It’s a Wednesday in September and I’m sitting in the streets of Rome sipping on a juice and munching on some focaccia. I’m with my friend, Lauren, and we’re contemplating what to order. The biggest question: pasta or pizza? The whole menu looks so good, it’s hard to pick just one thing. So, we decided to split. We spend the evening talking about our classes from the day (my Italian politics class and Lauren’s creative writing class), the places we want to visit (Santorini is high on my list and Lauren hopes to visit a friend in Barcelona), and our family and friends back home. The backdrop to our conversation is the Italian banter of other patrons and the live musicians wandering the streets. When the waiter comes back and asks if we want any dessert, we order three: salame di cioccolato, cheesecake ai frutti di bosco, and of course, tiramisu (obviously, the decision to order three desserts was for cultural research and not due to our indecisiveness). It’s a sweet end to the first of many Tasting Trastevere.
Beginning Our Tasting Trasteveres
Every time I told someone I was going to study abroad in Italy, they mentioned food. A professor who visited Italy years ago sent me an email with the name of this amazing restaurant I must try. A coworker who just finished watching Stanley Tucci’s “Searching for Italy” suggested I watch the show for inspiration and more food recommendations. It seemed like everyone I spoke to either ate the best meal of their life in Italy or wanted to go there in search of the best meal of their life. So, coming to Italy, I wanted to soak in all the gelato, pizza, tiramisu, cannoli, pasta (and more) that I could. Just walking down the streets of Trastevere, the neighborhood I lived in and went to school, wewould pass a gelateria, then a bar, then a restaurant, then a fruit stand, then we’d be back to another gelateria. The options were endless. So, where would I have the best meal of my life? I figured I’d have to try as many restaurants as possible. Hence, Tasting Trastevere.
Lauren and I embarked on this food quest early on in the semester. Every Wednesday, we’d have dinner at a new restaurant. I didn’t have class on Thursday or Friday, so this became the perfect start to my weekends. We never googled a restaurant, the fun came in walking the streets and seeing which restaurants had the most crowds or an interesting item on their menu we wanted to try. On my walk to school, I’d stop and read the menus posted outside restaurants and take notes for future places to try. At first, I wanted to try a new food at every restaurant, but my newfound love of cacio e pepe changed that. Almost every week, I’d order the cacio e pepe and Lauren would order some pesto pasta dish. Our search for the best meal shifted, becoming a search for the restaurant that has the best cacio e pepe and pesto pasta. We also always ordered three desserts. Two would be different, a panna cotta, tartufo bianco, or a crema catalana. But the third would always be tiramisu, which we used as a control.
Caption: Series of Cacio e Pepe
More Than A Meal
The year before, my best friend from home spent a gap semester in New York, where she completed an internship and the most extensive excel spreadsheet of all the restaurants she tried. I was inspired by her to do the same in Italy. So, every Tasting Trastevere meal became a chance for my inner food critic and Instagram food influencer to shine. I took pictures of everything we ate, wrote down the price, and noted the location. How was the food? How was the ambiance of the restaurant? How was the wait staff? I carefully logged all of this down.
While I loved getting to try all these amazing dishes, Tasting Trastevere became more than the food. Italian cuisine is an integral part of the country’s culture. So, eating out is an immersive experience, a way to explore Italian culture and customs. I started to notice the Roman delicacies and the differences in the standard dishes offered in the varying cities around Italy (for example, Venice, being surrounded by canals and water, has many seafood options, but that wasn’t the case in Rome). We also used this as an opportunity to practice Italian. Lauren, who was taking Italian, would order using the new words she learned in class, teaching me in the process. I didn’t take Italian while abroad, but I’ll never forget how to order in Italian (vorrei un/a ______, per favore). Seeing two American girls typically led the waiters to strike up a conversation with us. Many asked us how we liked Italy and offered recommendations for things to do while there. It was nice to have a fun activity to look forward to every week, especially during midterm and final exam season. Tasting Trastevere also allowed me to wind down and enjoy a good meal with good company.
When my mom and sister visited me at the end of the semester, our first stop was my favorite Tasting Trastevere spot: Tonnarello. During their time in Rome, I took them to all the best restaurants (in my humble opinion). Even now, I love getting to share my Tasting Trastevere list. It always makes my day when a friend asks if I can send some restaurant recommendations to their roommate or cousin who is heading to Rome. Nothing beats someone telling you they enjoyed a meal at the restaurant you recommended.
If you find yourself in Trastevere, don’t be afraid to reach out for some recommendations!
