I came, I saw, I ate. See? I may not be witty in English but I have smashed it in Latin! 😉
Anywhere where you can eat loads of pizza, fresh pasta and ice cream (gelato) is OK with me. And if you feel guilty, you can throw your hands up and say “When in Rome…!” This is literally true here. (I’m assuming the Romans stuff their faces with pasta at all times, right? Right?!!)
Let’s start with my old favourite – Pizza. Pizza may seem like a fail-safe, but in Venice we had some terrible (cheap frozen) pizza attempts at pizza. So you never know! Luckily the pizzas we had in Rome were infinitely better, and we enjoyed both pizza at a restaurant and pizza by the slice (pizza al taglio) in the street.
But the big surprise on this trip was Pasta. I don’t normally order pasta in restaurants as (a) I can cook a good pasta myself at home, and (b) in my experience restaurants tend to be mean with any sauce ingredients – eg. if you order it with seafood, you’ll get two lonely prawns. So reluctantly and with expectations low, I tried the Pasta. And Oh. My. God. It was amazing. From nice white-tablecloth restaurants to cheap lunch places where you eat standing, we were not disappointed.
Our biggest discovery was….. Tartufo! ie. Truffle. Truffle Pasta was our absolute stand-out this holiday. I made us go back to the same restaurant just so I could order it again, and even at other restaurants I chose it when I could. As all truffle fans will know, after the first mouthful you are in heaven. (Tip: sometimes although the first mouthful is heaven, by the end it’s a bit too rich – so swap tastes of food with your partner’s meal, or eat bread/salad to change your palate – the trick is not to let it get too rich).
Dessert-wise, we had our daily (or twice-daily) Gelato. It was purely for health and safety reasons due to the extreme heat and we took absolutely no pleasure in this 😉
We also tried two recommended Tiramisu places on Rome. I explained to my BF that I loved Sainsbury’s or Tesco Tiramisu but wanted to try the real thing. I enjoyed my taste-testing a lot – they were lovely.
However after it all, I’m ashamed to admit that I slightly preferred Sainsbury’s. I feel like a total pleb as I had visions of saying “the Italian version is SOOO much better than this shit”, but I can’t say that. The Italian version had a higher creme-to-sponge ratio, which isn’t to my taste – I prefer the Sainsbury’s version (less creme and more coffee and rum soaked sponge). But I enjoyed trying them all 🙂
Overall the food in Rome is amazing! We were very thankful after the Venice saga, and food was a real highlight of the trip.
next blog: 48 Hours in Geneva, Switzerland
previous blog: Vatican City, Rome, Italy
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