Taste of Rome
Follow our local gastronome for an amazing private food tour in Rome
Exquisite dining experience in superior enoteca known only to locals
Taste of Rome: a Private Food Tour in Rome with a Local Gastronome
Taste of Rome
Food Tour in Rome
Is there anything more Roman than that magic combination of history and food culture? Enjoy the best of both on our Taste of Rome: a Private Food Tour in Rome city center
See iconic sites of the historic center, like the Pantheon, in-between bites to eat in some of the city’s finest eateries. Expect the best fresh, locally sourced produce of exceptional quality.
Our tour starts with a bang at historic studio Canova Tadolini. In this former sculpture’s lab owned the great by Antonio Canova, you’ll find the highest quality espresso and freshly made biscotti, in a variety of different flavors.
Continue on to VyTA, where you’ll have a hearty, filling Roman lunch. VyTA is somewhat a hotspot of the fashion pack, and here you’ll find traditional Roman food, made with the highest quality ingredients, sourced locally. First enjoy a meat and cheese plate, and then, not one, but two different kind of pasta – a flirty Amatriciana and the timeless award-winning Cacio e Pepe. A glass of wine complements the meal like a dream.
Finally, finish on a high note with not one, but two desserts. First, visit Gelateria San Crispino, where you’ll get to eat the highest quality of gelato made with 100% natural ingredients. Continue to Rome’s oldest chocolatier, where you can eat four chocolates made with over 200 years accumulated expertise.
Food Tours in Rome
If you want to try the very best of locally sourced Roman cooking, this is the Rome food tour for you. Our Food Tour for Foodies – Coccole e Dolce Vita will take you to the eateries most beloved by local connoisseurs and food-enthusiasts. Each stop on this walking food tour of Rome will introduce you to the highest quality examples of traditional Roman cooking, served with a modern twist.
On our 3-hour Food Tour for Foodies enjoy the timeless combination of history and food culture – in Rome, the city where the two meld like nowhere else in the world.
As you walk through the cobbled streets of the historic center, our expert, a local gastronome will explain the history of iconic sites like The Pantheon and the Spanish Steps. All this adventure should work up an appetite, and we’ll take you to fill your boots at some of the finest eateries in Rome – all serving locally sourced, fresh produce of the highest quality.
Our 3-hour private Rome Food Tour for Foodies – Coccole e Dolce Vita, includes:
- Tour from your local guide, an expert in Roman cuisine
- Walking tour of Rome’s historic center
- A chance to sample the best regional produce of Lazio, including locally-produced meats, cheese, wines and olive oils
- All food and wine locally sourced and produced by dedicated artisans
- Biscotti & coffee at historic former sculpture workshop
- Appetizer and two pasta dishes at fashionable award-winning Enoteca
- 100% natural gelato at top artisanal Gelateria
- Chocolate heaven at Rome’s oldest chocolatier
- Learn about the city’s rich culinary traditions
- Insider tips and restaurant recommendations
The Amuse-Bouche
This, the most delightful of Rome food tours, will take you inside four very different Roman eateries – but all are united in providing the best quality of fresh produce, regional to Lazio. First, enter Canova Tadolini; once a former sculpture workshop, now the café delights customers with coffee and hand-made biscotti served among classical busts.
Work up an appetite on our walking tour of the historical center, before the main attraction – lunch at VyTA. VyTA is an Enoteca of incomparable style, in one of the most elegant parts of Rome. Usually, VyTA is only the haunt of Roman foodies in-the-know, but on our tour, you’ll join them. VyTA’s menu changes regularly, and everything served, food and wine, is sourced within Lazio. First, enjoy a hearty appetizer of hand-cured meats and locally produced dishes. Then, savor not one but two pasta dishes – including a Cacio e Pepe that VyTa enthusiasts claim is the best in Rome. Wash it all down with a locally produced wine for lunch-perfection.
What’s better than one dessert? Two, of course. Which is why this Rome food tour ends with not one, but two dessert shops. First, go to top-class Gelateria San Crispino, where all the ice cream is 100% natural and artificial preservative free. Finally, the tour concludes in the oldest chocolatier in Rome, Moriondo and Gariglio. For 200 years, Moriondo and Gariglio has been satisfying Rome’s sweet tooth – and now it will yours too!
