While standing in line for a slice of pizza piccante (a gloriously spicy piece of pizza al taglio) at Antico Forno Roscioli, my eyes wandered around the interior. Roscioli’s gorgeous glowy blue neon signage looming over head, some clever Fernet prints, larger-than-life Neapolitan cards, and sitting just above the till, a row of oversized, near inconspicuous but yet brightly colored tins, each stamped with the name Andy Wahloo.
I started laughing.
Somehow I had forgotten that the Roscioli empire isn’t just one of Rome’s best places for a sweet or savoury snack. It’s also a contemporary art treasure hunt.
You’ve probably heard of Roscioli, maybe even dined at the restaurant or met me for a cappuccino at the bar. If you haven’t heard, don’t worry, you will. Roscioli is a tiny Bermuda triangle and empire at the edge of Campo de’ Fiori: Roscioli Caffè, the bustling café with my beloved maritozzo; the world-renowned Roscioli Salumeria - a restaurant so popular it spawned little sister Rimessa Roscioli and a collab in New York City; and the perpetually packed bakery Antico Forno, home of my favorite pizza piccante
At least one Roscioli’s outpost - bakery, bar or restaurant - is on everyone’s food recommendation list and every TikTok and Top 10. It’s become so popular that just the name Roscioli is synonymous with pizza and food tours. But it’s not a meme, it’s a five-decade-old neighborhood institution where we -me, my family, my cousins and everyone in the area - shop for our daily bread - pane con olive (olive loaf bread), pizza al taglio, and frappe, when in season. Our daughters were raised on morning pizza bianca.
But I digress, because all I want you to do is look up.
Look up while you’re in any of the Roscioli outposts and you’ll get an unexpected hit of contemporary art. Stand at the bar, wait in line at the bakery, or just look around the restaurant, and you’re in for a deep dive into contemporary Italian art through the works of living artists.
At Antico Forno, Andy Wahloo’s colorful tins sit above the counter along with Marco Lodola’s pop-art soup can. At the Salumeria, a Colosseum camouflage photo by Liu Bolin and a gorgeous elephant painting by Mauro di Silvestre hang on the restaurant’s exposed brick walls, not to mention the photos by Willy Rojas.
My favorite time to art gaze is early morning coffee at Roscioli Caffe. As the team preps my cappuccino, Marinella Senatore’s photo series of street dancing scenes sit above the espresso machines. On the far wall is a huge mirror piece by Goldschmied & Chiari, a Milan-Rome art duo. But the works I can’t enough of are in the back room - drawings by Giuseppe Stampone and a gorgeous yellow painting by Gianni Politi.
Each of the Roscioli spaces functions as its own small art enclave, and in my opinion, a very artsy treasure hunt. It’s at Roscioli that I discover artists I didn’t know like Stampone and Senatore, and artists I know and love like Politi. I always find something new like the Wahloo editions or a drawing by Stampone that I overlooked, and I know there are works I haven’t yet seen including pieces by Luigi Ontani and Adelita Husni-Bey. Every single piece is fun.
Clearly, owner Alessandro Roscioli loves art in that very hopelessly devoted way. The collection that spills across his spaces is eclectic, colorful, and full of surprises.
“I don’t consider myself a collector; I choose the works I buy based on emotion, or on intellectual stimuli,” Alessandro said during the bakery’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
For me, the strength of the collection — because dozens of works spread across three locations make it feel like a true, established collection — is its depth. There’s a strong presence of Roman and Italian artists, but the scope reaches well beyond Italy. The lineup extends internationally, with Colombian photographer Willy Rojas, Chinese “camouflage” artist Liu Bolin, and pieces by the Moroccan collective Andy Wahloo—likely with a few more surprises tucked into corners you didn’t expect to be looking for art at all.
Not bad for a place where you come in for a slice of pizza bianca and a loaf of bread.
Loved this piece (and the art).
Interesting! I'm going to have to check this out next time I'm in Rome