Italy's strangest and most original restaurants

Photos by Solo Per Due. Treating yourself to dinner in a nice restaurant, which you may have heard great things about, is certainly a rewarding experience. It can also be romantic, satisfying, tasteful or adventurous, perhaps when tasting ethnic specialities or dishes from other countries. However, there are some restaurants where the dining experience almost takes a back seat. Why? It can be said that some restaurateurs around the world have come up with some rather bizarre strategies to increase the attractiveness of their restaurants.

Have you ever heard of the Clothing Optional Dinner, for example? Those who master English will already have understood what it is about: in a New York restaurant, in fact, dinners are organised to be enjoyed completely naked! Why not also mention Japan, the home of the weird. In this restaurant called Modern Toilet Restaurant you dine in a toilet! The whole decor of the restaurant, in fact, is reminiscent of a bathroom, from the toilet-shaped seats to the washbasin tables. What is the situation like in Italy? Even in our peninsula it is possible to find strange and original restaurants, let's see which ones!

14 - Trattoria Da Nennella

This is the Neapolitan cousin of the more famous La Parolaccia in Rome. This restaurant is also a historic haunt in the city of Naples, operating in the Quartieri Spagnoli district since 1949. Those who lunch or dine here should know that entertainment is always present, almost invasive: from waiters tossing out jokes and not-so-light jokes to plates that fly. The cuisine is excellent, home-style, as is the value for money. Why not try the Gabinetto porta frutta?

• Where is it located: Naples

• Type of cuisine: typical Neapolitan

• Average price per person: 20 Euro

• Contact details: Vico Lungo Teatro Nuovo, 103/104/105 Naples - Telephone: 081 414338

13 - Grotta Palazzese

Photos of Grotta Palazzese. The Grotta Palazzese summer restaurant is built inside the best known and largest natural cave of the 80 found along Polignano's rocky coastline. Access to the restaurant is only via a narrow staircase carved directly into the rock. The atmosphere is indescribable and unique, the prices a little high but the scenery is worth it.

• Where is: Polignano a Mare (BA)

• Type of cuisine: Italian cuisine

• Average price per person: 130 Euro

• Contacts: Via Narciso, 59 Polignano a Mare (BA)

12 - TramJazz

Photos by TramJazz. Following the initiative organised by the Milanese transport company, Rome too has its own travelling restaurant on board a tram, with the addition of jazz music. On board these wagons it is possible to dine by candlelight, taste specialities made with Lazio and km 0 products, listen to a jazz orchestra playing and fill your eyes with the beauty of the capital. What more could you want?

• Where is located: Rome

• Type of cuisine: typical local cuisine

• Average price per person: 70 Euro

• Contact details: Piazza Porta Maggiore, Rome - Telephone: 339 633 4700

11 - The Italo Americano

The name and setting do not suggest anything special. Yet this restaurant is the first in Italy to host special evenings where it is possible to dine completely naked.

• Where it is located: Cerro Maggiore (MI)

• Type of cuisine: Italo-American

• Average price per person: 100 Euro

• Contact details: via S. Clemente, 151 Cerro Maggiore (MI) - Telephone: 0331 512855

10 - Ristoaereo

" Photos of Ristoaereo. Ladies and gentlemen, the captain welcomes you on board...' No, we are not mistaken, that is exactly the welcome you will hear as you sit down at the tables of this restaurant! Part of this restaurant is in fact the interior of the Convair mod. Metropolitan 440, an American aircraft purchased by Alitalia and given to the Italian Air Force in the 1960s. A luxury location, since this model aircraft was used by the President of Coca Cola, in America, and for presidential trips, in Italy.

• Location: Fiumicino (RM)

• Type of cuisine: Mediterranean cuisine

• Average price per person: 70 Euro

• Contact details: Via Trincea delle Frasche, 90 Fiumicino (RM) - Telephone: 339 616 6937

9 - All'Oste che non c'è

Its name should already suggest the particularity of this osteria. First of all, it must be said that it is located in Santo Stefano di Valdobbiadene, home of renowned wines and prosecco. In this locality, on top of a hill hermitage that offers a magnificent panorama, stands an osteria that offers snacks in a very convivial atmosphere. Where is the particularity of this place, you may ask? No one, in this osteria, will come and present you with the bill. Here one serves oneself freely and, at the end of the meal, everything is left to the honesty of customers and tourists. You pay by depositing the decided sum in a box on one of the tables.

