The Roman Food Tour: A Delicious Foodie Tour in Rome

I’ve said it before, I can think of no better way to start a trip than with a foodie tour, and Rome is by no means an exception. So, as soon as I landed in Rome, I took my own advice, heading directly to the meeting point for The Roman Food Tour in the Trionfale neighborhood. Read on to find out why you shouldn’t miss a food tour in Rome and why I chose this one in particular.

The Roman Food Tour

Looking for the best food tours in Rome, I came across The Roman Food Tour website and I was drawn to their foodie tours in Rome’s neighborhoods. It’s always a good idea to step out of the main tourist areas and discover little treasures that only the locals know about.

About Food in Rome

Or should I say food in Italy? Food is such a big part of Italian culture and social life! People love to go out for lunch or dinner, meet friends for aperitivo, or just change a few words with the bartender while sipping the morning coffee. Sunday lunches are an opportunity to bring all the family around the table. Visitors crave Italian food but, more often than not, fall into tourist traps, eating mediocre stuff instead of the best, authentic food.

A food tour in Rome will be both a foodie and a cultural experience. You will learn about the typical dishes and their history, where the ingredients come from, and how to choose a good wine in the supermarket. It’s all valuable information, and it will keep you well-fed throughout your trip. You will know what to eat in Rome and where.

What’s more, you may forget some of the beautiful things you will see in the museums, but you’ll be talking for a long time about 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 know, weren’t we talking about typical Roman food? Well, the truth is that Romans, like most Italians, prefer something sweet with their morning coffee. A Sicilian-style pastry shop is usually worth trying, wherever you are in the world.

We met our guide, Lucrezia, outside the café and sat at 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 when I travel solo because it’s easy to have a conversation and feel included.

First stop – Italian breakfast

The tasting series started with a coffee of our choice and a cannolo. We went inside to watch our server fill the cannoli with ricotta cream. One important tip I found out is to never buy pre-filled cannoli. The ricotta cream will make the cannolo soggy. Always choose a place where they fill them on the spot to enjoy their crispy texture.

Lucrezia, a Milanese that moved to Rome, was passionate about Italian food and flavors. She also taught us some 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 necessary. They cut pizza with a pair of scissors and weigh it. You can have one of the cheapest snacks in Italy, or one of the most expensive street food if you choose a place next to the Trevi Fountain for instance.

Anyway, we stopped at Bonci Pizzarium, one of the best places to have sliced pizza in Rome and beyond. Gabriele Bonci’s pizza became so famous, that there is always a line in front of his first opened shop in the Trionfale area.

They served pizza with a lot of different toppings every day, so it’s hard to get tired of it. We had three different types of pizza and a supplì.

Supplì are deep-fried balls made from rice and tomato sauce. They are a typical Roman snack and you can also find them with cheese and pepper or meat fillings.

For pizza, we chose potatoes, lard, and greens (mainly kale). Not your typical pizza, is it? That’s the beauty of it. You get to try different flavors and choose your favorites. I skipped the lard as I stopped eating meat a while ago, but I loved the other two. For some reason, I never thought I could have potatoes as a pizza topping, but it works.

The third stop of the Rome foodie tour

After the pizza, we walked to La Nicchia Café. La Nicchia is the kind of place that you could never discover on your own. It’s tucked away in a mostly residential area, where few tourists ever walk by. We were the only clients, as 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 very popular in Rome, but not many tourists usually taste it.

Next, we learned to appreciate the difference between a green and a red pesto, and the influence of only one ingredient that sets them apart. Then, the cheeses and truffle-infused honey, white truffle and parmesan cream, and the black truffle at the end. We were also spoiled to try 30-year-old balsamic vinegar and some of the best prosecco I ever had. La Nicchia is also a gourmet shop where you can buy all these delicacies to take home.

Trionfale Market – The foodie heart of the neighborhood

The reason I chose this food tour in Rome was Trionfale Market. I visited some other food markets in Rome and elsewhere in Italy and it’s always a great foodie experience. However, Trionfale Market is out of the tourists’ path. This is where locals come to do their daily shopping and you can 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 in the market. We started 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 types of local wine: a white Vermentino, and a red – Cesanese. They are typical unpretentious wines Italians buy for everyday meals.

Lunch with The Roman Food Tour

So, we got to the last stop of the tour, a proper restaurant, not far from Trionfale Market. If you think you already had too much food to sit down for lunch, you’re not wrong. If you go on this tour, come hungry, and leave some room for this last place.

We had a choice 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, can you?

Useful info

The tour last about 4 hours and though some walking is involved, the distances are pretty small. The meeting point is close to 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 will be less than 1 km from the Vatican Walls at any given point throughout the tour. However, I would recommend planning a light rest of the day. I don’t think you will feel like visiting the Vatican after all this food.

Booking options

You can book your mid-morning foodie tour in the Trionfale neighborhood right here. The Roman Food Tour has a few other interesting food tours that are worth a look:

– A Sunset Food Tour in Trastevere would be my next choice

– A Food Tour by Night, for those of you that prefer to have the mornings free for visiting

Final thoughts

A trip to Rome has probably been on your bucket list for a while. When you finally book that trip, think about more than just ticking off the main tourist attractions in Rome. Find ways to make the trip your own, take a food tour, maybe a pasta class, find non-touristy things to do in Rome and create an itinerary that suits best what you’re truly interested in.

Disclosure

I was invited to this tour by the Roman Food Tour. Regardless of that, all opinions stated above are my own.

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