10 Things That Make Our Rome Tour Spectacular
Female Foodie Friday Vol. 22
Today’s newsletter is coming out LATE (where are my night owls 👀) because it’s been quite the week!
Our second Rome Tour is nearly complete and we have two Tuscany Tours starting in just days.
Last week, I hosted 26 beautiful women on our first Rome Tour of 2025, and this week my trusty team (ILY Michelle & Colette!) are hosting 26 new incredible guests to experience the magic again.
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10 Things That Make Our Rome Tour Spectacular
I find it only appropriate to brag about our OG Italy food tour in Rome. This week marks 8 total Rome Tours completed since we started in 2022. This tour is my baby and screams classic Italy in so many ways.
The unparalleled history. Rome is truly a treasure trove of things to see. Catch the Trevi Fountain, Colosseum, Spanish Steps, Piazza Navona (like we do on our tours) and you are barely scratching the surface. We’ve carefully curated our tours to have the perfect balance of structure and free time, and even though I’ve been to Rome more times than I can count, I discover something new every time.
Our expert guides. We actually have the best tour guides in the world, like Fabiana D’Angeli who not only is a 7th-generation Roman but intensively studied art history (she specialized in the restoration of mosaics and statues!). She and her darling colleague Elisa who tour our groups are articulate, fun, and can answer every question you’ll have. What really makes them spectacular are their likable, warm personalities. It doesn’t matter how knowledgeable your guide is if they’re dull as dishwater.
Never settle for a mediocre guide after you’ve traveled halfway across the world! Michelangelo’s Sistine chapel & pieta. No explanation needed, but let’s just say that the more I visit the Sistine Chapel, the more I want to lay a yoga mat on the ground in the center and endlessly stare at that ceiling. The fact that Michelangelo took on the job whilst not even considering himself as a painter and then sent on to complete it in just 4 years is mind-blowing. His first ever pieta (pieta = Virgin Mary holding Jesus Christ), sculpted at the young age of 23 is just pure insanity. I love marveling at Michelangelo.
The food! Oh the food. Roman food specifically is just phenomenal. Italy is divided into 20 different regions, all of which have completely different signature dishes, and I could endlessly wax poetic about the iconic dishes in Roma. Cue: carbonara, cacio e pepe, amatriciana, suppli, and Roman-style pizza.
Cacio e Pepe from Roma Sparita! We eat a meal here every Rome tour. The villa! One of the biggest perks of traveling in a group, is that we get to do things like staying in a 12-bedroom villa. The 100+ year-old finishes, personalization, and Romany countryside ambiance are simply magical.
And speaking of the villa, it’s just a stone’s throw from the ancient Appian Way, which is probably one of the most understated portions of the tour. It’s a road that Paul walked and one of the oldest and most legendary roads in the world (built in 312 BC to connect Rome to southern Italy). I love that we have time set aside to walk on its cobblestone-lined path, covered in Rome’s iconic umbrella pines.
Eating at my favorite restaurant ever. I hate to pick favorites, but Pepe in Grani is hard to beat. My favorite food is pizza, and not only is their pizza-tasting menu mind-blowing, but the pizza itself is just pure and perfection. I could rave about every last Franco Pepe concoction I’ve consumed but the Margherita Sbagliata, Scarpetta, and apricot dessert pizzas are truly supernal.
The Tetsaccio walking food tour. With way fewer tourists on site, one of my favorite traditions on the Rome Tour is our walking food jaunt in Testaccio. Our incredible guides (some of which guide only for Female Foodie!) take us through the gentrified neighborhood of Testaccio as we taste our way from shop to shop with things like prosciutto, mortadella, pecorino, pizza bianca, and more. Plus ending at Testaccio market is one of my favorite parts of the week.
The nasoni water fountains. Call me a nerd but I’m lowkey obsessed with the Nasoni water fountains in Rome that are constantly flowing thanks to the ancient Roman aqueducts just outside the city center. We provide our guests with the BEST insulated water bottles (s/o to Miir!) so that the cool fountain water stays cold allll day long.
Making pasta with the Nonnas. When I was putting this tour together in 2019 and visited the tiny town of Palombara Sabina for an intimate, magical pasta-making class, I knew that this was an experience all of our guests needed to have. Learning the traditional art of making pasta by hand from Italian nonnas who have done this for decades is therapeutic, connecting, and satisfying.
The guests. The food is phenomenal, the history is mind-blowing, and the Italian men are charming, but our guests are what really make our tours really special. I leave every single tour making new friends (who are stuck with me for life!). We laugh together and cry together and have the best conversations over Parmigiano-Reggiano-covered pasta or under under glowy string lights in the countryside.
And now I’d love to hear from YOU. Have you been to Italy before? If so when and where? Is there a place or moment you’d love to revisit? I’d love to hear your stories. 💛
Such a wonderful trip! Very well curated.
I have been to Italy twice, Rome, Almalfi Coast, the Isle of Capri, Venice, Florence, Bologna. Love the history, the art, the culture, the food.