Honeymoon Day 3: Eating our way through Rome!

We woke up Wednesday ready for our last full day in Rome.  The husband had booked one final tour and it was a food tour!  The tour was in the Testaccio neighborhood of Rome which is known for being where Romans live and not being as touristy. We made sure we ate a light breakfast before hopping on the metro and headed to the Piramade stop for our 10am tour and it turned out we had a full agenda.

Our tour was booked through Eating Italy and our tour guide, Alexandra was charming and fun.  And the food was amazing!  We started at a cafe to see examples of Italian breakfast where we sampled cornettis and little tiramisu cups.  

Tiramisu cups

After that we went to a pizza place which is ranked one of the highest in the city.  We also learned the history of pizza and how it came to Rome.  Apparently pizza went from Naples to NYC before it ever made it to Rome.  Who knew?  At this point we actually had not yet had pizza in Italy so we were pretty excited to finally try some and of course it was the famous Margherita pizza with fresh basil on top.

Margherita pizza

The owner loves posing for photos

Next was a local shop which was a third or fourth generation establishment to try cheese and meats.  We had a chance to shop and the husband purchased some 30 year balsamic which we have used a few times with strawberry and ice cream for an amazing dessert. 

Meats

Cheeses

At this point everyone was full from the food we had tried so Alexandra led us to the neighborhood cemetery where John Keats was buried for a break.  It also was incredibly beautiful with lots of trees and flowers.

 

Keats grave

From there it was time to walk to the Testaccio market where we visited the cheese and produce stands to make a Caprese salad and then the baker to get fresh cannoli.  I also learned that you only want to buy cannoli that doesn't already have the filling in it to make sure the shell isn't soggy!

 

Cheese shop

Caprese salad made with fresh buffalo mozzarella

Fresh cannoli shells

For lunch we sat down to sample the three pastas dishes that Rome is known for.  Two are ones we had already tried, the black pepper and cheese and the carbonara and the third was a tomato sauce.  At that point I was near busting but it was worth it.

 

So much good pasta

Even though I was starting to feel uncomfortably full I still sampled the food at the next top, the Sicilian friend rice balls known as Arancini, which just made me excited for Sicily.

Fried deliciousness

And finally, of course, was the gelato to round out the "meal".  The owner was an older gentleman and the shop had been in the family for several generations.  The gelato was delicious and we learned how to tell real gelato from gelato made from mix.  The downside of this is we only had gelato two more times in the trip since most of the gelato in Italy is not real.  Then again, maybe that was for the best!

 

Hazelnut and chocolate with homemade whipped cream!

At this point we had been on the tour for four hours and we were nearly waddling.  We really enjoyed it however and it was well worth the price.  If visiting Rome consider doing an Eating Italy Tour to get to see something different.  The tour guides give you some history of the neighborhood and foods but keep it light and entertaining.

 

After we were done stuffing our faces, we decided to spend the remainder of the afternoon wandering the streets to work off the food.  We made our way back to the Colosseum for more exterior pictures but unfortunately it was too late in the afternoon to see the Forum, which was the one site we missed this trip.

 

Despite all the food we had earlier in the day we did have one last dinner out in Rome.  We ate again near the hotel but we were much less impressed then we had been the night before.  The food was still good but it was not particularly special.  We did enjoy some limoncello and chocolate cake at the end of the meal.