Wine Tasting in a 1st-Century Roman Cistern Under Trastevere

Cantina Fabullus is in the basement of an 18th-century building in Trastevere, and the basement is older than the building above it: a Roman cistern from the 1st century AD, recovered and fitted out with antique furniture. The stone is the original stone. That is the whole reason to come down the stairs. The tasting runs about an hour. What comes out on the boards is a list of protected-origin Italian products rather than a themed menu: Gorgonzola DOP, Taggiasca olives, Prosciutto di Parma DOP, Parmigiano Reggiano, Lardo di Colonnata DOP, Mortadella DOP, salami, Tuscan Pane Sciocco PDO, guanciale from Amatrice, Pane di Veroli PGI, pizza romana, buffalo mozzarella and ricotta, Pecorino Moliterno PGI, Provolone del Monaco PDO, bresaola of Vacca Podolica, and more besides. The pace is a seated one. In a room without windows and with a barrel vault overhead, an hour goes slowly, which is the point of eating in a cistern rather than at a pavement table twenty metres up.