Ahead of its time when it opened in 1976, this Rome pub is marking its milestone anniversary with a massive party.The Fiddler's Elbow, a landmark watering hole in Rome, is celebrating 50 years as the oldest Irish pub in Italy with live music every night from 22 October until 1 November.Located a few blocks from Rome's central Termini train station, Fiddler's was established in 1976, long before mainland Europe embraced the now ubiquitous Irish pub. These days the pub in the city's Monti district is fronted by Conor Bottigliero, 42, together with business partners Hiro Morita from Japan and Orazio Cancanelli from Rome. Fiddler's was founded by Conor's Roman father Gino Bottigliero and Irish mother Mary Pyne, alongside original partners Cancanelli and Antonio Shorthose. The 50th anniversary is a bittersweet occasion as Gino is gravely ill but he has insisted that the celebrations go ahead regardless. Conor and Hiro came on board during the difficult post-covid era, spurring business by hosting regular live music, comedy nights and open-mic events which have attracted a younger crowd and increasingly more Italians. Conor Bottigliero at The Fiddler's Elbow     The novelties also extend to hard-to-find drinks from Ireland. "I've made a real push to focus on Irish products" - Conor says - "We have over 80 Irish whiskies, around 20 Irish gins, all sorts of ciders, and we are one of the few pubs in Rome with Smithwicks on draught." Traditional Irish musicians have played a central role at Fiddler's for 50 years, notably the renowned fiddler Fabio Scanzani, who was among the very first customers and who met his wife in the pub. Another legendary figure is John Armstead, a Kung Fu grandmaster and actor from the west of Ireland. Armstead, an imposing 83-year-old strongman known to all as “Big John”, has been a regular since the start. For Conor, the pub is etched in his earliest childhood memories. "It was 1990, I was six years old and it was the Italy-Ireland match in the World Cup, I remember coming in here and it was one of the first invasions of Irish fans." Early days The pub opened its doors on Via Sforza in the autumn of 1976. The idea came about when Gino worked with Shorthose, whose father was English, at Singapore Airlines in Fiumicino airport. Gino credits Shorthose as a “hugely important figure” in getting the pub off the ground, before he left for health reasons in 1979, and was replaced by English rock musician Richard Sherwood. Fiddler's proved to be well ahead of the crowd, acting independently of Guinness marketing heads who opened a wave of Irish bars across Europe in the 1990s. Due to its growing number of customers, in 1979 the pub moved to its current address on nearby Via dell’Olmata 43, in the shadow of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore.   Located on a quiet side-street between a convent and a police station, the new venue had its own stories even before the Fiddler's Elbow sign was hung outside. A former trattoria once popular with the city's Russian diaspora, it was said that Lenin had a meal here during a visit to Rome in 1911. Gino Bottigliero reminisces Speaking to Wanted in Rome on the eve of the bar's 40th anniversary in 2016, Gino recalled with a nostalgic twinkle in his eye: "There were queues outside every night, we were packed from the start." Its main customers were expats – many from the Food and Agriculture Organization – happy at the thought of a night of beer and banter. In those pre-internet days, tourists had difficulty finding the bar, which was initially classed as a “cultural association”, meaning it required a membership card and was obliged to close one night a week. Gino said that early clients also included "American and Australian soldiers, left over from the Vietnam war – half crazy and a bit shocked." The bar's “most important” clientele in the early years, according to Gino, were priests and seminarians from Ireland and Britain, including noted traditional Irish musicians. There was enthusiastic support from the students of the Pontifical Irish College, as well as a handful from the Venerable English College, and the Benedictines at Sant'Anselmo. However it was the Beda College, for older seminarians, that provided the most interesting characters, Gino maintains. Beda regulars allegedly included the nephew of Winston Churchill, the brother of a serving British Foreign Secretary, a descendant of Oliver Cromwell, and a man who gave up his string of night clubs to serve God. Exotic venue Until the advent of The Fiddler's Elbow, foreigners living in Rome had nowhere to go for a libation, let alone a pint of the black stuff. “The notion of meeting for a drink in the evening, outside of a restaurant, was unheard of in Rome at the time,” Gino said. It might be difficult to imagine for today's readers, but in the 1970s the concept of an Irish pub in Rome, with Irish beer and authentic Irish trappings, would be the modern-day equivalent of opening a tea house with Tibetan monks or a restaurant offering delicacies from the Amazon jungle. “We were exotic,” Gino said with a sardonic chuckle, although he admitted that for some early customers the prospect of meeting foreign au pair girls was as enticing as quaffing a pint of stout. The Fiddler's Elbow founders Orazio Cancanelli, Gino Bottigliero and Antonio Shorthose at the pub on Via Sforza in 1977.   