#2712 vacation day 11: Trastevere food tour

For our first night in Rome, we booked a food tour in the Trastevere (tras-TE-vere) neighborhood of Rome. We met our group in Tiber Island. The group included a family of four from Belfast, a Dutch couple, an American woman whose traveling companion was unable to make it, and us. Our guide was Luca, a darling guy who looked like he could be related to Rob Lowe. 

There were seven stops on the tour, which began at 5:45. Off we go…

The first stop was da Enzo for aperitivo, which is like a pre-appetizer. We had Prosecco, friend artichoke, and burrata cheese with fresh tomatoes and olive oil. 

  

A note about this restaurant: it doesn’t even open for dinner until 7:00. We got there around 6:00 and people were already lining up to get in. It is a very small place, with very few tables, and it is busy. Luca told us they feed about 250 people very night. People in the line were looking at us jealously. The aperitivo was good, and I bet the meals are delicious!

The next stop was a darling little place called Spirito DiVino. The name is a play on words because the building used to be part of a synagogue and now is home to an epic wine cellar, housing over 8,000 bottles of wine. Another amazing thing about the wine cellar is that it is 200 years OLDER than the Colosseum. 

* not all 8,000 bottles are shown!

Ancient walls

At this restaurant, we had pork shoulder stew - an ancient recipe that was the favorite dish of Julius Caesar. We also had a glass of red wine. It was incredibly delicious. I could have sat there with a big bowl of the stew and some bread to sop up that amazing sauce and washed it all down with the wine. It was probably my favorite dish of the evening.

The next stop was kind of a palate cleanser: a cookie shop that I couldn’t even tell you the name of! I couldn’t find the sign. I took pics of the cookies, though.

We had two cookies each from this place. The first was called “Ugly but Good”, a perfect description. It was made of oats, honey, flour, vanilla, and egg whites. It doesn’t sound like it should taste nice, but it was tender and flavorful. The other was a madeleine cookie covered on one end with dark chocolate. They were both so good! If there was time, I would have gone in and purchased a dozen cookies. They all looked yummy. 

Back to the savory, we went to a meat shop that specializes in porchetta, a boneless pork roast that is stuffed with various seasonings, roasted, then thinly sliced. We had ours on a slice of focaccia and topped with a drizzle of olive oil, and washed down with a beer. Holy goodness! The bread was crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside. The meat was salty and tender. There might have been a little mozzarella on it, I don’t remember. I could have had a whole sandwich, though. My mouth is actually watering as I think about it!

 I don’t have photos of any more food. The Roman pizza (that’s what Luca called it) was eaten standing up in the shop, and it was too difficult to try to take a photo.

We were seriously on the go. The neighborhood was now full of people because it was around 7pm and people were coming out to get drinks with friends and gathering together. Trastevere is a hip, happening spot in the city, a really cool neighborhood with lots of great restaurants, music, and bars. 

Luca got us some suppli next (food number 6). It is street food made of risotto rice in marinara sauce and mozzarella cheese, then deep fried. I thought it was delicious, but it was MT’s least favorite. We ate it as we walked through the neighborhood to the restaurant where we sat down for dinner. 

The place is called Rione 13, and was really cute from the outside! We had an outside table, so I did not go in. We had pasta amatriciana, which is one of the five Italian “home” sauces. I don’t think I could name all five for you. Amatriciana is a tomato-based sauce with bits of fried pork cheek. The pasta is cooked al dente, so it is a little chewy, and I’m gonna tell you, I could have had seconds or at least a bigger portion. The thing is that the suppli made me feel pretty full, and I knew we were going to have gelato for dessert, so I had a smaller portion. Oh yeah, plus there was a big ol’ glass of red wine with the meal. 

The gelato store was just a couple of doors from Rione 13, a place called Fatamorgana. I had heard of the place because it is on just about every list of best gelaterias in Italy. We each were able to have two scoops. I had stracciatella, a classic gelato flavor that is basically chocolate chip, and a specialty flavor called Prince’s Kiss that had some peanuts and chocolate and something else. It was tasty as hell.

If you ever find yourself in Rome, I highly recommend this tour. It was a fun way to see a really cool area, eat some delicious food, and have a good time!

Here are a couple of photos of the neighborhood I took: