If you ask people with a decent knowledge of Rome’s food scene for recommendations of places to eat pizza, odds are good that Pizzarium will pop up on the top of everyone’s list. Unlike at Emma—where we ate the previous day—they do not do whole pizzas with thin, crisp crusts. Their specialty is pizza al taglio (or pizza by the slice), on thick bready crusts, cut and served in rectangles or squares of a size of your choosing and priced by weight. This is basically the model followed by a place like Mama’s Too in New York. The difference here is that at Pizzarium the experience is less hectic—despite the place being even more crowded—and the staff are patient and not at all unpleasant. And, oh yes, the pizza is a lot better.

Pizzarium, located in the vicinity of Vatican City, was opened in 2003 by one of Rome’s most celebrated pizza chefs, Gabriele Bonci. His face and cookbook are all on display at the restaurant. I say restaurant but really it’s just a counter. You take a number outside the restaurant and when it is called you go in and make your selection of slices from the dizzying array of options under the glass. These options are dynamic, as new ones emerge regularly from the kitchen. None are labeled except for the price per kg. You ask the staff member assisting you what things are, make your choices and tell them how large or small a slice you want. You do this as quickly as possible as there are a lot of people waiting. They then weigh your selections and ring them up. You go back out while they reheat your slices in the oven and dress them with olive oil etc. When they’re ready your number is called again and you pick everything up and go back out to eat.

In addition to the pizza by the slice they also offer a changing selection of suppli/fritti or stuffed and fried balls of one kind or the other. These are listed on a board in Italian and English with prices. If these are all you’re eating then you do not need to take a number and queue up. If you’re eating these with your pizza you’ll be given them as you pay and you can munch on them while you wait for the main event. This is what we did on our selection of one each of the potato and cheese and mozzarella and n’djuja crocchettas.

There is no seating, by the way. There is a small counter outside the restaurant and there’s also a public bench on the sidewalk facing the restaurant. We had scoped out this bench and by the time our pizza arrived we had it entirely to ourselves. A bit of a coup. It did make eating a lot easier, especially as we had ordered a fair number of things. What were they? Well, as none were labeled and as we lucked into the less communicative of the two people staffing the counter when we were there, I can only give you the broad strokes: scrambled eggs, potato and cheese (excellent); eggplant and blue cheese (excellent); cheese, potato and sausage (very good); sweet onions and cheese (excellent); and two big slices of farcita or stuffed/filled pizza—stuffed in this case with ham (very good).

The crusts were great, the quality of the toppings was great and the combinations were great. Speaking of combinations, Bonci apparently holds the line at three toppings per pizza. There were a large number that we didn’t get that we would have loved to have tried. Indeed, we could have tried more if we had got smaller cuts of everything; then again, we also liked being able to eat more than a few bites of everything.

For a look at the place, the selection and what we ate, launch the slideshow below. Scroll down to see how much it all cost and to see what’s coming next.

All of the above plus a couple of local colas and a bottle of water cost less than 52 Euros, which is a bit of a steal for the quality and the quantity of the food. By the way, they don’t take cash, only debit and credit cards—but that’s likely to be a relief for most tourists.

It’s not the most tranquil meal but totally worth it. Well, I don’t know if I would necessarily send a non-pizza maven all the way out there just to eat at Pizzarium. But if, like us, you have a day planned at the Vatican, it’s the perfect place to refuel between visits to St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Museums. We got there an hour or so after they opened; it’s possible it might be less slammed right at opening, which would make it easier still.

Alright, next up from Rome, a very good dinner at a trattoria located less than 10 minutes walk from our flat. That should be up on Tuesday.