Home From Home: How to live “La Dolce Vita” in London
London is a city well known for its stunning attractions, the tea, the weather… and for its internationality! The city is filled with tourists from across the world but its population is also widely international. In London, you can find an excellent mixture of different cultures and colours, which makes it the perfect scenario to get to know and learn from them.
Here it is a short guide to live the famous Italian “Dolce Vita” in London! So just sit down, enjoy a delicious espresso and take your time — as Italians would do — to read it.
Entertainment
You can find dozens of Italian Societies and events to go in London. The Italian Cultural Institute and the British Italian Society are the perfect deal to feed your mind and enjoy cultural events. In fact, they both organise exhibitions, film screenings (with English subtitles), concerts and Italian language courses.
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You can also attend the events organised by Il Circolo, a UK-registered charity which arranges fundraising events. Every year, you can enjoy the traditional Italian Bazaar in King’s Road with both Italian and International quality products and food.
If you just want to relax watching a movie, you can rely on the Cinema Italia UK, which shows film screenings at the Genesis Cinema in East London and at the Regent Street Cinema near Oxford Circus every month, followed by Q&As sessions with Italian protagonists and delicious tasting of Italian food and wine.
Italian neighbourhood in London
Going around London, you will find out that there are glimpses of Italianness everywhere but the Italian neighbourhood par excellence in London is Clerkenwell (Islington). Known as the “Little Italy” in London, Clerkenwell has a high level of Italian residents.
There, you can visit St. Peter’s Church and attend the procession of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in July, the most important event for the Italian community there. After a tour inside the church, you can enjoy Italian delicacies in the shops and restaurants nearby and even decide to take driving lessons in Italian in the Holborn School of Motoring.
Eat and Drink
It is well known that Italians have a strong relationship with food. For Italians, food is just not a basic need of our body: food is passion, joy and a traditional ritual that bring people together. If an Italian tells you that he is not obsessed with good food, there are two choices: he is lying or he is not Italian.
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In London, you can find thousands of places and shop with traditional delicacies from all over Italy. You can decide to try restaurants but, also, look for Italian street food all around London.
Street food is a very important aspect of Italian tradition, especially in the south. You can find street food trucks with Neapolitan pizza in Camden Market or try Etna Coffee, one of the most famous Sicilian street food seller in London.
If you want to enjoy a traditional Italian pizza, you can’t miss RossoPomodoro in Covent Garden! They promise you a 100% traditional Neapolitan pizza… and that’s exactly what you will get! On their menu, you can find a large selection of pizzas, all made with delicious and traditional ingredients. For example, you can try four different types of tomatoes in just one pizza ordering their famous “Pomodorosa”! Or add on your pizza the famous Neapolitan burrata cheese. There you will find all that it takes to cook a delicious Italian pizza! Even just a look at a pic of their pizza and you will love it!
Another important part of the Italian “La Dolce Vita” involves taking some time to enjoy a good coffee and a proper dessert in a cafè, which in Italy we call “bar”. In fact, there are no cafeteria chains in Italy, just thousands “bar” in every corner of every street: for Italians, bars are very important, since they go there at least once a day. So obviously, you can find Italian bars also in London! One of my favourites is definitely Iddu, a Sicilian cafè in South Kensington. The pastry chef is a lovely Sicilian man who knows exactly how to make a Sicilian feel home! Going there, you can try delicious “cannoli” (a typical Sicilian dessert made with pastry dough and filled with ricotta cream) with different toppings and the famous pistachios ice-cream.
Italy is also famous for its excellent wines. The entire UK imports wines from Italy so you can easily find wine labels and tastings whenever you want. Most of the Italian restaurants offer a wide selection of wines, so you can enjoy your food with a tasty glass of wine in front of you.
So, you can find millions of Italian restaurants in London! There are so many that sometimes it is very hard to understand which ones are good or not. Just some small and fast piece of advice: avoid big chains; be sure the restaurant is still run by Italians and have Italians chefs; read some reviews online written by Italians or people who have a good knowledge of Italian food!
Be sure to follow these simple rules, take the time to appreciate every moment (don’t rush, Italians would never do that), enjoy every bite of your delicious food and don’t forget: eating is, first of all, a pleasure. That’s what we call “La Dolce Vita”!
RossoPomorodo, 50–52 Monmouth St, Covent Garden, WC2H 9EP, www.rossopomodoro.co.uk, 020 7240 9095, Open Mon — Thur, 12pm — 11pm. Fri — Sat, 12pm — 11.30pm. Sun, 12pm — 10pm.
Iddu, 44 Harrington Rd, South Kensington, Kensington, Lon
don SW7 3ND, www.iddulondon.com, 020 7589 1991, Open Mon — Fri, 7:30am — 11:45pm. Sat, 8:30am — 11:45pm. Sun, 8:30am — 10pm.
