Southern Cross Pub Rome 2026: The Prati Australian Pub Is Where Rome's Expat Community Watches Rugby, Australian Rules Football, and Every Other Sport That Italian Television Doesn't Consider a Sport
Autore: La Redazione di www.tourleaderpro.com
Last updated: April 2026.
Southern Cross Pub (Via Candia 61, Rome — in the Prati neighbourhood, on the Via Candia market street 200m from the Piazzale degli Eroi and 800m from Castel Sant'Angelo): the Australian pub that has operated in the Prati neighbourhood since the 1990s, the specific Rome expat community venue whose programming focus (the rugby union, the rugby league, the Australian football (AFL), the cricket, and the specific southern hemisphere sports calendar that the Italian sports media excludes from its standard broadcast diet) makes it the primary venue for the Rome community of Australian, New Zealand, South African, Irish, and British expats for whom the Italian football monoculture of the standard Italian sports bar is insufficient.
The sports programming: the specific Southern Cross sports calendar (the rugby Six Nations (February-March), the Rugby World Cup (every 4 years), the southern hemisphere rugby (the Rugby Championship — the New Zealand-South Africa-Australia-Argentina competition), the AFL season (March-September Australian time), and the cricket (the Test match schedule, the Ashes series, and the ICC tournaments)): the Southern Cross is the only Rome venue that programs the rugby, AFL, and cricket as primary sports rather than as exotic additions to the Italian football programme, and the only venue in Rome where the specific international rugby match (the Italian away match in Paris, London, or Edinburgh that Italian television does not broadcast) is available on the Southern Cross satellite subscription.
Southern Cross Pub: The Beer, the Food, and the Community
The Beer Selection
Southern Cross beer programme (the specific selection that distinguishes the Australian pub format from the Italian sports bar): the draught beer (the specific multi-tap draught beer selection — the Guinness, the Kilkenny, the Fosters (the Australian lager whose specific cultural association with the Southern Cross brand the pub maintains), and the rotating Italian craft beer tap (the specific Italian craft beer that the Southern Cross maintains as the local addition to the Australian-Irish draught programme)); the bottled beer (the specific southern hemisphere beer collection — the XXXX Gold, the Coopers Pale Ale, the New Zealand Speight's Gold Medal Ale, and the South African Castle Lager that the Southern Cross stocks as the specific import selection for the southern hemisphere expat clientele).
The Food and Community
Southern Cross food programme (the pub food format — the classic pub dishes that the Southern Cross kitchen produces as the accompaniment to the sports viewing): the specific Southern Cross food (the chicken parmy (the Australian pub standard — the Parmigiana di pollo in the specific Australian pub format with the leg ham, the melted cheese, and the chips), the meat pie (the Australian savoury pie in the Southern Cross version), and the standard pub menu): prices approximately €10-15 for the main pub dishes. The Southern Cross community (the specific Prati expat and international community that uses the pub as the primary social venue for the sport-and-beer-and-conversation combination that the Italian bar culture's standing-at-the-counter format cannot accommodate): the most specifically international community atmosphere available in any single Rome venue, the pub whose regulars represent the full spectrum of the English-speaking expatriate Rome.
Q&A: Southern Cross Pub Rome
Can I watch the Six Nations rugby at the Southern Cross?
Yes — the Six Nations (February-March) is the Southern Cross's peak season (the specific rugby tournament that attracts the largest expat crowd to the Prati pub): the Italy home matches at the Stadio Olimpico are watched partly from the stadium and partly from the Southern Cross (the away match viewers who don't have tickets); the Italy away matches (in London, Edinburgh, Paris, Dublin, and Cardiff) are watched exclusively from the Southern Cross (the Italian television sometimes broadcasts Italy's away matches, the Southern Cross broadcasts all of them on the satellite subscription). The specific Six Nations practical: arrive 30-45 minutes before the kickoff for the Ireland-England and France-England matches (the matches that generate the largest Southern Cross crowd — sometimes 100+ viewers in the 80-seat pub) or arrive 15 minutes before for the weekday matches that draw smaller but equally enthusiastic audiences.