A big part of Italy to us is experiencing the food. Who
doesn’t love Italian food right? From a good spaghetti to a tasty fresh gelato.
When in Rome… we took an amazing walking food tour of Testacchio with EatingItaly Food Tours. This is a neighbourhood of Rome that is not often visited by
tourists, the secret is safe with the locals. It is here that with our guide we
went to many multi generation shops full of gourmet and traditional produce
from many regions of Italy.
A Foodies stroll
through Rome
Our tour kicked off at 10am outside a local bar, a bar in
Italy is essentially a café that serves alcohol as well as coffee. It’s the
local morning spot for people to get their hit of espresso before starting the
day. We met our group which was a mixed bag from all over the world including
the USA, Thailand, Taiwan and Canada. Our host was a really friendly guy with
loads of energy (I think he had a few espressos before the tour!), he had
learned to cook from his Nonnas before he could walk, so he knew what he was
talking about.
One of our first stops was at the local pizza place that
according to a recent newspaper poll makes the 3rd best pizza in
Rome. Who were we to argue? The owner was super friendly and happy to see us
(like everyone else we met that day) he cut us a slice off the huge slabs of
pizza which were delicious. We had some suppli
which is very similar to arancini balls but are bolognaise and rice balls
stuffed with mozzarella then fried. Incredible.
One of my favourite stops of the day was the local
delicatessen, a store that’s been faithfully serving Rome for over 50 years! We
got a sneak peek in the window outside, it was like Willy Wonkas but for
foodies! We sampled some delicious cheeses and prosciutto outside before going
into the marvellous store. Once inside we were free to sample, taste, ask
questions and generally absorb the place. It was amazing there would be nothing
close to the array in Australia that this place had. I had three different blue
cheeses, each strikingly different from one another and each knocking my
tastebuds for six (can you guess who’s writing this part?). There was
prosciutto hanging from every available space and I had to duck all the time to
prevent rubbing my head on pepper, spices and salt seasoned ham legs. I
would’ve bought EVERYTHING if we were staying in Rome for a week and just
nibbled my way through it. Just WOW.
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Every neighbourhood has their own local markets, we didn’t see
a single supermarket in Rome, the closest is your 7/11 convenience store
places. Each of these local markets has fresh produce from generational
families that the people have used their whole lives. The freshness and taste
coming from some of those shops is amazing. We met one couple who have been
running their shop together in the same place for THIRTY FIVE years, and still
going strong!
We did stop a few other places along our food tour but these
were our favourite bits. Our last stop was at a local gelato shop that makes proper real gelato. No additives or fake
stuff it’s the real deal. We also learnt the most important lesson on our
journey, how to tell an authentic gelato from a fake. With 80% of gelato in
Italy being fake, made from powder and artificial ingredients this is a helpful
thing to know. Rather than tell you all the things to look for here is the perfect summary.
We are always meeting amazing people on our travels, our
food tour was no exception and we met the wonderful couple Matt and Magy from
the US who were on their own Italian tour. After sampling the best Testacchio we
decided to grab a drink, naturally a drink turned into bottles of wine, dinner
and after 7 hours of solving all the world’s problems together we parted ways.
Like everyone we meet from the United States they were so friendly we will
definitely swing by and say G’day when we are in Virginia.
Free Time in Rome
We had initially planned on spending one day heading out
into regional Italy, but we loved Rome so much that we just decided to stay and
stroll. We have decided that you can ‘see’ a lot of places in a day or two, but
you can’t ‘experience’ them in this period of time. Often running around like
crazy we manage to fit a lot in, but sometimes we totally miss being present in
the moment. Being present is something we are both working on to ensure we
really experience the moment, the sound, the smell, the sights, the tastes.
With this is mind, we opted to just stay in Rome and wander the back streets.
It was completely beautiful and peaceful, and nearly all ours free of all the
other tourists who had the big sights in their sights. We found gorgeous
boutique and antique stores, picture perfect streets with fountains, gorgeous
little photo moments and then we saw a beautiful window full of fresh fruits
and people making gelato (this grabbed our attention).
