Casacau

You’ll never be short of sights to see in the Eternal City, but there are times when you want to get under the skin of a city, to experience it as the locals do. It’s then that Rome guards its secrets well: the best restaurants and delis, the coolest shops and bars tend to be hidden deep in local neighbourhoods, down streets you’ll rarely find by chance. It’s the kind of place where we’ve always wished we had cool friends to stay with, people who would point us in the right direction. And now we have.

Flavia and Kevin are the friendly, enthusiastic managers of Casacau, an attractive old building with five beautifully designed apartments right in the centre of old Rome, just a coin’s toss from the Trevi Fountain. You can walk to pretty much all of the big sights from here – but first you’ll have to tear yourself away from your apartment: a seductively cool and comfortable haven from the heat and tourist hordes outside. Individually designed with a tasteful mix of vintage and contemporary furniture, quietly efficient air-conditioning (essential if you visit in summer), big, luxurious bathrooms with showers that double as steam rooms, and neat little kitchenettes with everything you need if you’re suddenly seized with the urge to cook. Not that you have to – a shopping bag full of breakfast goodies and daily treats is silently left outside your door every morning.

We stayed in Apartment 4, which has big windows looking out onto the little square below, a huge platform bed in the centre of the room and two leather chairs so squishy and comfortable they were like sitting on clouds. Casacau has thought through every little detail, so you don’t have to. They send a driver to meet you at the airport so you don’t have to struggle to find them. They supply an iPad if you want it, and a vintage Olivetti typewriter in case a novel suddenly stirs in you. Full of inspiring, quirky little design ideas that you’ll want to copy, it’s a real home from home – if your home happens to have been interior-designed by someone with immaculate taste, that is, with a maid to clear it for you every day.

But best of all, the charming Kevin and Flavia love their city, and they want you to love it too, happily sharing their knowledge. We asked for vintage shops and they sent us to Via del Boschetto in the super-cool Montí district just by the Coliseum, which is full of fantastic retro emporia (Pulp, King Size Vintage and Blue Goose are all brilliant) and furniture (Nora P is run by Casacau’s interior designer). Keen that we miss nothing, Flavia wrote down the addresses of her favourite stores for us, the names of a couple of the owners, even a recommendation for a good café for lunch.

Casacau itself doesn’t have a restaurant, but its owners also run Stazione di Posta il Ristorante Cocktail Bar in the young, edgy neighbourhood of Testaccio that is well worth the cab ride across town. The tasting menu is €45 for four courses, though they bring so many bits and pieces for you to try in between that it felt more like 20. With dishes billowing smoke, served in an eggshell or pinned onto miniature trees, it’s fun, experimental cooking of the sort favoured by Heston Blumenthal, but at a third of the price. We haven’t laughed so much over a dinner in ages, and watching the other diners’ faces as they tuck in is part of the entertainment.

To supplement Flavia and Kevin’s knowledge, we also booked an entertaining and informative walking tour round the neighbourhood of Trastevere with Eating Italy (advance booking essential). From market stalls to specialist delis, an ancient wine cellar to the kitchen of a busy pizzeria, for four hours our small group wandered into places we would never have found without an expert guide, tasting as we went and coming away with a long lists of places to revisit for more leisurely meals, plus lots of vacuum-packed deli purchases to take home.

We visited Rome many times before, for work and play. But after just two nights, this time we left feeling we knew it far better than before. Casacau was the perfect base, and we can’t wait to return.