• Location: Valdobbiadene (TV)

• Type of cuisine: typical osteria cuisine, cured meats and local wines

• Average price per person: everyone decides how much to pay

• Contacts: Str. delle Treziese, Valdobbiadene (TV) - Telephone: 335 610 1702

8 - Ciabot Restaurant

Nicknamed the craziest restaurant in Italy, the Ciabot in Rivanazzano welcomes its customers with a splash of aperitif directly from the machinery used to spread the weed killer. If you think this is the best that can happen here, you will soon change your mind. The cover is made up of patches and rags, the starter might come to you on a tile! The crazy waiters carry the risotto in a wheelbarrow, 'banging' the dish into the plate with a trowel, as if it were freshly mixed cement. After the pudding served in a chamber pot, you may need a toothpick, then no problem: special woodcutters will make it before your eyes directly from wooden logs.

• Where it is located: Rivanazzano Terme (PV)

• Type of cuisine: local cuisine

• Average price per person: fixed price 50 Euro per person

• Contact details: via Giorgio Pedemonti, 1 Rivanazzano Terme (PV), Telephone: 340 080 2427, 0383 944134

7 - Cencio La parolaccia

Photo by http://www.cenciolaparolaccia.it/. A historic restaurant not only Roman but Italian. Since 1941, this restaurant has stood out for the shows and the soundtrack that accompany dinner, composed of Roman folklore and songs based on often vulgar themes and seasoned with colourful language.

• Location: Rome

• Type of cuisine: typical Roman home cooking

• Average price per person: fixed price 50 Euro per person

• Contact details: vicolo del Cinque, 3 Rome - Telephone: 06 580 3633

6 - Just For Two

Photos of Solo Per Due. Would you like an intimate, but really very intimate dinner with a special person? This is the restaurant for you. It is precisely called Solo per Due (Only for Two) because the restaurant room only has one table for two. The staff of chefs and waiters will be entirely dedicated to you, in an extremely romantic and private atmosphere.

• Location: Vacone (RI)

• Type of cuisine: Italian cuisine

• Average price per person: 250 Euro

• Contact details: Via Villa di Orazio, 2 Vacone (RI) - Telephone: 0746 676873

5 - La Casa del Demone

Photos of La Casa del Demone. This restaurant is dedicated to those who love their steak really rare! Horror atmospheres await customers at this restaurant, where you can enjoy Argentinian meat specialities while resting on coffin-shaped tables. You will also be surrounded by skulls and ghosts and all kinds of scary decorations.

• Location: Turin

• Type of cuisine: grilled meat

• Average price per person: 40 Euro

• Contact details: via San Domenico, 3B Turin - Telephone: 011 436 7864

4 - Bounty Sea Tavern

Photos of Bounty Sea Tavern. If your passion is pirates and sea voyages, you can eat a pizza in this restaurant in Florence, which recalls the interior of a real galleon. The restaurant's tables are made out of lifeboats and there is a room set up to resemble a real ship's deck, which also has an evocative starry sky.

• Location: Florence

• Type of cuisine: spaghetteria, pizzeria

• Average price per person:

• Contact details: via Aretina, 139/red Firenze - Telephone: 055 650 4320

3 - Dialogo Nel Buio

Photos of Dialogo Nel Buio. It is known that when one of our 5 senses fails for some reason, immediately the other 4 become more active. This is why the Istituto dei Ciechi di Milano (Institute for the Blind in Milan) wanted to open a restaurant at its premises where diners can identify with those without sight. Will aromas and flavours really be more accentuated? Try it to believe.

• Location: Milan

• Type of cuisine: typical Italian

• Average price per person: 50 Euro

• Contact details: Istituto dei Ciechi di Milano, Via Vivaio, 7 Milan - Telephone: 02 7722 6210

2 - Cene Galeotte

Photos of Cene Galeotte. For more than ten years, this unique initiative has been repeated at the Volterra Prison. Prestigious chefs are ready to collaborate with the inmates to delight the customers of this more than exclusive restaurant.

• Location: Volterra (PI)

• Type of cuisine: Italian cuisine

• Average price per person: 35 Euro

• Contact details: Fortezza Medicea - Casa di Reclusione, Rampa di Castello, 4 Volterra - Phone: 055 2345040

1 - ATMosphere

Photo by ATMosfera. This is a way of getting to know not only the specialities of the Milanese territories but also the history and the most evocative corners of the city. How is it possible to reconcile all these things? The city's transport company provides two restored trams that form a retro-style travelling restaurant. On board these characteristic carriages you can travel around Milan and enjoy meat, fish or vegetarian menus. As you might expect, seats are limited so it is advisable to book in advance.

• Location: Milan

• Type of cuisine: Italian

• Price per person: 70 Euro

• Contact details: atmosfera@atm.it