Join our Taste Rome: The Foodies Food Tour, for a Rome eating tour like no other. On this gastronomic adventure, we let finest of locally produced food do the talking – and our expert, local guide, of course.
The Main Menu
Our Food Tour for Foodies n. 1 will show you the locally produced food most beloved by connoisseurs of Roman cooking. Our walking food tour, Rome, will take you to eating establishments of the highest quality beloved by locals. Stroll through the historic center of Rome and see iconic sites like The Pantheon and Piazza Navona, in-between mouthfuls of the finest Roman food.
A Very Roman Breakfast at Canova Tadolini
You will meet in the iconic Piazza Di Spagna under the beautiful Baroque masterpiece that is the Spanish Steps. As you begin to meander among the charming, cobbled streets of historic Rome, our guide will delight you with historic anecdotes and insider stories that are normally only the privy of Romans.
Then you’ll reach your first destination, Canova Tadolini – and what a way to begin the tour with a bang!
Nestled down a street midway between the Spanish Steps and Piazza del Popolo, Canova Tadolini excels in location and style. Inside, enjoy a very Roman breakfast – perfectly smooth coffee and oven-fresh, hand-decorated biscotti. This former sculpture workshop is one of the most charming places in Rome to enjoy colazione (breakfast). Decorated with classical statuary, Canova Tadolini is where high-quality produce and superb interior design unite. Let you guide enlighten you to the history of this fantastic historic building.
Look up from your cup of espresso – the only coffee most Romans drink – or your perfectly fluffy Cappuccino, and admire the company you’ve found yourself in. The walls are lined with busts of Popes, Italian war heroes, beautiful women and angels; some were sculpted here, when the café was still a sculptor’s studio. This was the actual studio of famous sculptor Antonio Canova whose work is possible to admire here as well as in the Borghese Gallery in Rome.
As the coffee here is remarkable, so the biscotti is perfect. Unlike most places in Rome, where biscotti is a mere afterthought and pre-bought, each biscuit here is freshly prepared on-site. What’s even more remarkable is that you get to choose your flavor – it won’t just be plonked on the saucer of your coffee cup. The flavors on offer are wonderfully delicate and truly remarkable; choose pistachio, fragrant lavender or rich chocolate.
Stylish Local Produce at Award-Winning Enoteca
After a brisk walk around the historic center to work up an appetite, head to Enoteca VyTA – a firm favorite among Rome’s fashion pack, and the reason this tour isn’t one of your average food tours in Rome. This restaurant is beloved for its sleek interior design, for which it won an award, and, more importantly, for its brilliant food. Enotecas are a staple of the Italian culinary landscape – they specialize in wine, and often serve affordable, delicious food. Enoteca VyTA distinguishes itself from the rest through its commitment to food made from the highest quality ingredients and sourced in Lazio, the region surrounding Rome.
Walk through the glamorous bar and enter the private dining space beyond. This is elegant dining at its most comfortable, so let yourself sink into the green velvet chairs. Get comfortable before starting on the first of two wines. The first, a sparkling Rosé, will tickle your palate in all the right ways to prepare you for the feast that awaits.
An Appetizer That Dreams Are Made Of
The first course is a delectable board of four meats and three cheeses – and I’m sure your guide will explain exactly why he chose the particular Rosé your enjoying (because of how compatible it is with the prosciutto and salami).
You’ll soon find before you four artisanal, hand-cured meats; Prosciutto Di Basiano, Capocollo, Salame Piccante and Mortadella. Proscuitto is a classic Roman favorite, and the delightful blend of fat and salt hits all the right notes. Move onto the Capocollo, made from the neck of the pig, and delight in the depth of flavor. Walk on the wild side with a pleasantly spicy Salame Piccante, and finish with a very special Mortadella. This Mortadella is made right here in Rome, in Rebibbia jail, as part of a rehabilitation program for inmates who have a passion for Italian food.
Along with the meats, comes four cheeses. They alternate between creamy and sharp, all with the subtle shades of flavor – please allow the guide to help you pair the meat with its perfect cheese. First comes pecorino, a Roman staple. This cheese is delightfully sharp, with a herby twang. Following that is a provolone, both smooth and spicy. Caciotta is creamy and sumptuous, a deep indulgent delight. Finally, sample the Parmigiano Reggiano – if you thought Parmesan was only good when grated on something, you’re about to learn otherwise. The truth of the matter is that nothing prepares you for the coming pasta like a thin, sharp slice of artisanal Parmigiano Reggiano. Try both meat and cheese on a slice of the most perfect bread. Made with flour produced locally and baked on site, tuck into these divine honey-toned slices for a taste sensation to remember.
