another time, the Ministry of Justice says to contact the Court's Segretariato. From outside: free, any time, 15 minutes. Piazza Cavour in front is named after Count Cavour, the Piedmontese statesman. The catch: you'll only see the outside on most days.

A museum of ghosts. Two minutes along the river, the Sacro Cuore del Suffragio is a neo-Gothic church that Romans nickname the 'little Milan Cathedral' for its pointed Gothic front. Beside its sacristy is the tiny Museo delle Anime del Purgatorio (Museum of the Souls in Purgatory). After a fire in the church's Rosary chapel on 15 November 1897, the priest and several worshippers said they had seen a suffering face in the flames, and the French missionary Victor Jouët began collecting objects said to carry marks left by souls in purgatory: scorched handprints on cloths, cassocks, books and wooden tablets, most from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Hours and price: neither is published; Turismo Roma says to contact the museum for visiting times. Time: 15 to 20 minutes. The catch: it's one room of display cases, so go for the curiosity, not a museum visit. It's about 10 minutes' walk from Castel Sant'Angelo along the river.

Where to eat. The streets right by the Vatican entrance are full of tourist menus; walk a few blocks into Prati and it's a normal Roman neighbourhood with restaurants at a range of prices. Our food guides cover the best of it, so here's the short list:

• Pizza by the slice: Bonci Pizzarium, baker Gabriele Bonci's counter by Cipro Metro, sold by weight, open from 11am; see the best pizza in Rome, which also has L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele on Piazza Monte Grappa for Neapolitan pizza.
• A sandwich: Panino Divino on Via dei Gracchi, made to order; see cheap eats in Rome.
• Coffee and a cornetto: Sciascia Caffè 1919 on Via Fabio Massimo, or the Dolce Maniera pastry shop on Viale Giulio Cesare, open around the clock; see breakfast and coffee in Rome.
• Gelato: Gelateria dei Gracchi, on Via dei Gracchi since 1999; see the best gelato in Rome.
• A special dinner: Pulejo on Via dei Gracchi, one Michelin star, tasting menu €120; see Michelin restaurants in Rome.
• Gluten-free: New Food Experience on Via Germanico, which calls itself Rome's only 100% gluten- and lactose-free restaurant; see gluten-free Rome.
• A guided tasting: The Roman Food Tour runs a Prati food tour (€109) and a Trionfale Market tour (€99); see food tours and cooking classes.

For a classic sit-down meal, Dal Toscano on Via Germanico, three minutes from Ottaviano station, has been run by the Bruni family for three generations since 1938, when it opened as a Tuscan wine shop and trattoria. The menu is Tuscan (ribollita, pici, pappardelle and, above all, grilled meat, with the bistecca alla fiorentina as its signature), with Roman dishes such as saltimbocca and abbacchio scottadito (grilled lamb chops) alongside.

Open: Tuesday to Sunday, lunch 12:30 to 3pm, dinner 8pm to 11:15pm; closed Monday. Book: by phone (+39 06 39725717) or with the request form on its website. Spend: prices aren't published online, so ask the price of the steak before you order it. The catch: dinner starts at 8pm, late if you've been on your feet since an early Vatican slot.