Lucci Hotel Rome Blog

 

 

 

One of the many interesting topics in Rome is about food, and ancient Rome had plenty of mouth watering recipes and traditions, which you will still find in some typical rome restaurants.

At the time there already were 3 meals during the day : ientaculum, prandium and cena. The first two meals were fast and simple and people did not even bother to wash their hands or set a proper table. However the cena (which nowadays means dinner) was held after coming back from the baths and usually took place after 2pm and until the sunrise of the morning after. During some periods of time dinner was served in the atrium by the fire heath and later on the meals would take place in the cosier and larger areas such as cenaculum (dinner room). Obviously nowadays wining and dining out is a little  less elaborate….

The picture that probably bumps into your mind is that of a roman eating on a bed : indeed, during the Empire this habit of eating on triclinium started. The triclinium was a large bed usually made of wood with a mattress and pillows on top, leaning towards the table where food was set.

 

 

The dinner was arranged in 3 steps : appetizers (gustatio) followed by a 7 course meal (fercula) and eventually the guests would move to a clean room with another triclinium, where they would toast to some friend’s and drink as many cups (not glasses !) of a mix of wine and water. Obviously this would mean ingesting lots of food and drink and therefore emperor Claudius made it legal to break winds during the cena. And indeed for food and wine lovers a wine tasting tour while in Rome is a must.

The ancient roman cooking was elaborate and they would also take care of the look too to please both eyes and palate.

As an aperitif which would be drank before starting the meal a light wine would be sweetened with noney and served with the libum (ricotta bread) .Nowadays you can still find the Lasagna which originally was known as Lagana, and the Sicilian Cassata is renowned still .