Bar Necci

In a difficult-to-find corner of the supercool Pigneto district, which is to Rome what Hoxton is to London, this friendly, stylish bar with wrap-around garden terrace was once a neighbourhood hangout patronised by old tipplers, young pool players and a slumming Pier Paolo Pasolini, who shot parts of his first film Accattone here in 1961. The current owners, who include English chef, Ben Hirst (no relation to Damien), have made the place over in a funky retro early-70s idiom. Necci morphs from local breakfast stop to light lunch venue, afternoon cafe, early evening wine and aperitivo bar and serious restaurant as the day progresses. Hirst's cuisine uses local, mostly organic ingredients in updated osteria recipes like pan-grilled scallops with porcini mushrooms, red Viterbo potatoes and crispy guanciale bacon. At aperitivo time, €10 buys you a drink (cocktail, wine, or one of the bar's speciality retro soft drinks – like Spuma Nera Paoletti, a sort of Italian Cola) and a plate of gourmet snacks. Special events are often organised on Sundays, like a once-monthly second-hand vinyl market accompanied by fish and chips – one of Hirst's few culinary imports from his native land.
• Via Fanfulla da Lodi 68, +39 06 9760 1552, necci1924.com. Open daily 8am-1am

Bar del Fico

Named after the impossibly picturesque piazza outside, which itself takes its moniker from the fig tree that has stood here for as long as anyone can remember, this bohemian watering hole near Piazza Navona has always knowingly played on another meaning of the word fico in Italian: "cool and trendy". For many years it was cool precisely because it didn't try too hard: an unreconstructed neighbourhood bar whose outside tables were frequented by wizened, chain-smoking Roman chess players, it was a fico sort of place to meet for aperitivi with friends. But a two-year makeover that finished in September 2010 made the decor fico, too, in a shabby-chic French bistro kind of way, arguably reducing Fico's true cool quotient. Still, it's all done with a certain panache, the new all-you-can-eat aperitivo buffet (free with a €5 glass of wine or a €8 cocktail) is well-attended – and crucially, the chess players are still there, oblivious to fashion shifts. Light lunches are served in the bar; in the evening, the bar's restaurant annexe, around the corner in Via della Pace 34/35, does a mid-priced selection of Italian staples.
• Piazza del Fico 26, +39 06 6880 8413, bardelfico.it. Open daily 7am-2am

Enoteca Carso

They don't come much more "neighbourhood bar" than this. In the far northern reaches of the Prati district, this wine emporium and lunch stop opened in 1927, and the charming bottle-shop decor has changed little since then. Run by the personable Benito, Carso is frequented by local residents, lawyers from the area's many legal offices, and TV people from the nearby RAI state TV and radio studios. Bus drivers and mechanics used to add some colour to the mix, too, until the bus depot across the road closed down. But it's still about as far as you can get from tourist Rome, and the wine list is encyclopaedic (and made even better by Benito's promise that he'll open any bottle you like, even if you only want one glass). Food, served mostly at lunchtime (though there's an aperitivo buffet for evening grazing), consists mostly of salads, cold cuts (bresaola, cheeses) and the occasional hot dish, like involtini di vitello (veal rolls). Though it's closed on Italian football's canonical match day, Sunday, Enoteca Carso's proximity to the Stadio Olimpico, home to Roma and Lazio, makes it a good pre-match stop if you're taking in a weekday evening fixture.
• Viale Carso 37/39, +39 06 372 5866. Open Mon-Sat 9am-10pm

Cul de Sac

Rome's venerable Cul de Sac – in a busy square right off piazza Navona – was the city's first proper wine bar when it opened in 1977, and it has changed little since those early days. It deserves a medal for keeping standards high in an area where tourist rip-off joints have become the rule. The few simple pavement tables are much sought after; in the long, narrow interior with its big counter full of interesting cheeses and cured meats, diners and imbibers sit on communal wooden tables under towering bottle-filled shelves. The vast selection of Italian wines here has few rivals in Rome. A glass of local white starts at around €2.30, but if you're into wine ask the knowledgeable staff to suggest something a little more refined (there are dozens of by-the-glass options, going up to €8, though you'll get more choice and better value if you order a bottle). Food consists of patés, hams and cheeses, local speciality dishes, simple pastas and good salads (their textbook Greek salad is a long-running favourite), all tasty, unpretentious and not badly priced for this area.
• Piazza Pasquino 73, +39 06 688 01094, enotecaculdesac.com. Open daily noon-4pm, 6pm-12.30am

L'Oasi della Birra

It may be called the "Oasis of Beer", but this off-licence and popular aperitivo spot facing the market in the buzzing Testaccio district impresses as much for its wine selection as for its extensive range of Italian and international ales. A cavernous underground space has a bierkeller air with Alpine decor and beer-bottle-lined walls. Upstairs is altogether more Roman, with wines filling high wooden shelves and rickety wooden tables being congenially shoved back and forth by passing waiters as they struggle to hitch bottles down for clients; even better, a few outside tables give a front-row view of neighbourhood life on Testaccio's market square. During the day L'Oasi functions as a takeaway bottle-shop, but from 5.30pm staff begin piling up a long table of substantial nibbles to accompany the aperitivi of homeward-bound students and workers; at €10 for a glass of wine or beer and a plate of goodies, this buffet – available until 8.30pm – is an excellent way to dine cheaply. Alternatively, or if you turn up later, there's a proper dinner menu featuring huge bruschettas, platters of cheese and/or cured meats and some great salads.
• Piazza Testaccio 41, +39 06 574 6122. Open daily 4.30pm-12.30am

