Ristorante Villa Esedra — Restaurant in Tivoli

Magnificent. Having spent hours walking to and around Hadrian's Villa, I didn't expect the highlight of my holiday to be a meal in a restaurant. Yes, I was hungry and thirsty, but I have had many compliments about my own cooking, so even when I am really hungry, I know the difference between good food and bad. I also witnessed something beautiful. A customer tipped a young waiter before his bill arrived by palming him a note and clenching his fist, the way your granny would do when she says "buy yourself an ice cream but don't tell your mum". I'm fairly sure he also left a tip when he settled the bill. After that customer left, the young waiter handed the note to the older one. They obviously pooled their tips. Perhaps they are father and son, I don't know, but seeing honesty like that rattled my whole general despair about humanity. There is love in this place and you can taste it in what they place on your table. Food this good doesn't happen...

The food was tasty, but unfortunately, on the day we were there, the restaurant seemed severely understaffed. They had a full house for dinner, and all tables except for two were taken. But only two servers were working that night, and they were running to and fro, seemingly overwhelmed.

We waited a long time for one of our dishes but kept being offered dishes that had been ordered by other tables. Finally, we realized that the dish we were waiting for was not going to come as there had been a mix-up in the order, and if we asked about it, they would then have to put in a new order, which would probably come out behind all the orders that the other diners had already submitted. By that time, we were no longer very hungry or willing to continue waiting for the dish, so we just took dessert...

Beautiful place, inside and outside, full of plants, a wall of jasmine will give you an amazing smell troughout your dinner or lunch while you eat under the beautiful, almost centenary trees. Inside the athmosphere is warm, welcoming, very well furnished, with flowers and plants giving the place a very intimate, tought very elegant feel. The service is professional, on point, very nice and very welcoming. We had the cannelloni with ricotta di pecora and bufala, and they were blowminding! The dessert too, are fantastic! When we were there they had the "Delizia al Limone" from Flor de sal, one of the most famous pastry shop of the Amalfi coast. The price is right, because the food, the place the service, everything was of very...