I’ve said it before, I can consider no higher technique to start a visit than with a foodie tour, and Rome is not at all an exception. So, as soon as I landed in Rome, I took my very own advice, heading on to the meeting point for The Roman Food Tour within the Trionfale neighborhood. Read on to seek out out why you shouldn’t miss a food tour in Rome and why I selected this one particularly.
The Roman Food Tour
Looking for the very best food tours in Rome, I got here across The Roman Food Tour website and I used to be drawn to their foodie tours in Rome’s neighborhoods. It’s all the time idea to step out of the foremost tourist areas and discover little treasures that only the locals learn about.
About Food in Rome
Or should I say food in Italy? Food is such an enormous a part of Italian culture and social life! People like to exit for lunch or dinner, meet friends for aperitivo, or simply change a number of words with the bartender while sipping the morning coffee. Sunday lunches are a chance to bring all of the family across the table. Visitors crave Italian food but, as a rule, fall into tourist traps, eating mediocre stuff as an alternative of the very best, authentic food.
A food tour in Rome shall be each a foodie and a cultural experience. You will learn in regards to the typical dishes and their history, where the ingredients come from, and methods to select wine within the supermarket. It’s all helpful information, and it should keep you well-fed throughout your trip. You will know what to eat in Rome and where.
What’s more, you could forget a few of the beautiful things you will notice within the museums, but you’ll be talking for a very long time in regards to the food tour you took in Rome!
A foodie tour in Rome step-by-step
The meeting point for our Taste of Trionfale food tour was La Pasticceria Siciliana. I do know, weren’t we talking about typical Roman food? Well, the reality is that Romans, like most Italians, prefer something sweet with their morning coffee. A Sicilian-style pastry shop is often value trying, wherever you might be on the earth.
We met our guide, Lucrezia, outside the café and sat on the reserved table on the terrace. Having coffee on the terrace in December is reason enough to book a flight to Rome, isn’t it? I like these small group tours, especially once I travel solo since it’s easy to have a conversation and feel included.
First stop – Italian breakfast
The tasting series began with a coffee of our selection and a cannolo. We went inside to look at our server fill the cannoli with ricotta cream. One necessary tip I came upon is to never buy pre-filled cannoli. The ricotta cream will make the cannolo soggy. Always select a spot where they fill them on the spot to enjoy their crispy texture.
Lucrezia, a Milanese that moved to Rome, was enthusiastic about Italian food and flavors. She also taught us a few of the coffee rules in Italy.
Pizza al taglio
Our second stop was for pizza, but not any pizza, Roman-style pizza al taglio. Slices of pizza are the go-to Romans’ street food at any hour. It works for breakfast, lunch, as a snack, or a late dinner if essential. They cut pizza with a pair of scissors and weigh it. You can have one among the most affordable snacks in Italy, or probably the most expensive street food for those who select a spot next to the Trevi Fountain as an example.
Anyway, we stopped at Bonci Pizzarium, top-of-the-line places to have sliced pizza in Rome and beyond. Gabriele Bonci’s pizza became so famous, that there’s all the time a line in front of his first opened shop within the Trionfale area.
They served pizza with loads of different toppings day-after-day, so it’s hard to get bored with it. We had three several types of pizza and a supplì.
Supplì are deep-fried balls constituted of rice and tomato sauce. They are a typical Roman snack and you may also find them with cheese and pepper or meat fillings.
For pizza, we selected potatoes, lard, and greens (mainly kale). Not your typical pizza, is it? That’s the fantastic thing about it. You get to try different flavors and select your favorites. I skipped the lard as I ended eating meat some time ago, but I loved the opposite two. For some reason, I never thought I could have potatoes as a pizza topping, but it surely works.
The third stop of the Rome foodie tour
After the pizza, we walked to La Nicchia Café. La Nicchia is the sort of place that you may never discover on your individual. It’s tucked away in a mostly residential area, where few tourists ever walk by. We were the one clients, because it was before noon and our table was already set with a tasting platter. Lucrezia guided us through the tasting, explaining each bite, its origins, and its place in Roman, or larger Italian cuisine. We had artichoke, which is highly regarded in Rome, but not many tourists normally taste it.
Next, we learned to understand the difference between a green and a red pesto, and the influence of just one ingredient that sets them apart. Then, the cheeses and truffle-infused honey, white truffle and parmesan cream, and the black truffle at the tip. We were also spoiled to try 30-year-old balsamic vinegar and a few of the very best prosecco I ever had. La Nicchia can also be a gourmet shop where you possibly can buy all these delicacies to take home.
Trionfale Market – The foodie heart of the neighborhood
The reason I selected this food tour in Rome was Trionfale Market. I visited another food markets in Rome and elsewhere in Italy and it’s all the time an ideal foodie experience. However, Trionfale Market is out of the tourists’ path. This is where locals come to do their each day shopping and you could find anything from fresh fruit and vegetables to fish, meat, fresh pasta, or bread. It’s a foodie’s paradise.
The Roman Food Tour has three tastings available in the market. We began with Caprese, made with fresh mozzarella and drizzled with olive oil. Then, we tasted some Melanzana alla parmigiana (baked eggplant with parmesan, a Sicilian dish they only cook for special events). We also tasted two varieties of local wine: a white Vermentino, and a red – Cesanese. They are typical unpretentious wines Italians buy for on a regular basis meals.
Lunch with The Roman Food Tour
So, we got to the last stop of the tour, a correct restaurant, not removed from Trionfale Market. If you’re thinking that you already had an excessive amount of food to sit down down for lunch, you’re not flawed. If you go on this tour, come hungry, and leave some room for this last place.
We had a selection of a pasta dish: Amatriciana or Carbonara, typical Roman Pasta, or Gnocchi Quattro Formaggi. I couldn’t finish the gnocchi, because we were still in for a surprise, Tiramisu. You can’t say no to a Tiramisu in Rome, are you able to?
Useful info
The tour last about 4 hours and though some walking is involved, the distances are pretty small. The meeting point is near Cipro Metro station on line A. The final stop is closer to Ottaviano Metro station. Click the link for some useful tips for public transport in Rome.
You shall be lower than 1 km from the Vatican Walls at any given point throughout the tour. However, I might recommend planning a light-weight remainder of the day. I don’t think you’ll feel like visiting the Vatican in any case this food.
Booking options
You can book your mid-morning foodie tour within the Trionfale neighborhood right here. The Roman Food Tour has a number of other interesting food tours which are value a glance:
– A Sunset Food Tour in Trastevere can be my next selection
– A Food Tour by Night, for those of you that prefer to have the mornings free for visiting
Final thoughts
A visit to Rome has probably been in your bucket list for some time. When you finally book that trip, take into consideration greater than just ticking off the foremost tourist attractions in Rome. Find ways to make the trip your individual, take a food tour, perhaps a pasta class, find non-touristy things to do in Rome and create an itinerary that suits best what you’re truly desirous about.
Disclosure
I used to be invited to this tour by the Roman Food Tour. Regardless of that, all opinions stated above are my very own.
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