Ciampini al Café du Jardin trades on one of the better views in central Rome: a garden veranda set into the Pincio hillside, between the top of the Spanish Steps and Villa Medici, looking out over the city's rooftops.
The setting does much of the work, but the family behind it gives the place its weight. According to Turismo Roma, the Ciampini story began in 1943 when Giuseppe Ciampini opened the Bar Tre Scalini on Piazza Navona and made his name with a truffle gelato that still carries the family signature.
The garden cafe itself took its current form in 1989, when Marco Ciampini, third generation of the family, took over the old Café du Jardin on Viale della Trinità dei Monti and rebuilt it as a bar, restaurant and ice cream terrace wrapped in greenery. The veranda is the reason to book, shaded by trees and open to the skyline.
As a bar it works best across the day rather than late at night. Mornings bring coffee, the middle of the day brings light plates of pasta and pizza, and the early evening brings the aperitivo hour, with a list that runs to wine, sparkling and craft beer alongside the spritzes. The gelato remains a fixture, and the tartufo is the order that connects back to Piazza Navona.
Who would love it: travellers who want a view with their drink, couples after a calm aperitivo above the crowds, and anyone curious about a Roman family business with a long line behind it. Who should skip it: drinkers chasing a cocktail bar or a low bill, since the location sets the price.
Expect to pay for the postcard. Drinks sit at terrace-and-view level rather than neighbourhood level, which is the trade for a table over the rooftops at sunset. The cafe keeps long daily hours through the warm season, and the garden seats fill fastest in the hour before dusk.
The garden setting shapes the visit more than any single drink. Trees screen the terrace from the street, the tables look out over the rooftops, and the pace stays slow, which makes it a place to sit for an hour rather than a quick stop. It rewards an unhurried afternoon.
The all-day rhythm is the thing to plan around. Coffee and pastries open the morning, light plates carry the middle of the day, and the aperitivo hour turns the terrace into a bar, so a visitor can shape the stop to suit the time they arrive.
Visitors building an itinerary around the area can set it against the rooms in our best wine bars in Rome guide, near the hotel-bar polish of the Stravinskij Bar, the cocktail-and-aperitivo corner of Salotto 42, and the all-day wine counter at Il Sorpasso. For the wider city, see our Rome bar guide.
What to order
- 01
Aperitivo, garden table
A spritz or vermouth taken with the rooftop view
€14 - 02
Glass of bubbly
From the house list of wines and sparkling
€12 - 03
Tartufo gelato
The Ciampini family signature, a dark-chocolate classic
€9