Want to discover authentic Italian cuisine? Discover lesser-known neighbourhoods, too? Look no further than Eating Italy to get your taste and history buds racing who have started their boutique tours in Florence. Below is a write-up of my experience in Rome. Florence is equally as tantalising!
I love food. And I love to take a food tour when I travel to a new city. Beyond sweet treats and plates of pasta, understanding how a country ticks when treating its taste buds is a great way to immerse yourself in a city and makes for a memorable experience, too. Eating Italy is the brainchild of Kenny Dunn.
An American via Philadelphia in Rome, Kenny relocated to Rome when his wife took a role at the United Nations in 2007. Living in the central but non-touristic Tectaccio neighbourhood was full immersion into an authentic side of Roman life—and its cuisine. Inspired by what he could experience daily, Kenny decided that a traveller might appreciate the experience, too.
Eating Italy focuses on neighbourhood-style tours
Testaccio is famed for its local market and lacks selfie stick sellers, which helps to make this tour so charming. Finding your way to the meeting spot at a local café in Piazza Testaccio is half the fun. Then you meet your guide, in my case, Dominico, and the fun is only just getting started.
A small group of eight, Eating Italy prides itself on small groups, and we head through the quiet streets to a local pasticceria and a coffee bar selling sweet treats to hungry locals. This bar, which has been open since 1925 and is run by rather tasty Italian men, has a glass window cabinet filled with sugary surprises waiting to be tried. We did – first a simple cornetto (buttery croissant-style pastry), then a chocolate cup tiramisu. This was stop number one of nine, including a pasta meal with wine at a hidden trattoria built within the hills of Monte Testaccio.
Next up, a delicatessen-style shop…
Here, prosciutto and cheese are indulged in – first, sweet yet salty meat that melts on your tongue, and then tangy Parmesan cheese helps to balance the flavours. Over the next four hours, we walked, talked, and sampled mozzarella, pizza and stuzzi before popping to the local markets for made-to-order cannoli. Post-market, a walk around the historic neighbourhood to see some secret, non-food-related locations was unexpected yet breathtaking.
After our morning exploring Rome′s food culture, we descended into a quaint, local restaurant to sample vast plates of fresh carbonara and cacio e pepe, traditional Roman pasta dishes, washed down with the local wine before a final stop for gelato at a 1950′s style bar where they make their creamy treats daily. Seeing a city isn′t necessarily confined to the main tourist sites; understanding the cultural history of food is equally, if not more, fulfilling.
Food tours run six days a week in Florence and Rome, as well as in Amsterdam, Prague, and London.