As Fiddler's reputation grew, so began a glorious new era, a “super-boom”, Gino said: “We had a monopoly for years, from 1976 to 1986, even later.” The pub was the first in Rome to serve draft Guinness, in 1981, as well as the first to employ Irish staff, while the hordes of customers were vetted by bouncers, another first for the capital. In 1985 Fiddler's availed itself of a loophole in its cultural association status that so long as it was not open all day, it could open seven nights a week.   Several other Irish pubs followed suit, including Four Green Fields in Prati, which opened in 1980, and the Druid's Den which Gino opened with his brother Tonino, around the corner on Via di San Martino ai Monti, in 1982. Colourful characters Over the years Fiddler's has provided a refuge for some of the city's most eccentric and interesting expat characters, who Gino takes delight in recalling. There was Tony Giannone, who ran an underground pub where people could drink while cheering over Bangkok-style boxing matches, or Séamus who consigned his shoes and socks to the bar owners each night, for safe-keeping, while he imbibed. Then there was “The Constable”, as he was nick-named, in honour of his jolly disposition, rotund figure and “laughing policeman” moustache. It was only after his departure that his stunned name-givers learned that The Constable was in fact a secret service agent with MI6. Other intriguing customers included the art historian Lee Bimm, who swilled Bloody Marys while refusing to speak to fellow Americans. When an elderly and family-less Bimm was in his final months in 2010, the humanity of Fiddler's Elbow came to the fore. A small but loyal circle of regulars would visit him on his death-bed, and when he died the pub took care of his funeral. Fiddler's has always been a magnet for journalists, including former CNN International anchorman Jim Clancy, who was a regular while at the Rome bureau in the 1980s and 1990s and who once introduced the pub to CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour. However the journalist best associated with the pub was Derek Wilson. Hard-living but always dapper and polite, Wilson's name preceded his arrival in Rome in the mid-1980s. Wilson had continued to file news from South Vietnam after the fall of Saigon – among other precarious postings such as Buenos Aires under the military dictatorship – before settling for a quieter life in Monti, where he spent his days writing articles for Wanted in Rome. Since his death in 2007 his framed obituary from The Times rests opposite the bar where he so often sat. Celebrities Over the decades, numerous celebrities have passed through the pub's doors including tennis star John McEnroe, the behatted British singer Jay Kay of Jamiroquai fame, and former Irish prime minister Bertie Ahern, along with big-name Irish rugby players. During the 1980s the pub welcomed the cast of Dallas for extended periods while it filmed scenes in Italy, and in 1993, while filming Cliffhanger, Hollywood A-lister Sylvester Stallone hired the bar's staff to serve his private birthday party at Rome's Hilton Hotel. Irish culture and sport Fiddler's hosts regular cultural events, with particular emphasis on Irish music and literature. Professor John McCourt, Rector of the University of Macerata, describes it as “one of Rome's great Irish cultural institutions”, praising its important role in supporting conferences of Irish studies and organising “lively, entertaining celebrations of Irish writing.”   In terms of sport, Fiddler's is the official sponsor of the Rome Hibernia GAA club with whom the pub has "built up a very good relationship", Conor says. The club, which plays Gaelic football and hurling, holds its board meetings in the pub and brings along visiting teams from Ireland and around Europe. Fiddler's also attracts regular returning customers, for sporting events such as the Six Nations rugby as well as for more personal reasons. "You'd be surprised at the amount of couples who met each other here, and all the old staff from over the years who keep coming back" - Conor says - "they all have really good memories of this place". Despite changes in drinking habits and challenges in the era of “super pubs”, The Fiddler's Elbow is a bastion of quiet eccentricity and old-world charm. Marinated slowly by generations of Romans and anglophones, it remains a welcoming oasis where Italian and expat culture, humour and traditions collide. As for the future, the plan is to "keep Fiddler's going for at least another 50 years" - Conor says - "I feel like this is really a piece of history that will continue." By Andy Devane This is an updated and expanded version of an article published by Wanted in Rome in January 2017 on the pub's 40th anniversary. Fiddler’s Elbow, Via dell’Olmata 43, tel. 064872110, www.thefiddlerselbow.com.

