If you’re planning a family trip to Rome, you’ve likely wondered at least once, “What are we actually going to eat?” And, how do meals work in Italy?
Before our trip, I worried a little about food. Not because I thought Rome would have bad food, quite the opposite. I worried about navigating meal times, finding things my son would eat, understanding restaurant culture, and determining how much planning was required.
We discovered a food culture that felt much more approachable than we expected.
Yes, eating out in Rome differs from eating out in America. Yes, there are cultural norms worth understanding before you go. But overall, eating in Rome was one of the easiest and most enjoyable parts of our trip.
If you’re traveling to Rome with kids, here are a few things I would tell a friend before they leave.
Food Is Everywhere, So Don’t Stress
One of the biggest surprises for me was how easy it was to find food.
Before our trip, I had mentally prepared for needing restaurant reservations every night or for having to carefully plan meals around sightseeing.
That wasn’t our experience at all. In fact, we rarely planned meals in advance.
Most days, we’d simply look around when we got hungry, find something nearby, or walk back to something we’d passed earlier in the day. Rome is full of restaurants, cafés, pizzerias, bakeries, gelato shops, and takeout counters. Food is woven into daily life, and there was almost always something within a short walk.
As we walked on some of our tours, guides or other tourists would point out our favorite spots, making it easier to narrow down all the choices.
My husband made a good point during the trip. The biggest benefit of making dinner reservations wasn’t necessarily getting a table. It was simply eliminating the decision-making process. You already knew where you were going for dinner. We found that having a reservation was helpful at popular restaurants, but we were odd and ate dinner early, so there was rarely a wait.
But from an availability standpoint, we found Rome far more flexible than London.
The Best Lunch Strategy: Pizza by the Slice
If you’re traveling with kids, this may be the most helpful tip in the article.
Look for walk-up pizzerias.
Many pizza shops display large rectangular pizzas behind glass counters. You simply point to the slice you want, and they cut off a piece, warm it up, and hand it to you. You pay by the weight at the counter, walk out, and eat.
This became one of our favorite lunch strategies.
It was:
- Fast
- Affordable
- Easy for kids
- Available almost everywhere
- Less time-consuming than a sit-down meal
Some of our favorite lunches were enjoyed standing at a counter or eating pizza on a bench while people-watching in a piazza. And honestly, that’s part of the fun of being in Rome.
Don’t Be Afraid to Share Food
One thing we noticed right away was portion sizes.
Pizza in Rome is often large enough to share, especially if you know you’re likely to stop for gelato later. So if you are at a sit-down restaurant, it’s easy to share a “personal” pizza.
Many meals felt lighter than what we’re accustomed to in America, which worked well during long days spent walking around the city.
We frequently shared:
- Pizzas
- Pastries
- Gelato stops
- Sandwiches
Sharing allowed us to try more things while keeping everyone from getting too full before the next meal.
Coffee Culture Is Different
Coffee in Italy is almost a cultural experience in its own right.
One thing I learned quickly is that there are generally two ways to enjoy coffee. You can stand at the counter and drink it quickly, which is often what locals do.
Or you can sit at a table and enjoy it at a slower pace. If you sit at a table, you’ll typically pay more. But honestly, some of my favorite memories are sitting outside with a coffee, watching Rome wake up around us.
Before your trip, I highly recommend watching a few YouTube videos about ordering coffee in Italy. It helped me understand what to expect and made ordering much easier. And, it helped me set expectations with my husband.
A Quick Note About Dairy-Free Options
As someone who is dairy-free, I was curious about how difficult eating in Italy would be.
Overall, it was manageable, but it looked a little different from what I’m used to at home.
The most common milk alternative I encountered was soy milk. Oat milk occasionally appeared, especially at cafés in tourist-heavy areas, but soy was definitely the standard option.
Many mornings, I ordered an Americano con soy milk or a café latte made with soy.
One thing I noticed was that restaurants and cafés seemed less focused on allergy accommodations than many places in the United States. Some servers asked follow-up questions, while others simply adjusted the order and moved on. They could accommodate it and were more ready than most places at home, but they just communicated and moved on.
It wasn’t difficult, but it did require a bit more awareness and communication.
Understanding Aperitivo
Before visiting Italy, I had heard about aperitivo but didn’t fully understand what it was. – Think of it as a social break between work and dinner.
People gather with friends, order a drink, and enjoy small snacks or charcuterie boards while relaxing and talking.
It’s less about the food and more about slowing down and spending time together. It’s expected, and everyone has options. You will sit, drink, snack, and then move on.
Although our family didn’t fully embrace aperitivo culture during this trip, it was fascinating to see how common it was throughout the city. It’s also something to consider when making dinner reservations. We were eating dinner at this time instead of drinking. No restaurant ever made us feel bad about that, but it does make for a slower-paced afternoon if you go back and dress for dinner after aperitivos.
