Since I was going to be in a Rome apartment for about a month and planning to mostly do my own cooking, rather than go to restaurants, I went on a Context Tour about Rome Foods to get some ideas about what was available at this time of year.

We were a small group of three and began with an Italian breakfast— un caffè and maritozzo, a cream filled bun.

We then walked to nearby Campo dei Fiori. I was happy to see puntarelle was available. Puntarelle is sort of a celery-like vegetable that the produce sellers shave into long curly strips. It is made into a salad with a dressing that includes anchovies.

We sampled pizza bianca and pizza rossa, which is pizza dough with only salt and olive oil or with only tomato sauce. After we walked through Piazza Navona.

The statues in the fountains have been cleaned since we were here in 2023.

We looked at Roman pizza which is served by the slice “al taglio” but I passed on eating more pizza.

Instead I tried a half portion of a porchetta sandwich. Porchetta is a whole pig roasted with herbs and spices, particularly fennel seeds, filling its interior. It was delicious, especially the crackling, but quite porky for my pork intolerance.

We then sampled suppli which is rice cooked in tomato sauce, formed into a ball with mozzarella in the center then deep fried. It is a bit like arancini which comes from Naples but those have white rice, no tomato. I didn’t take a photo because I needed two hands to eat it even though it was small.

We then walked to a chocolate shop, Amir Roma, near Campo dei Fiori. Again I forgot to take photos of the chocolates or chocolatini as Italians call the little bite-sized chocolates. They were very chocolatey and not too sweet. A customer at the shop told us this was the best place in Rome.

Finally we went to Alberto Pica, a traditional gelateria, where they only serve seasonal flavours. I tried agrumi, which is a citrus fruit, a bit like a cross between orange and lemon but relatively mild. The outside is plain but the interior is very elegant for a gelateria.

That was the end of the tour. I spent the rest of the afternoon doing more shopping, mostly boring things like rubber gloves for cleaning, but also the ingredients to make a puntarelle salad.