We made our way into Gelateria
del Teatro and what we found was walls and walls of awards and the most
incredible array of gourmet gelato. The flavour combinations blew our mind
away, and the taste, well it was so good, and we mean so good that we went for
a second round. Honestly we don’t even feel guilty, it was that good. The flavour
combinations we enjoyed were: chocolate and red wine, cheese almond and fig, pear
and caramel, banana, strawberry and finally rosemary honey and lemon. They were
unbelievable, there were some other awesome flavours waiting for us next time,
including white chocolate and basil, and garden sage and raspberry.
We enter one of the prettiest piazzas (squares) in Rome Piazza
Navona, and find the tourists, incredible statue fountains and 3 minutes of
blue sky before the clouds open up. This piazza is famous for having several
famous monuments the largest of which is the fountain of four rivers. Designed
in 1651 it represents the four major rivers through the four continents through
which Christianity had spread. Sure enough out come the guys selling umbrellas.
Honestly every time it rains these guys come out of seemingly nowhere with
umbrellas, all over Rome, hundreds of guys with what must be a total of
thousands of umbrellas. Where do they come from? Where is their stash of
umbrellas? They must be actually happy when it rains! On the positive side as a
tourist you never need to worry about not having an umbrella on you! Honestly
we don’t know where they come from, they are not there when the sun is shining
and then Pow, umbrella men… where do they come from??
Eventually we came to Piazza del Popolo, the peoples square.
This northern most piazza of old Rome was travellers first view of Rome, it is
home to an Egyptian obelisk (they have a lot, not sure how ethical this is),
and it is right next to central park. Walk straight through and you will find
yourself on Rome’s big shopping strip.
 |
| We somehow ended up at the Spanish steps, and even more amazingly there was a few stairs with no people |
With darkness setting in, we end our night at the St Angelo
bridge and Castel St Angelo, the former keep of the Vatican and finally stroll
on down to St Peters Square.
St Peters Sqaure is even more picturesque at night sharing your
space mostly with the nuns who are out feeding and providing blankets to the
homeless who find rest for the night around the outside of the Vatican. There
are water fountains all throughout Rome, the drinking variety as well as the
pretty kind. They still provide fresh drinking water through a lot of the
original Roman plumbing. Simply by placing two fingers over the end of the slow
running tap the water shoots through a small hole on the top of the faucet and
creates a water fountain. Simple and effective. Simon found one in the middle
of St Peters square and we thought we should try some of the ‘holiest’ tap water
we are going to find.
Lessons Learnt
- Cappuccino’s are only in the morning and never drunk after a meal
- Roman pizza has a wafer thin base, Naples has a thicker base
- Bruschetta is not pronounced ‘brushetta’ it is ‘broosketta’
- Wandering a neighbourhood without a real plan is sometimes to best way to get the most out of it
- Do your homework on where to eat in Rome, there are too many places out for tourist dollars, which leads to disappointment.
- Real gelato over fake is definitely best
Parting Thoughts
Rome. Just the name conjures images of monuments, pizza,
spaghetti and legionaries. What we found was all that and more, an eternal city
that even through millennia of existence has stayed true to the simple
pleasures of life, good food, good people and good surroundings make life easy.
We met some of the unsung heroes of Italian food who have been bringing
delicacies to the people for decades and couldn’t help but wish we had a
similar place in our neighbourhood back home.
There is beauty everywhere you go in Rome, houses,
buildings, fountains, monuments, designer stores… A lifetime would not be
enough to explore it, to know it and feel properly connected to it.
We will return with bags for filling
with clothes and hunger to be sated with fresh pasta and delicious suppli. Rome was an incredible experience for us and we both found
it instantly addictive. The sights, sounds, tastes and people are all amazing.
Italy is definitely the place to be for us.
”Eaque omnia et nos revertemur”
- We will return and we will explore it all.
Simon and Amy Xoxo
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