Flavio Al Velevodetto

Chef Flavio “I-told-you-so” (that’s what ve l’avevo detto means in Italian) De Maio built one of the most solid and delicious trattorias in Rome on top of Monte Testaccio, an artificial mound in Rome composed almost entirely of cocci, fragments of broken ancient Roman amphorae. One of the great joys of Rome is having dinner on the restaurant’s terrace in a night of ponentino, the summer wind that makes the nights in Rome so pleasant and explains why Romans don’t blink an eye when presented with a steaming-hot pollo ai peperoni (chicken with red peppers) or pasta all’amatriciana in July.