Unravel The History Of Roman Cuisine On A Rome Food Tour

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I loved our history and street food tour of Rome because of the insights it gave me into Italian food – one of my favorite cuisines in the world.

Firstly, I had it all wrong.

There is no standard Italian cuisine, instead the food of Italy is made up of many regional dishes, and there is so much more than just pizza and gelato.

Before the unification in 1861, Italy was separate regions like Tuscany and Puglia that had their own iconic dishes and style of eating.

So rather than national Italian dishes, you’ll find specific food in each region like lasagna in Bologna, and meat and bread from Tuscany (no traditional pasta) and round pizza in Napoli, with square ones in Rome. (That doesn’t mean you won’t find your Italian favorites across Italy!)

You see, you learn so much on a Rome food tour! But if you’re not sure what to expect or whether a food tour in Rome is worth it, here is a complete guide based on our personal experience.

About A Rome Street Food Tour: The Local Perspective

Rome is the largest city in the world in terms of size and because of its hectic lifestyle, many don’t have time to sit and eat. Therefore, street food is a very important part of Roman life.

We joined Devour Tours – a partner of Walks of Italy – to learn about the history of Roman cuisine and get recommendations on street food. We joined their street food and history tour of Rome with local guide Mattia.

Typically, this guided tour goes through the Jewish ghetto area, but since it was the Sabbath, everything was closed.

Our guide Mattia took us to other cool neighborhoods in the Eternal City instead.

What we love about Devour Tours (we did a delicious food tour in Paris and Florence too) – and something you can tell the guides are extremely proud to be a part of – is that the small groups tours are focused on introducing travelers to local culture and food with stops only to small locally owned businesses.

Those they know don’t take shortcuts, use low quality ingredients, or not follow traditional recipes.

As Mattia told us, many now do that in the city because ignorant tourists won’t know the difference between traditional Italian recipes and those that are cheap copies.

Mattia feels this is disrespectful to Italians and tourists. He recognizes that power is limited to change…