English tourist visiting. Had lunch here after a visit to the ancient site adjacent. To break this down, the food was great. The fish in my pasta dish was very fresh and tasty and very reasonably priced. I had the fettuccini funghi con frutta di mare which was a large well cooked portion for around 11 euros. The aestheticof the restaurant is also flawless. As someone with two classics degrees, I fully appreciated the ancient Roman decor of famous sculptures, great mosaics and a dressed up waiter.

The reason this is 3* over 5* is that as a table for two at lunch, my friend received his food and ate slowly, but my only course took around 40 minutes to arrive and he was finished long before I started.

Then, without complaint, I tried to pay by card, and even with two years of Italian study, I could not work out what the problem was. He had a card machine, he wasn’t unsure if we wanted to pay together, he wasn’t asking for more, less, anything I can comprehend, but clearly in English, or Italian, We could not work out what the issue was.

Eventually we had to combine our final euros to satisfy and we did not receive any change, any thanks for our custom, nothing. It was depressingly wishy washy for such an apparently pleasant restaurant with a what seemed a positive atmosphere and lovely, reasonably priced food.

Perhaps, as we were the only English customers and the staff did not speak English, it was all just an unfortunate loss of translation and customs.