Sometimes we just need to stay close to home for Friday night, especially when the weather is crappy and standing waiting for a tram is no fun. Neither is standing outside of favorite Dar Poeta in pouring rain, which we have done on occasion. So we tumbled down the hill to Viale dei Parioli and Celestina. We have dined here before, in fact it was one of the first pizzas we had after moving here in 2012. We also had dinner here New Year’s Eve of 2012. It’s a white tablecloth sort of fancy place that also serves pizza, which most of our very few co-diners were also having this Friday night.

We were first to arrive at 20:00. Even when we left after 21:00 there were only 4 other tables occupied.

Patronage was quite low and I attributed it to the unstable weather, but maybe it was due to the tarnished reputation. It seems the owner is the wife of a guy caught up in the Roma Capital Mafia scandal.  In fact, our upper class neighborhood of Parioli is home to several haunts the Carabinieri surveyed in this infamous investigation that included the arrest of about 3 dozen officials with the former mayor implicated. The pizza was ordinary, the service good, the patronage low, the price OK, and it was a pleasant place close-to-home for the weather-weary. I didn’t know until I got home and looked for a link to their website that there was some background color commentary!

Pizza Quality: 2  Although there is a wood-fired oven, the pies were bland. 

Service: 2 Adequate but no warmth; Spoke Italian-only as far as I could tell. 

Ambiance: 3  This is a fancy-dining place and it seems almost non-sequiter that they would even have pizza and fritti. In summer there are outdoor tables.

Total Points: 7

Returnability: Go-to Place – fine if you are in the area but I would prefer it if you went to Taverna Rossini or across the street to La Pariolina.