The Fiddler's Elbow, a landmark watering hole in Rome, is celebrating 50 years as the oldest Irish pub in Italy with live music every night from 22 October until 1 November. Located a few blocks from Rome's central Termini train station, Fiddler's was established in 1976, long before mainland Europe embraced the now ubiquitous Irish pub. These days the pub in the city's Monti district is fronted by Conor Bottigliero, 42, together with business partners Hiro Morita from Japan and Orazio Cancanelli from Rome. Fiddler's was founded by Conor's Roman father Gino Bottigliero and Irish mother Mary Pyne, alongside original partners Cancanelli and Antonio Shorthose. The 50th anniversary is a bittersweet occasion as Gino is gravely ill but he has insisted that the celebrations go ahead regardless. Conor and Hiro came on board during the difficult post-covid era, spurring business by hosting regular live music, comedy nights and open-mic events which have attracted a younger crowd and increasingly more Italians.
Conor Bottigliero at The Fiddler's Elbow     The novelties also extend to hard-to-find drinks from Ireland. "I've made a real push to focus on Irish products" - Conor says - "We have over 80 Irish whiskies, around 20 Irish gins, all sorts of ciders, and we are one of the few pubs in Rome with Smithwicks on draught." Traditional Irish musicians have played a central role at Fiddler's for 50 years, notably the renowned fiddler Fabio Scanzani, who was among the very first customers and who met his wife in the pub. Another legendary figure is John Armstead, a Kung Fu grandmaster and actor from the west of Ireland. Armstead, an imposing 83-year-old strongman known to all as “Big John”, has been a regular since the start. For Conor, the pub is etched in his earliest childhood memories. "It was 1990, I was six years old and it was the Italy-Ireland match in the World Cup, I remember coming in here and it was one of the first invasions of Irish fans." The pub opened its doors on Via Sforza in the autumn of 1976. The idea came about when Gino worked with Shorthose, whose father was English, at Singapore Airlines in Fiumicino airport. Gino credits Shorthose as a “hugely important figure” in getting the pub off the ground, before he left for health reasons in 1979, and was replaced by English rock musician Richard Sherwood. Fiddler's proved to be well ahead of the crowd, acting independently of Guinness marketing heads who opened a wave of Irish bars across Europe in the 1990s. Due to its growing number of customers, in 1979 the pub moved to its current address on nearby Via dell’Olmata 43, in the shadow of the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore.   Located on a quiet side-street between a convent and a police station, the new venue had its own stories even before the Fiddler's Elbow sign was hung outside. A former trattoria once popular with the city's Russian diaspora, it was said that Lenin had a meal here during a visit to Rome in 1911. Speaking to Wanted in Rome on the eve of the bar's 40th anniversary in 2016, Gino recalled with a nostalgic twinkle in his eye: "There were queues outside every night, we were packed from the start." Its main customers were expats – many from the Food and Agriculture Organization – happy at the thought of a night of beer and banter. In those pre-internet days, tourists had difficulty finding the bar, which was initially classed as a “cultural association”, meaning it required a membership card and was obliged to close one night a week. Gino said that early clients also included "American and Australian soldiers, left over from the Vietnam war – half crazy and a bit shocked." The bar's “most important” clientele in the early years, according to Gino, were priests and seminarians from Ireland and Britain, including noted traditional Irish musicians. There was enthusiastic support from the students of the Pontifical Irish College, as well as a handful from the Venerable English College, and the Benedictines at Sant'Anselmo. However it was the Beda College, for older seminarians, that provided the most interesting characters, Gino maintains. Beda regulars allegedly included the nephew of Winston Churchill, the brother of a serving British Foreign Secretary, a descendant of Oliver Cromwell, and a man who gave up his string of night clubs to serve God. Until the advent of The Fiddler's Elbow, foreigners living in Rome had nowhere to go for a libation, let alone a pint of the black stuff. “The notion of meeting for a drink in the evening, outside of a restaurant, was unheard of in Rome at the time,” Gino said. It might be difficult to imagine for today's readers, but in the 1970s the concept of an Irish pub in Rome, with Irish beer and authentic Irish trappings, would be the modern-day equivalent of opening a tea house with Tibetan monks or a restaurant offering delicacies from the Amazon jungle. “We were exotic,” Gino said with a sardonic chuckle, although he admitted that for some early customers the prospect of meeting foreign au pair girls was as enticing as quaffing a pint of stout.
