Description: The look of Gina is very different from other Italian restaurants where we’ve been. Very white, clean lines, abstract paintings, and pale blue cushions on the seats. It is located barely a block away from the Spanish Steps.
We went at lunch time, early, and got in without a reservation. We started with a bottle of
vino rosso and an a
ntipasti misti, which was very tasty. It included the palest orange smoke salmon I've ever seen.
We followed with a mozzarella and fresh tomato pasta and a tuna, corn and fresh tomato pasta. They came without sauce but we see others taking the olive oil, salt, and pepper and dressing the pasta themselves. We tried it and because the olive oil is good, it makes a nice light tasting pasta dish, but deceptively filling.
The lunch menu is mostly salads, pasta, and panini. What we can see, all looks good. One young woman had a plate of rare roast beef thinly sliced atop a bed of rucola, nothing else. She just dressed it with olive oil and salt and dug in.
By 1pm, the place was packed and we were the only people not speaking Italian. When we left at 2pm, there was a line waiting to go in. It seems very popular with locals despite the fact that it is close to the Spanish Steps, yet this street has no tourists wandering along it. There's an expensive private school down the street and a number of the diners were teenagers in their uniforms sitting with middle-aged people, presumably their parents. There are a good number of men in suits, so definitely, they were not tourists.
We enjoyed the ambience of hearing nothing but excited Italian chatter and watching the very well dressed older women, many of whom are dining inside with their sunglasses on.
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