Rooftop Retrobottega in Rome

Retrobottega: the terrace of Palazzo Rhinoceros

An art palace between the Palatine and the Tiber

In the Velabro district, between the Circo Massimo and the Tiber, Palazzo Rhinoceros is a 17th-century building restored by the architect Jean Nouvel and devoted to contemporary art: exhibition rooms, artists' residencies and apartments. Its top floor now houses Retrobottega, a Roman address for creative cuisine that has left its historic home in the centre to settle here. The terrace offers an almost circular view: the Palatine and its pines, the temples of Hercules and Portunus in the ancient Forum Boarium, the Romanesque bell tower of San Giorgio al Velabro and, further off, the rooftops of the city as far as the Vittoriano.

Two ways to enjoy it

The terrace works as a café-bar open non-stop, from breakfast until after dinner: specialty coffees, cold brew, kombucha, matcha, craft beers and draught cocktails, with pastries, eggs and bacon, toasts and sandwiches, Caesar salad, charcuterie and cheese boards or tiramisu. Only a few tables can be booked; the others are left for passing customers. Two evenings a week, DJs and small concerts take over. Next door, the restaurant proper stays true to the spirit of the house: two large communal tables, one indoors and one outside, and a kitchen that likes to surprise, such as a meatless katsu sando made with barbecued carrots.

Practical information

Open every day, from 8.30am to about 11.30pm. Online booking for the restaurant and for some of the terrace tables. The entrance is at 9 Via del Velabro, a stone's throw from the Bocca della Verità; Circo Massimo station (metro line B) is about ten minutes' walk away, and several bus routes run along the Tiber close by.