The Fiddler's Elbow founders Orazio Cancanelli, Gino Bottigliero and Antonio Shorthose at the pub on Via Sforza in 1977.   As Fiddler's reputation grew, so began a glorious new era, a “super-boom”, Gino said: “We had a monopoly for years, from 1976 to 1986, even later.” The pub was the first in Rome to serve draft Guinness, in 1981, as well as the first to employ Irish staff, while the hordes of customers were vetted by bouncers, another first for the capital. In 1985 Fiddler's availed itself of a loophole in its cultural association status that so long as it was not open all day, it could open seven nights a week.   Several other Irish pubs followed suit, including Four Green Fields in Prati, which opened in 1980, and the Druid's Den which Gino opened with his brother Tonino, around the corner on Via di San Martino ai Monti, in 1982. Over the years Fiddler's has provided a refuge for some of the city's most eccentric and interesting expat characters, who Gino takes delight in recalling. There was Tony Giannone, who ran an underground pub where people could drink while cheering over Bangkok-style boxing matches, or Séamus who consigned his shoes and socks to the bar owners each night, for safe-keeping, while he imbibed. Then there was “The Constable”, as he was nick-named, in honour of his jolly disposition, rotund figure and “laughing policeman” moustache. It was only after his departure that his stunned name-givers learned that The Constable was in fact a secret service agent with MI6. Other intriguing customers included the art historian Lee Bimm, who swilled Bloody Marys while refusing to speak to fellow Americans. When an elderly and family-less Bimm was in his final months in 2010, the humanity of Fiddler's Elbow came to the fore. A small but loyal circle of regulars would visit him on his death-bed, and when he died the pub took care of his funeral. Fiddler's has always been a magnet for journalists, including former CNN International anchorman Jim Clancy, who was a regular while at the Rome bureau in the 1980s and 1990s and who once introduced the pub to CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour. However the journalist best associated with the pub was Derek Wilson. Hard-living but always dapper and polite, Wilson's name preceded his arrival in Rome in the mid-1980s. Wilson had continued to file news from South Vietnam after the fall of Saigon – among other precarious postings such as Buenos Aires under the military dictatorship – before settling for a quieter life in Monti, where he spent his days writing articles for Wanted in Rome. Since his death in 2007 his framed obituary from The Times rests opposite the bar where he so often sat. Over the decades, numerous celebrities have passed through the pub's doors including tennis star John McEnroe, the behatted British singer Jay Kay of Jamiroquai fame, and former Irish prime minister Bertie Ahern, along with big-name Irish rugby players. During the 1980s the pub welcomed the cast of Dallas for extended periods while it filmed scenes in Italy, and in 1993, while filming Cliffhanger, Hollywood A-lister Sylvester Stallone hired the bar's staff to serve his private birthday party at Rome's Hilton Hotel. Fiddler's hosts regular cultural events, with particular emphasis on Irish music and literature. Professor John McCourt, Rector of the University of Macerata, describes it as “one of Rome's great Irish cultural institutions”, praising its important role in supporting conferences of Irish studies and organising “lively, entertaining celebrations of Irish writing.”   In terms of sport, Fiddler's is the official sponsor of the Rome Hibernia GAA club with whom the pub has "built up a very good relationship", Conor says. The club, which plays Gaelic football and hurling, holds its board meetings in the pub and brings along visiting teams from Ireland and around Europe. Fiddler's also attracts regular returning customers, for sporting events such as the Six Nations rugby as well as for more personal reasons. "You'd be surprised at the amount of couples who met each other here, and all the old staff from over the years who keep coming back" - Conor says - "they all have really good memories of this place". Despite changes in drinking habits and challenges in the era of “super pubs”, The Fiddler's Elbow is a bastion of quiet eccentricity and old-world charm. Marinated slowly by generations of Romans and anglophones, it remains a welcoming oasis where Italian and expat culture, humour and traditions collide. As for the future, the plan is to "keep Fiddler's going for at least another 50 years" - Conor says - "I feel like this is really a piece of history that will continue." By Andy Devane This is an updated and expanded version of an article published by Wanted in Rome in January 2017 on the pub's 40th anniversary. Fiddler’s Elbow, Via dell’Olmata 43, tel. 064872110, .