Green tourists get their coffee or beer on piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere; locals who know better go to this bar. Its harsh lighting would make Sophia Loren look wan, and the...

Cramped and inconspicuous - like so many of Rome's best cake shops - it's well worth fighting your way inside for lieviti (breakfast yeast buns). Bernasconi's chewy, yeasty...

This attractive place offers teas, wines, salads and sandwiches for travellers weary after a romp around the Colosseum. There's a brunch buffet from 11.30am to 4pm on Sundays.

When via Veneto was in the midst of its famed dolce vita heyday, Café de Paris was the epicentre of laid-back cool. Here you could be served in your jeans - which was quite...

Caffè Letterario led the charge. Perfectly situated in an area swarming with students from the Terza Università campus, and on the crest of the culture surge accompanying the...

This new film space in a restored pavilion in the Villa Borghese park is used for cinema-related presentations, but also has its own screening schedule, organised around themed...

This open-air café near the top of the Spanish Steps is an oasis surrounded by creeper-curtained trellises, with a pond in the centre. There's a selection of sandwiches,...

Via Veneto is a desert if you're looking for a coffee or maybe a light lunch that won't break the bank. Strike off instead through the arches of the Roman Porta Pinciana, into...

Cioccolata e Vino adds another dimension to guilty pleasures: divine coffee and home-made chocolates upstairs, a well-thumbed selection of second-hand books downstairs.

This bijou tearoom, renowned for its cakes and chocolates, also specialises in breakfasts, brunches and quick quiche-and-salad lunches. There are cakes to take away, and...

This spacious store has a wide range of art, history, literature, philosophy and politics books, as well as videos, DVDs and stationery. There's a selection of titles in...

This modern locale is a relief from the area's posh tearooms and over-decorated cafés. The decor is clean and ultra-white, with delicate touches like votive candles and single...

Locals vie to conquer pavement tables in the morning sun at this newly restored belle époque café.Join them for a late breakfast of wonderful coffee and toasted cornetti;...

You're not going to bump into the Pope up here, but it's still worth paying the price of the St Peter's cupola lift to sip your coffee on the roof of the basilica. There's...