Bar San Calisto

The streets of Trastevere are some of Rome's most tourist-trodden, especially of an evening when the picturesque district's bars and eateries heave with foreign youth. But the Bar San Calisto is an exception. For seven decades it has resisted all pressure to smarten itself up for visitors, remaining the haunt of some gloriously louche local arty and intellectual types, plus assorted punks, hippies and alternativi of all descriptions. Peroni beer by the bottle, sans glass, is the habitués' drink of choice at the tottering tables out in the cobbled square. But the coffee is good and the ice cream delicious, especially when served affogato – floating in a sundae glass of coffee or alcohol. The winter hot chocolate topped with whipped cream is legendary. Don't expect charming service, or even communication in anything but the most impenetrable Roman dialect. But it's a refreshing change from the usual multilingual smooth talk.
• Piazza San Calisto 3-5, +39 06 589 5670. Open Mon-Sat 6am-2am

Cavour 313

This serious traditional wine bar is perfectly placed for getting a restorative glass of vinum in after a cultural slog around the nearby Roman Forum. The sober decor – mahogany bar front and shelves, cool marble floor, brass fittings – serves to focus one's attention on the glass in hand, which you can choose from a few, nicely varied mescita (by-the-glass) options and over a thousand different bottles. Food is very much the supporting act, but the sit-down menu, with its accent on soups, cold cuts and cheese platters, offers a light and healthy variation on Rome's rather heavy trattoria fare – though the delicious homemade desserts, including chocolate mousse and almond granita, help to make up any calorie deficit. Plenty of locals swing by just for a glass and a nibble at the bar, and if you're passing by around 8pm on the way to dinner elsewhere, don't hesitate to join them.
• Via Cavour 313, +39 06 678 5496, cavour313.it. Open daily 12.30-14.45pm, 7.30pm-00.30am, closed Sun in summer

Antica Vineria

This austere but quietly funky centro storico bottleshop is far more in with the local in-crowd than anywhere in nearby Campo de' Fiori – a beautiful piazza that has sold its soul to all-you-can-drink happy hour dives pitched at visiting US students. Old guys stopping in for their daily tipple of draught Frascati rub shoulders with the architects, designers and fashionistas who have moved in to this chi-chi neighbourhood, and who might opt instead for a glass of Sauvignon from Alto Adige, or Sicilian Nero d'Avola. Punters tend to spill out into the cobbled street as there's nowhere much to sit inside except perhaps for a couple of wine cases that haven't been unpacked yet, and little except some rudimentary bar nibbles to encourage grazing. This place takes you back to what neighbourhood Roman wine bars used to be – essentially wine-oriented off-licences, where you might stop off for a glass while deciding which bottle to take to dinner that evening. Barmen-owners Marco and Giancarlo are a good source of wine advice, though it helps if you know your Sangiovese from your Nebbiolo.
• Via Monte della Farina 37, +39 06 688 06989. Open Mon-Sat 10.30am-3pm, 6.30-10.30pm

Enoteca Provincia Romana

Occupying the former rear-entrance service rooms of Palazzo Valentini, seat of the Rome provincial government, this minimal-chic wine bar can – at lunchtime – feel a little like a bureaucrats' refectory, to the point where beating the suits to a table, or even a sipping-and-snacking perch at the bar counter, becomes an arduous task (so it's worth booking ahead). But there's a reason they flock here: this is a showcase for the best of the wine and food – from bar nibbles to full meals – produced in the countryside immediately around Rome. The prices are fair, the quality is high and the Enoteca's splendid position in a square adjoining centralissima Piazza Venezia, overlooking Trajan's splendid column, is unbeatable. You can experience the province's vinous output by the glass (€4-€6) or tuck in to a dish of, say, locally-fished octopus with potatoes so carefully sourced they practically tell you the name of the guy who sowed them. Combine your stopover with a tour of the magnificent Roman remains recently opened to the public inside Palazzo Valentini.
• Via del Foro Traiano 82-84, +39 06 699 40273. Open Mon-Sat 11am-11pm

Stravinskij Bar

Don your designer shades and join Rome's perma-tanned hipsters for a cocktail or a glass of something bubbly at this oh-so-chic bar in Rocco Forte's uber-luxe Hotel de Russie. Inside, plush purple armchairs give the place the air of a sophisticated club. Outside in the delightful garden courtyard local businessmen, style devotees and wannabe starlets imbibe in elegant wrought-iron armchairs amid potted palms, rubbing shoulders with the hotel's glamorous clients and hoping for a glimpse of a visiting movie star. Health-conscious drinkers opt for the bar's signature alcohol-free cocktails which start at €15; but serious topers go for head barman Massimo D'Azzedio's award-winning alcoholic cocktails (from €19). With so much worldly traffic at bar level, the De Russie's gorgeously lush "secret" garden just a short stroll uphill from the courtyard seems an anomaly, but it certainly adds a wonderfully green and leafy charm to the Stravinskij experience.
• Via del Babuino 9, +39 06 328 881, hotelderussie.it. Open daily 9am-1am

• Lee Marshall is a freelance travel writer who has been based in Rome for almost 30 years