Dining around is one of the quintessential travel experiences in the Eternal City. Whether it's for a quick tour break in a "pizzeria" or a lush and fancy dinner in a prestigious "ristorante", it can definitely be one of the undisputed highlights of you stay in Rome.
As the saying goes, when in Rome... eat like a real Roman. One of the first and foremost things to keep in mind for the international traveler is the difference between a traditional Italian cuisine and the typical Roman cuisine. You will taste a lot of good lasagna around town, but that's nothing typical Roman. Same with tortellini, or plain steak. A short list of typical, traditional and tasty Roman dishes will definitely include some "primi piatti " (pasta) like "amatriciana" (tomato sauce and "guanciale" similar to bacon), "carbonara" (egg sauce and "guanciale"), "cacio e pepe" (Parmesan cheese and pepper), "rigatoni alla coda" (tomato sauce and cow's tail meat).
Followed by the famous "secondi" (main plates): "abbacchio" (roasted lamb), "coda alla vaccinara" (cow's tail), "straccetti con rughetta" ( finely cut red meat with rocket), interiors (not for everybody, of course) and side orders like "carciofi" (artichokes), "puntarelle alle alici" (roman salad with anchovies), "cicoria".
Some of the historical, typical dishes are slowly disappearing from roman tables, like the "pajata", pasta with a sauce made of lamb intestines, some would say that's for the better...
For those not intrigued by the tradition and taste of culinary things Roman, there's plenty of restaurants in and around the city's center offering the best in Italian and international cuisine, with prices ranging widely so please take a look at the menu before venturing.
Some other important distinction has to be made for the actual restaurants where to find your favorite Roman plates: one typical roman institution is the "trattoria" or "hostaria", usually family-owned and managed little restaurants in the city's most traditional quarters like Testaccio, Garbatella, Prati, and of course the historical center. Most of them offer a fixed menu at lunchtime, and a-la-carte dinner with all of Rome's traditional treasures for the palate at a very convenient price. Scaling up a notch, plenty of good, nice and also lush restaurants all around town offer the best in traditional and new roman cuisine for the big wallet. A reminder: the wine picked for the night can make a huge difference in the final price and can bring to a little shock to the system when the "conto" (check) comes your way and the end.
And now onto the subject of pizza! The typical born and bred roman pizza is extremely thin crust, "rossa" ("red", with tomato sauce and many other ingredients to choose from) and "bianca" ("white", with no tomato sauce) and the combinations can be infinite. New pizzerias spring up everywhere in the city, and many small shops especially in the historical center offer excellent "pizza al taglio" (by the slice), one of the citizen's main source for lunchtime relief. All of them serve beer as well, be warned...
Breakfast is not such a big deal for us, as tradition goes it's daily cappuccino and "cornetto" (croissant but without butter, don't be scared) and the typical espresso which is really, really short and strong...
American-style breakfasts are served in many hotels especially the high-end ones, and sometimes also in selected bed&breakfasts, which usually serve at least orange juice and homemade jams.