If you find yourself wanting a lighter evening or simply a break in the afternoon, it’s worth a try. Most restaurants are set to accommodate this tradition.
Keep Everyone Fed
This may sound obvious, but it might be the most important travel tip I can offer.
Keep snacks available. We carried snacks in our bags. We could bring something packaged from breakfast or grab a snack by stepping into a streetcar and getting a crunchy for later in the day.
We grabbed nuggets before train rides. We bought pastries when we passed bakeries. We stopped for pizza slices. We ordered gelato.
And honestly, that flexibility made everyone happier.
One lesson we learned quickly was this:
If you see something you want to eat, and you’re hungry, stop and eat it. Don’t assume you’ll walk by another version of that same shop later. Rome rewards spontaneity, and some of our favorite meals happened because we simply stopped when something looked good.
Eating Earlier Is Completely Fine
One thing I worried about before our trip was the timing of dinner.
I’d read plenty of articles suggesting Italians eat much later than Americans do. While that’s generally true, we never felt out of place eating earlier.
Some nights, we had dinner around 5:30 or 6:00. Other days, our schedule shifted, and lunch happened closer to 4:00 in the afternoon. Restaurants were open, and the staff were welcoming. Nobody seemed bothered by our timing.
As a family, we simply ate when we were hungry and worked around our sightseeing schedule.
So, where did we eat in Rome?
I think you’ve seen me say that it really doesn’t matter – and I didn’t know that until I got there. So, before I left, I made reservations. I did a lot of research and found spots I thought would make sense for us. I ended up canceling one set of reservations and found a couple of spots I wish I’d booked instead. But because I know it helped me understand what other people liked, I wanted to share where we actually ate dinner.
We went for casual, traditional, and a balance of “known” and off-the-beaten-path. So, here’s what making meal decisions in Rome looked like for us.
Before we left:
- I looked at several lists of “family-friendly meals/restaurants in Rome” – I looked at the neighborhoods where we would be for attractions, and tried to base my decisions on those areas
- I found a couple of restaurants that were on multiple lists, and I thought that if this place makes more than one list, it might be the common denominator for success
- I asked ChatGPT what it would suggest for “family-friendly” dinners in _<insert destination>___
- Especially the first day, you just have to make a decision with what you can already know, and then wing it for the rest!
Where we ate in Rome:
- All our breakfasts were in the hotel café, and that was honestly very helpful
- Domiziano in Piazza Novana – I think most of the spots around the arena would be fine. Chat suggested Café al Tre Tartuffi, and I thought Ristorante Tucci or the ones next to it would be good. Antica Trattoria smelled amazing when we walked into the square. But I wanted to eat in Piazza Novana, and we walked in at golden hour, and Domiziano had an empty table right across from the fountain, and it was magical. The Carbonara is still on the end of my tongue, and it was just a dream! – from this section of our trip, I definitely say put this stop on your list!
- Nanarella in Travstere – I really wanted to eat here after I saw the Netflix Movie Nonnas. It’s supposedly what inspired it, but then they also say it was a restaurant in New York. Either way. It was ok, but very touristy. I might encourage you to check out Tonnarello, which was our neighbors’ favorite spot growing up.
- Holy McDonalds near the Vatican – after our Sistine Chapel and Vatican tour, we went to the closest McDonalds, just outside the city gates (Borgo Pio at the corner of Via del Mascherino ) My research here says this was the address, but I was standing in the circle in front of the Vatican and put in McDonald’s and took the directions – this is our son’s favorite restaurant and it just felt like a fun thing to do with all the art and museums we were dragging him through. IT IS VERY BUSY. We ordered from a kiosk and walked the dining room to snag a table. IT wasn’t perfect, but it was a memory.
- Via Cavor – we had lunch at a walk-up place along this street while we waited for our walking tour of the Roman Forum and the Colosseum – this was a day we definitely got to where we were going, then looked around for food. It wasn’t hard to just walk up, but it was busy. Another nice thing is to grab lunch and use the restrooms here before you enter the forum.
- We had dinner reservations at Lari The Vino – it came across as vegan-friendly, but when I looked at the menu, it didn’t really look like that. So instead, we went to a restaurant we’d seen earlier on our walk around town, and it was fine – there comes a point when you’re just eating another plate of pomodoro and a margherita pizza on the way to your favorite gelato.
What We Learned About Eating in Rome With Kids
The biggest lesson I learned is that food doesn’t need to be complicated.
You don’t need reservations for every meal. You don’t need a spreadsheet of restaurants. You don’t need to stress over finding something perfect.
Some of our favorite food memories weren’t fancy meals at all. They were pizza slices devoured while walking down a side street. A quick coffee in a sunny piazza. Gelato after a long afternoon of sightseeing. A pastry grabbed from a bakery we happened to pass by.
Rome has incredible food, but more importantly, it has a culture that encourages you to slow down and savor it.
For a family on vacation, that might be one of the best travel lessons of all.
