Hi friends, welcome back! As you know, Jon and I are big foodies, so we couldn’t go to Rome without joining a food tour. I booked ours through Eating Europe and they have tours in quite a few cities around Europe. Our tour was a Twilight Trastevere Tour that lasted four hours. That sounded like a long time before booking, but it just flew by! I believe there were twelve of us in the group (Hi Betty if you’re reading this 😊 ) and our guide Toni was fabulous! She was from Australia but spent a lot of time in Italy and seemed to know everyone in Rome. She also hosted a few Italian cooking shows on tv so she really knew her craft. We met on Tiber Island and Toni gave us a history of the Trastevere neighborhood and we all introduced ourselves by saying our favorite Italian food. It is nearly impossible to choose one, but I went with gelato. Before diving in to this post, I will add my disclaimer that this post will cause hunger!
Our first stop of the tour was at Da Enzo al 29, you may recognize the name from my Rome Food post. We got to stop here before the restaurant opened for dinner and try their delicious burrata and fried artichoke. We also got to scope out the line for when we’d come back on our final night in Rome.
Our next stop was at Biscottificio Innocenti, a 4-generation, family-owned business for some delicious biscotti that was so soft. We got to see inside the bakery and it smelled heavenly! The secret to the biscotti is a unique conveyor belt oven from the 1950s that bakes the cookies at an even temperature throughout. The most popular cookie at the shop is the brutti ma buoni (translating to “ugly but good”).
We then headed to Le Sette Oche in Altalena for some Cacio e Pepe and Rigatoni alla Burrino. This was our first Cacio e Pepe of the trip, but we preferred it at Da Enzo.
Our next stop at La Norcineria Iacozzilli was one of my favorites, it was so good!! We had melt-in-your-mouth roast pork from the “King of Porchetta,”. If we were staying in this area, I’d go back for sandwiches every day. The meat was so flavorful.
Next door we had Suppli at Pizza at Gusteria al 17. Suppli is a popular Roman street food that is essentially a fried rice ball that can be filled with different things. The one we had here was rice, cheese, tomato sauce and so delicious. We didn’t get to try it, but all the reviews online say this spot has some of the best lasagna people have ever had. I think I’ve got to go back!
In between food stops we strolled the beautiful and charming streets. Next time I’m in Rome I’d love to explore this charming area more.
We then stopped at La Boccaccia for some yummy pizza slices. My favorite was the tomato sauce and basil one, but the potato one tasted good too. The crust had such a nice crunch and the toppings all had such a great flavor.
Our final stop of the night was at Spirito Divino for dessert, a delicious and creamy crème brûlée. This restaurant is unique because it has a wine cellar that is 90 years older than the Colosseum. It was a great way to end the tour.
We loved this food tour and exploring the Trastevere neighborhood! The tour was so well organized and everything tasted so delicious! It was a great group of people too and we enjoyed meeting fellow travelers and hearing about their plans for their time in Italy. We’d definitely book with this tour company in the future and highly recommend joining a food tour in Rome, you won’t be disappointed!
Posts in this series:
Florence
- Where to Stay & Eat
- Piazza Michelangelo & Ponte Vecchio
- Uffizi Gallery
- Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella, Accademia
- Climbing the Duomo
- Duomo Museum, Bell Tower, & Baptistry
- Palazzo Vecchio & Tuscon Wine Tour
Rome
An excellent tour Lyssy. City food tours are the best. You get the history, see the neighbourhoods and eat the tastes. We di one in Nice that also lasted about 4 hours and learned a lot more about the place, including where to go back to later. Happy Thursday. Allan
I live in Nice so would be interested to hear where you went.
Likely easier to share the post as this was in 2019. Here is the link https://wordpress.com/post/blographytoo.photo.blog/5685
Have a great day
Sadly the link doesn’t work
They are a fun way to learn about the history, culture, and try some great food. It’s nice knowing the good spots and what to look for at restaurants too. I bet the one in Nice was delicious!
It was. Here is the link if you are interested Lyssy. Allan
https://wordpress.com/post/blographytoo.photo.blog/5685
Glad you had such a great time.
Made one less dinner reservation to make too 🙂
Understandable!
Yes, I’m now hungry for Italian food, and you might have inspired me to go to Italy just for the food! What a great tour you had, and the neighborhood you visited looked, as you said, charming. Great post, Lyssy.
The food there is so good! We missed it while we were in Switzerland. We will be joining more food tours in the future, it’s really the best of both worlds.
You have totally sold me on trying food tours! I have never done one but they do seem like such a great way to try a little bit of everything. What a yummy way to spend 4 hours exploring.
They really are a great way to explore, learn, and try a lot of local foods. It was all delicious!
I have so many fond memories of Trastevere from my junior year in college, Lyssy, including several restaurants and an “American” movie theater. From our hotel near the Campo de’ Fiore, the neighborhood was only a 15-min walk, from one side of the Tiber River to the other. Glad to hear it’s still a nice place to go. You’ve covered a lot of Rome in a short amount of time! Your real calling may have been “travel agent” 🙂
Trastevere is a good place to hang out when you’re in college, it seemed like there was a lot going on and so many restaurants. I really like to see it all when I go somewhere, we can rest when we get home. Maybe one day, although I spend so much time planning our trips that if I did the same for others I wouldn’t make much money ha!
Food tours are my favorite kind of walking tour.
I agree! It’s a nice to walk and eat and get to try a lot of things.
That pasta looks amazing!
It was delicious!
This food tour looks amazing, and I feel like Italy is definitely the place to go on one. The biscotti looks like the perfect treat!
Italy really does have the best food! I loved the biscotti too 🙂
The Cacio e Pepe had me drooling; the pasta looks so fresh and al-dente! I visited Trastevere, but I didn’t stop to check out the food scene there– such a shame, because there’s so much good eats there! I would’ve been so stuffed after all of that!
I love Cacio e Pepe! I wish we had spent more time there so we could have tried more restaurants. We were very full, it was nice because you could have as little or as much as you wanted.
I love Italian food and would like to taste everything ! Pasta looks so amazing, and biscotti too.
It was such a delicious tour! Good choices 🙂
What a great food tour and walk around undiscovered parts of the city.
Oh my god, from the fried artichokes and that fantastic Biscottificio Innocenti story to crème brûlée and pizza! What a fantastic gastronomical night you had. I love the look and vibe of Trastevere and you certainly gave your readers several good reasons to check out the neighbourhood.
Oof, the food of Italy makes me drool. I’d definitely pick Cacio e Pepe as my favourite Italian food, though like you I’d really struggle 🙂
Porchetta sandwiches are my favorite. You got all of us hungry!
Oh my.. you weren’t kidding. The food looks absolutely to die for.
I’m such a fan of Italian food. Taking a food tour while in Rome sounds amaaaazing and a great way to sample a bunch of different dishes.
Love that wine cellar!