Tiki a Roma

The Wahine and I recently returned from a Vacation in Italy (3 nights in Rome, a week in Sicily, and one more night back in Rome).

Between checking out the ancient ruins and the Vatican, I didn't have a ton of time to look for Tiki, but I did do a little searching.

1. Not really anything in Rome, that I could find in a limited amount of time. HOWEVER, most of the cocktail lounges we visited featured several Poly Cocktails, including Mai Tais and Singapore Slings. I had a few mai tais....not great, but not bad. The last night in Rome, in the Hotel bar, no less, I had a halfway decent one. They usually listed the ingredients, and were fairly faithful to the TV recipe. On that last night, I asked them to hold the Grenadine, and use lime instead of lemon(!)---the bartender was happy to oblige, and I got a halfway decent drink.

2. A generally cool thing re: cocktails....whenever we went to a halfway decent lounge, the drink prices were fairly steep (7-9 euro) but it always included a "mini buffet" of snacks and canapes--gratis! Pretty cool, and sorta sophisticated.

3. Orgeat (and lots of other syrups) EVERYWHERE!!! I ultimately brought back 3 bottles, but not before one broke in my carry-on bag on the Rome--Palermo flight. Grrrr. Still cheaper than TV's shipping!! =) I also brought a bottle of Maraschino (sp?) Liquor. Not sure what I need it for, but I vaguely remembered it being discussed on here, and it was like 3 euro.

4. In Italy (for those who haven't been) they have these places called "Bars" all over....but they're not really like US bars....they serve coffee/espresso etc., usually some baked goods, a few sandwiches, gelato, and sell a few sundry items....but have a full bar as well. Strange. But cool.
   Anyway, one evening, we visited a small town on Sicily called Termini (home of a Fiat Factory...Oooooooooh!!)and as we were being driven around town by a friend of my Wahine's Dad, there was a Bar called the Rapa Nui!!! It had several Moai on the sign outside, but looked like a regular "bar" inside. I tried to snap a pic, but the Digital cam batteries were dead. Boooo.

All in all, a great vacation...but a rather fruitless Tiki Quest.

YMMV.

Scott

On 2004-10-20 00:24, new2tiki wrote:
Anyway, one evening, we visited a small town on Sicily called Termini (home of a Fiat Factory...Oooooooooh!!)and as we were being driven around town by a friend of my Wahine's Dad, there was a Bar called the Rapa Nui!!! It had several Moai on the sign outside, but looked like a regular "bar" inside.

Thanks for the excellent post. Even though you didn't manage to find Tiki in Rome, the search sounded a lot of fun! The fact that there is a bar called the Rapa Nui is very intriguing too. That points to at least some recognition of Tiki bars in Italy. That particular one may just turn out to be a regular local bar, but it must have been modeled on an idea from elsewhere. With a bit of luck, there may be some hidden gems in Italy, just like there are in Spain.

I'm off to Venice in December and hope to find Tiki there. Like Rome, it's such an ancient city that if Tiki exists there, it might be confined to newer areas on the outskirts. I know there's a pizza place called the Bora Bora, but am not too sure if it's Tiki-fied or not.

Anyway, thanks again for the post. It's always great to hear from people stomping the terra in search of Tiki.

Trader Woody

New2Tiki:

Great post! Thanks for sharing, especially about the place in Sicily. Cool!

As wonderful as Italy is, there's sadly little tiki (that I know of). I happened upon an old restaurant called "Kon Tiky" outside the resort town of Palinuro. It was probably tiki at some point, but looked more "rustico italiano" when I was there last year.

Also, in Napoli there was a pizza place & bar called Mai Tiki. I only saw it from a car in heavy traffic. During a later visit to Napoli, I returned to the location to find it had closed.

Trader Woody:

You're gonna love Venice, but don't get your hopes up about the Bora Bora. When I was there, it looked to be a pretty standard Italian restaurant catering to tourists. I saw a sign for it & w/ heart palpitations dragged Emi down the alley to it & peeked in all the windows. No tiki or evidence of ever having any tiki decor. (It looks like it could be a decent restaurant. But in Venice, there's no reason to eat something decent, when there's so much excellent food!) Despite the lack of tiki, you'll certainly find plenty of great bars w/ lots of evocative atmosphere!

Ciao,
Tiki Chris