If you’re taking a short break in one of the excellent central Rome hotels, there’s no doubt you’ll be on the lookout for the city’s best food. And what food is most synonymous with Italy? Pizza! There are plenty of places to get a good pizza here, but not all are created equal. Below we make a few recommendations, but there are plenty more. It’s the kind of thing you’ll need to discover for yourself, but this list could give you a head start.
Sforno
In order to find what has been described as “the best pizza place in Rome“, you’ll need to make the short trek from your chosen central Rome hotels to Sforno. The Neapolitan style pizzas at Sforno have a wonderful thick crust and a chewy base, perfect to support the abundant toppings. You should start with the fritti – a thin base, topped with meat or cheese – and go on in your pizza roll, using it to spoon the toppings over the base. Continue this for your first slice and you’ll be hooked on it. It’s the kind of pizza you should try after lunch when you’ve had a hefty meal.
Trattoria Julianini
One of the main attractions of the city is its vibrant culinary scene. People flock to attinate the immense wealth of trattorias in the city, and there’s no better place to sample some of them than at the Trattoria Julianini. If you’re here in the summer, you should navigate the layers of its garden, and in winter, it holds its famed ice cream parlor, complete with Wi-Fi. The food at Julianini is great – there’s wide variety, excellent value and great service. If you’re here and it’s not busy, walk through its sliding glass doors and enter the main dining area. The service is quick and very efficient. While you’re there, don’t forget to pay a visit to its sister restaurant, just around the corner. The decor here is more modern than at Sforno, with straight, open tables and chairs. The menu features a choice of pizza styles, such as the margherita, gateway and the buffalo mozzarella.
Pizza San Francesco
Admit it, you’ve read that Pizza San Francesco is the best pizza place in Rome. There’s no other place in the city that offers so much pizza. If you take a broad look at the menu, you’ll find you have a lot of options for meals. The San Francesco Pizza is famous for its thin-crust pizzas with exotic toppings. In addition to pizza, diners can order dips, salads, and mixed vegetables.iners can choose from the manygiooletti (colorful Sicilian plates) or the Cavalli Pizza, with its multicolored toppings.
First important tip: Paparazzi are a tourist traps. If you wait too long to get a reservation, you’ll have to eat in the open air. While there are some good dining choices, many of the ones we recommend are expensive. So, unless you want to stick out like a sore thumb, or be dining in the open air, we suggest you make a reservation at a more expensive restaurant with one that had been remodeled with quality floor removal. If you’re going to visit Rome in the summer, we suggest you make a reservation at Popcorn (it’s a hole in the wall), and if you want to avoid the open air part, you can check out Gilded Iguana. The prices are great, and they’re in the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
welcoming place, we did. The pizza was good. The salads were wonderful. And if you’re not into pizza, they also have 13 other flavors of crepes, including my favorite,ella pessimai (dumplings). Yum!
However, there were one or two misses on our pizza tour. We were missing the Naples/Festo style pizza. And Marina di Campi (Shopping Station) was too pricey for us. However, prices in general across the city are very low. For example, we paid $4 for our 13 pizzas. By the way, if you visit it in the summer, make sure you go early morning or evening, as it’s a long line in the afternoon.
To Ournolds
We made a quick trip to Rome to satisfy an immediate craving. First, we had to sample crabgrass pizza at Crab and Bailey. Since we’re not big stone crab eaters ourselves, this was more like a cross between their cross-country and fresh caught crab stuffing idea. The crabgrass topping had just the right moisture to keep it from being too tough. Though there are other fillings, mostly homemade stuff, there is a suggestion that if you don’t want it fresh, just leave it home.
