In early December, we enjoyed a three-night pre-cruise stay in Rome at the Visconti Le Meridien Hotel in the Prati neighborhood.
One item on our to-do list while in Rome: find two bottles of Italian wine we loved to take on our transatlantic cruise on Holland America’s newest ship, the Nieuw Statendam. (Holland America Line allows each guest to bring on one bottle of wine without charge.)
Lucky for us, we found Kiarotti Wine Shop right across the street from our hotel.
Kiarotti is a small retail wine shop with a well-curated selection of fine Italian wines. As we were looking through the bottles, we noticed a few tables and a menu for wines by the glass.
Of course we had to sit down and order a glass. The hand-written menu of vini al calice (wines by the glass) changes weekly, and features rosso (red), bianco (white) and bollicine (bubbles) wines.
We started off trying two different white wines. Little complimentary snacks came with the glasses of wine, which were delicious.
As we sipped our wine and ate the nibbles, we started studying all of the bottles around us for sale.
Deciding to try two glasses of red wine we asked our waiter some questions. Seeing our curiosity, he got the other gentleman working in the wine shop.
Between these two gentlemen, we got a lively, fun lesson on Italian wines, complete with a map of Italy. The younger guy spoke better English, and would help translate what the older gentleman was conveying as he was the wine expert.
Before we knew it, we ordered our third glass — this was probably over a 90 minute or longer time frame. More snacks appeared including meats and cheeses.
We left the shop with two bottles of wine that we knew we loved to take on our cruise. Even better, we took away more knowledge of Italian wines while having one of the most memorable and enjoyable experiences of our stay in Rome.
If we lived in Rome’s Prati neighborhood, we’d probably visit Kiarotti Wine Shop weekly, to taste a glass of their new selections.
For further learning about Italian wine, check out:
Italian wine unplugged grape by grape
Italian Wines 2018
Do you have a favorite place to buy wine in Rome, Italy?
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