what to do in Rome

The Perfect First Night in Rome – A Trastevere Food Tour

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Before kicking off our big Italian vacation in 2026 on the Amalfi Coast, we spent one day and evening in Rome. The sole item on our agenda was a food tour through one or Dan and my favorite neighborhoods in Rome, Trastevere (fun fact – also where we lived when we studied in Rome!). This was the third time we have taken this tour, and it was just as good as we remembered. This post details our food tour through Trastevere with Eating Europe!

Walking to the food tour. I love Rome so much – just casually passing ruins on our walk.

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Eating My Way Around Rome In A Golf Cart With My 80 Year Old Mother!

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One of my favorite things to do in Rome is a food tour, and I have previously been on great ones in Testaccio and Trastevere with Eating Europe, as well as one in the Centro Storico with another company (really good!). This holiday season we were traveling in Rome with my mother and decided to try Eating Europe’s food tour via golf cart, as it would have been difficult for her to do a full walking food tour in the December evenings. We all really loved this tour, as it was really fun and allowed us to explore several areas of Rome via an open air golf cart, from Prati, Gian, Trastevere, and Testaccio!  Our tour met at our first stop near the Vatican in Prati and then we legit drove around Rome on a golf cart until the tour ended! Be sure to bring a coat, but the experience in the golf cart was pleasant and I would absolutely recommend this tour. This post reviews our tour, including what and where we ate!

Our trusty golf cart for the evening!

STOP ONE: A TRAPIZZINO AT AL SORPASSO

The first stop of our tour was for a new Roman food (for Rome and me!), the Trapizzino! And by “new Roman,” our guide described the trapizzino as a Roman food created in recent Roman memory. A trapizzino is similar to a pizza pocket; a triangle of bread stuffed with your choice of pizza “toppings,” meant to be eaten on the go. I loathe “eating on the go” so I was very happy that were sitting down a table with cutlery for my first trapizzino. I was also super excited to try a trappizzino on this food tour, as I had never had one despite visiting Rome many times.

Your classic trapizzino.

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Visiting the Vatican & Colosseum in One Crazy Day!

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Rome has A LOT of sights to see. So many that you could stay for more than a week in Rome and not see everything. Seriously. This poses a problem for many tourists, who often only spend 1 or 2 days in Rome (which I think leads to the common and, frankly wrong, opinion that Rome is not a favorite Italian city). Of all the sites, two of the most popular are Vatican City and the Colosseum. Most information will advise that you should not visit these two sites on the same day due to time constraints, etc., and I agree. But sometimes you just don’t have the time to split them up, and that’s exactly the position I found myself in in November when I was in Rome for 3 days with 8 family members! Due to a strong desire to see both sights, I bit the bullet and planned a perfectly timed day visiting both Vatican City and the Colosseum in the same day! While I would not necessarily recommend this if you have plenty of time, it is doable, and here’s how!

IN BRIEF: 8 – 11:30, the Vatican Museums, 11:30 – 11:50, walk to St. Peter’s Basilica, 12:00 – 1:45 St. Peter’s Basilica interior OR a proper sit down lunch, 1:45 – 2:15 transfer to the Colosseum, 2:30 – 4:30, Colosseum!

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A Thanksgiving Tour Of Italy With Eight Family Members!

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As some of you may know, one of Dan and my recent trips was a trip to Italy with 6 of our family members – my parents, Dan’s parents, and Dan’s siblings – for about 10 days. Yes, 8 people in Italy for 10 days. It was a wild ride and I’ll be writing more about specific bits of our trip later, but here is a summary for those interested in doing something similar!

DAYS 1 – 2: ALBA, ITALY

After an overnight flight from New York, we landed in Milan early in the morning. A van was waiting for us and drove us 2 hours to Alba in the Piedmont region.  We checked into our hotel and promptly hit the streets to explore Alba’s famous International White Truffle Festival. We spent two days in Alba, largely at the truffle festival. We also checked out some delicious Piedmontese restaurants!

Gorgeous white truffles.

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L’Angolo Divino: A Delicious Wine Bar Near Touristy Camp de’ Fiori!

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Dan and my friend, Hugh, is in the wine industry, so when we were in Rome, he sent us over a few dinner/wine bar recommendations to try while we were in town! Usually I am a little picky about people’s restaurant or wine recommendations, but this guy knows his stuff and introduced us to Portuguese wine, which led to our wedding in Portugal! Enter L’Angolo Divino, a wine bar near Campo de’ Fiori, which was definitely our hang out spot when we studied in Rome…. We called and made a reservation same day (and probably did not need a reservation). 

Despite it being late December in Rome, we walked to dinner (it was mid 50s F!) and were promptly seated at a cute table next to a window overlooking the street. The restaurant is quite small and when we visited, all of the patrons seemed to be tourists. This was a bit unsettling, but it turned out great.

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A happy Dan Dan at dinner!

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