Food Tours · Tour

Baccalà or Supplì, Then a Three-Course Dinner and a Limoncello

An evening walk that turns into dinner. Three hours, a small group, meeting by the fountain on the right side of Piazza Farnese facing the palazzo, then crossing into Trastevere. The first stop is a family-run salumeria that has been trading for over a century and is where the neighbourhood buys its charcuterie. You taste prosciutto, salame and cheeses with local wine, and the guide draws the distinctions that matter: parmigiano is cow's milk, aged, from the north; pecorino is sheep's milk, sharper and saltier, and it is the one Roman pasta depends on. Prosciutto is a whole cured leg; salame is ground and fermented. Then the street food stop, which is baccalà or supplì depending on the venue that evening. Salt cod reached Rome from the Atlantic and became a staple because it kept, and because the church calendar demanded fish on Fridays and through Lent; in Trastevere it is battered and deep-fried in a single thick fillet. Supplì is the other side of the same habit, a fried rice croquette with mozzarella melting in the middle. Either one is eaten standing up, with another glass of wine. Dinner is at a small family restaurant: an antipasto, two of the classic Roman pastas, a traditional meat course, and local wine throughout, closed with a limoncello, which is drunk cold and after rather than during. The last stop is organic gelato, with the guide explaining how to judge it before you order. Four stops with multiple tastings at each, English-speaking guide, ending on Viale di Trastevere. Moderate walking. Stops can change with seasonal closures. The tour includes meat, dairy and wine, so tell them about any dietary restrictions in advance and they will try to work around them.