By gondola, speedboat and even a horse. Those were some of the exotic and over-the-top modes of transportation that Ashley Park’s character, Mindy Chen, used to experience Italy in this season of “Emily in Paris.”
Season 5, which debuted on Dec. 18 on Netflix, is mostly set in Rome after Emily Cooper (played by Lily Collins) vacated her Parisian digs to chase a new career opportunity and Italian love interest. Emily’s passionate and supportive best friend, Mindy, tagged along, naturally.
Ms. Park, who resides in Los Angeles, appreciates the go-with-the-flow spontaneity of cities like Rome, Paris and New York, where she previously lived. While the show was shooting in the Eternal City, she wandered Rome’s cobblestone streets, disposable camera in hand, stopping in neighborhood cafes and often dipping into historic and colorful churches.
“When we first started shooting Season 1 in Paris, I had never been to Paris, so I remember, I took so many different classes, and I really explored the city with wide eyes,” she said. “I felt the same in Rome.”
As part of her Rome routine, Ms. Park stopped by the avant-garde retailer SuperOdra for designer pieces and shopped for vintage clothes in trendy Monti, a residential community by the Colosseum. She took in classic tourist destinations like the Spanish Steps and the Sistine Chapel. Of course, there was the daily diet of handmade pasta and an Aperol spritz.
“I ate a lot while we were filming in Rome and it’s so funny, because it’s one of those things where now, I don’t want pasta, unless it’s in Italy, you know?” Ms. Park said.
Beyond and including places that serve carbs, Ms. Park had more Rome favorites to share.
1. Fontana delle Tartarughe
The Trevi Fountain gets the bulk of attention, but Ms. Park’s preferred Italian water feature is the Fontana delle Tartarughe, also known as the Turtle Fountain, in Rome’s Jewish Quarter — a neighborhood that features narrow roads, ancient ruins and kosher restaurants. And for good reason. One of Mindy’s defining moments in Season 4, the end of which was also shot in Rome, was singing “Beautiful Ruins,” while playing a keyboard in front of the fountain at night before a small audience of Emily and passers-by. The location, inside Piazza Mattei, felt unassuming and intimate, Ms. Park recalled. “It’s one of those places where you can kind of just stumble into it, and it was so magical,” she said.
2. Hostaria da Pietro
It was during Ms. Park’s first visit to Rome in 2022 to attend Valentino’s couture show that she met the actress Florence Pugh, who became one of her close friends. “I had run into her and her mom at the hotel,” recalled Ms. Park, who added that the group instantly hit it off and together discovered what is now one of her favorite restaurants, Hostaria da Pietro, in the upscale Campo Marzio district. “And I have never been to Rome without going to that restaurant again,” she said. Whenever she dines at the family-owned restaurant, which serves traditional pasta dishes, she opts for the Roman artichokes and fried zucchini blossoms stuffed with cheese. “I could have those every day of my life, I promise,” she said.
3. Villa Borghese
Ms. Park and Ms. Collins would often do walks and talks at the Villa Borghese park, which was near their Ludovisi district hotel. “It was our one time we would be in our normal sweats and just go for a walk,” she said, noting Ms. Collins’s husband, the director Charlie McDowell, and Redford, their pug, would accompany them during visits. Growing up in tree-abundant Ann Arbor, Mich., Ms. Park was instantly drawn to Villa Borghese’s expansive greenery. The nearly 200-acre park also features sculptures dating as far back as the 17th century, galleries, a large pond and unmatched panoramic views of the city, including of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. Recently, Ms. Park and friends navigated through the park’s scenic pathways on a quadricycle.
4. Via Margutta
Part of Rome’s charm, according to Ms. Park, is the effortless, yet distinct, beauty of the different neighborhoods. “Every street there has so many different nooks and crannies,” she said, proclaiming Via Margutta, an ivy-draped street in Rome’s historic center, as the most interesting. Via Margutta, where Pablo Picasso briefly lived, is a short detour from Piazza di Spagna and offers hidden courtyards, antique shops and bicycles symmetrically parked in front of art galleries with terra-cotta facades. “There’s a very special essence to that street,” Ms. Park said.
5. Da Enzo
In an “Emily in Paris”-type moment while filming Season 4, Ms. Park, along with her co-stars Bruno Gouery and Samuel Arnold, arrived at a pasta-making class at da Enzo — a popular, no-frills trattoria in Rome’s Trastevere neighborhood — a month early. With some smooth talking by Mr. Gouery (who speaks Italian), the group was squeezed into a class where they made “the most delicious, artichoke-salad pasta,” Ms. Park said. The restaurant’s long history (it opened in 1938) and ambience, with its checkered tablecloths and rustic exterior, are part of the appeal. “It’s one of those places that are kind of a hole in the wall,” she said. The pasta is so good at da Enzo, said Ms. Park, that during a recent trip to Rome, she “had carbonara three times in a row there. Love that place.”
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