We know for certain that in 1821 Francesco Trimani was selling wine in a shop on Via di Panico, next to Piazza dei Coronari. Later on, Pietro and Marco Trimani moved to Via di Porta Salaria (today's Via Piave), and in 1876, they finally settled in the premises of Via Goito 20, where they still are. The activity has been carried on ever since without interruption. Changes in the offer occurred, following the customers needs: from a shop serving wine and meals, to the present 4,500 m2 with 10 windows facing Via Goito and Via Cernaia.
The shop has been completely restructured between 1990 and 1992, attaining an excellent balance between functionality and preservation of historical structures. In the same building where wine is sold, the firm has its offices and all its cellars for wine conservation and refinement. At present Trimani is one of the most important dealers in Italy, and certainly the oldest wine-shop in Rome.
There are several remarkable elements in the shops' furnishings: its floor, made of original Bagnoregio basalt-stone slabs; the wooden counter, with its white Carrara marble top, hollowed out by the countless bottles passed on it for the last 120 years; and, most of all, the fountain used as a wine dispenser: a large marble basin, partly sculptured with bunches of grapes, with an outlet for water supplied by the ancient Felice Aqueduct. In the fountain there are six different jars, formerly containing wine to be served, kept constantly cool by running water. Each container has a brass plate dating from the 20's, indicating the wine's price - 5 lira for white wine and 4 for red. There is also a wall price-list, dating 1919, with gold-leaf inscriptions concerning the most popular products at the time - Vermouth, Marsala, Ferro China: 40 cents a tumbler.
In 1991, as an annex to the wine-shop, the firm opened the Trimani Wine Bar, in Via Cernaia 37/b. Next to an extended choice of wines, the Wine Bar offers some attractive gastronomic specialities, which can be taken either standing at the counter or sitting at a table. Filippini and Brunetti, the architects from Ancona who designed the bar, succeeded in harmonising the modernity of a new shop with a few elements reminding Roman traditional taverns.
Since 1970 the shop has been directed by Marco Trimani and his wife Rosalena, who are now assisted by their sons and daughter: Paolo, Francesco, Giovanni and Carla.