The Ultimate Guide to Eating & Traveling in Rome, Italy
If you were my sister, neighbor, or best friend, this is everything I'd share with you. 🇮🇹
How I Really Feel About Rome
Rome is the first city I ever visited in Italy. I was 17 years old, and it was the last leg of a trip to London, Paris, and Rome on a 10-day Costco Travel vacation. I was with my mom & grandma, and let’s just say it wasn’t hard for me to fall head-over-heels in love with the Eternal City.
I never could have imagined I’d be living in Italy nearly 20 years later, leading food tours every spring and fall for women in Rome and other phenomenal cities in Italy.
Rome isn’t just a place; it’s a feeling. It’s the feeling you get when you step foot off the plane and warmth seeps into your heart immediately. It’s the feeling of eating your first plate of bona fide carbonara with perfectly emulsified egg & pecorino with crispy guanciale. It’s warm tones of rusty orange, blush pink, and milkshake cream on seemingly every surface. It’s the feeling you get when you see nuns and priests everywhere and free-flowing nasoni fountains on every corner.
It’s a busy, chaotic, and often unorganized city that’s simultaneously dashing and wildly romantic. If there’s one place in Italy that really has my heart, it’s Rome.
Restaurant Guides on The Foodletter!
This is the first of many new city guides here on The Foodletter. For years, I poured my heart into restaurant guides (alongside my super talented all-female team) with a mission to share the best places to eat across the country. Not only did we share high-quality, trusted recommendations through our own original photography and writing, but for years we maintained a standard of completely unbiased content by paying for everything and never accepting comped meals. Ad revenue on our website made it possible for us to fund these articles, which not only took months to create, but thousands of dollars, as well.
AI changed everything overnight and made it very difficult to sustain the pace at which we were producing restaurant guides with virtually zero compensation. In a world where Reddit and AI responses dominate the content space, it felt sometimes pointless to share guides with a nonexistent audience or readers that would never see it.
After making the recent decision to transition restaurant recommendations and guides from the website to Substack, I’ve been so excited to revive this grassroots content we’ve been sharing since 2010, and now in a way that’s better than ever.
So, what can I expect on these once-a-month guides?
I’m glad you asked. Literally everything and anything I know about a city.
What You’ll Get Out Of This Guide
The very best restaurants.
Hotel recommendations.
My favorite tour guides.
Things you can’t miss.
Things you can miss.
Shopping recs.
And recommendations for your 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th trip to a city.
TL;DR: If you only have one resource for your next trip to Rome, let it be this.
PART I: WHERE TO EAT
A Few Tips For Eating Out In Italy
Dinner starts at 7:00 and not a minute earlier. Period. Unless it’s a bakery or pizzeria, if the restaurant opens earlier than 7:00, there’s about a 97% chance you’re eating at a tourist trap. Lunch is typically served from noon or 1:00 until 2-3:00 pm.
Take a chill pill. Meals in Italy are slower, which is honestly one of the most enjoyable parts of the dining experience. Think 1 ½-2 hours for lunch and 2-3 hours for dinner. This may feel different or even uncomfortable at first, but try to embrace it. Savor every bite, talk intently with those around you, and enjoy the true Italian art of a slow, uninterrupted meal.
You don’t need to tip like an American. I’m serious—my usual tip is €1/person for standard service and sometimes a little more for a super nice restaurant or phenomenal table service. No 20% or even 10% tips expected, and zero 180 iPad flips with the token “could you answer a few questions for me?” (thank heavens). Italians in the restaurant industry earn a living wage and will only be offended or pushy if they’re actively taking advantage of your naïveté. A tip is a tip is a tip, and cash is generally the best way to tip (no tip line on most receipts).
Don’t let the bill stress you out. You’ll always pay for water (don’t ask for tap water, they just don’t do that here), a coperto (a cover charge of usually €1–€3 per person), and a service charge of around 10%.
Know a good red flag when you see one. Menus with pictures, actual food prepped and sitting on a table, or anyone beckoning you into a restaurant are all good reasons not to eat at an establishment.
Things You Must Eat in Rome
If I could only eat in one city in Italy for the rest of my life, it would be Rome. Something important to understand about food culture in Italy is how hyper-regional everything is. Sure, you can find pizza almost anywhere or a bowl of carbonara in Venice, but Italians love being dedicated to their craft, so it’s not atypical to find the same 20-30 items on most menus in any given location throughout Italy, including Rome.
Here’s what I wouldn’t miss in the Eternal City:
The four Roman pasta dishes: Carbonara, amatriciana, gricia, and cacio e pepe. You’ll see these four pasta dishes on almost every menu in Rome. Sample them all if you can and see which one steals your heart.
Suppli. Aka the fried rice ball of your dreams. Picture arborio rice cooked in perfect tomato sauce, stuffed with a tiny ball of mozzarella, and fried to golden-brown perfection. The best ones I’ve had in town are from Supplì Roma, Emma, and Antico Forno Roscioli.
Roman Pizza, aka Pizza Tonda. I’m all for a Neapolitan pizza (my favorite style TBH), but there is something so satisfying about a crisp, almost paper-thin Roman pizza. My favorite places to eat this style of pizza are Emma, Ai Marmi, and Pizzeria Remo A Testaccio.
Pizza al Taglio. Also considered to be a Roman style pizza, it literally translates to “pizza by the slice”. The best part is you can have as little or as much as your heart desires. Simply show how much you want with your hands and say “scaldo, per favore” if you’d like them to heat it up. Don’t miss Casa Manco, Pizzarium, Forno Campo de’ Fiori, or Antico Forno Roscioli for the best pizza al taglio in town.
Maritozzi. Consider this the iconic breakfast pastry of Rome. It’s basically a brioche bun filled with fluffy, sweet whipped cream. You can get them at most bakeries, but start with Regoli Pasticceria or Roscioli Caffè Pasticceria.
Carciofi alla Giudia, aka fried artichokes. Don’t knock it ‘til you try it—this Roman Jewish specialty is the perfect appetizer or mid-afternoon salty snack. You can find it on most Roman menus, especially if you’re in the Jewish Ghetto.
Restaurants I Eat At Every Time I’m In Rome
Da Enzo al 29. This restaurant has become quite the tourist attraction over the past few years, but I don’t care. It’s honestly still one of the best restaurants in Rome, and it only takes one visit to see why. Silky smooth carbonara, perfect amatriciana, a burrata and tomato appetizer so simple but life-changing it’ll kill you, and exceptional customer service that makes it worth the wait. They don’t take reservations, so my best recommendation is to show up 30-40 minutes before they open, and you’ll most likely get a seat.
