The diet (which I sorely need since I only have a couple of pairs of trousers I can now fit into) called for sugar-free Jello as a dessert substitute. But where in Rome was I going to find that? Then  I had a thought. “Could it be that Castroni has Jello, or something similar?” It sounded far-fetched but since the store, one of my favourites, has just about everything a foreigner would need or want, I jumped on my motorbike and scooted over to Via Cola di Rienzo 196-198,  in the heart of Rome’s Prati district to have a look.

Visitors to Rome or other parts of Italy often come here primarily to eat wonderful Italian food. But when you’ve lived in Italy for a long time, it often happens that you don’t want coffee and cornetti for breakfast you want pancakes with maple syrup. You crave herring in cream sauce and  not spaghetti carbonara for lunch. You want French country paté or tortilla chips with guacamole sauce. And instead of osso buco or saltimbocca alla romana you want to whip up an Indian curry or eat some other Indian entréé even if it means a prepared meal you heat up in the microwave.  Perhaps instead of Nutella you find yourself dreaming of Skippy’s peanut butter. And if TiramiSu is deliciously mind-blowing, what if you need a fix of dulce de leche or fig newtons, oatmeal cookies or, I am ashamed to admit it, a chocolate cake made from a Betty Crocker mix.

When you get these cravings, if you live in downtown Rome you go straight to Castroni where, almost anything is possible. In fact, most amazingly, I did find American Jello, a second, British variety made by Rowntrees, and even a sugar-free version by a companycalled Hartley’s. I guess to an extent I was lucky because, as Roberto Castroni told me, they’d only been stocking Jello among the store’s nearly 2000 imported products for the last couple of months. The store sells imported condiments and canned goods from most parts of the world, sushi and caviar, cookies and biscuits, crackers, teas, patès, sauces, rice (or rather rices), pasta, nuts, candies and coffee (there is a flourishing espresso bar inside AND a corner dedicated to torrefazione freshly-ground, as you like them, coffee beans from a variety of sources. Before Thanksgiving and Christmas, special tables are set up for specialty products that different groups of foreigners feel they simply cannot do without.

The Castronis – papà Marcello, sons Roberto and Fabrizio and brother-in-law Massimo – rely on a long-standing supplier in London to advise them about British and American products, and others in France, Germany, Scandinavia, Russia, the Philippines, and China – some of the roughly 20 countries from which they import.

There are several other Castronis in Rome, run by other branches of the family, but this is the biggest and the most central and the best stocked. The store exists since back in 1932 when it was a normal grocery. But in the 1960’s Marcello Castroni had a brilliant idea which turned out to be more than foresighted. He decided to stock his store– to satisfy Rome’s diplomatic community. Little did he know that starting in the 1980’s, Italy would see an unprecedented influx of foreigners from all parts of the globe. Fresh ethnic produce is available in and around the Piazza Vittorio market on the other side of town where many Africans and Asians shop. But those who live or work downtown or have a bit more disposable income know that most of those homesick cravings are best satisfied right here.

Go further:

Deliciously duped at Volpetti.