Meat and cheese may be the stars of the show, but this board will be served with other, underrated Roman favorites – vegetables. The richness of the meat and cheese will be well complemented by artichoke, zucchini and Caponata, a delightfully sharp Sicilian salad made of eggplant, capers, parsley and olives.
A Double Serving of Pasta Perfection
Before the first pasta course comes your way, our guide will happily uncork the second bottle, a deep red from an organic Lazio winery. This wine was chosen specifically to complement the flavors of the pasta dishes that follow. Both dishes were traditionally developed in Rome, and are firm favorites of Roman cuisine. The first is an Amatriciana – if you’ve never had it before, consider it like a Carbonara cooked in tomato, instead of egg. A good Amatriciana is hearty, fun, and with a hint of spice. This chef makes his with guanciale (cured pork), pecorino, tomato and sometimes onion, depending on his inclination that day.
Second, gear up for the Cacio e Pepe. This simple cheese and pepper pasta is a Roman classic, and you can find it on sale in every little trattoria from here to Ostia. There is many an average Cacio e Pepe, but a great one is rare – and the Cacio e Pepe at Vyta, is great. Made with just four simple ingredients – Pecorino Romano, black pepper, pasta and pasta water – the quality of each ingredient ensures this dish will not disappoint. Enjoy a perfect Cacio e Pepe, which, as your guide will surely tell you, is more alchemy than mere cooking.
Dessert
100% Natural Gelato at Gelateria San Crispino
After a little walk, you’ll surely be ready for the next course in this Rome food tour extravaganza, the amazing San Crispino. San Crispino is one gelateria among Rome’s many, but what distinguishes this place from the rest is their commitment to 100% natural ingredients. Absolutely no chemicals are used at San Crispino. Instead, the wonderful selection of ice-creams and sorbets on display are preserved only by extremely cold temperatures.
You’ll find every flavor of gelato under the sun at San Crispino, but we advise you to go with one of their more luxurious offerings. How about a Rhum Clément from the Caribbean? Or, if you’re seeking something a little lighter, why not try a white fig sorbet? Meringues swirled with chocolate cirollo, caramel and piedmont hazelnuts are also an option, if that’s more to your fancy.
As you savor your gelato in the bright Mediterranean sunshine, your guide will tell you the origins of the wonderful natural ingredients used to make the ice-cream. Your guide is a man not only passionate about food, but very, specifically, passionate about Roman food. He will gladly answer all your food questions and suggest more off-the-beaten-track dining experiences.
Chocolate Heaven at Moriondo and Gariglio
Tucked around an unobtrusive corner, by the iconic Pantheon, is Moriondo and Gariglio. This 200-year-old shop is the oldest chocolatier in Rome, and the recipe for their iconic chocolate is closely guarded, kept under lock and key. In store, you’ll find over 80 varieties of chocolate. Each day, these are made in the Pigna district, and delivered to the shop early in the morning, before any patrons arrive.
Inside, Moriondo and Gariglio has the appearance of an old-world drawing room, with walls painted in a burgundy red. Highly polished cabinets contain chocolates and candies of all shapes and varieties. See dark chocolate spirals cheek to cheek with milk chocolate butterflies, caramel conches and mint tortoises, nestled against white chocolate lambs – a real delight for the mind and senses.
Here, you will be presented with four different chocolates, which your guide considers to be the zenith of Moriondo and Gariglio’s craftsmanship. Try popular flavors like orange, honeycomb, hazelnut praline and peppermint, all rich, delightful and informed by 200 years of expertise.
Join Us for Food Tour in Rome, You’ll Remember Forever
If you have a taste for the finer things in life and want to experience the real life of Rome, while on vacation, this tour is the one for you. Our Food Tour for Foodies will take you inside the eateries favored by locals. Our expert guide will illuminate the histories, myths and legends behind some of Rome’s favorite dishes.
All of this delight occurs in Rome’s infamous historic center – a designated World Heritage Site and one of the most beautiful places on earth. Join us today for a Rome food tour of the highest quality, quite unlike any other.
