Food in Rome is Delicious… And Cheap!
Food in Rome is absolutely amazing. That may come as no surprise. What may come as a surprise is that it is also incredibly cheap! That’s right! Food in Rome is for the most part very affordable. I went out for dinner tonight and had a plate of pasta at: it cost me in total with tip six and a half euros. If I had ordered the simplest pizza, it would have cost me three Euros. And I am talking about a nice sit down restaurant with gratuity included in the price of the meal.
Tip is not required or customary in Italy, so do not bother tipping your waiter. They are in general paid more fixed salary here than in the United States and do not need the additional tips from customers to get by. In addition, the restaurants usually include what most times come down to a flat one Euro fee for the service into your food’s price.
The portions here are generally smaller than the ones in America for every food, however the wine glasses are the exception. One wine glass here would count as two in America easily. People here usually eat lunch at one or two pm and have dinner around ten pm. It is not particularly polite to ask for your leftovers at restaurants, but I do it all the time.
As for the supermarket food, it is possible to comfortably live for a week with incredible food with around thirty-five euros if you know where to shop. I recommend the supermarket Conad, as it is walking distance from all the John Cabot dorms. It is also very cheap and has great quality Italian food. I was able to buy a whole salami on sale for as little as one Euro. I mean, salami is the best.
Trastevere also has really good farmer’s markets every week morning around the Piazza near my house and in many piazzas around Rome. You should check online for the farmer’s market at the piazza near you!
Obviously there is a heavy focus on pasta, pizza, bruschetta and wine here. However, there are also a great amount of Mexican, Arab and Japanese restaurants everywhere. Rome is very multicultural, so you do not have to worry about not being able to find any type of multicultural food.
You should definitely try eating one gelato cone every single day. I have been doing that and I’ve never felt better. It must have something to do with the fact that it is often 97 degrees Fahrenheit around here all day. Oh well…The gelato places are found literally at every corner and usually offer a huge amount of ice cream for only two or three Euros. They have super delicious and exotic flavors too, such as Rose, Fig, Marzipan, White Chocolate and Mandarin Orange.
The best food I had here was definitely the Tiramisu at a place called “Tiramisu” at Trastevere. I never had a better pastry. The ladies at the shop make it in front of you and it is amazingly delicious. In addition, they always put out free samples at the door that you can simply grab and walk away with…I would not walk away if I were you, though.
PS: Whatever you do, do not get any meal plans offered by the university. Both cooking for yourself or eating out for every single meal every day are cheaper and way more delicious.
